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Thoughts on MIA-TEN

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by ckparrothead, Nov 14, 2010.

  1. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    • What a win. I love that it wasn't just a win but a convincing one, where we were the team putting the nail in the coffin and putting the other side into a highly unlikely catch-up situation.
    • The surgically implanted pubic hair that was keeping Chad Pennington's arm from falling off snapped within three plays. This is EXACTLY what I feared when the Dolphins benched Chad Henne in favor of Chad Pennington. As I said from day one, IF I believed that Chad Pennington's shoulder could hold up over the course of this season as a starter, and maybe even 2011, then I could stand behind their choice. But I never believed that. I was right. They were wrong. Is it arrogant of me to say that? Probably. But it's the truth.
    • That said I would like to take a moment and apologize for my joke at the expense of Pennington's shoulder. He is a stellar human and this is probably the death of his career. It came too soon and he should be a championship winning quarterback. I believe he was that good, the more I look at his career. I am very sorry to see it end this way.
    • I don't know if I've spent as much time being pissed off during a win as I was during the first three quarters of this win. For a myriad of reasons.
    • First reason I'll talk about is the commentators, Dan Fouts and Ian Eagle. It was obvious they were not prepared for this game AT ALL. Fouts at one point explained that Davone Bess would, along with Chris Johnson, benefit greatly from the presence of Randy Moss. I usually don't feel like Dan Fouts is bad, but today it was like he was drunk. There was hardly a statement he made or an evaluation he had of a play that I felt was even close to being right. He also doubtless pissed off the FAU crowd by saying that Rusty Smith came from FIU.
    • Second reason I was pissed all game was the MEDIA. They almost made me want to get off Twitter during the game. Their agendas were CLEAR during the game. Crystal. All they want is to foster and possibly incite all of the drama they can so that they can feed it to the fans and get hits and reads. I know that's a duh statement, but it shows how colored their reporting is. You know that right now, even though Chad Henne directed us to 20 points versus Tennessee's 17, and even though the Wildcat and Wildcat alone was responsible for 3 of our points, they are sitting on their chairs right at this moment trying to figure out ways to write headlines that say "Tyler Thigpen wins the game!" They want their story. They want Brandon Marshall to blow up. They want Chad Henne to fail. They want the team to come apart at the seams. They want whatever they feel will be interesting.
    • Here's another reason I'm mad. Will people please STOP being obsessed with Brandon Marshall? It's like if the guy doesn't get four targets a quarter, everyone starts in with the uh ohs. He's ONE MAN on the offense and you've got to build this thing from the bottom up, and THEN he will find his niche. You can't force it, especially when the defense knows it's coming. Cortland Finnegan is a great corner, a Pro Bowler. But everyone wants their drama. They want their ticking bomb. Why were the media really upset that Brandon Marshall didn't answer questions after the game? It's because they wanted their chance at goading him into cracking in front of the microphones. I have generally disliked the current regime's iron curtain policies with respect to media, but sometimes I understand it.
    • Here's one about that play right before half time, where Chad Henne got so much crap for throwing the fade to Brian Hartline. Here's the problem with the criticism: he did EXACTLY what he should have done on the play, and threw a perfect ball. Blame the play call and play design, don't blame the guy that executed it exactly as he had to. I took a close look at the play. It featured five options from an empty backfield, with both wideouts running fades. Problem is, the ball was snapped from the left hashmark and with Brandon Marshall lined up on the RIGHT side, all the way at the perimeter of the field, any fade pass to Marshall would have needed to travel 10 yards further than a fade to Hartline. YOU try throwing a proper fade, with proper arc and touch, with pinpoint accuracy, at that distance. It was a stupid play design. Flat out stupid, uncreative, with useless elements in it. Marshall had about a zero chance of getting his number called on the play unless Henne broke the pocket and Marshall uncovered. Why throw to Hartline instead of one of the interior three options? I'll tell you why, because all of them weren't just covered, they all got physically blown up in jams. Hartline was the ONLY option, and Chad Henne took it. He threw a good ball, but Hartline couldn't come down with it against a good corner. So be it. Blame the quarterback if you want to come off looking naive, but the play design was sh-t and the trigger man did what he could.
