Dispelling the Biggest Myth about the Fish

By far, the least challenged notion about the 2009 Miami Dolphins is that the offense played reasonably well, but the team was let down by the poor play of its defense. I’ve heard or read something to this effect too many times to count, with little argument to the contrary and I’m convinced that its generally accepted as true. Except it isn’t true at all when you really look back, and look closely, and what happened last year. Miami did in fact finish at or near the bottom of the league in almost every defensive metric, but stats only tell part of the story, and I’m going to try and explain the rest.

The first thing to look at is injuries. Will Allen, Jason Ferguson and Channing Crowder were all out or not healthy for most of the year. That’s our best DB, LB and DL, all unable to contribute. Soliai (foot/ankle), Porter (hamstring/feelings), Taylor (shoulder), V. Davis (quad/wrist), and Roth (groin/contract) were also playing hurt for significant stretches. Starks, Smith, Langford, Wilson, Bell and Ayodele were the only players who were healthy for 16 games. Injuries are a part of the game though, so I wont harp on it too much, but I feel it was worth mentioning that barely half the starting unit was healthy for the season.

Now on to the games:

Week 1 @ Atlanta. The score: ATL 19 MIA 7. The skinny: The defense played well, shut down Michael Turner and held Roddy White in check. Tony Gonzalez got loose but what else is new? He’s a HOF TE who’s been abusing defenses for 12 years running. Offense was the problem in this game. Pennington and Fasano both had two TOs and Jake Long had his worst game of the season. The D allowed only one TD, and kept it close for the entire game despite getting almost no help from the other side of the ball. The Verdict: Defense played well, offense didn’t.

Week 2 vs. Indy. The score: IND 27 MIA 23. The skinny: Bad case of role reversal as the offense moved the ball at will and the defense was a no show. The only time the defense got off the field was after an extra point, or so it seemed. My only defense is to say hey, that’s Peyton Manning out there, and the all world #1 NY Jets defense didn’t much better (see AFCCG). The verdict: Offense played well, defense didn’t.

Week 3 @ San Diego. The score: SD 23 MIA 13. The skinny: Another good showing by the D (that’s two if you’re counting) who allowed only one TD to one of the leagues most explosive teams. Side note: Crowder, would you please watch out for QB scramble near the goal line? L.T. and Hardwick were out for this game so that takes a little of the shine off, but with Rivers, Gates, Jackson, Nannee, Chambers and Sproles the Chargers were hardly hurting for playmakers. The D kept us in the game for 4 quarters but the offense was MIA again, not scoring until the game was already out of reach (again). Henne’s pick 6 to Weddle pretty much sealed it, but it was still just 16-6 at that point. Terrible call by Henning led to a fumble on the first drive, a harbinger of things to come. The verdict: Defense played well, offense didn’t.

Week 4 vs. Buffalo. The score MIA 38 BUFF 10. The skinny: Total domination from about the 2nd quarter on. Vontae started it off with a pick 6 and the rout was on. DL was dominant all day, Wake, Taylor, Starks, even Porter was in the backfield all day. Offense started slowly, Henne was sacked 23 times, or was it 6? I cant remember. Didn’t matter much though b/c the Bills couldn’t score, and their defense called it quits somewhere in 3rd quarter. Ronnie and Ricky had a field day after that. The verdict: Offense and Defense both played well.

Week 5 vs. NY Jets. The score MIA 31 NYJ 27. The skinny: Tough game to grade the defense on. They allowed 13 first half points, 10 of which came partially as a result of missed tackles on fake punts. Shout out to Cam Wake and Joey Porter who apparently to get juked by punters and miss point blank tackles on men, respectively. NY’s two 2nd half TDs came after a bomb to David Clowney (who?), a circus catch by Braylon Edwards, and a bogus 45 yd P.I. call on Will Allen. 27 points sounds like a lot, but the 27 the Jets scored were a lot easier to swallow than the 27 that Indy scored. The verdict: Offense played well, defense played, er, average.

