THE NFL PLAYOFFS : Marino Does His Stuff for Miami : AFC: Dolphin quarterback throws two touchdown passes in fourth quarter of a 17-16 comeback victory over the Chiefs.

Together they had come so far, and now they were two feet short.

Steve DeBerg of the Kansas City Chiefs had gone here, there and everywhere, but when he began this season with a 30-70-1 record as a starting quarterback, he was embarking on a journey beyond expectations.

It was the kind of story already written so well by Nick Lowery, the Kansas City kicker who was released 11 times by eight teams.

There they were Saturday, poised together to take a bow, only to have their season run out of wind.

With 56 seconds remaining, Lowery’s 52-yard field-goal attempt fell short, preserving the Miami Dolphins’ 17-16 American Football Conference wild-card victory before 67,276 in Joe Robbie Stadium.

The Dolphins (13-4) rallied from a 16-3 deficit in the fourth quarter on two touchdown passes from Dan Marino--a one-yarder to Tony Paige and a 12-yard play to Mark Clayton with 3:28 remaining.

“What a comeback; what a great feeling,” Miami Coach Don Shula said. “It was a real gut check.”

Miami will travel to Buffalo if favored Cincinnati defeats Houston today. A victory for the Oilers would send the Dolphins to the Coliseum for a game against the Raiders.

“You just got to shoot your best shot and go with it,” said Lowery, who made 24 field goals in a row before his miss. “I hit it well. I thought it was going to be close, but I thought it was going to be long enough. But what was it? Two feet short.”

Lowery was successful from 27, 25 and 38 yards earlier in the game. And he took the field in the final seconds knowing that Miami kicker Pete Stoyanovich set a playoff record in the same direction with a 58-yard field goal in the second quarter.

Stoyanovich, who kicked a 59-yarder against the Jets last season, broke the playoff record of 54 yards set by Detroit’s Eddie Murray against San Francisco in 1983.

But Lowery, who led the league in scoring with 139 points, failed to connect from beyond 50 yards this season. And as the second half began, the wind took a rest.

“Maybe five years ago he makes that, but he doesn’t have the same leg,” Stoyanovich said. “I had that feeling that he wasn’t going to make it, and I turned to Tim McKyer on the sideline and told him so. And I was right.”

For three quarters it was all wrong for the Dolphins. They trailed, 10-3, at the half after DeBerg threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Stephone Paige. Two field goals by Lowery in the third quarter put the Chiefs ahead, 16-3.

“It’s tough having to end the year like this,” DeBerg said, after completing 17 of 30 passes for 269 yards with a touchdown and an interception. “It’s very frustrating. I’ll hash through every play in the next couple of weeks.

“I know there was a chance when we got the ball on their 29 on a turnover, and we ran the ball three times and kicked a field goal in the third quarter. We were in a situation where at the time it was 13-3, and we could have gone up, 20-3, and put a good lock on the game.”

After safety Deron Cherry forced Mark Duper to fumble, Kansas City linebacker Dino Hackett recovering, the Chiefs gained eight yards in three runs by Christian Okoye to the Miami 21.

Lowery kicked a 38-yard field goal, but the remainder of the game belonged to Marino, Clayton and Sammie Smith.

“This was definitely exciting, but I would have been more excited if we were ahead by 13 instead of down by 13,” Marino said. “We had a lot of guys who showed a lot of guts to hang in there and make the plays to win it.”

Marino completed his final 10 passes, but it was Smith’s stubborn run for two yards on the final play of the third quarter that propelled the Dolphins to victory.

Smith, who gained 82 yards in 20 carries, was stopped momentarily in the backfield on fourth and two from the Kansas City 45, but he lurched forward for the first down.

“We had a chance to stop them on fourth down and Smith made the great effort,” Kansas City Coach Marty Schottenheimer said. “That was as big a play as there was. He earned that first down and they got it going again.”

With Smith running effectively, Marino was able to use play fakes to spring his receivers. After moving his team to the Kansas City one-yard line, he threw sidearm to Paige for a score with 12:18 left.

“That pass wasn’t supposed to go to Paige,” Marino said. “But everybody else was covered, and Paige was just standing there.”

When the Dolphins got the ball back after Kansas City punted, Marino took his team on an 85-yard drive for the go-ahead score. On first down from the Kansas City 12, he threw a down and out fastball to Clayton.

“I knew when he ran the out, I was going to go for the pick because of our inability to stop them and the time left in the game,” Chief cornerback Albert Lewis said. “I sold myself out to make an interception and run it back. I just missed the ball. It was thrown a lot lower than I anticipated.”

Lewis made a break on the ball, and after coming up a fingernail short, Clayton was free to score.

“I knew he was going to go for the interception on that pattern,” Marino said. “You got a great player trying to make a great play and if I throw the ball inside, he’s gone. But I threw it where I wanted to throw it.”

The Chiefs went to work after the kickoff from their 22 and made it to the Miami 26 at the two-minute warning. On first down, Okoye plowed up the middle for 12 additional yards, but the play was nullified by a holding call on Kansas City guard David Szott.

“Imagine that, the only holding penalty called in the game,” Lowery said. “Isn’t that interesting.”

Pushed back to the 37, the Chiefs gained only three more yards before calling on Lowery for the game-deciding kick.

“You see the ball falling short and you see the season just going away from you,” Hackett, said. “It’s too bad. . . . I think this team deserves more than what we reached.”