    • I want the emergency QB rule explained to me again, and I mean directly from the rulebooks. I was under the impression that the rule stated that if you had your emergency QB come into the game before the 4th quarter, your 1st and 2nd string quarterbacks would not be able to come back into the game UNTIL THE 4TH QUARTER. The way Fouts and everyone else explained it, if Thigpen would have come into the game in the 3rd quarter, then Henne could not have come back in period. That's not how I remember the rule. I don't know if it's been changed.
    • Speaking of which, you know why those Wildcat plays worked? Jeff Fisher didn't realize the Dolphins were going Wildcat purely to avoid bringing their emergency QB into the game until the 4th quarter. He implied as much in his post-game. They didn't realize until it was too late what Miami was doing from that perspective, and I imagine it would have affected their defensive calls. So, I'm not sure we can boldly declare that the Wildcat is BACK, BABY! It's not. Or at least, we don't have much reason to believe it will be more effective than it has been.
    • Oh and I know this one gets criticized, the fake punt. If it was a situational call from the coaches, I hate the call. If it was an audible by Pat Cobbs because they saw a certain front they liked, then actually I appreciate the call even though it didn't work out.
    • Boy does Brandon Marshall have an arm. Even though he threw into quadruple coverage, that ball still had a GOOD chance at completion. Defenses better take note of that.
    • We really dodged some bullets on special teams. That Mariani kid is very, very good.
    • Cameron Wake could be seriously hurt and it was stupid of him to try and go back into the game. When he went back in, if you keyed on just him and watched, you saw a player that wasn't even CLOSE to healthy enough to play football. I think I've seen more speed and energy out of Terrance Cody in the late 4th quarter and I'm not even joking. He has to be SMART about things like that. He's a big key to our defense. Keep a close eye on his health this week. I'm crossing my fingers but I don't think it's good.
    • This is the third game in a row that Sean Smith has outplayed Vontae Davis at a starting corner position. Just sayin.
    • Give credit where credit is due to the staff for bringing in Al Harris. He made a difference. Even though it forced them to stick Sean Smith in a deep cover two safety position which was STUPID and at times costly (see Chris Johnson's touchdown), Harris did play well and his physical style made a difference. Also judging by some of the statements from the young players, they really are learning from him.
    • It's typical that the media has caught up to Randy Starks' "slump" so late that they're already wrong. Man hasn't been slumping for a few games now. He fixed whatever it was that was an issue. It wasn't the nose tackle thing because he'd only been playing nose in some passing situations really, and he'd done that before when he was more successful. It was just a slump, and he's broken out of it for the last three or four games.
    • This might have been Karlos Dansby's best game. It also might have been Benny Sapp's best game. Both players were all over the place.
    • Big stones from Reshad Jones. Boy does that ever give us the promise of something that could be special. He made a lot of BIG PLAYS in college, but he also had a lot of bonehead moments. To some extent, that's how he'll be in the pros. But if Todd Bowles can whip Chris Clemons into the kind of player he's become, I think he can make Reshad a lot better too, and maybe we don't need to draft a safety next year.
    • I haven't mentioned him yet but one thing to note about Tyler Thigpen, is yes even though the VP of player personnel Kuharich is the guy that actually spotted Thigpen, he is very much a Carl Peterson diamond in the rough. It was Carl Peterson that had the guy on the roster and in position to try and win the starting job. It was Carl Peterson who, as I remember at the time, tried to tell people that he thinks he really has something in this Thigpen kid out of Coastal Carolina, saying it's a lot like Dallas' situation with Tony Romo from Eastern Bumf--k University. If Tyler Thigpen becomes THE guy at quarterback for us for the present and future, even if we're winning games, that by itself will not save the Ireland/Sparano regime from the threat of Stephen Ross' close personal friend Carl Peterson...cuz Peterson is going to say to Ross, hey they're winning with MY guy.
    • Losing Chad Henne and Chad Pennington for the year would be pretty big. Just think about what it means for the backup QB situation, if nothing else. There's one healthy QB on roster and NOBODY other than Pat White has trained with us this year. Let's cross our fingers and hope that while Henne might be hindered, he's not sunk for the year.