Week 7 vs. Nawlins. The score NO 46 MIA 34. The skinny: I’ve got to admit, I’ve watched this game 10-12 times, and I’ve only made it past half time 3 times. From what I’ve seen though, I think this was one of the defense’s best performances of the year. Now before you laugh and move on to the next thread, consider this: The D sacked Brees 5 times, picked him off three times, and forced him to fumble once. How many other teams took the ball away from Drew Brees 4 times last year? Zero. Those T.O.s are important not only for how they happened, but where they happened as well. Culver had a INT which he retuned to the Nawlins 5 yd line. Torbor had a pick at the Nawlins 19. Porter recovered a fumble at the Nawlins 15, and Nate Jones had a pick in the EZ to prevent a TD and give our offense the ball. Those plays set up TD drives of 5 and 19 yds, and a FG drive that started at the Nawlins 15 and went nowhere. Hard not to credit the D with those 17 points, and with the fact that Miami held a 24-3 lead until…Davone Bess fumbles before half time. The D goes out and stops Nawlins anyway, or so it seemed. Colston is tackled at the 1 with one second left, Saints have no time outs, half over. But the idiot side judge calls it a TD, and by the time the play is overturned, Nawlins is set up for a FG. Then the coaches, still smarting from the Jets two successful fakes, call time out and give Nawlins even more time to think, so they end up with a TD instead. Bad coaching and bad officiating, good defense though. Almost forgot, the reason it was 24-10 and not 24-7 is because of a 85 yd KR by Courtney Roby which gave Nawlins the ball at the Miami 15 yd line. D came out, forced a three and out, and a FG. So in essence, you could credit the D with setting up 14 first half points and not allowing any. But it’s the second half where things get really interesting.
3rd play of the 2nd half, Teddy decides he wants to play volleyball instead of football, and tips a perfect pass to Tracy Porter who tips it to Darren Sharper who runs it back to the 1 yd line before Teddy, back to playing football now, strips him for a touchback. Except that the same idiot side judge from before calls it a TD and the idiot Ref decides he doesn’t want to show up his friend on national TV. So now its 24-17. Then the 3 and out parade starts (or continues) on offense. The next Miami possessions went something like this 3 plays-punt, 3 plays-punt, 3 plays-FG (set up by fumble recovery @ Nawlins 15) yd line 3), 3 plays-TD, 3 plays-punt, 3 plays-punt, 8 plays-pick 6, 10 plays game. If you’re counting at home, the game went from 24-10 Miami to 40-34 Nawlins without Miami’s offense ever getting a single first down. That’s gotta be a record of some sort. And even when they did finally get a first, Henne threw a pick 6 a few plays later. That’s 2 pick 6s, a fumble by Bess that led to a TD, and a KR that led t a FG for 24 points off turnovers and ST mistakes so in my book the D allowed 23 points. They also forced 4 turnovers that led to 17 for the offense. I’d call that a good effort vs. one of the best offenses I’ve ever seen and the eventual champs. All the while, the offense could put together a single drive to help the D get a breather. Nawlins stacked the box and blitzed every play and Henning had no answer. In a game where Miami needed to control the ball and shorten the game to have a chance, they did no such thing. Despite a 24-3 lead, we threw it 36 times and ran it 30. As a result, we gave the Saints 16 possessions, 18 if you count the INT returns. There’s not a defense on earth today who could face the Saints 18 times in one (hot) afternoon and live to tell about it. The verdict: Defense played well, offense did not.

Week 8 @ NYJ. The score MIA 30 NYJ 25. The skinny: Another good performance by the D that was nearly squandered. The D was without Crowder for this game, but Torbor played well in his absence. The D was in bad field position for most of the first half b/c the offense couldn’t move the ball, but they held it together and its was 3-3 at halftime. The Jets go up 6-3 before Teddy takes one to the house, then JT takes one to the house, then Miami forces a punt and has the ball and an 11 point lead against an offensively challenged team. Until…Bess fumbles to let NY back in the game. Sound familiar? Then he fumbles again and I’m seriously wandering if the mob has a hold of one of his family members, but the side judge whistled the play dead, we caught a major break and cashed it in for the game winning TD. D made it interesting though, Vontae jumps a crossing route instead of just making the tackle, Chris Clemons is lost in space, and 60 yards later the Jets are back in the red zone. This game came down to the wire, but it really shouldn’t have. The verdict: Defense played well, offense played average.

Week 9 @ New England. The score NE 27 MIA 17. The skinny: Hard to knock either side of the ball for this game, Crowder was out again, Porter played but he really didn’t, Soliai goes down, Vontae too. Jason Allen is manned up on Moss, this time with Brady and not Cassel at QB, but amazingly, Moss doesn’t score 10 TDs. Offensively, Pat White made his one play for season. Great pick, Ireland. Ronnie threw a TD, Ricky ran hard as usual. Teddy drops balls as usual. Typical stuff. New England was just the better team. The verdict: offense played well, defense, played well.

Week 10 vs. Tampa Bay. The score MIA 25 TB 23. The skinny. The offense came out hot, went right down the field and scored. Then they took their foot off the gas. The running game was a force that day (200 yds), and just as they were about to put the hammer down, Ronnie goes down, fumbles, the Bucs have life and they made a game of it. And just as they’re about to put the hammer down again, Henne throws a bonehead pick and the Bucs take the lead as a result. To his credit, Henne bounced back and led the game winning drive, but it shouldn’t have come to that. Oh, and Bess fumbled again. The defense played well, but not great, Anderson forced two fumbles, Taylor scored his 2nd TD in three weeks, bad call but I’ll take it. The verdict: defense played well, offense played average.

Week 11 @ Carolina. The score MIA 24 CAR 17. The skinny. Solid team effort, especially from the OL. Nate Garner was all over the place, both our centers went down, and Ricky still ran wild. His best game of the year in my opinion. Henne was clutch, Bess made a big time catch. Teddy didn’t drop any balls. A solid effort from the whole group. The D got off to a shaky start but they held it together and shut Carolina down for a most of the second and third quarters. Vontae and Sean were solid, Nate had a pick in the red zone, Ferg went down, his teammates stepped in nicely. Solid effort. The verdict: Defense played well, offense played well.

Week 12 @ Buffalo. The score BUFF 31 MIA 14. The skinny: By far the hardest Fins game to watch. I’m still not over this loss. The offense was brutal. Wildcat pass from the 1 yd line when we’re gashing them in the run game? Dumbest call of the season, Henning. Screen pass to Lousaka? Holding on 4th and 1 Garner, really? Ricky was out of gas by the third quarter. Watch his carries in the first half, they all end with a bang. Beast mode. By the third quarter Ricky was on his way to the ground at the slightest hint that there might be contact. Pooch mode. Not having Ronnie was fatal in this game, it would’ve been a blowout if he was in there. Cant blame Henne for the three picks, his arm was hit one, and two others were tipped at the line. Tough breaks. The D played well w/ the exception of a couple plays, the Fitzpatrick 350 yd TD run was embarrassing, especially for the play side safety (Wilson) and the contain man (Porter). Is Torbor really that slow? The score was 14-14 deep into the 4th, then a great punt pins us down to the 3 and we cant move the ball. Bad punt/good return and the Bills end up with a FG, then the pick parade started and the D mailed it in. The verdict: Defense played well, offense did not.

