Miami reinforces the positive

With third straight win, Dolphins find themselves above .500 mark

Ted Ginn Jr. put the Dolphins on the board when he hauled in a 39-yard flea-flicker for an early touchdown. (Lynne Sladky/Associated Press)

The Miami Dolphins scored one long touchdown on a flea-flicker and another with a running back-to-running back handoff.

Then came the biggest surprise of all: Miami has a winning record.

The Dolphins' sizable bag of tricks saved them on a day the offense sputtered, and they withstood a frantic rally by injury-riddled Seattle to win, 21-19, yesterday.

Surprising Miami (5-4) won its third game in a row and remained in the thick of the AFC East race. After going 1-15 last season, the Dolphins are above .500 for the first time since the end of the 2005 season.

"At the beginning of the season, no one probably expected it," running back Ricky Williams said. "But we knew we had something special here."

The Dolphins' Wildcat formation - shut out in the past three games - produced scores on a 51-yard run by Williams and a 16-yard run by Ronnie Brown. Ted Ginn Jr. scored his first touchdown this season when he made a fingertip catch in the end zone on a 39-yard pass from Chad Pennington on a flea-flicker.

Williams ran for 105 yards on 12 carries - his first 100-yard game since Jan. 1, 2006.

The Seahawks (2-7) trailed for the final 53 minutes but nearly forced overtime. Koren Robinson caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from Seneca Wallace with 2:57 left to make the score 21-19.

On the 2-point conversion try, Seattle was pushed back to the 8 because of a false start, and Yeremiah Bell batted away Wallace's pass at the goal line.

Seattle recovered a fumble inside the Miami 30 on the next series, but officials reviewed the play and ruled Pennington was down before the ball came loose. The Dolphins then punted, and Seattle advanced to the Miami 49 before Wallace's pass glanced off the hands of John Carlson on fourth and 10 with 18 seconds left.

The Seahawks' first touchdown came on Jordan Babineaux's 35-yard interception return, after the Dolphins used trickery to score touchdowns on their first two possessions for a 14-0 lead.

A holding penalty on the opening kickoff wiped out a 100-yard return for a touchdown by Ginn. The Dolphins rebounded by mounting a 90-yard drive, which ended when Brown took a handoff and flipped the ball back to Pennington, who hit a well-covered Ginn in the end zone.

The Dolphins gave the Wildcat a fresh twist to strike again. Brown took a direct snap and handed to Williams running straight ahead, where he found a gaping hole to score untouched.

It was the seventh touchdown out of the Wildcat formation for the Dolphins. For the day, the Wildcat netted 82 yards in seven plays.

Falcons 34, Saints 20
Matt Ryan threw for two touchdowns and host Atlanta (6-3) intercepted league passing leader Drew Brees three times to storm past New Orleans for its fourth win in five games.

Ryan connected with Roddy White for a 16-yard touchdown on the Falcons' second possession, then broke it open with a short pass to Jerious Norwood that the speedy running back took for a 67-yard touchdown in the opening minute of the fourth quarter for a 27-6 lead.

Chevis Jackson finished off New Orleans (4-5) with a 95-yard interception return, the second-longest for a touchdown in Falcons history. He stepped in front of a Brees pass at the 5 and took off down the sideline with no one else around.

Brees did throw his second touchdown pass on the final play, a 32-yarder to Lance Moore. Not that it mattered. Playing from behind, he threw a staggering 58 passes - 10 more than he'd attempted in any game this season - and completed 31 for 422 yards.

Ravens 41, Texans 13
Joe Flacco threw for two touchdowns and linebacker Ray Lewis had a pair of interceptions to lead Baltimore (6-3) to its fourth straight win, a blowout of host Houston.

Flacco was 15 of 23 for 185 yards and threw touchdowns to Yamon Figurs and Todd Heap. Willis McGahee returned after missing last week's victory over Cleveland with an ankle injury and ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns.

The Texans (3-6) had a penalty- and mistake-filled day with Sage Rosenfels playing for the injured Matt Schaub. He was intercepted four times, with the first one coming in the end zone in the first quarter. Lewis's first interception came in the third quarter and his second one led to Heap's second touchdown, a 14-yarder from Troy Smith late in the fourth.

Vikings 28, Packers 27
Adrian Peterson rushed for 192 yards, including a 29-yard scamper with 2:22 remaining that pushed Minnesota (5-4) in front of visiting Green Bay and into a first-place tie in the NFC North.

The Packers' Mason Crosby was just wide on a 52-yard field goal attempt in the closing seconds, bringing an end to the Vikings' five-game losing streak to their division rivals. Green Bay (4-5) is one game back of Minnesota and Chicago.

Peterson did his damage on 30 carries, helping the Vikings overcome three interceptions by Gus Frerotte that the Packers turned into 17 points. Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers had no turnovers, but he threw for just 142 yards and took two safeties.

Chargers 20, Chiefs 19
Philip Rivers picked up host San Diego with two touchdown passes in the second half, including a go-ahead 8-yard strike to Antonio Gates with less than seven minutes remaining, and the Chargers avoided the upset when they stopped Kansas City's 2-point conversion pass with 23 seconds left.

Late in the third quarter, Rivers threw a 5-yard scoring pass to Malcom Floyd to tie it at 13, and Gates's touchdown gave the Chargers (4-5) their first lead of the game. Rivers completed 27 of 36 passes for 316 yards.

The Chiefs (1-8) pulled within 1 when Tyler Thigpen finished a 14-play drive by hitting Tony Gonzalez with a 3-yard touchdown pass. Kansas City went for the win, but Thigpen's conversion pass to Gonzalez was deflected by safety Clinton Hart and intercepted by cornerback Quentin Jammer.

Jaguars 38, Lions 14
Maurice Jones-Drew ran for a career-high three touchdowns in the second quarter alone and David Garrard threw two scoring passes in the second half as Jacksonville blew past host Detroit.

The Jaguars (4-5) snapped a two-game losing streak, including a setback to winless Cincinnati last week when they ran for just 68 yards. Against the lowly Lions (0-9), Jones-Drew ran for 70 yards and Fred Taylor had 80.

Daunte Culpepper made his Detroit debut in haste - just five days after signing, ending his brief retirement - and it lasted just three quarters before he was replaced by Drew Stanton. Culpepper was 5 of 10 for 104 yards, including a 51-yard rainbow to Calvin Johnson, with an interception.

Panthers 17, Raiders 6
DeAngelo Williams gained 69 of his 140 rushing yards on a touchdown run late in the first half, and visiting Carolina (7-2) overcame Jake Delhomme's four interceptions by shutting down Oakland's inept offense.

Delhomme's lone highlight was a 3-yard touchdown pass to Muhsin Muhammad after the Raiders (2-7) fumbled the opening kickoff. Delhomme finished 7 of 27 for 72 yards, the 26 percent completion rate the worst of his 74 career starts.

Oakland's Andrew Walter, playing in place of an injured JaMarcus Russell, threw two interceptions before leaving temporarily with an ankle injury in the fourth quarter. Sebastian Janikowski kicked two field goals, the first ending the Raiders' scoring drought at 107 minutes 11 seconds.