    • Given that we might have lost both for the year, how KEY was that late touchdown that Thigpen led? It has inspired confidence from the whole team and confidence is key to a quarterback's survival. You could almost see the offense melting into despair in that first half when after a week of hype and rap songs, the guy that was set to 'save the season' goes out of the game in place of the guy that the coaching staff had just sent a distinct and clear message about that said he is not good enough. Until Chad Henne hit that deep ball to Brian Hartline on the flea flicker, I think he was losing the team. I think he re-won it with some of his throws. But the players can say whatever they want about Tyler Thigpen supposedly winning their confidence with his play on the scout team, but I know that doesn't amount to a hill of beans compared to what that fourth quarter drive did for their confidence in him.
    • Speaking of that drive was anyone else really surprised how aggressively Henning called those plays during the drive? Contrast that with other games where they just called the usual run-run-pass. I know they've been itching to find out what Tyler Thigpen has for the team in the right situation. Something tells me Sparano and Henning agreed that they were going to throw caution to the wind and see what the kid had, making aggressive calls.
    • What do I think of Tyler Thigpen? I was very excited when they picked him up in that trade. Very excited. As much as I believed in Chad Henne and still do, I thought to myself, if it ever comes down to this guy playing for a good stretch of time, they might not go to another guy for a while. He's exciting. I took a very close look at him in Kansas City, graded at least three games of his. His accuracy is NOT at the same level as Chad Henne's. It just isn't. You generally want a guy that only "misses" about 1 out of 5 times, when he's actually aiming a throw (as opposed to clock plays, balls tipped at the line, hit as he threw, throwaways, etc). He's more of a 2 out of 5 times guy, going off memory. I don't have any stats to back that up, but I remember watching three or four games and making that conclusion. What he does is obvious to anyone that's watched him. He breaks the pocket and makes big plays. One quality that I especially appreciate about this ability is his gait is so smooth when he's running, that he can actually rifle the ball WITH ACCURACY at a dead run. That makes him very dangerous to a defense. He's got a low delivery point and he used to be much more comfortable with the shotgun than with dropback mechanics, but I think they've spent the better part of these two years ironing both of those things out so it should be interesting to see what we've got there. What he does that SCARES me is his engine revs so high that just when he starts to have some success, he BLOWS IT with stupid decisions and inaccurate throws that lead to interceptions. Saying this guy needs to be reined in is an understatement.
    • Dan Henning and the Wildcat could be a very good match for Tyler Thigpen, believe it or not. Usually with the Wildcat is accused of ruining a quarterback's rhythm. Just when Chad Henne gets hot he's taken off the field and cooled back down. With a guy like Chad that comes to a slow boil maybe that's a counter-productive thing, I don't know, I can't speak to it. But with a guy like Tyler Thigpen I'm pretty sure that would be a good thing. Thigpen's problem is success. The more he has the more chancy he seems to get. Taking him off the field for a play when they got into the red zone today did not prevent Tyler from finding Anthony Fasano for the touchdown.
    • This is the 8th consecutive game where I have correctly predicted the outcome. As I've explained before, I refused to predict whether the Dolphins would win or lose the Jets game in part because I was driving 4 hours there, 4 hours back, shelling out the money for a hotel room and the ticket itself...and I just couldn't be impartial. How could I possibly do all that for a game I was predicting we'd lose? I couldn't. So I didn't predict. But I've predicted all 5 of our wins, and 3 out of our 4 losses.
    • That said, Miami wins against the Bears. Right now the Bears are having a hell of a time trying to scare up all the tape they can on Tyler Thigpen, figure out his tendencies, etc. Miami did the prep work for Chicago on Friday and Saturday night before they played Tennessee. That's how most coaching staffs do it for a Thursday game. If the Bears did that, they have to rip up all the work they did, and put in an all-nighter re-doing the work for Tyler Thigpen. We can thank the Vikings for continuing with a toothless Brett Favre, who is probably going to suffer league action for the Jenn Sterger thing btw. I would rather face a Bears team that is coming off a big division win, and therefore bordering more on overconfidence, than a Bears team that is coming off a big division loss and ready to get geared up to try and get themselves back on schedule. They are a team that on offense likes to shoot themselves in the foot. I think that fits well with how this team likes to win games. For me the tough one to figure out will be the cross-country road trip to Oakland. A lot of that will depend on how Thigpen looks.
     
