The world's very first Shula-Bowl is now history and the Dolphins have beaten the hapless Cincinnati Bengals by the score of 23-7. This game will go down in history as the first father-son coaching matchup in major sports. It will not go down in history as one of the best games ever played. In fact, if it were not for the fact that Don Shula was facing David Shula, this game would have been completely forgetable.

The Dolphins played most of this game in a pretty ho-hum manner. Oh, they didn't make any major mistakes, but the offense in particular looked pretty lazy. Except for Irving Fryar, Dan Marino and Bernie Parmalee, most of the offense seemed to be moving about half speed. Fortunately for the Dolphins, that is enough against a team like the Bengals.

The American Heritage dictionary describes the word "hapless" as "luckless, unfortunate". That pretty much sums up the Bengals on Sunday night. They couldn't buy a break to save their lives for most of the game and if the Dolphins had played the way they did against the Patriots, Packers, Jets and Vikes, the score probably would have been around 90-7.

To be fair to the Bengals, their defense played very well. They played the Dolphins very tough and made a number of fine plays. However, every Bengal offensive possession of the second half ended in a turnover and that is a recipe for disaster against any team.

The game started with the Dolphins kicking off to the Bengals, who got a decent return out to their 31 yard line. The Bengals then completed two short passes that took them out to the Dolphins 49 yard line. There, on a 2nd and 3, David Klingler hit Darnay Scott on a slant over the middle for a 51 yard touchdown bomb. Scott had badly beaten Troy Vincent (who only played in the nickle defense). Vincent later said that he thought that Scott was doing a short pattern and he got faked out.

The Bengals had taken a 7-0 lead after just 3 plays and were feeling very good about themselves. However, that touchdown would be the last points that the Bengals would score all night.

OJ McDuffie took the ensuing kickoff, but could only get it out to the 19 yard line against a fired up Bengals' team. The Dolphins began their first series by giving the ball to Mark Higgs three times in a row. Higgs' first run was a nice 21 yard scamper around right tackle, followed by runs of 3 and 1 yard. This would be Higgs' best series. After that nice start,however, on a 3rd and 6 at the 44, Marino hit Mark Ingram for only 4 yards and the Dolphins were forced to punt.

The Bengals returned the punt to their 19 yard line and began to move the ball effectively once again. They used the combination of a reverse, some short runs by Derrick Fenner, Steve Broussard, and Harold Green and an 11 yard pass to move down to a 2d and 7 at the Dolphins 29 yard line. However, at this point, the Dolphins defense got tired of being pushed around and after Coleman pressured Klingler into one incompletion, Jeff Cross batted down a third down pass and left the Bengals with a 4th and 7. The Bengals attempted a 46 yard field goal attempt that hit the crossbar and bounced off, ending that scoring threat.

The Dolphins started at their own 37 and moved effectively down the field, using mostly running by Parmalee and Higgs and passes to Fryar. None of these plays were longer than 15 yards and it was clear that the Dolphins were trying to establish their ball-control offense. They did it fairly effectively, too, until a holding penalty and a well defensed screen pass to Bernie Parmalee moved the Dolphins back 18 yards from a 1st and 10 at the Bengals 11 yard line to a 2nd and 28 at the Bengals' 29. Fryar got 18 of those yards back, but the Dolphins were left with a 3rd and 9 at the 10 as the first quarter ended.

The Dolphins started the second quarter by missing a pass to Fryar that left the Dolphins with a 4th and 9 and brought Pete Stoyanovich on for a 27 yard field goal attempt. Pete nailed it and closed the gap to 7-3.

On the kickoff, Cincinnati made an average return to their 27 and started off with an incompletion that was defensed by Gene Atkins. Then, on 2d and 10, the Bengals attempted to run around the left side of their line. On this play, Tim Bowens broke through the block and made an initial hit on the running back 5 yards behind the line. He didn't make the tackle (Gene Atkins did that), but he did completely disrupt the play for an 8 yard loss. After that, Klingler was flushed out of the pocket and scrambled for 15 yards, but it wasn't enough to get a first down and the Bengals were forced to punt.

The Dolphins took the punt at their 30 and couldn't get anything going, managing 8 yards and punting the ball back to the Bengals. The Bengals were forced back to their own 9 after a penalty on the punt and could only get out to the 25, before they were forced to punt back to the Dolphins.

The Dolphins started the next series on their own 31, and with a couple of short passes, moved out to their 48 yard line. However, on a 3rd and 6 came a very bizarre play. Marino hit Ingram for first down yardage, but Ingram was hit and driven back behind the first down marker. I guess he didn't think he'd make the first down, because he attempted to lateral to Keith Byars who appeared to make a first down. However, the referee said that Ingram had made an illegal forward pass and the Dolphins lost the gain and the down and were forced to punt.

The Bengals took the punt at their 21 and had a nice 20 yard return to the 41, where they went on offense. However, after one 15 yard pass and some nice defensive pressure up the middle by the Dolphins' defensive line, the Bengals were forced into 3 successive incomplete passes and punted.