Week 13 vs. New England. The score: MIA 22 NE 21. The skinny: Probably the most surprising win of the season. Of course Vegas wasn’t surprised, they moved the line from Pats -5 to Pats -3 on Friday, just to make sure people put tons of money on New England, including me. Note to self, if the line looks shady, don’t bet it. But I digress. This was easily Henne’s coming out party, the game when I said, alright, we’ve got ourselves a QB. Henne carried the team, and he had to b/c Ricky was in bad shape. 50+ passes, some great throws, some bad balls, but only one bad decision, an air mail pick to Meriweather when he got greedy. Belicek sent 7, he sent 8, he sent 5, he sent 3, he tried man, he tried zone, and Henne just kept making plays. Bess had a great game, the OL protected beautifully, it was a total team effort on offense. The D had me counting my money for the first two drives, I thought NE -3 was in the bag. It was 14-0 before most fans even got to their seats. But after that the D stepped up, with the help of some bad play calls from NE. The Pats went up and down the field most of the first half, but give the D credit, they only allowed 21 points. Still don’t know how Sean gave up that TD, I guess that’s why we call him “No Picks” Smith. Vontae showed how a CB is supposed to act when the ball is in the air, take that Randy. The verdict: Offense played well, defense played average.

Week 14 @ Jacksonville. The score MIA 14 JAX 10. The skinny: Another great game from Henne, and another game that shouldn’t have been close. The D was dominant for most of the game. Jones-Drew was held in check, which helped stamp out Jax’s play action game, and the DBs were like Velcro on Mike Sims-Walker and co. The game was close b/c Ricky fumbled three times, Bess fumbled (gerrrr), Henne threw a bonehead pick, and Carpenter missed a FG. The D was there to clean up the pieces each time though, so we got the win. The verdict: Defense played well, offense did not.

Week 15 @ Tennessee. The score: TEN 27 MIA 24. The skinny: This was a very disappointing loss, not only because of the playoff implications, but b/c we outplayed Tennessee for so much of the game. Vontae started it off with an INT, with help from Crowder and Wilson, but we only got a FG. Then Ricky fumbles in the red zone, we settle for another FG, meanwhile Tennessee is getting to the 30 yd line and throwing TD bombs. Vontae got burnt twice, Wilson was giving it up like a drunk chick at a frat party. The D held it down in the 2nd half, they kept Tennessee off the scoreboard long enough for the offense to catch up. Two FG when we got down deep, a fumble in the red zone, a pick in the end zone, another pick when we had a chance to score before half time, another pick in over time to set up the game Losing FG. If it wasn’t for the turnovers and missed opportunities, we’d have won this game. The verdict: Defense played poorly, offense played poorly.

Week 16 vs. Houston. The score HOU 27 MIA 20. The skinny: Don’t let the score fool you, this wasn’t a close game. The D didn’t show up for the game, and not just Porter, the whole D, with the exception of Yeremiah, was sleep walking. There was one play where Porter jumps off sides, then jumps back, there’s a screen going away from him to Andre Johnson… Sean Smith is in perfect position to make the play for a loss, there are 5 yds and no blockers between him and he ball, so he takes a few steps towards Johnson, then decides against attempting a tackle and stands in front of Dre waiting for a lineman to come and block him. Pathetic. Nate Jones actually did try to make the play but he went high and got run over. Terrible. Worst of all his Porter, all this time he’s taking a leisurely path down his angle, and throttles into a grandfatherly trot as Jones is about to make the tackle. Of course ones is run over and then Porter picks up speed, n the mean time, guys like Merling have sprinted past him. I’m so glad Porter isn’t on this team anymore. The D just plain sucked. But it had to be deflating to see the raucous crowd for the Tennessee game, play their butts off, then come home as playoff front runners to a stadium with barely 40,000 fans in the seats at kick off. And its not like the offense played any better. The refused to block Demeco Ryans, refused to execute, refused to make first downs, refused to protect the ball, and refused to score. Other than that they were flawless. In the second half Henne completed about 100 check downs and underneath throws vs. soft coverage and an uninterested defense. The defense seemed to have a sense of urgency, but really I think that Houston just called the dogs off. The verdict: Offense played poorly, defense played poorly.

