On a night when the Dolphins rested all of their starters expect wide receiver Brian Hartline, the defense bent but didn’t break, the running game showed some life, and quarterback Matt Moore completed 81% of his passes in Miami’s 17-3 win over Dallas in a half-empty Sun Life Stadium.

In a bit of surprise move, Tony Sparano chose to sit his first-team offensive line after their embarrassing performance against the Buccaneers. The second string stepped in admirably, though, plowing the way for 106 yards on the ground and not conceding a sack.

Daniel Thomas ran hard on his eight carries, tallying 36 yards. The newly signed Larry Johnson also impressed, piling up 39 rushing yards and producing the play of the night on a 22-yard touchdown run.

Matt Moore looked the part of reliable backup, tossing for 142 yards and a touchdown on 9 of 11 passing. Moore found roster fringe players like Marlon Moore for a 22-yard connection and tight end Jeron Mastrud for an 18-yard touchdown. He also finally hooked up with Clyde Gates on a deep ball that went for 42 yards.

Defensively, the Dolphins struggled to get the Cowboys’ backups off the field, as Dallas held the ball for over 36 minutes and compiled nearly 400 yards of total offense.

But on the Cowboys’ first promising drive, roster bubble players Will Allen and Tyrone Culver helped their cause with a nice breakup from the former and an interception from the latter in the end zone. The Dolphins forced five field goals the rest of the way and Dallas only connected on one.

At any rate, the exhibition season is finally over. The next time the Dolphins step onto the field it will be the real deal on Monday Night Football against the Patriots. Let the countdown begin.

But business is in order first. The Dolphins have some difficult decisions to make between now and Saturday night at 6 p.m. when they will be forced to cut 27 players in order to establish their 53-man roster. Look forward to our 53-man roster prediction at some point tomorrow.

Game Ball: Matt Moore- 9-11, 142 yards, 1 touchdown 

What: Dolphins’ preseason exhibition vs. Cowboys
When: Tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Sun Life Stadium/ Miami Gardens, Florida
Weather: 85 degrees, scattered thunderstorms
Watch: KTVT 11 Dallas, will air on CBS 4 in Miami around 11:30 p.m. due to black out, replay on NFL Network tomorrow night at 8 p.m., NFL Preseason Live

College football kicks off tonight, the NFL opener is a week from today, and the Dolphins’ Monday night showdown with the Patriots is a mere 11 days away. I think it’s safe to say most fans are over preseason football.

But there’s still one more exhibition on the slate. While the first team likely won’t see much time, tonight’s game could go a long way in putting the finishing touches on the 53-man roster.

In a sport where key players could be lost on any given play, establishing the right 53 for depth purposes is crucial. But even as most NFL teams around the league won’t suit up many of their starters, tonight probably won’t be exclusively about the roster fringe players for the Dolphins.

The regular season is fast approaching and the offensive line and running game don’t appear to be ready. If the Dolphins are going to stick with their current line, and from all indications that’s what they plan to do, their only hope is that some chemistry begins to form.

If they can gel, they’ll improve. Probably not by much, but judging by last week, this O-line has nowhere to go but up. But that does mean that they could use all the work they can get.

I wouldn’t mind seeing the first-team offensive line for the majority of the first half and some quality work for Daniel Thomas as well. With that said, here are my five keys to success for the Dolphins:

1. Strong night for Daniel Thomas: We don’t know how much time rookie running back Daniel Thomas will get, but he’s certainly not going to get the night off.

I expect Thomas to run behind the Dolphins’ first-team offensive line for at least the first quarter tonight, but he could play the entire first half. He needs the work.

Outside of a few solid runs against Carolina, Thomas has been a disappointment this preseason. I think the offensive line deserves more of the blame, though. He’s seemingly hit a brick wall on the majority of his carries.

But he still could hit the hole, or where the hole should be I should say, with a little more conviction, especially in short-yardage situations or near the goal line.

With the Cowboys likely resting most of their defensive starters tonight, there’s no excuse for Daniel Thomas and the offensive line not to step up and prove they can get something going.

By the time the fourth preseason game rolls around, most fans are ready for real football. The starters are all but done with their dress rehearsal reps and it’s simply time to let the roster fringe players make one final impression.

That may explain why tomorrow night’s game didn’t sell out before the 72-hour deadline and will consequently be blacked out in South Florida.

The interest in the preseason finale may not be there with the majority of the fan base, but it’s going to be far from a boring and meaningless game in the minds of several players on the roster bubble fighting for their NFL lives.

Here are five players that need to impress tomorrow night, as their 53-man roster hopes are very much in limbo:

Will Allen, CB: The 11th year veteran finally got on the field Saturday and looked pretty good doing it. Allen was sharp in coverage, minus an illegal contact penalty, and had a sack that would have resulted in a safety if the play hadn’t been negated by penalty.

Benny Sapp seems like a lock as the nickel, but Nolan Carroll’s struggles this preseason has opened the door for Allen to land the fifth cornerback spot. Keeping Carroll around would save the Dolphins some cash and he has an upside advantage at only 24 years old.

But with young corners like Vontae Davis, Sean Smith, and Jimmy Wilson in the secondary, the Dolphins would benefit from a knowledgeable mentor in the mix. But he’ll still need to prove he has something left in the tank and that his knee is 100% and ready to go. Another solid showing should do the trick.

Larry Johnson, RB: I have a hard time seeing the Dolphins keep only three running backs. With the uncertainty of rookie Daniel Thomas and Reggie Bush’s injury history, Miami needs a capable workhorse as insurance.

Nic Grigsby is also on the roster, but as an undrafted rookie who’s yet to impress this exhibition season, he’s likely auditioning for practice squad consideration at this point. Larry Johnson is essentially competing against the names that will hit the waiver wire when 31 other teams make final cuts on Saturday.

Today, the Dolphins had their kickoff luncheon at Sun Life Stadium, where players, coaches, and fans all got together to get pumped up for the 2011-2012 season.

Players sat down and chatted with fans, also doing interviews with Jesse Agler (@finsjesse if you’re not following him on twitter don’t consider yourself a true Dolfan). Then they closed it out with Coach Sparano giving a speech to all in attendance.

Like him or hate, Coach Sparano can give one hell of a speech. Tony is a very motivating speaker that can light up any room. In fact, Brandon Marshall tweeted earlier: @BMarshall19: Every time I hear coach Sparano speak I get chills. #greatness

There were a couple of lines that stood out to me from Tony’s speech:

Sparano at Dolphins luncheon said " this team will win!!"

Talking about home opener, "I hope it’s outrageous out there.”

Tony quoted Gladiator, saying "If you win the crowd, victory belongs to you, this group will win the crowd."

Here is a link of the video of Tony’s speech courtesy of The Finsiders.com

http://thefinsiders.com/blog/2011/coach-sparano-kickoff-speech-83111

Tick tock; tick tock….it’s that time of year where everyone stares at the clock waiting for the regular season to start. It’s also the time of year where the season previews and super bowl predictions start coming out.

Recently, Peter King put out his season preview listing the Dolphins 4th in the AFC East with a 6-10 record. King also posted his Super Bowl prediction, taking the Falcons over the Chargers in this year’s Super Bowl.

That being said, you won’t be ready for this year’s kickoff until you check out my 2011 NFL season preview. So here you go: