Grogan Saves Patriots, Puts Bengals Out of the Playoffs

It took the New England Patriots until the last 44 seconds of the regular season, but they’ve finally guaranteed themselves a shot at another Super Bowl trip.

The defending AFC champions, who had lost twice in a row with the division title at their fingertips, won the AFC East championship Monday night by beating the Miami Dolphins, 34-27. The winning play was a 31-yard touchdown pass from Steve Grogan to Stanley Morgan with 44 seconds left.

Grogan came off the bench to spell the injured Tony Eason with 9:26 remaining in the second quarter.

The victory gave the Patriots an 11-5 record and the final berth in the playoffs, knocking out the Cincinnati Bengals and setting up a wild-card game at Giants Stadium Sunday between the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs. The Patriots will play at Denver Jan. 4 in their first playoff game.

“Wow, wow! This is two years in a row down here that have left me speechless,” said New England Coach Raymond Berry, whose team won for the first time in 18 Orange Bowl games when it beat the Dolphins last season in the AFC title game.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling, it’s an unbelievable experience. To come down here and win it, we had to be very fortunate.”

It was primarily the work of Grogan, who won at the Orange Bowl for the first time in a 12-year career in what was the last NFL game to be played in the aging stadium. He threw for two scores, ran 7 yards for another and artfully directed the 10-run, 2-pass, 86-yard drive that consumed 6 minutes, 11 seconds en route to the winning touchdown which came on a pass to Morgan in the corner of the end zone.

That made him the winner in a second-half shootout with Miami’s Dan Marino, who threw three touchdown passes and set new NFL records for most passes attempted and completed in a season.

“It was an absolutely incredible job by Steve,” Berry said. “He didn’t take a snap all week. We had been preparing Tony Eason exclusively. It defies any reason that he’d be able to do this.”

“It didn’t work out the way I hoped it would,” Miami Coach Don Shula said. “I would have loved to have knocked them out.”

Marino, who set new NFL records for passes attempted in a season with 623 and completions with 378, completed 23 of 39 passes for 266 yards and ran his season total for touchdown passes to 44, second best in NFL history to his own 48.

A stumbling start marked by four Miami turnovers in the first half turned into the Marino-Grogan shootout in the second.

It began with the game tied 13-13 early in the third quarter.

Marino started it with a 32-yard scoring pass to Mark Clayton that put the Dolphins ahead.

But Grogan, who took over when Eason went out with a stretched nerve in his shoulder suffered trying to make a tackle after a fumble, drove the Patriots right down the field again, finally scoring on a 7-yard rollout at the end of a 66-yard drive.

Back came Marino with a 19-yard strike to Clayton 1:31 into the fourth period to make it 27-20, then back came Grogan, engineering a 74-yard, 7-play drive capped by a 12-yard touchdown pass to Tony Collins to tie it again with 8:20 remaining.

Grogan then put together another drive that left Miami with an 8-8 mark, its worst since 1980, the last time it failed to make the playoffs.

Miami took the opening kickoff and drove to the New England 24. But Lorenzo Hampton fumbled and Johnny Rembert recovered for New England to kill the threat.

The Patriots took a 7-0 lead with 2:25 left in the quarter on a 22-yard pass from Eason to Morgan at the end of a 75-yard, 13-play drive on which the biggest gain came on a roughing the passer call against Miami’s Brian Sochia. Morgan finished the game with eight catches for 148 yards, his ninth 100-yard receiving game this year, one short of the NFL record.

New England made it 10-0 1:56 into the second period on Tony Franklin’s 47-yard field goal into a stiff wind. It was set up when Miami punter Reggie Roby, confronted by Rembert streaming up the middle, failed to get off a punt and was hit by Ed Reynolds at the Miami 34.

New England’s Steve Doig recovered Larry Lee’s fumble on the ensuing kickoff at the Miami 24. But two plays later, Craig James fumbled and Mark Brown recovered at the 32. Eason was injured trying to tackle Brown.

From there, Miami moved to the New England 25, from where Fuad Reveiz kicked a 42-yard field goal to cut it to 10-3.

Franklin made it 13-3 with a 44-yard field goal that barely cleared the bar with 3:41 left in the half. That score was set up by another turnover--Roland James’ interception of a Marino pass that he returned to the Miami 44.

Miami cut it to 13-10 with 41 seconds left in the half on Marino’s one-yard touchdown pass to Bruce Hardy at the end of an 11-play, 65-yard drive.

Franklin missed a 39-yarder to start the third quarter. From there, Miami drove 68 yards to the 4, with 47 coming on a darting run by Hampton, who finished with 109 yard in 13 carries. But the Dolphins had to settle for Reveiz’s 21 yard field goal that tied it.

Hampton finished the season with all nine of Miami’s rushing touchdowns, just the fourth time in NFL history that one player had all his team’s rushing touchdowns.