    icx, CashInFist, CaribPhin and 26 others like this.
  2. FinsAreLife

    FinsAreLife Well-Known Member

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    Good write up. This was no doubt a memorable game.
     
  3. Omaha

    Omaha Season Ticket Holder

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    thoughts on Jake Long's injury?
     
  4. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    Gut reaction is he'll play through it. It's hard to get that guy out of the game. Dislocated shoulder sounds bad, but I'm pretty sure an OL can play through that. He MIGHT be forced to miss the Chicago game just because it's such a short week. If that's the case I think Carey moves over and McQuistan plays Right Tackle. And I think we'll be fine for a game like that. It wouldn't be a reason we lose to the Bears.
     
  5. Jaj

    Jaj Registered

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    Jake Long's replacement?
     
  6. Bofin

    Bofin Member

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    thanks for the write up, lots of info there. i hope jake is ok and can play thursday but agree its not a reason we lose to the bears if he's out. thigpen is gonna be an interesting ride, i hope henne is alright to play. kind of interesting that those few wildcat plays when henne went down were so successful, they were the best wildcat runs of the year i believe. tough game and a good win
     
  7. MikeHoncho

    MikeHoncho -=| Censored |=-

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    Say, what?
     
  8. Jaj

    Jaj Registered

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    Interesting thing about the Wildcat with Thigpen on the field is that it so easily reverts back to the base offense. Should give that a go.

    Basically a constant spread offense that becomes the Wildcat spread is what we'll be looking at. Can the team hold the Bears under 20? If they do, they win.
     
  9. EightyTwenty

    EightyTwenty Don't laugh at the mule

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    I noticed that. That was a hell of a throw...right on the money. If the db doesn't get a hand on it, it falls right into Cobb's hands. Tight spiral as well.
     
  10. Phinatic425

    Phinatic425 MIA State of Mind

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    I can see Wake terrorizing Cutler all game long...
     
  11. Bofin

    Bofin Member

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    Not if he doesn't even play due to injury, he's hurt some how i don't know the nature of injury but he's not right, i'm referring to wake
     
  12. Silverphin

    Silverphin Well-Known Member

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    :angry: Seriously, Fouts, don't even show up to Boca. Ever.
     
  13. Third Man

    Third Man Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Great post, CK.
     
  14. PHINANALYST

    PHINANALYST Well-Known Member

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    outstanding post and thoughts as usual CK !

    i was very much against CP taking over last week, as i would be for Thiggy - IF Henne was healthy, but I am good with Thiggy going this week against CHI to show what he has .... it's interesting - that they haven't tried to change Thiggy and turn him into CP v3, but it also shows why they had him at 3d string as well. I think we'll all appreciate his mobility, and he'll probably have us hanging on the edge with his accuracy.

    too bad Fasano couldn't bring that week in and week out .... heck, even every other week ....

    if we can just fine tune our LB (namely OLB) positions - we'll have a very good defense for the next 3-5 years!! CB and S are really starting to show some promise, and Edds returning and the posibility of Misi on the inside can take care of ILB ... i may have to eat a little crow on Smith, but happy to do so come the end of the year.

    Outside of OLB, next years draft has to be all Offense w/ T, C, TE, WR, RB .... i think we'll go after a guy like Mankins to shore up G ... plus we get Garner back ...
     
    ToddsPhins likes this.
  15. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    I agree with pretty much everything you say.

