Jets Wake Up For 2nd Half, Edge Dolphins

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Jets turned on the offense and woke up the crowd with a second-half scoring burst. Then they did all they could to let the Miami Dolphins back in it.

Laveranues Coles caught two touchdown passes and Mike Nugent kicked a pair of 33-yard field goals, and the Jets barely held on. Miami had a chance to tie, but Olindo Mare came up short on a 51-yarder.

In a game that could be added to the lengthy list of classic meetings between the AFC East rivals, the Jets did just enough after halftime to earn an important division win.

After taking a 20–3 lead, the Jets had to sweat this one out as Joey Harrington led the Dolphins on two long scoring drives in the fourth quarter, getting within a field goal on Ronnie Brown’s 1-yard touchdown run.

Harrington, making his second straight start in place of the injured Daunte Culpepper, had one more chance and marched the Dolphins down the field again in a last-minute effort to tie it. But Mare, who was 1-for-3 this season on kicks of 50-plus yards, came up short, the ball landing in the end zone as the jubilant Jets cheered.

Coles finished with five catches for 106 yards, while Pennington was 17-of-29 for 175 yards and the two TDs.

The Jets led 3–0 at halftime as the teams combined for less than 200 total net yards in the first half, with Miami gaining 112 yards and the Jets 86.

***

GIANTS 27, FALCONS 14 In Atlanta, Tiki Barber showed the Atlanta Falcons a thing or two about running the football. Barber outplayed the NFL’s best ground team by running for 185 yards, Jeremy Shockey caught a couple of touchdown passes, and the Giants rallied past the Falcons in the second half.

The Giants fell behind 14–3 when Warrick Dunn broke off a 90-yard touchdown on Atlanta’s first offensive play of the second half — the longest run in team history. But Big Blue dominated the Falcons the rest of the way, going ahead with touchdown drives of 84 and 91 yards.

Barber did much of the damage, breaking off nine runs of at least 12 yards against a defense that was allowing just 69.3 yards per game, second-best in the league. New York scored the final 24 points of the game, shredding an injury-plagued defense that had given up only one TD all season.

The Giants’ defense pounded Michael Vick, who was slow to get up from several huge licks, threw an interception and fumbled four times (though he lost only one). The quarterback did break off a spectacular, 22-yard touchdown run, but completed only 14 of 27 passes for 154 yards. New York, which had only five sacks in its first four games, took down Vick seven times.

Eli Manning overcame a shaky start. After throwing two picks in the first quarter, he rebounded to go 17-of-30 for 180 yards — more than enough production with the way Barber was running.


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