MIAMI — The Miami Dolphins showed again they can beat a bad team — barely. Next comes the biggest game yet in the franchise’s revival.
Dan Carpenter nailed a 38-yard field goal with 38 seconds left to cap a 61-yard drive, and the Dolphins earned their fourth consecutive victory Sunday by defeating woeful Oakland 17-15.
The Dolphins (6-4), who barely avoided a winless season in 2007, set up a showdown at home next Sunday against AFC East rival New England.
Johnnie Lee Higgins scored on a 93-yard punt return with 4:30 left to give the Raiders their first lead. Chad Pennington then moved the Dolphins down the field in 10 plays, completing a 7-yard pass on fourth-and-5 to Ted Ginn Jr. to keep the drive alive.
“It was my first fourth-and-5 with a minute or so left in the game,” said Ginn, a second-year pro. “It was probably Chad’s 20th. He’s cool, calm and collected. He went out there and got the job done.”
Oakland (2-8) lost its fourth in a row, and Tom Cable fell to 1-5 as interim coach.
“This is good for us,” Cable said. “It hurts because we lost, but we’re getting closer. We’ve just got to keep pounding away, and we’ll get a break one of these days.”
The Raiders generated only two field goals on offense, and scored when Jay Richardson sacked Chad Pennington for a safety.
They haven’t registered an offensive touchdown in 13 quarters, and reinforcements failed to provide a spark.
Quarterback JaMarcus Russell returned after missing one game with a knee injury, and he went 15-for-22 for 156 yards, but Miami had six sacks. His last pass was a completion to the Oakland 30 before time ran out.
Teammate Darren McFadden, nursing a toe injury that has hampered him most of the season, played for the first time in four games as a reserve. He carried only three times for 13 yards, and the Raiders totaled just 70 yards on the ground.
“You can’t have an offense that doesn’t score points,” running back Justin Fargas said. “We have to pick up our side of it.”