    Right now I just got a question on Twitter, why do we keep allowing 100 yard rushers. I think it IS the linebackers unit. Cameron Wake has gotten way better against the run than I would have thought he could have, but that doesn't mean he's a shutdown guy there. He loses contain. I believe he lost the edge on that TD run by Chris Johnson. Koa Misi is still young. He will get better over time but right now he can also lose the edge. Karlos Dansby has never been an aggressive, beastly run defender. He's a very good player to have in your defense, but that's not the guy he is. Channing Crowder tries to be that kind of guy but in the end he just doesn't have the consistency.

    It's not a weak linebackers unit by any means, it's great against the pass, both in rush and coverage. But long term you have to think that we could benefit by Misi growing up a little bit, and by finding a true stud at that MLB position that Crowder occupies. I don't think that is A.J. Edds. I think Edds is more of a guy that could eventually replace Karlos Dansby should we need him. At Crowder's spot you want that Brandon Spikes type of player that has the instincts and physicality and eventually (and hopefully) the consistency to just always find the ball.

    With Reshad Jones possibly coming on, I do have more confidence in the safeties unit. I don't know if this is a fair statement or not but Yeremiah Bell SEEMS like he might be on the downslope. I like what Chris Clemons brings to the table but I'm not convinced we're done with that position with him and that could be where Reshad comes in to compete with him. I'd like to see Reshad playing strong safety before I pencil him in there, though.

    Next year is promising, especially if they shell out for Logan Mankins. But I think it's important they compete this year in order to provide incentive for Stephen Ross to keep the bank window open. You could have the current line with Mankins in place of Incognito, Jerry coming along in his second year. You could find an athletic #2 TE to groom along side Fasano. The third year is usually a good one for receivers, and I think Hartline has things turned around nicely this year to where you look forward to seeing where he's at next year. You could have Will Allen back in the secondary at slot CB with Benny Sapp backing him up. I like the progress that Vontae Davis has made this year and while obviously he hasn't arrived, there's hope that he might in the future maybe next year. Smith is not quite as far along but hopefully he'll continue to get better, already the improvement he's made in his tackling is pretty staggering year over year. You get Jared Odrick back to replace Tony McDaniel who will likely leave, A.J. Edds back to potentially function as a passing downs linebacker which we lack. Have to keep Soliai around.

    In the draft the things you would have to do would be to find a tailback that can inject some life into the running game. You need more youth at that spot, something fresh.
     
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  16. padre31

    padre31 Premium Member Luxury Box

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    Well Ck, I noticed last yr Nolan gave up running yds as well, so i'm not sure if it lack of talent or change of philosophy on the Defense that allowed for the rushing yardage, I also notice in the second half they tend to shut down the run much better.

    CJ had 120 yds, but 43 in the second half.
     
  17. rdhstlr23

    rdhstlr23 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    This right here is exactly how I felt about the offense.
     
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  18. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    Of course they gave up some running yards in Denver last year. Did you see the players they had in the front seven?
     
  19. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    Honestly I think Chad Henne deserves a lot of credit for turning around an almost impossible situation just by making plays...and also you have to credit Tony Sparano because his message to the players obviously sunk in that it doesn't matter who is where, you get out of the team's way and do your job.
     
  20. Bofin

    Bofin Member

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    chad had an excellent 3rd quarter stat wise, I think he had a qb rating of 92. I know stats don't always tell the whole story and wonder how many options he missed or checked down from,,,, regardless it wasn nice performance after being benched. Sparano, sometimes I just think he's a goomba jersey boy, other times a dam fine coach so I give him a lot of credit also, this bears game is another big home game against a team with a better record and he's gotta get this team ready to play and fast.
     
  21. Frumundah Finnatic

    Frumundah Finnatic U Mad Miami?

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    You know the "enter" button is your friend right?
     
  22. ckparrothead

    ckparrothead Draft Forum Moderator Luxury Box

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    Doesn't work when you use the "
    • " function. I tried it. I sacrificed the spacing for nifty little bullet points.
     

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