That drive was the product of really just a couple of really good button pushes. Even on a frustrating day, you make a few great calls in one drive, and all the sudden you're rolling. The very first play I think they just weren't expecting the Dolphins to come out throwing from their own 2 yard line. They didn't have as aggressive coverage on Marshall as they did for most of the game. Plus, he beat the pants off Leon Hall on that play. That was a ridiculous amount of separation. The pass play to Hartline was just typical Henne. When he reads that blitz and single coverage, he knows where to get the ball and he gets it there in a hurry with good timing. That's one of the reasons he's been such a good blitz beater this year, other being that Dan Henning protects him against blitzers. It just so happens that in this case Brian Hartline does something that he doesn't do often enough and that is make someone miss and get some YAC. But, he'd already totally botched that flea flicker play, he knew it, he got a good talking to from Brandon Marshall after that play, and so he really came ready to do something on that play. The end-around was a great call. They'd been showing the Bengals that look with Brian Hartline tight to the formation all day, on run plays. The fact that they were just doing it on run plays convinced the Bengals that the Dolphins were doing this because they consider Hartline a strong run blocker (he is). But the Dolphins had another motive for showing this formation all day and it was specifically to give this end-around a chance at creating a big play. I was saying before that Hartline is not a guy I like to see end-arounds to unless you can shorten the length of the play, because he's not a true burner, and this was a great example of doing just that. By keeping him tight to the formation they were able to shorten his track and the timing of the play. The Bengals were too aggressive trying to stop the run, they had a guy blitzing on the back side and he was going full kamekaze instead of reading the play, voila. The Ricky Williams run was the first time all day they added a counter element to their run plays. The Bengals had been mostly frustrating the Dolphins on the ground with the exception of two 13 yard runs by Ronnie Brown in the 2 minute area at the end of the first half. Dolphins had been going straight power and isolation, to their own detriment. The Bengals got caught with their pants down, not thinking about the misidrection or counter because the Dolphins hadn't used it all day. Helps that Carlos Dunlap is a poor backside contain guy. The Dolphins would go on to use a similar counter run play on the final drive of the game, with Ricky gaining the 10 yards on the play that iced the victory and gave the Bengals offense no chance to get back on the field to try and tie the game.
I beg to differ. The play calling on the drive was very good and the effectiveness of the play calls was set up by the things the offense had been showing in the previous three quarters.
Not really. The effectiveness of the 18 yard run with Ricky Williams had nothing to do with it being off tackle and everything to do with it being a counter. As for writing "too much", forgive me for getting the details right.
I blame Henning for most things nowadays. Caught a nasty stomach virus Tuesday night and Wednesday. That was CLEARLY on Dan Henning. Elections? Dan Henning. Gulf oil spill? Dan Henning. Losing my car keys? That was actually the Wildcat's fault but indirectly Dan Henning because he helped popularize the Wildcat.
And how can you not blame the financial crisis on Dan Henning? I swear, this guy just doesn't know how to run a global economy.
Well I think the play calling is very good 75% of the time. But my point was, if Brian Hartline doesn't make a defender miss on his reception, or if Joe Berger or Pat McQuistan get blown up on Ricky's run, then it probably looks like a lot of our other drives this season.
I’m only taking issue with the playcalling after the Hartline end around. Our problem when we get to the edge of the red zone has been a sudden and inexplicable over-reliance on a rushing game that just isn’t very good this year. Henning justifies those playcalls by citing 2008 and 2009, and sort of dismisses the idea that the way the running game operates in 2010 is a little more relevant. So he calls numerous running plays in the red zone, they go nowhere, we settle for field goals. The one time a run play in that area of the field works, it’s suddenly a great drive? No, the playcalling right there is still questionable in my view. Did the offense execute well on that drive? Sure. Have they executed nearly as well on other drives? Nope. But why praise this particular drive for featuring playcalls that the team hasn’t executed very well up to this point? Makes little sense to me. Now, get this sort of drive going 3 or 4 times against the Ravens, follow up with a similar showing against the Titans, and then we’ll have something to talk about.
Been saying for years there aren't enough 20+ yard attempts in our fiscal policy. Does anyone listen to me? Nooooo.
