http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-miami-dolphins-can-use-dion-jordan-in-week-2 Enjoy the Friday morning...
Good stuff. Hoping to see more of Jordan this Sunday. Vernon seemed to take a step back in the first game, rushing the passer wise, from where he was during the preseason.
Too early to really say that I think. He was facing Joe Thomas early and often. I like Vernon. He shows great tenacity, but he always seems a step away from making a big play. He lacks Jordan's length and speed for sure, but he should still get his opportunities over the course of the season.
Great write-up. I can't remember the front 7 of our defense ever being this versatile. Hats off to Ireland, philbin, and coyle for 1. Putting it together 2. Mixing and matching personnel for unique packages. I feel we will get max production from this group this yr. So excited to see how they look in the rematch with Luck!
Upon further review I thought Vernon actually took a bit of a step up in that game. He was going against a good LT and his speed-to-power move from a wide stance was actually pretty good. He was moving Thomas backward though not necessarily getting pressures or sacks or anything.
He didn't seem to be any factor what so every in the passing game. During the preseason he was winning some battles more often I thought. I realize he was facing Joe Thomas, just pointing out that he didn't do great.
I thought his preseason was far, far, far overrated. I was not impressed at all. I was way more impressed with what he did against Thomas than with what I saw in the preseason.
Good stuff. I really think this defense has a chance to be special. It all depends on the LB ability to cover the TE. Also, I can't wait to see B grimes, DPat and hopefully W Davis go up against some recievers that can actually catch this week. We will really see where our CBs are on Monday.
Ultimately, I still think Miami loses this game, and I will tell you why. The things that the Dolphins will need to do to win the game, I'm not sure they can do them. I think people are underrating the Colts based on their performance against the Raiders. Let me give you an example. The Colts scored only 21 points against the Raiders, a team most people think of as being bad this year (can't blame them). But do people realize the Colts scored those three touchdowns on only SEVEN functionally relevant drives? I say functionally relevant because the eighth drive featured victory formation to end the game. A normal game features 10, 11 or 12 drives. The Dolphins had 13 drives against the Cleveland Browns. The Colts only ran 53 plays against the Raiders. Normal is closer to 70+ plays. Heck the Patriots ran 89 plays against the Buffalo Bills in Week 1. Do the math. If the Colts had as many drives against the Raiders as the Dolphins did against the Browns, they're scoring upwards of 40 points. The question is how did the Colts find themselves with only 7 drives, and only 53 plays. The answer is the Raiders did a lot to shorten the game...and the Colts not only let them, they did the same thing. The Colts figured the only way they were going to screw up against a team as talent-poor as the Raiders would be if they try and get cute, and turn the ball over a bunch. They focused on being a fundamentally sound football team first and foremost. They ran the football out of run-heavy looks with 2 backs and 2 tight ends on nearly half of their runs. Their passing was fairly conservative. They ran out the clock in between plays. That strategy almost trapped them because the Raiders did the same thing and were more successful running the football because of Terrelle Pryor's being a running quarterback. At this stage, Pryor is a bit more Joe Webb than he is Colin Kaepernick, RG3 or Cam Newton, and for whatever reason the Indianapolis Colts were completely unprepared for him. I don't know why. Most reports seemed to agree a little under a week ahead of time that Terrelle Pryor would start. Either way, the Colts were visibly unprepared to deal with Pryor's scrambling on pass plays and his running the ball out of the read-option. So by shortening the game and putting yourself at the mercy of a few bad breaks on third down offensively, and a few defensive miscues against a running quarterback defensively, that's how you end up with a game that comes down to a final drive. But what scared me a little about that Colts team is in the second half, when the Raiders actually went UP on the score 17-14 and suddenly the Colts went to the well with their all-out passing attack, shotgun plays, lots of offensive weapons on the field, etc...they drove 80 yards down the field and scored the winning touchdown. That told me that a lot of that game's being close was about self-inflicted wounds, playing comfortably against what you believe to be an inferior opponent. When the Raiders went up in the score that was a wake-up call, sh-t got real for them in a hurry and that's when they brought out the kind of offense