After a touchback, the Dolphins started from their 20 by running Mark Higgs and Bernie Parmalee and hitting Keith Byars on a nice 34 yard pass that was about 5 yards in the air and 29 on the ground by Byars. After the Dolphins had moved to the Bengals 29, Marino was trying to hit either Ingram or Fryar on a down and out pattern and the Bengals' safety picked the ball off as he was going out of bounds. The ref ruled that the defensive back was out of bounds, but the replay showed that he just barely got his feet down. The Dolphins caught a big break on this play.

After a nice catch by Jackson and a run by Parmalee took the Dolphins down to the Bengals' 11 yard line, Marino stepped back and hit Byars on the right side with a quick little dump pass. Byars took the ball around the right side and, with a great block by Ingram, went into the endzone untouched to give the Dolphins a 10-7 lead.

The kickoff put the Bengals at their own 34 and after 3 incomplete passes, it looked as if they were going to be punting, but Bryan Cox got a penalty on a very borderline late hit on Klingler and the Bengals got a first down. However, even this good fortune was short lived as the the pressure from the Dolphins' defensive line forced Klingler to miss two more passes and the Bengals punted to the Dolphins, who kneeled down once to end the first half.

The Dolphins didn't look good during the first half, but except for the first series, the Bengals looked worse. Despite the lack of sacks on Klingler, the Dolphins' defensive line was chasing him around the field quite a lot, collapsing the pocket and forcing him to throw early and scramble.

The Bengals defense was doing a good job of covering the Dolphins' receivers, but there wasn't much pressure on Marino and the Dolphins were getting some running going.

On the second half kickoff, Aaron Craver took the ball on the 2 yard line and ran about 30 yards - sideways - to the 11 yard line, where he was tackled. However, an offsides penalty on the kickoff caused a re-kick, that was taken by OJ McDuffie to the 31 yardline.

With a 1st and 10, the Dolphins ran the ball very effectively with Bernie Parmalee getting most of the carries, down to the Bengals 35. One 19 yard pass to Fryar was followed by a reverse to McDuffie down to the 4 yard line, where, on a 1st and goal, Marino hit Ingram on a quick out pattern in the endzone for a touchdown. Ingram was all alone and put the Dolphins up 17-7.

After the kickoff, which included a penalty on Chris Green for a late hit, the Bengals moved from their 35 to the Dolphins 40 on one 25 yard pass. However, after a short pass to Broussard gave the Bengals a 2d and 8, the Bengals tried to run to their left and Gene Atkins came up and put the hit on the runner, forcing a fumble that Singleton recovered. This was turnover #1.

The Dolphins could do nothing with the ball on three plays, however, and punted the ball back to the Bengals who started at their 40 and moved to the Dolphins 45, before a Bengals receiver bobbled a pass up into the air and the ball came down into the hands of JB Brown for an interception. Brown returned the ball to the Bengals' 39, completing turnover #2. However, once again the Dolphins offense did nothing with the ball on 3 plays and punted the ball into the endzone for a touchback.

The Bengals moved the ball well after the touchback, getting their first real drive of the second half going. However, after moving well from their 20 to the Dolphins' 41, Aubrey Beavers stepped in front of a poorly thrown Klingler pass and picked off the ball for the 3rd turnover of the night.

The Dolphins, starting at their own 35, put together a nice drive down to the Bengal's 10 yard line, based mainly on the running of Bernie Parmalee and short passes to Irving Fryar. However, after a third down pass was broken up, Miami had to settle for a field goal, putting them ahead by the score of 20-7.

After the kickoff was returned to the 25, Cincinnati got just one play off before Marco Coleman knocked the ball out of Klingler's hands on a pass rush and the ball was recovered by Miami at the Bengal 28. Miami took the opportunity to run Bernie Parmalee 5 times in a row, before a little shovel pass to Byars was well diagnosed by the Bengals and the Dolphins kicked their last field goal to go up 23-7.

At this point, the kickoff was taken by the Bengals at their 3 and ran it back to their 34. However, on the first play from scrimmage, the Bengals receiver bobbled the ball into the hands of Tyrone Braxton and the Dolphins had their 3rd interception and 5th turnover of the game.

The Dolphins took over at the 30 and ran James Saxon twice to get a first down, then Dan Marino kneeled down twice to end the game.

Overall, it was a boring victory for the Dolphins. They did manage to play a relatively mistake-free game, not turning the ball over and making some important plays when they had to. They also got a running game going, mainly on the efforts of Bernie Parmalee and the offensive line.

The defense played well, too, although they got a lot of help from the inept play of the Bengals' offense. Every one of the Bengals' second half possessions ended in a turnover. Three of these turnovers were legitimately caused by the defense, the other two were gifts.

Regardless of the play, however, it was clear that the Dolphins are a very talented team. They have so many weapons that they can play lazy football and still carve up an opposing team.

Oh, and one other thing - Father knows best..... ;-) Curt

Curt (go buffalo) Fennell, ABB "DOLFAN in New England" '72 Dolphins - 17-0 -- Dolphins Mailing List Subscriptions = dolphins-request@ai.mit.edu