Not really sure I agree with this. What I will say though is when they got to the 19 yard line and called that run to Ricky Williams, at least they called something new that the Bengals had't seen.
Redzone Rushing: 21 ATT / 65 YDS / 3.1 AVG Redzone Passing: 20 ATT / PCT 50 / 3.3 AVG There's no "over-reliance" on the running game with a 50:50 ratio. In fact, many teams have a 60:40 ratio in the redzone. What does consitute a problem is the 50 PCT when passing. That's lousy. Look no further than there for a lack of TDs.
Personally, I'm trying to look at what's more ridiculous. I hear red zone, red zone, red zone. Is it ridiculous to me that of 12 first downs inside the 20 yard line, we've scored 5 TDs and 6 FGs? No that's not that ridiculous to me. I honestly don't know where that stacks up relative to the rest of the league but when we get in there we convert the TD about half the time and that seems ok to me, maybe could be a lot better but it seems ok. On the other hand I look at how many times the Dolphins have gotten a first down inside the 30 yard line. We've been inside the 30 yard line 15 times, having converted 5 TDs. That, in itself, is not that bad. Again, not sure how it stacks up with the rest of the league. But you know what seems bad to me? The fact that of the 15 times we've landed with a first down inside the 30 yard line, we've had 9 of those drives stall out before we could even get another first down. That to me is more ridiculous than being about 40 to 50% on getting touchdowns when you've got a first down in the red area. You get a first down somewhere between the 20 and 30 and 60% of the time you don't even get another first down? And I don't think that's an issue of running the ball too much or passing too much, it's a combination of uncreative play calls and poor execution.
46.6% conversion puts us at #19 in the league. Chicago is dead last with 30% and Houston leads the league with almost 69%. Fun fact #1: Last year, we were #2 with over 64% Fun fact #2: Teams below 50% usually don't win too many games. In 2009, the teams that scored less than 50% combined for 81-127. Only three teams out of 12 with less than 50% conversion rate had a winning record.
I know that we were also a high percentage red zone offense in 2008 as well. So honestly, you've got a team with a history of red zone success converting about half of their red zone trips into TDs. It's a little low right now but sample size ALONE could account for that. This is why I keep saying the problem isn't the red zone it's just outside the red zone. I mean you get 15 first downs in the 20 to 30 yard line area and 9 times you can't get a first down?
ck - I wish you'd take some of that insight over to my Solutions to Victory thread. I'd like to hear your take pregame as opposed to analyzing stuff that has already happened...
How do we beat the Ravens? We don't, that's my current answer. I'm not a pessimist or anything I just don't think this is a game we win. Haloti Ngata is as good a player as you'll find in the NFL and he goes up against a sucky Dolphins interior OL. Ed Reed's back, he's had three weeks to get back into the swing of things, and Chad Henne's not exactly the type of guy I'd accuse of never telegraphing his passes. The Ravens have a history of abusing the Dolphins, including twice in 2008. Anquan Boldin against Benny Sapp? Sorry, that one's not working for me. Terrell Suggs is fantastic. To stay in this one the Dolphins are going to have to make sure Jake Long can totally shut down Suggs, which is possible because Suggs considers Long to be better than Joe Thomas which is kind of an indicator of how well he feels Jake is able to play against him. They're going to have to hope somehow Richie Incognito, John Jerry and Pat McQuistan don't get totally blown up by Haloti Ngata. They're going to have to hit Fabian Washington up in coverage early and often which will be hard because they can sit back with two safeties and not worry about our running game. Cameron Wake will have to destroy Marshall Yanda which I'm not sure happens because Yanda's actually a pretty good player. Just not a game I feel good about.
I have to agree for the most part. You do realize the Bills nearly got it done, right? Just sayin'... They aren't any tougher than the Steelers to me, but they do give us fits.
If there's any hope for us it's that the Ravens have already lost a game to a team kicking 5 field goals against them without scoring a touchdown.
True, but it was a fluke. Stuff like that happens all the time in the NFL. I just don't see any way we get it done. too many factors going against us. It's a bad matchup as it is, Ravens are at home coming off a bye, they are getting healthy, etc. doesn't add up to a win to me. Hopefully I'm wrong
Unfortunately, since that game where Flacco threw 4 INT's, he has a 100 plus passer rating, 9 TD's and 1 INT. We're going up against a hot offense and a defense that was embaressed by Buffalo and had two weeks to think about it. Not good at all.
