But one thing did become clear as I studied what happened in this defeat. Yes, the Dolphins turned the ball over five times. Yes, Chad Pennington had his worst game of the season. Yes, the defense gave up a long Ravens clinching drive in the final five minutes. But this game was really, truly decided at the line of scrimmage where the interior of the Ravens defensive line and blitzing linebackers dominated Dolphins center Samson Satele, left guard Andy Alleman, and right guard Ikechuku Ndukwe. The score Sunday was 27-9. It was much, much, much worse than that if one judges the play of Miami's interior line. Here is the truth of what happened: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/dolphins_in_depth/2009/01/the-truth-about.html
Actually, it was worse then that, Satele and Ndukwe did not even "See" Ray Lewis, he ran right past them and neither one even flinched, it was amazing. 'Nando should understand you can't mkae decisions based on a single game though.
In a way this is kind of sad.................... is Armando really just now getting that are interior Oline has sucked all year,,,, so much so that the after the second week of the year we started game planning to run every where but up the gut.Really...........??? He must of saw my mock draft i put up around 4 weeks ago where i said """ I remember the last playoff game we lost to the Ravins in 01 cuz are oline and fast forword 7 years and we still can't beat them cuzz we can't play with them up front.Other then 2002 we have had bad line play for years, and i think we could fix that this year.""" I also thought we should take 2 Oline with are 1st three picks.http://forums.thephins.com/showthread.php?t=22954
I looked at those Mack clips again- dude can move a pile. I love that play where he takes out three defenders at once like they were bowling pins. I still like him quite a bit, but I'm troubled by some awkwardness that I see in his game. But I still feel that we could sure use a guy like Mack in the pivot- a physical presence, which Satele is not.
yep , i saw Mack play in that Miami game and the 1st few plays he was getting his A## handed to him by a very young Miami line, but did end 'up having a good game. I'm not 100% sold on him but i think he' has a good chance to be a very good Pro.BTW~ did you see that RB on his team, named BEST................HOLY!!! Looks like BO Jackson, or as close to it as i've ever seen, as far as his playing speed not power.
The line was missing starters and the line depth usually gets weaker as you go further in the depth chart and showed inexperience. Jake long showed his inexperience by getting confused on stunts and slow reaction time. He was also trying to help the interior line and getting out of his zone( probably due to lack of confidence in his lineman). They beat the interior line up and really manhandled them.
Yeah, its pretty obvious I have an extremely low opinion of Armando's "journalistic integrity", and that term is used very loosely, but "even a broken clock ...". We didn't do chit up the gut this year. My number 1 wish for offseason acquisition is a MAULING C. Our coaches know far better than we what we have at G, but we've got to strengthen there too, whether through in-house improvement, FA or draft.
we have arguably 2 of the most talented RB's in the league, yet have struggled to consistently run the ball all year...that is the oline...and in the ravens game they were the entire reason we lost. No QB would have succeeded in the circumstances chad was in sunday...none. and if our oline is capable of playing THAT bad then we have no business going further than we did in the playoffs... give me a monster offensive line that can move mountains before anything else
all that proves to me is how good Ricky was...our line was barely decent back then, and while ricky did run wild his first year, and followed it up with a decent year his 2nd year...didn't he set records on how many carries he got? we ran him into the ground behind a mediocre line. after cutting those guys our line hasn't been as good since then and it wasn't that great with those guys...also ruddy was old as hell lol...
If thomas plays as he was hyped and smiley comes back and we move satele over to one of those spots as a backup and draft some kinda stud C and pick up carey and of course long aye yi yi.
That's a lotta if's! 1. Will Smiley return to 100%? 2. Will Donald Thomas pan out like we hoped? 3. Can Satele move to G and be effective? 4. Can we find a rookie C who will start 16 games at a high level? 5. Can we resign Vern Carey or a decent replacement? 6. Will Jake Long suffer a Sophomore slump?
I have a feeling Parcells' isn't done making our oline bigger and stronger. Just a hunch. Looking at this year through the big picture, this was step one of several upgrades on the oline. I really won't be shocked or dissapointed if anyone on the line who is not in pro bowl talk isn't "upgradeable" by any means nessecary. If Armondo can see how poorly our interior oline played can you imagine what bill saw. i can say with high confidence our line is going to get freakishly bigger and stronger over the next 1-3 years.