Dolphins Canned by the Jaguars

Billed here in the Sunshine State as the “I-95 Clash,” it became the first known case of Dolphin road kill.

Miami had more missed tackles than yards in the first quarter, while Jacksonville poured it on, jumping ahead 24-0 and then 41-0, finishing with the most points in AFC playoff history Saturday with a 62-7 victory before 75,173 in Alltel Stadium .

The Jaguars (15-2) rolled back and forth over the Dolphins (10-8) in what was also the second most lopsided postseason contest in league history, falling short of the Bears’ 73-0 domination of the Redskins in the NFL’s 1940 title game, but winning the opportunity to rest quarterback Mark Brunell before Dan Marino had completed his first pass.

Marino, reduced to a spectator for much of the second half in what might have been his last game, declined to discuss his future.

“I’ll wait and see as time goes on what the circumstances are here with the Dolphins and myself, and how I feel,” he said after completing 11 of 25 passes for 95 yards with two interceptions and one touchdown--the 452nd in his 17-year career. “I still feel like I can win some games in this league.”

Marino may be fooling himself, however, chasing the Super Bowl exclamation point that capped off John Elway’s career while his own appears to be ending in a frustrated ellipsis . . . never having won a Super Bowl.

As good as he was for much of his career, he was that bad against the Jaguars. His first pass on the Dolphins’ first offensive play not only was five yards shy of the nearest Miami wide receiver, but was intercepted by Jacksonville cornerback Aaron Beasley.

His second pass scattered the coaches on the sideline, and he fumbled retreating to throw on his third try, the Jaguars recovering and returning it for a touchdown. His next pass was closer to the fans in the stands than any player in the field of play, and after being sacked, he threw three more incomplete passes before Beasley intercepted another of his passes.

By this time the score was 38-0, and Jay Fiedler was taking the snaps for Jacksonville with more than 11 minutes remaining in the second quarter.

“We didn’t compete,” Marino said. “We played horrible. I’ve never experienced a game like this in my life, going back to the time when I was a little kid.”

If Marino has thrown his last pass, it was a bad one, off the desperate reach of O.J. McDuffie on Miami’s first drive of the second half.

“Coach Jimmy Johnson at halftime told me he would maybe put Damon Huard in because of the circumstances in the game,” Marino said. “I asked him if I could have another shot. . . . That was very fair of him.”

Johnson, delivering a concession speech at halftime after being stopped by a CBS reporter leaving the field, said, “I’ve never seen anything like this. . . . Crazy me, I thought we were ready to play.”

Johnson took no questions after the game, the speculation ripe that he has coached his last game, but he said in a statement, “I take the blame for this one.

“I tried to prepare them too much. I should have pulled back after the long trip to Seattle. It was obvious from the start that we were very dead-legged. That’s one reason why we couldn’t [make the tackles]. I thought we had great practices, but unfortunately we left it on the practice field.”

Miami, which had minus-one yard of offense in the first quarter to Jacksonville’s 197, turned the ball over seven times in an exhibition of comedic football, finishing with 389 fewer yards than the Jaguars, even though Jacksonville shut down its offense in the second half, running the ball on 24 of 27 plays.

“You guys [reporters] have said all season we haven’t played anybody,” Jacksonville wide receiver Keenan McCardell said. “Are they somebody? That’s the question I want to ask you.”

The Dolphins aren’t much. Lucky in the first round to have played the Seahawks, losers of five of their last six games, the Dolphins stumbled to a 2-6 finish down the stretch with no running game and a legendary quarterback with a worn-out arm.

“It might look like we just sat down and let them win,” said Miami safety Shawn Wooden, one of several Dolphins trampled by Jacksonville running back Fred Taylor earlier, “but we were all playing our hearts out.”

Taylor, who broke off a 77-yard run for a touchdown a year ago in a 28-21 regular-season victory over Miami, busted through safety Calvin Jackson’s tackle attempt at the 10-yard line, stepped on cornerback Patrick Surtain and then pulled away from safety Brock Marion to finish off a 90-yard scoring run in the first quarter.

Taylor came back later to catch a short pass from Brunell and then elude three Dolphin defenders, each with a chance to bring him down but failing, while he went on to complete the 39-yard scoring play.

“Going into the game I felt like I was ready to explode,” said Taylor, hampered for much of the season because of a hamstring injury.

The Jaguars, picked by many before the season because of Taylor’s talent, came into the game intent on riding him because of the knee injury suffered by Brunell in a 41-14 loss to Tennessee on Dec. 26.

“I can’t say enough about Fred,” said Brunell, who completed five of nine passes for 105 yards while wearing braces on both knees. “Keenan McCardell came up to me on the sideline and said, ‘That guy’s special.’ That’s pretty accurate. There are not a lot of guys who can do what he does. He can change the course of a game on one play.”

The Dolphins, while trailing 10-0, had their highly regarded defense in position at the 10-yard line to stop Jacksonville and get back in the game when Taylor left them behind.

“I liked the run I made on the pass play better,” Taylor said. “I just saw it on TV and it looked pretty good. I made a lot of guys miss and stiff-armed a couple.”

After being reminded at halftime that Houston had blown a 35-3 lead in a playoff game against Buffalo, the Jaguars returned to the field to heap embarrassment on the Dolphins.

Fiedler, who has one NFL start on his resume, completed a 70-yard touchdown pass to Smith, and then a 38-yarder to Alvis Whitted, the first touchdown of his career and his first catch of the year. As bad as that was, it would get worse with running back Chris Howard scoring his first touchdown of the year on a five-yard run.

“Once we got up like that, we didn’t want to slow down,” said Fiedler, and who could have ever imagined Jay Fiedler being interviewed after a playoff game? “We just kept pouring it on.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tilting the Scoreboard

Biggest margins of victory in NFL postseason games:

* 73--Chicago 73, Washington 0, 1940, NFL championship

* 55--Jacksonville 62, Miami 7, 2000, AFC divisional playoff

* 49--Oakland 56, Houston 7, 1969, AFL divisional playoff

* 48--Buffalo 51, L.A. Raiders 3, 1991, AFC championship

* 46--Cleveland 56, vs. Detroit 10, 1954, NFL championship

* 46--N.Y. Giants 49, San Francisco 3, 1987, NFC divisional playoff

* 45--San Francisco 55, Denver 10, 1990, Super Bowl

AFC Playoffs

Jacksonville 62, Miami 7

Tennessee at Indianapolis, Today, 1 p.m., Channel 2