Beck, Hagan play a few high notes

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, January 03, 2008  |  Comments( 4 )

Miami Dolphins
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John Beck, meet Derek Hagan. You guys should get to know each other better.

The two young Miami Dolphins have yet to be confused with Tom Brady and Randy Moss, but they did manage to light a final dim candle before the team's dreadful 2007 season was extinguished by the Cincinnati Bengals, 38-25.

After overcoming a disheartening beginning, Beck hit Hagan with his last three throws of the season. The first went for 22 yards to the Bengals' 22. The second went for a 22-yard touchdown, the third for a two-point conversion.

Lots of 2s, but by then it was too late for Miami, whose secondary was carved like a Christmas ham by the Bengals' Carson Palmer.

Beck, the rookie out of Brigham Young, came in for Cleo Lemon in the third period eager to erase the memory of his previous play, a fumble returned for a touchdown by Buffalo in Week 14. So what happened? He settled into a shotgun stance, barked out signals -- and fumbled again, a miscue returned 54 yards to the distant end zone faster than you could spell Chinedum Ndukwe, the Bengal carrying the stolen ball.

One account of the game had new Dolphins vice president Bill Parcells staring blankly into space after that play, perhaps wondering whether he could have Beck killed and get away with it.

As it turned out, though, Beck is more resilient than everyone thought. Or perhaps it was like the time-honored story of the wastrel who hits rock bottom and realizes there is no lower place to go.

Miami went three-and-out with Beck at the controls on the next possession, but then the rookie stopped trying to play longball and began guiding short tosses to running back Lorenzo Booker, the proverbial "high-percentage pass" that broadcasters are always urging struggling quarterbacks to fall back on.

After three of those, Beck extended himself a bit with an 18-yard completion to Booker that set up his own 2-yard scoring run.

On Miami's last possession, giving his best Peyton Manning imitation out of the shotgun and without a huddle, Beck marched the team down to score with some degree of ease. Of course, he was no doubt doing this against the Bengal reserves, but Miami has to savor the occasional sweet in a season of bitterness.

Hagan hadn't exactly been striking fear into opposing secondaries, either. Except for an eight-catch performance against Buffalo, the second-year man out of Arizona State had mysteriously failed to use his size (6-foot-3, 205 pounds) and speed to much advantage. Perhaps it was significant that both he and Beck ended on a positive note.

Otherwise, the Dolphins are in big trouble.
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CommentsComments: 4  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
rai		04:37 AM
01/03/2008
Cleveland can use a top-notch DE to improve its defense, so let's trade Jason Taylor to Cleveland for QB Derek Anderson (if...
No.2
byudog		03:03 PM
01/03/2008
Some of you knee jerk fans need to quit whining about Beck already. The guy has been in the NFL less than a year now. QB of ALL...
No.3
Finsfan		03:42 AM
01/04/2008
I like Rai's idea of trading Taylor for Anderson and hopefully a draft pick. Cleveland has a good offense but needs help on...
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