they're going to run if challenged. And since I expect Miami's defense to be so good that they're going to challenge the Colts the whole game, I think we're going to see THAT offense the whole game...not the one that focuses on shortening the game, being fundamentally sound and boring. The Dolphins should probably try and do what the Raiders did...shorten the game, run the football, control the pace and steal the football game away from the home team. But can they? Are they capable? This is the same logic that brought me to so heavily picking in FAVOR of Miami against the Cleveland Browns. It's fitting together the puzzle pieces. The Browns offense was impressive in the preseason but they needed to lean heavily on the talent of Josh Gordon to be that impressive offense. He literally kept drives alive that ended with impressive scores. Without him those drives go to dust. Well, can a struggling Miami ground game reproduce the run success the Oakland Raiders had on the Colts, if we don't have a Terrelle Pryor? The Colts held Darren McFadden and Rashad Jennings to 2.6 yards per carry. All the success was on Pryor's running the read-option and scrambling. Sure, I think Miami should TRY and do that. You've got to make the Colts prove that they've gotten their defense against the read-option and horizontal stretch fixed, you can't just assume it. But also recognize that we're not very good at that stuff even if Ryan Tannehill technically runs fairly fast for a QB. To me that means that even though it may be the best way to beat the Colts, Miami can't beat the Colts the way the Raiders nearly beat them. And yet, I don't think Miami can beat the Colts at their own game, either. I think that if both teams go all pass-pass-pass and get into a shooting match that way, Indy is going to win. It's their home turf, their home crowd. That means there could be communication issues facing a loud and hostile crowd. There won't be any communication issues on their side. They're used ot the turf. We're not necessarily. Most importantly, Andrew Luck has chemistry with Reggie Wayne, T.Y. Hilton, Dwayne Allen and Coby Fleener. They've all worked together a while. As we saw in the Cleveland game, the chemistry between Ryan Tannehill and Mike Wallace was NOT there yet. Is that going to be fixed in one game? I don't know. Meanwhile on defense, I think Miami's nickel run defense is a little unproven and I expect the Colts to test it a little bit when they get into that passing mode with passing personnel. I also wonder if Miami won't accidentally vacate the middle of the defensive line a little too much in their pass-rush efforts, which gives Andrew Luck the ability to feel it, pull the ball down and steal a base. He'll do that at least three times in the game. He has that tendency. I think Miami would be wise to show CAUTION in their blitzing tendencies in this game because I firmly believe not only that Andrew Luck can and regularly does beat the blitz, but I also believe that the Dolphins kind of muck up the gear-works sometimes when they rush too many guys. Rushing too many can allow the offensive line to tighten things up and this takes away from the lateral abilities of the pass rushers. They all just have to go kind of straight forward because if they go side to side too much they run into traffic where another pass rusher is engaged with another OL. I noticed Miami in the game against Cleveland having MORE success rushing four than they did five. Yet, if I think about it, what are the chances the Dolphins think like I do on this subject? I don't think they're all that high. Their identity as a defense is to blitz. They bought blitzing linebackers and tinker with their personnel packages, line everyone up everywhere with hands up, hands down, inside and outside, doing all this to create confusion. Ellerbe, Wheeler and Misi had a combined 40 pass rush snaps last weekend. This is what they do as a defense, and I think they might get burned for it a few times.
I love the idea of using Jordan as a spy. I think he has the length to prevent some of those underneath passes and the agility and speed to stop Luck from running. I also expect that our game plan each and every week will be to find the weakest link on the opponent's OL and use stunts and formations to get Wake against him.
Thanks CK! Quick question… when reviewing the film, how do you determine whether a player is dropping into a zone vs. spying on a QB? I don’t know how to differenciate the 2 when watching a game. Is it the depth that the player is at, like a spy is going to be shallower than a dropped zone? Apprecaite the info!
The depth is a big part of it but you can also see it based on the player's reactions to either receiving threats running adjacent to him or the quarterback's movements in the backfield. True spy work on the QB alone is not that common and most often I think a "spy" as we call it will also be spying the backfield in general, the tailbacks, screen possibilities, etc.
