Jacksonville 27, Miami 17

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- The Jacksonville Jaguars found some unconventional ways to score Saturday night.

It wasn't what they wanted from their new offense.

David Allen returned a punt 76 yards for a score, Ernest Wilford caught a 19-yard touchdown pass that ricocheted off a teammate and the Jaguars beat the Dolphins 27-17 in a preseason game.

"We've got some things to work out, but for the most part, they're all correctable," quarterback Byron Leftwich said. "It wasn't what we wanted. We didn't do great, but it wasn't all bad, either."

Miami had limited success on offense, with Ricky Williams running six times for 39 yards and Chris Chambers making a 16-yard circus catch. But quarterbacks Gus Frerotte and A.J. Feeley did little to separate themselves in the team's most hype position battle, and the offensive line continued to look lost against stunts and blitzes. The line also had two costly penalties in the first half.

Frerotte was 6-of-14 for 51 yards. Feeley was 6-of-13 for 60 yards with an interception. Sage Rosenfels and Brock Berlin each directed a fourth-quarter touchdown drive that made the game much closer than it could have been.

"You've got to keep grinding and limit the mistakes," Frerotte said. "The penalties hurt us tonight with the first group. We've got to eliminate those and we'll be OK."

Although the Dolphins weren't particularly sharp on offense, the Jaguars didn't look much better under new coordinator Carl Smith.

Leftwich was 3-of-7 in a little more than a quarter of work. Good thing, too. Had he played any longer, he might have gotten hurt.

Leftwich was sacked four times on 11 pass plays, a bad sign for a unit that vowed to score more points after finishing last in the AFC and 29th in the league in scoring last season.

The first-team offense finished with 29 yards, two first downs and no points.

"I am not happy with the work that we put in," receiver Jimmy Smith said. "We made a lot of mistakes on offense, something that we can't have. We have a lot of work ahead of us."

The Jaguars moved the ball well behind backup David Garrard. He was 9-of-13 for 101 yards after struggling through mini-camp and training camp.

Garrard got help from rookie running back Alvin Pearman, a fourth-round draft pick from Virginia. Pearman ran 11 times for 64 yards, showing promise in case Fred Taylor has a setback during his recovery from offseason knee surgery.

Pearman had seven carries for 50 yards on Jacksonville's first scoring drive.

The Jags capped the 85-yard drive with a fortunate play by Wilford. Garrard threw the ball over the middle to Reggie Williams near the goal line. Williams probably should have caught the pass, but it slipped through his hands.

Wilford was waiting a few yards behind him in the end zone and caught the deflection, giving the Jaguars a 14-3 lead.

It was one of three crazy catches in the game.

The first one came when Frerotte rolled left to avoid pressure and threw across the middle to Chambers. Safety Deon Grant hammered Chambers on the play, knocking the ball loose. But Chambers somehow managed to stay focused and caught the ball while he was laying on his ground. Grant injured his hip on the play and did not return.

The final one came in the fourth quarter, when Jags rookie receiver Chad Owens deflected a pass from Quinn Gray that looked as though it would be intercepted by Billy Parker. Owens tipped the ball over Parker's head and into his own hands for a 48-yard gain.

Three plays later, Gray hit first-round pick Matt Jones in the back of the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown pass and a 27-3 lead. Jones, a standout quarterback at Arkansas who moved to receiver, finished with three catches for 45 yards. He helped set up two scoring drives and capped another.

Allen gave the Jags a 7-0 lead on Miami's first punt of the game. Allen split two defenders, cut left and outran everyone to the end zone. Punter Matt Turk had a chance to knock Allen out of bounds at the 10, but he came up short diving at Allen's feet.

"Offensively, we sputtered a little bit," Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio said. "But we had a nice special teams play."