That may be true, but I'm not going into this game scared of them... The Dolphins are a pretty tough bunch! Honestly in that Steelers game I was pretty damned impressed with the toughness.
And tom Brady threw 4 INT's against a 4-12 dolphins team one year. Flacco has played very well since that game, including at Pittsburgh.
You’ll notice I didn’t say we need to pass more. I simply said that we have a tendency to call runs despite the fact that the running game hasn’t been very good this year. This is the same forum that complained about three straight Ricky runs in the red zone against the Steelers, right? Stringer, Vendigo, you two have fun hashing this out.
I'm not about to sit here and pretend the Ravens are some unstoppable force. They're at home and they match up particularly well against us and that's why I think they'll win. But this is a team that lost to the Bengals, lost to the Patriots, nearly lost to the Jets, nearly lost to the Bills, nearly lost to the Steelers. They're not blowing anyone out over there, not even the Browns. They won by a good 14 to the Broncos but Denver was on a cross-country trip and they're a crappy team besides. I think the bottom line is that Anquan Boldin is a guy that moves around and can do a lot of damage from the slot and when he does go in there he's going to be up against Benny Sapp who is probably the weakest link in the secondary. So you have a situation where their most dangerous player is often going to move inside against your weakest player. That's a bad matchup. Meanwhile, the Dolphins depend on a lot of pressure coming from Cameron Wake and now he plays a guy at Right Tackle that is actually pretty decent. It's not Bryan Bulaga, it's not Flozell Adams and it sure as heck isn't Andre Smith. In fact Yanda might be the best pass protecting Right Tackle the Dolphins have faced all year, if not the best pass protecting Right Tackle in the NFL. Then you look at Haloti Ngata who is having a legit All Pro year, and the fact that he is going up against the weaknesses of the Dolphins' offensive line. The biggest weaknesses of the Dolphins' OL are at Left Guard and Right Guard. One of the best players in the NFL against a team weakness. That's a bad matchup. Chad Henne, known for telegraphing his passes at times, going up against Ed Reed, known for reading quarterbacks' eyes and fooling them in coverage. That's a bad matchup. The Dolphins just don't have enough matchups going their way. They do have some. Brandon Marshall is mostly a left wide receiver and Fabian Washington plays right cornerback. One of the NFL's best against one of the weaker starting corners in the NFL. That's an awesome matchup. Davone Bess against Chris Carr, that's a matchup we can win. I don't think Joe Flacco is a great quarterback at all, I think we can win that matchup and Mike Nolan can fool him with coverages. Cory Redding and Terrell Suggs versus Jake Long and Vernon Carey, I think that favors Miami. Their interior line blocking versus our interior defense, favors Miami. Derrick Mason and T.J. Houshmandzadeh will in my opinion be overmatched against Vontae Davis and Sean Smith. I also believe that Todd Heap is not the kind of guy that would give our interior pass defense much trouble. I think that if you blitz Ray Rice you get to take one of Flacco's potentially most deadly weapons out of the pass action because they will keep Rice in to block for Flacco. Just in the end, a few too many of those deadly matchups go their direction and they're at home which is an advantage. A short-lived 4-0 road record doesn't re-write the rule book about whether being on the road is tougher or not.
Which is one game in Brady's career that happened what like 100 games ago? You're comparing a game that Tom Brady had 100 games ago to a game that Joe Flacco just had less than two months ago? Yeah, good luck with that.
Did someone say "contradicting" ? So,basically we DONT need to pass more, AND, we should abandon the run because we have a tendency to use it too often and it doesnt work. . Ok, now I got it ....... Desides, Ol`pal , by your standards that post was utterly foolish.
I'm fairly certain Fabian Washington got pulled last game. I'm not sure if it'll be Washington or Ladarius Webb on Marshall. Either way, its a big mis-match.
And in the two months since Flacco has played great. A month ago henne had 3 INT's against the Patriots. One game is one game. Over the last 5 weeks Flacco is playing as well as anybody