I generally see it like a rover position. At the lower levels you'll see teams put their best athlete there and rely on him to go where ever he's needed.
This kind of writing is taking me away from my life responsibilities..Thank you bleacher report for hiring this guy, it's basically our new dolphin beat writer.. Are you sending this to Jesse Agler and company?. I think the spy role for Jordan is the way to go, if you caculate his athleticism and space he covers and divide it by what Luck does ( whatever that means, just sounded right) scrambling up the middle and on the perimeter, our player has the ability to track this man with the speed and agility to make up for the fractions of seconds we continually came up short on last year..Ive said this before but I've never seen a man this size cover this much space before, combine that with great COD ability and I think the matchup between Dion and Luck in space should be on.. Please Kevin Coyle, use the entire skillset of this unique player..
I think it depends on the opponent. I like Jordan being used more as a spy against the mobile QBs and more as a pass rusher against the pocket QBs. Although against Brady, I might prefer to have him be more 50/50 and trying to fill those passing lanes where he likes to hit Amendola and Edelmann. I think that could potentially be a huge disruption to their offense and get Brady to hold the ball long enough for Wake and company to put a hurting on him.
The thing I'm always impressed with about Dion Jordan is how significant a presence he really is when he pulls back into coverage. He finds people to cover and he moves well. And I think that absolutely is the kind of thing that could give the Dolphins an edge when facing Tom Brady. Doesn't mean I think they'll win, but it will be a positive factor IMO.
absolutely, didn't mean it any other way.. That middle of the field (bloodzone area) should be owned by this kid during this game, it makes way to much sense when considering his movement skills, I will take Dion Jordan all day one on one with Luck in the open field..It's so obvious this is the way to go it will frustrate the hell out of me if Coyle is not on the same page and we lose to the same things we saw last year.. His fluidity in coverage is exceptional Rafs, he literally can plant and drive on the ball or a Qb who wants to bleed out of the pocket, I know you remember that one preseason play where he dropped from the Los, read the draw,went horizontal in 0.5 seconds and put the textbook alligator wrap on that back. This game is why I believe this dude can invent a position.
As I said in the preseason, I think that at this point Jordan is better dropping back than he is as a pass rusher. Really all he has as a pass rusher is his speed rush. His speed rush is great, but if he gets stuffed there he doesn't have any counter moves he uses well yet.
I have a question. In basketball, the best way to measure team offense and defense is using points per 100 possessions. This is because every team has an unequal amount of possessions, making points per game scored and given up, irrelevant. For example, Team A scored 100 points on 90 possessions. Team B scored 115 points on 115 possessions. By points per game, Team B is the far better offense but in reality, that isn't so. Do you know anywhere that does something similar for football? It seems to me something like points scored per possession (omitting kneel downs at the end of each half) would be useful information, and would help paint a better picture given what you're talking about. So given 21 points in 7 drives, the Colts scored 3 points per possession, a seemingly very good number. By comparison the Dolphins scored 23 points in 11 drives, or 2.09 points per possession.
Will Davis has been ruled out, unfortunately. I'm worried about Dimitri Patterson. Came to us off waivers and played one game before being hurt and having to miss almost all of the next game. Came into the first game of this season Questionable with an ankle injury, only played half the game because he injured his groin, now is Questionable with that injured groin.
It's done for defense as well. On at least a few basketball sites I use they use the term "pace" for what you're talking about. Could easily come up with the same stat for football and get a bit more clear way of seeing which teams are the most efficient.
There'd have to be considerations for 2 minute offense, drives off turnovers, prevent D, etc etc, for it to be anywhere near a realistic display.
It's not perfect by any means but still probably more accurate than just points per game or points allowed.
Wouldn't really be all that difficult. I'm not about to do it but the information is out there to make it into expected points per 60 yard drive, or some other target like that.
I think I'm going to keep track of just straight points per possession on both sides of the ball, as well as average scoring drives for both field goals and TD's. I'll probably do it tonight. Just got to figure out how the hell to work excel again.
Excel is not an issue for me. It's going into all the gamebooks and pulling drive data. That's what sucks. And since drive numbers are small you do have to adjust for certain things like victory formation drives, etc.
