A very watchable Sunday Night Football then on Channel 4, where two teams regarded highly for their defensive football also managed to produce decent moments of attacking intent.
Miami were unlucky to lose what turned out to be a predictably tight encounter given the similar nature of the setups of the teams, and most surprisingly managed to develop a strong passing game that represented the opposite philosophy we had seen the week before in Minnesota.
Miami's receivers impressed across the board, and Brandon Marshall stood out most with big gains on crucial downs, whilst all the time being involved in a heated match-up against old AFC West-foe, cornerback Antonio Cromartie.
The momentum of the game swung fairly wildly. It had looked like a potential blow-out win for the Jets when they extended to an easy two-score lead following a Mark Sanchez completion to Dustin Keller at the back of the endzone early in the second quarter.
But Miami were able to find momentum by spreading pass receptions across Marshall, Davone Bess and Brian Hartline. Indeed there were times when the Jets vaunted defense seemed unable to stop the catches along the sidelines from Bess, whilst Henne was delivering the ball with confidence, good-timing and precision, albeit occasionally interspersed with the more familiar risky tosses into double coverage.
The famed wildcat offense was largely unproductive-used predictably or delivered with such languid sweeps that the Jets were able to make easy stuffing tackles, and it was this inability to get the running game motoring that went some way to costing the Dolphins the game.
They were unlucky to concede the headline touchdown to the Jets most-wanted receiver Braylon Edwards, when covering defender Jason Allen lost his footing on the newly laid turf covering the baseball infield at Sun Life stadium, and this was Edwards primary impact on the proceedings.
NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth generously blamed only the field for the resulting play, but Allen also over-ran the action, and was guilty of doing the exact same later in the encounter in allowing Edwards another easy completion.
It was also Allen who drew the pass interference penalty on Edwards late in the dying minutes of the game that presented the Jets with the fresh set of downs and Ladanian Tomlinson's charge into the endzone to ultimately seal victory.
Cornerbacks are struggling to cover Edwards for whatever reason, and whilst I don't consider him anywhere near an elite receiver in the league given his previous form, he has successfully made a nuisance of himself at the start of this season, both on and off the field of play. The Patriot's Darius Butler had an equally torrid time in attempting to get to grips with the receiver in their week 2 clash.
With the exception of the cornerbacks Miami were as impressive when the opposition had the football. Cameron Wake made several good defensive plays, including the seemingly physically impossible leaping from a cut block to knock down a Sanchez pass at the line of scrimmage. Karlos Dansby also had important tackles and a strong presence on the field and looks to be a bad loss for the Arizona Cardinals.
Overall it was difficult to be blown away by the performance of the Jets; they showed us nothing here that we perhaps didn't already know. Sanchez is capable of delivering strikes but still has vulnerabilities in his game, and nearly delivered a disastrously soft interception to Dolphins defensive-end Kendall Langford in the last quarter. Their defense occasionally looked strong at the aggressive point of attack with Shaun Ellis and Jason Taylor making dramatic plays, but Miami's offensive line were able to buy the time and protection for Henne to pass the ball with ease at other points in the game.
The major positive for New York was the return of bruising running back Shonn Greene running downhill towards the end of the game, although for reasons unknown they chose to abandon this tactic late on.
What the game did tell us is that the AFC East will be ultra-competitive again this year (with the exception of the Bills), and with the Patriots looking hitherto shaky, it is up for the taking.
A breakdown of the rest of the NFL week 3 encounters and college games to follow shortly
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