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Surprising Dolphins beat Broncos to reach .500

Nov 3, 2008 - 2:09 AM By Tony Desiere PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DENVER (Ticker) -- Last season's dismal finish seems a distant memory for the Miami Dolphins.

Chad Pennington engineered an eight-minute drive in the fourth quarter that put the finishing touches on the surprising Dolphins' 26-17 victory over the Denver Broncos on Sunday.

Miami and Denver each reached the midpoint of the season at 4-4, but the teams are headed in opposite directions. The Dolphins have won two straight while the Broncos have dropped three in a row.

While Pennington did not have any touchdowns, his veteran leadership was on display during the Dolphins' clinching drive, as he completed six passes on the 15-play, 80-yard march.

His 23-yard completion to Ricky Williams on 3rd-and-13 from the 25 set up Ronnie Brown's 2-yard touchdown that gave Miami a 26-17 lead with 3:10 remaining.

"That was a big play , obviously," Pennington said. "Coach (Tony) Sparano told us to go out and win the game rather than sitting back and watching. Now we have to keep it going."

Williams caught the pass in traffic along the right sideline and managed to stay in bounds. His catch allowed the Dolphins to make it a two-score game with the touchdown by Brown.

"I think the catch Ricky made was tremendous," Sparano said. "Chad did a tremendous job staying calm and understanding the situation and what we needed."

Pennington finished 23-of-40 for 281 yards as the Dolphins took advantage of Jay Cutler's career-high three interceptions.

"I felt good going into the game," said Cutler, who injured the index finger on his throwing hand on the first play from scrimmage in a 41-7 loss at New England two weeks ago. "When the first pass gets picked, it sets things back a bit. This was a bad game."

Cornerback Will Allen returned Cutler's first pick 32 yards for a touchdown to give Miami a 13-0 lead with 4:58 remaining in the first quarter.

The Dolphins' offense was kept out of the end zone before Brown's late score as Dan Carpenter kicked four field goals for Miami.

With a number of players banged up, Denver was hoping to get back on track following last week's bye. Instead, the Broncos came out flat, gaining less than 100 yards in the first half.

"Our game plan going in was to run the ball," Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said. "Obviously we did not do that in the first half. Our average third down distance was third-and-9. We did not do a good job offensively."

"Our defense did a very good job," Sparano added. "I don't know how many minus plays that we had, but it was quite a few."

The Broncos got on the board on Cutler's tossed a 2-yard TD pass to Eddie Royal with 3:50 left in the first quarter before Carpenter converted a 23-yard field goal with two seconds left in the first half to give Miami a 16-7 lead.

After Matt Prater made a 50-yard field goal to pull Denver within 16-10 midway through the third quarter, the Broncos appeared to tie the game on Cutler's 77-yard TD strike to Brandon Marshall.

However, the touchdown was negated due to an offensive interference penalty on Marshall.

"When I looked up at the replay it looked like normal one-on-one coverage," Shanahan said. "I couldn't see it from the replay and sometimes we don't get the right call."

"I just went up and tried to make the play," Marshall added. "There was definitely some kind of contact but in this type of game, in this type of situation, you have to let them play."

The Dolphins increased their lead on Carpenter's 41-yard field with 11:10 remaining.

Denver needed just three plays to close within 19-17 on Cutler's 1-yard TD pass to Peyton Hillis. The short TD pass came after Miami's first penalty of the game, an interference call that gave the Broncos a 1st-and-goal at the 1.

However, Denver did not get back the ball for more than eight minutes, and by then it was too late to mount a comeback.

Cutler completed 24-of-46 passes for 307 yards and two touchdowns, but the Broncos rushed for a meager 14 yards on 12 carries.