The Miami Dolphins scored 41 unanswered points in the first half to cruise to a 44-26 victory over the Houston Texans in their NFL clash at SunLife Stadium.
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The Dolphins took the lead on their first possession of the match when Ryan Tannehill threw the ball to Rishard Matthews on a slant route and the wideout beat two tackles to run in for a 53-yard touchdown.
Dan Campbell's side scored their second touchdown of the match when Tannehill fired the ball short to Jarvis Landry and he made the catch and ran through tackles to record the 50-yard touchdown.
The home side added their third touchdown of the first quarter as Tannehill engineered a drive to move the Dolphins into the redzone before he threw a strike to Landry from 10 yards to find the endzone.
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The Dolphins compounded their advantage when Lamar Miller collected a screen pass and navigated his way through several tackles before leaping over one despairing dive to find the endzone from 50 yards.
Matters got even better for the hosts when Reshad Jones picked off Texans quarterback Brian Hoyer and returned the ball 23 yards for the touchdown.
Miami notched another score just before the break when Miller found a gap in the line and ran 85 yards for his second touchdown of the match to cap an impressive half for Campbell's men
In the second half, the Texans got on the scoreboard as the Dolphins' defense relaxed and Hoyer found Arian Foster for an 11-yard score from a short pass.
Foster notched his second touchdown of the match as he finished off a solid drive from the visitors by plowing through the line to record a two-yard score.
Hoyer continued the visitors' resurgence in the fourth quarter when Nate Washington managed to get free behind the defence and the quarterback found him to score a 27-yard touchdown.
Andrew Franks kicked the first field goal of the match as he held his composure from 53 yards to stem the tide and ensure that the home side would secure the victory.
The Texans found the endzone one more time to make the scoreline respectable through Washington, but the Dolphins' dominance in the first half ensured that they earned their third win of the season.
Simon Sinclair
