Jets Bomb Dolphins Fast, 33-14

Monday, October 23, 1967

By BILL BRAUCHER

Herald Sports Writer

The dolphin is supposed to be a mammal but Joe Namath made a big fish out of its football image Sunday.

The artful quarterback needed just 30 minutes to pep the New York Jets to a 24-0 halftime lead. Namath let his understudy take it from, there as the American Football League's Eastern Division leaders breezed to a 33-14 victory over the Dolphins before 30,049 at the Orange Bowl.

Namath completed 13 of 15 passes for 199 yards and two of the Jets* three touchdowns before retiring at the half. Emerson Boozer, Joe's galloping sidekick, scored twice. Split-end George Sauer Jr. scored the other first half touchdown on a 61-yard Namath heave.

Jim Turner's 20-yard field goal, which opened the scoring before the game, was four minutes old, and his three conversions helped knock the Dolphins out of it before Bob Griese could redeem matters somewhat in the second half.

In relief of the hapless Rick Norton, Griese took the Dolphins on drives of 61 and 80 yards in the third and fourth quarters, throwing touchdown passes to flanker Frank Jackson and split-end Karl Noonan in the process.

The rookie from Purdue, in his first appearance since his right shoulder was injured Oct. 1 in a 29-7 loss at New York, awakened the offense in the second half.

By then, however, it was much too late to do anything about the Dolphins' fifth consecutive loss. The point total yielded during this spell now totals 168, an average of about 33 per game, by an outfit supposedly built on defense.

Sunday's yield would have been worse if not for the efforts of linebacker John Bramlett and tackle Ray Jacobs, solid as usual on defense. Otherwise, the Dolphins missed more tackles than an aging playboy in the YWCA.

They settled down in the second half, obviously because Griese had the offense moving most of the time, but still yielded a 20-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Mike Taliaferro to flanker Don Maynard and a 26-yard field goal by Turner that merely added to the rout.

The ultimate insult came from Billy Joe. The ex-Dolphin rolled up 43 yards in five second-half carries to do his bit as the Jets tacked 133 yards rushing to their 223-yard passing total.

Sauer, who ruined Pete Jaquess' debut as cornerback, caught six passes for 139 yards. Maynard caught four for 51.

Rookie Jack Clancy again led Miami's receivers with five receptions for 54 yards, although Griese picked his targets at random. Preston Carpenter and Abner Haynes grabbed four each for 83 yards between them.

Norton, in contrast, managed four completions of 17 passes for 15 yards as the Jets had everything their way.

Turner's early field goal was set up by Bill Baird's 32-yard return to Larry Seiple's first punt, a good 46-yarder into a 25 mile-per-hour wind. Why the Dolphins elected to receive the kickoff in the teeth of the wind is anybody's guess.

The second Seiple punt, a 45-yarder, pushed the Jets back to their 40. Namath promptly led them 60 yards in eight plays, passing 31 and nine yards to Sauer en route. Boozer blasted 12 yards to the one-yard line in setting up his first touchdown on the next play

Seiple's third punt was followed by Namath's 61-yarder to Sauer, who ran right past Jaquess down the sideline.

Seiple’s fourth punt, still into the wind after three futile Norton passes, was downed at the Jets’ 46. Nine plays and 54 yards later, Namath flipped a two-yard swing pass to the wide-open Boozer for the TD. It was Joe's fifth straight completion of the drive and made the score 24-0 with 10:11 left of the first half and the Dolphins looking ready to be blown out of the bowl.

Closest they could get to the end zone was New York's 39 in the second quarter, where Gene Mingo’s 46-yard field-goal try was wide.

After the exchange of quarterbacks in the second half, the Dolphins perked up. On Griese’s first series they scored, Haynes gained 12 yards, Griese ran for eight, hit Clancy for six more and handed to fullback Sam Price on the draw to gain four at the Jets’ 33.

Here Griese hit Haynes, who staged one of his dodging exhibitions for 22 yards to the 11. Abner dropped the football and picked it up enroute.

The Dolphins seemed halted with fourth down on the nine, until Griese leveled a pass caught by Jackson on his fingertips in a corner of the end zone. Mingo’s first of two conversions made it 24-7 with 7:56 left of the third quarter. But the defense collapsed again as Taliaferro took the Jets 81 yards in eight plays, all on the ground except the payoff 20 yard pass to Maynard over safety Bob Petrella. Boozer contributed a 26-yard run during this drive. Five Dolphins missed clean shots at the slick halfback behind the line of scrimmage.

Turner’s second field goal, on the first play of the fourth quarter, was set up when linebacker Al Atkinson picked off a Griese pass and returned 36 yards to the Miami 19 late in the third period.

After linebacker Larry Grantham intercepted another pass and Turner missed a 25-yard field-goal try, Griese took the Dolphins from their 20 to score in 10 plays, the last a six-yard toss to Noonan after a neat piece of scrambling by the quarterback. Griese hit Noonan for 15, halfback Joe Auer for 19 and Carpenter for 14 before the third down TD toss with 5:08 to play.