A horrible season ends with a horrible game. If you just looked at the stats behind this game, you might think it was closer than it was. If it weren't for a last minute touchdown in garbage time, the final score would have been 38-17. But, stats wise, it matched up in a lot of ways. Total yards: 393 vs. 336. Rushing yards: 77 vs. 86. Passing yards: 316 vs. 250. Each team had 1 turnover. Time of possession was very close with the Dolphins having about 3 minutes more of it. And, yet, the Bengals made the game breaking plays that separated the teams substantially when it came to the score.

Cleo Lemon started the game, but came out in the second half, limping with a hip injury. John Beck played the rest of the game. Their numbers match up pretty closely. Beck was 13 of 21 for 135 yards and 1 TD. Lemon was 14 of 21 for 123 yards and 1 TD. Beck did pick up a rushing TD on a QB sneak, finishing with 2 yards on 2 caries while Lemon had 7 on 3 with no TD. The other difference was when Beck fumbled a shotgun snap, which was then taken all the way for a TD. That was the teams only turnover.

Jesse Chatman had 42 yards rushing on 12 carries and Lorenzo Booker had 33 yards on 7 carries. Booker also led the team in receptions, tied with Ted Ginn, each with 7. Booker had 54 yards and Ginn had 53 yards and a touchdown. David Martin had 4 catches for 52 yards. Derek Hagan had 2 for 44 yards and that last minute touchdown.

Jay Feely nailed his only field goal attempt, a 49 yarder. Brandon Fields had 6 punts with an average of 41 yards.

Derrick Pope had 8 tackles and an acrobatic interception where he tipped a ball half way to it's intended target and then stuck with it, making the grab. Michael Lehan had 8 tackles, Jason Allen had 7 tackles and Lance Schulters had 6 tackles.

To the team and the coach staff's credit, they did play hard, even attempting an onside kick toward the very end of the game, despite being down by two scores. Even in the final game, of a 1-15 season, they were still playing for pride and didn't simply lay down.

Bill Parcells watched the game from a box, sitting next to former Packers general manager Ron Wolf. The loss puts the Dolphins record, to finish the season, at 1-15.

READ BEFORE COMMENTING: Participation constitutes agreement to our User Guidelines, which are stricter than most other blogs', so please read them before commenting. No advertising (posting links to your site), inflammatory (flaming) remarks, vulgarities (any kind of profanity that you can imagine) or questions about our guidelines or comment deletions. We generally try to maintain a family friendly atmosphere here. Please keep this in mind. A few common examples:

• Posting a link to your blog or to any site you are affiliated with will probably get your comment deleted, unless we asked for it or it acts as a TrackBack.
• Asking why your comment was deleted will get your comment deleted. Please contact us instead.
• Attacking a blogger or fellow commenter instead of attacking their point will probably get your comment deleted.

Treat our users and our guidelines with respect and you'll be fine. As long as you do that, we're happy to have you at the PhinsBlog.com.

Please note that all comments made on entries that are at least 14 days old are moderated.