Fiedler, Dolphins Win on Rebound

Dolphin Coach Dave Wannstedt kept his faith in Jay Fiedler, and the young quarterback delivered.

Bouncing back from a dreadful performance, Fiedler threw three fourth-quarter touchdown passes, including a 32-yarder to Chris Chambers with 48 seconds remaining, to lift Miami to a 34-27 victory over Buffalo on Sunday.

“This was a big win for our team and myself,” Fiedler said. “The hardest part is keeping your focus on what needs to be done and not listening to your critics.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes early in the year, but I’ve learned.”

Fiedler was under scrutiny all week after throwing three interceptions in a 24-0 loss to the New York Jets. He bounced back against the Bills, completing 18 of 31 passes for 262 yards with no interceptions.

Fiedler steered the Dolphins to 24 fourth-quarter points, overcoming a 21-10 deficit.

His shining moment came on the game-winning drive, when he lofted a perfect touch pass to Chambers, who was covered by Buffalo’s Ken Irvin along the left sideline.

Chambers caught the ball at the one and fell backward into the end zone.

“Jay Fiedler came up here with the mind-set that he was going to do anything that he possibly could to help this team win,” Wannstedt said.

“There is a fine line of having enough confidence to make a throw but not forcing anything. I think Jay went through that today and hopefully gained some confidence.”

It was Fiedler’s fourth fourth-quarter comeback of the season and sixth of his career. And it came at a critical juncture for the Dolphins (7-3), who regained a share of the AFC East lead with the idle Jets.

The Bills (1-9) are off to their worst start in 17 years, have lost five straight games overall and eight in a row at home--matching their longest home losing streak since the 1983-84 seasons.

The only thing different about this loss was that Buffalo managed to squander a rare fourth-quarter lead.

After Olindo Mare’s 39-yard field goal tied the score at 27 with 1:11 to play, Buffalo’s Nate Clements fumbled on the kickoff return. Patrick Surtain recovered at the Bill 42, setting up the game-winning score.

Then there was Buffalo kicker Jake Arians, who put the Dolphins in a position to tie the game when he missed a point-after attempt that left the score 27-17 with 8:16 remaining.

“It’s frustrating to play that hard and play well in some places and not be able to come up with a win,” Bill Coach Gregg Williams said. “They came up with some big plays in the end, and we didn’t make the big plays to counter that.”