Since oh so many negative threads have cropped up, we need a thread to point out the positives of this game. The first being, of course, that we won a division game on the road to open the season, our first season opening win since 2005. The defense looked great. We had a pass rush, Dansby looks like we're getting what we paid for, Odrick and Misi looked like they knew what they were doing, Chris Clemons looked awesome in his first start, the secondary which was much maligned all off season looked stellar, Randy Starks got a push up the middle, Sapp and Jason Allen were in positions to make plays. Very hard to find things to be negative about here. The offense looked efficient. Hennne followed the game plan, took what the 2nd best pass defense in the NFL last year gave him and didn't turn the ball over, we went over 100 yards rushing, Ricky and Ronnie looked good. Lou Polite is still unstoppable on 1 yard downs. Marshall made some good plays, Bess made some clutch catches and Fasano looks like he's back. The offensive line pass protected very well all day against a strong front 7. Special teams coverage units looked much improved. Roscoe Parish is a dangerous return man and we kept him in check all day. Brandon Field and Dan Carpenter did their thing. All in all, a lot to be happy about today. Let's enjoy our first season opening win in 5 years, let's enjoy a division win in a place we haven't won in since 2001, let's enjoy a young strong attacking defense that is head and shoulders above last year's model already. No negativity in this thread please. *fingers crossed*
I agree. And the one bad series we had we never pressured the QB. We were hanging back and almost playing a prevent defense.
Thanks for some positive vibes bro. Could things have been better? Sure. I think a lot of the negative folks need to take things into perspective... We haven't won a road opener in what...7 years? And the last opening day game we won was Nick Saban's debut. So cross that off the list Last time Henne played against buffalo's secondary he had an awful game...he protected the ball well today and didn't put us in a bad spot. Keep in mind, the offense is usually a bit behind...the timing will get better. Ronnie looks completely healthy and had a nice day. Karlos Dansby had a sack and looked good all day. Brandon Marshall had 8 catches, and even though the yards weren't racked up there were a couple important first downs. Chris Clemons played well. Wake had a sack and collapsed the pocket all day. WE ARE 1-0 for the first time in a long time, and achieved it on the road against a division rival. I'll drink to that.
This was an '08 style win. Miami won a lot of close, ugly battles playing solid defense, running the ball and avoiding turnovers. That was a pretty special season. They strayed from that formula in '09, but I saw a more mature Henne today. I think the '09 Henne might have lost this game for us with an untimely pick or 2 in the second half.
I agree with you whole heartedly. For all the people bashing Henne and saying he hasn't improved, it seems very clear to me that, based on his performance today vs his performance last year in Buffalo that Henne HAS improved. He still has learning to do but he'll get there and be very solid for us. I have faith.
The biggest positive is that we got a win. I really thought the offensive line looked pretty good for most of the day. A few missed assignment and some pressure on Henne but overall looked pretty good. The defense looked good, nice pressure on the QB from Wake, Misi, and Dansby. If we can keep pressure in QB's face like that all year I think its going to help our secondary. Speaking of them...how about hang onto the freaking ball!!! Man Sapp and Allen made some great plays on the ball and got out their butterfingers!! Good plays on the ball though. Henne to me showed some improvement. Took time to look down the field instead of just dumping the ball off really quickly. Made a really nice touch pass to Fasano. Missed a few pass, held the ball a little to long a couple of times, but I'll take those sacks for the change to get some stuff down the field all day. Brandon Fields should get a shout out in a positives thread. Ronnie and Ricky did thier things. The Young guys had a good day as well. Clemens played well, good tackling and coverage. Misi was bull rushing the O-Line like a mad man getting into the QB's face. Jared and Jerry both playing well. Lots of positives to take away from this game. Yeah we didn't blow them out, and for some reason it doesn't seem like we can play well unless we have our back against the wall for some reason. Still it was beautiful to see football again, and a Dolphins win only makes it better.
I'm not being negative All's I'm saying is we suck *** and we won't be going anywhere this year because we failed to put up 50 today. And Henne is no Dan Marino.
Yeah, that was a joy to watch. The fact that a number of them happened behind the line of scrimmage was the icing on the cake.
I was pumped to watch our defense today and they didnt disappoint. Our LB corps - which was revamped - looked terriffic, with Misi, Wake and especially Dansby playing their hearts out. I was also extremely impressed by Clemons, who flies to the ball and made several key stops on Spiller.
The only team to win on the road this week as of now. JA played good and the D played great. Didn't have to watch Lee Evans have another breakout day. I'm sure there are 13 other teams that would like to be in our place right now. 1 road game out of the way. Plenty of room for improvement so hopefully lots of upside.
