Huard Delivers for Dolphins

This time, Jimmy Johnson had nothing but nice things to say about his quarterback.

This time, the quarterback was Damon Huard and not Dan Marino.

Huard, filling in after Marino left early because of neck spasms, threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Stanley Pritchett with 23 seconds left Sunday to give the Miami Dolphins a 31-30 victory over the New England Patriots.

“We believe in him. He played an outstanding game,” Johnson said of Huard.

Two weeks ago, Johnson criticized the 38-year-old Marino after a loss to Buffalo. Last week, the coach was lukewarm after Marino engineered a comeback win in Indianapolis.

“But there’s no quarterback controversy here. Dan’s our quarterback. Dan’s our starter,” Johnson said.

The Dolphins (4-1) had fallen behind, 14-0, on two interception returns by the Patriots--a 57-yarder by Andy Katzenmoyer off Marino and a 24-yarder by Ty Law on Huard’s first pass.

But after that Huard settled down.

He connected with Tony Martin on a 69-yard touchdown pass play. The game-winning touchdown pass to Pritchett capped a 59-yard drive on which he converted three third downs--a third and 10, a third and nine and a third and five. Huard finished 24 for 42 for 240 yards and ran six times for 54 yards.

In between, Olindo Mare kept Miami in the game with six field goals--breaking an NFL record by kicking four or more for the fourth game in a row. They included a 53-yarder with 3:01 left that set the stage for Miami’s final drive.

Huard was sacked nine times by the Patriots--a record for the most allowed by the Dolphins. But by the final drive, he was able to scramble out of trouble or complete short passes in front of single coverage after the Patriots got the ball back with 2:10 remaining.

“We had a lot of time left,” Huard said. “I just tried to keep the ball in front of me and go down the field slowly.”

Meanwhile, the Patriots struggled offensively.

New England (4-2) gained only 259 yards and had the ball only 19:53 to 40:07 for Miami.

“We just can’t get it moving on offense,” said Coach Pete Carroll, whose team lost, 16-14, in Kansas City last week when Adam Vinatieri missed a 32-yard field-goal attempt in the final seconds. “We’re just not making the ball move.”

Vinatieri wasn’t the problem this week. He kept the Patriots ahead with three field goals from 41, 39 and 34 yards. But the only offensive touchdown New England scored came on 29-yard pass from Drew Bledsoe to Tony Simmons with 1:03 left in the first half.

Marino, who had neck and shoulder pain all week, completed one pass--an eight-yarder to Tony Martin that put him at 60,001 yards, the only quarterback to go over the 60,000 mark.

But it was Huard who was the show.

“It was his scrambling that did it,” Patriot Coach Pete Carroll said. “Dan doesn’t do that and we prepared for Dan.”

Johnson said it was easy.

“We practice the two-minute offense every week with 1:40 and no time outs,” he said. “I told them two minutes on the clock and one time out is better than we usually do. Just take your time and work with the plays.”

Huard did it this week.

Marino did it last week.

Next week?

An MRI to be performed on Marino today may tell the story.