Marino Finds Holes and Drills the Bills, 34-24

After completing a career-high 39 passes--4 of them for touchdowns--Dan Marino made an early Christmas wish.

“I wish I could play against that zone defense every week,” said the Miami quarterback, who had 54 attempts and passed for 404 yards in leading the Dolphins to a come-from-behind 34-24 victory over the Buffalo Bills Sunday.

It’s unlikely he’ll get his wish, particularly after future Dolphin opponents see how easily Marino dissected the Buffalo defense with numerous short passes under the Bills’ deep zone.

“That was the Marino show,” Buffalo nose tackle Fred Smerlas said. “I’ve seen him go bombs away, but he just took what we gave him today--and he kept taking and taking.”

Miami Coach Don Shula said he knew the Buffalo defense would be susceptible to short pass routes and was glad to take what was available.

“It’s pretty hard to throw deep (against the Bills’ zone),” Shula said. “You need patience to (attack the zone) and Marino has the patience.”

Bills’ Coach Marv Levy, 1-1 since taking over from Hank Bullough Nov. 3, said he conceded the short passes but hoped for turnovers.

“When you’re playing a lot of zone, it should lead to some interceptions and it didn’t,” Levy said. “It didn’t work out as we would have liked.”

The Dolphins improved to 5-6, while the Bills are 3-8.

Fuad Reveiz kicked field goals of 52 and 36 yards to account for Miami’s other points in the game between AFC East rivals.

Jim Kelly threw touchdown passes to rookie Carl Byrum and Jerry Butler for the Bills, who also got an 11-yard touchdown run from Robb Riddick and a 39-yard field goal from Scott Norwood.

The Bills let a 21-7 second-quarter lead slip away, with a late-hit penalty and a Riddick fumble leading to 10 Miami points.

The late-hit call--on Buffalo’s Lucious Sanford--came on the first half’s next to last play and put Miami in position for a 52-yard field goal by Reveiz that made it 21-10 at halftime.

Riddick’s third-quarter fumble set up a 19-yard touchdown pass from Marino to Mark Duper that brought Miami to within 21-20.

A four-yard touchdown pass from Marino to Dan Johnson early in the fourth quarter gave the Dolphins their first lead, 27-24, and Marino sealed the victory later with a two-yard scoring pass to Lorenzo Hampton.

Miami scored twice in the first 11 minutes of the third quarter to get back into the game. Reveiz’s 36-yard field goal, set up by a 39-yard pass play from Marino to Mark Clayton, made it 21-13.

Riddick fumbled two plays later, giving Miami the ball at the Buffalo 27 and setting up the Marino-to-Duper touchdown pass that cut the Bills lead to 21-20.