We weren't. Buffalo exploited the lack of a 4 man rush when running 4-5 WR sets. If you blitz (and they did once) out of those your are leaving a man pretty free. But man did our less experienced guys really step up today. Misi, Wake, Clemons, Jerry and even Odrick before he went out with injury. Not to mention holy crap Jason Allen played like a first round pick.
how about that big lick Clemons put on Spiller for a 4 yard loss early in the game. I'm not going to sit here and say I told you so, but my post history speaks for itself. I was a big fan of drafting him and a big supporter of him the entire off season and I was damn glad to see him play so well today.
Nobody ever said he was a Marino, and even if we scored 200 points today there's still 15 more regular season games that have nothing to do with today's final scoreboard. We're undefeated with a divisional win, that's all that matters for the next week. If you didn't see a much improved Dolphins defense and Chad Henne make some very smart reads, we watched two completely different games.
Great point bro. It doesn't matter who you are playing, going on the road in the first week of the season is tough, and when you add in a divisional rivalry, then it is even tougher. I think the Colts, Lions, Niners, Cowboys (so far), and Cardinals (who won, but the worse than the Bills Rams had a shot) would agree that it is pretty tough. And let us not forget that in a Super Bowl season, the Patriots lost 31-0 on opening day in Buffalo. I heard Cowheard say this several years ago, but week 1 in the NFL is a wild card because passion can overcome skill more than any other single week. So this is no small task, and I am DAMN proud of this team!
CJ spiller did nothing today. Lee Evans did nothing today. Our D did a whole lot of something today. Mike Nolan, you have my faith. I believe in you.
Biggest Positive was the Defense. They completely outplayed expectations. The Bills I'm sure were expecting CJ Spiller and Lee Evans to light us up and it didn't happen. The secondary, Misi, Wake, Odrick really impressed me today. I feel a little better about this unit. Only complaint with the D was when Nolan decided to soften the Defense when we were up by 10 and play a psuedo prevent. I hope he learned his lesson on that one and we don't see it again. If you've been squashing a team all game you don't change up just because. The positives on offense were Ricky and Ronnie. Running hard both of them. I will however make the assessment that some are having a cow over. Our O needs work. Henne made some horrible throws and held onto the ball too long at times. His accuracy on a number of passes was flat out troubling. Hartline was invisible. WR's made some very bad and inopportune drops. Because of the above we left 3 big plays on the field today. Winning teams make the plays we left on the field and not making them WILL kill you against better teams. They need to improve. What Henne did to well is not force anything and turn the ball over. Kudos there.
Of course our offense needs to improve. It's the first game of the season. It's impossible to expect them to be in mid season form. 32 offenses in the NFL need work. But I do thank you for not being overly pessimistic about it. And honestly, I feel that those things you pointed out will work themselves out as the weeks roll on. It just takes a little while to get into the rhythm of the season. And that's really the reason I don't understand the "sky is falling" mentality. If these issues persist into weeks 4 and/or 5 THEN we need to start worrying.
Obviously we we not hitting on all cylinders, But we won. That means we beat a division rival at their home opener on 75 to 80 percent. If we operating at full potential and just made those few plays we missed it could have easily been 21-3. Now this was the first game of the year and we new the team still needed to gel via the last couple preseason games. This was a gelling experience. A tough hard fought win, that could of been easier, but still a great experience.
I think you can objectively point out weaknesses without being negative..I wish we were better at that as a fanbase Talking about our weaknesses help us find solutions to fix them... I know that Hart doesn't have his swagger yet, but iam hesitant to take away Bess's skillset out of the slot..this one is tough.
Dolphins managed more points than the Saints, Vikings, Falcons, 49ers, Cowboys, and Redskins. All talked up as playoff/super bowl contenders. Hopefully the points come next week and Marshall gets his first TD for Miami. Also one of the only teams to get a road win this week along with the Packers and Cardinals[who were also both in close games] and hopefully the Ravens tomorrow night in a blowout victory ;]
lol, he's done it before to the Bills [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P58g6Ccxqbk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P58g6Ccxqbk[/ame]
Eh, 15-10, should have been 18-10. Loved the "D", Culver taking those fake steps allowed Parrish to burn him, other than that they looked great. Special Teams are still a work in progress The O was efficient, Henne did leave some yards on the field but every Qb does so. Henne also showed poor Clock Mgmt and of course, is a dookie head.
The morning after, after seeing playoff caliber teams like Minnesota, Indy, Cincy, Atlanta, San Fran, Philly and Dallas lose yesterday, it's just really really nice to be sitting at 1-0 today.