Week 17 vs. Pittsburgh. The score PIT 30 MIA 24. The skinny. Another game where the O came out on all cylinders and then struggled thereafter. The D looked uninterested in anything football related once again, only to spring to life once they had a comfortable two score deficit. Hard to grade either side of the ball, especially the offense where Pat White played QB for a few series. Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf seem to share my opinion of White, at one point saying that “the forward pass doesn’t not seem to be in Miami’s arsenal” or something like that. Thigpen came in and showed equal flashes of brilliance and incompetence, and the D rose to the occasion right up until they absolutely had to have a stop, and then they fell apart. The verdict: Offense played poorly, defense played poorly.

Summary: This is already approaching novel length so I’ll be short, when you go game by game its hard to come to the conclusion that the defense was the primary cause for failure last year. They outplayed the offense in the majority of the games, only the Indy loss can be placed at their feet alone. And even in that game, the O had a chance to win it with 3 minutes left before they made a mockery of the term “hurry up offense” and Ted Ginn, well he was just being Teddy. I’m not saying that the defense played great, or that the pass defense was horrendous, it certainly was, I just think the D gets a bad rap, and too much of the blame for why we were losing games. It took offense, defense and ST all working together to get to 7-9, so they should all get their fair share of the kudos. Just my two cents.

 

The score may suggest otherwise, but I think that the Buff game was the game that we were in the best position win but didnt. We dominated on both sides of the ball, but it was always a dumb call, or a dumb penalty that bit us. IMO Buff didnt even show up for the game, they looked ready to lay down until our mistakes started happening and they realized they actually had a chance.

 

I agree the defense gave up too many big playes, but you'd have to agree that the offense was just as inept in NOT making any big plays. Teddy had a long rec vs NY, Hartline had one vs Nawlins, but other than that, the offense didnt make any big plays.

 

390 is a terrible number, and I'm not saying the defense played well, only that we werent losing games b/c of them. The offense failed to hold thier weight just as often, if not more often, and I think the blame should be spread equally.

 

I have nightmares about our front seven to be honest. 5 new starters, 6 if Dobbins replaces Crowder. A bunch of rookies and first time starters. Thats going to make for some serious growing pains early in the season.

 

Porter stunk, so he's gone. Taylor played well, but he's 65 years old, so he's gone. Ferg is 71 yrs old. Ayodele is old and slow as molasses, Wilson is a SS not a FS. I'm not defending these guys, but with the exception of Crowder, all of them are 30+ yrs old and past thier prime. Even of they'd have played well, replacing them would still have been a top priority. On offense, only Smiley and Ricky are past thier prime, Carey, Smiley and Grove were the only guys over 28. Its a much younger, and more talented group, but they didnt exactly dominate anyone besides Buffalo.

 

Try finding a noun that rhymes with "mammal"

 

The defense fell apart toawards the end of the season, I agree. But it wasnt just them. The O was stinking it up also.

 

Cant argue with that. I wasnt suggesting that the D played well, only that they shouldnt be the fans' whipping boys for the season. If you look at the unit as a whole, 2 rookies at CB, two SS and no FS, two WOLBs and no SOLB, two lead footed ILBs, I think its unreasonable to expect them to have played any better. The offense seems to get a pass for the lack or production b/c they lacked big play talent, well the defense was even less talented than the Offense in my opinion.

 

My apologies, I can assure it was typos, not mispellings. Glad this isnt ENC 1102 .

 

Lack of talent isnt really an excuse in my opinion. Our offense didnt create big plays b/c they lacked the talent to do it, most people seem to understand if not accept that. Well, the D lacked the talent to prevent big plays, but the level of empathy is nowhere near what the O gets. Pasqualoni was pigeonholed into calling the same defenses over and over, and b/c of our LBs inability to cover, our coverage schemes were predictable and flawed. That should change this year though, Im soooooo looking forward to it.