can Miami ride the defense into the play-off?

Who knows? Thing of this schedule is how many of the 3rd place teams that we play will be on the upswing, and how many will be simply crumbling under poor mgmnt/lack of talent?

 

I really think our defense has the potential to be dominating and even better than the Jets, the key will be turnovers, turnovers, turnovers, as it usually is, but more so for us because our offense might not have that much room for error. If we can run the ball effectively and keep the turnovers down minimally, our defense CAN carry us into the playoffs. They are the biggest reason I am pretty optimistic going into this season.

 

Carey has been moved to guard. No reason to believe he will be moved back outside. I'll bet my bottom dollar you never seen Murtha play H-Back. Maybe as an inline TE in short yardage/goal line situations, but never H-Back.

 

No. Football doesn't work that way unless you have an all-decade generational defense. We're talking 2000 Ravens, 2002 Bucs, 2009 Steelers type defense. Even if you had one of those defenses, you still need above average QB play to take advantage of the opportunities that sort of defense provides.

We have a good defense with a chance to be elite, but it's far from the sort of defense needed to carry a team in any significant fashion.

 

I think he said he'd start the best five linemen not the five most athletic linemen. If it was about the most athletic Murtha would probably be your RT. This team likes to have it's LT be a tremendous run-blocker, chances are they want that out of their RT too.

Ray Willis is a guy who if he holds up in pass blocking, they'll seriously look at. It's also why Nate Garner probably isn't the best candidate at RT.

 

Yeah, the starting 5 is still a little up in the air. If I had to guess today, I'd say left to right Long/Carey/Pouncey/Incognito/Murtha.
IMO, Colombo's pass blocking will be his downfall and it is a fair bet he does not even make the 53 man roster.
For reserves, I'd guess we keep 4 and based on today's roster, I'd say Garner, Berger, Barbre, due to them all be versatile, with Jerry on a short lease, getting one more season to justify his draft status.

 

Response to the OP: Does Rex Ryan have trouble finding his willie?

 

I can say for sure that Murtha never played H back or TE at Nebraska. He was no different there, basically got by on his size and athletic ability but never put much time into perfecting any type of technique. The kid uses the skills given to him but does nothing, nor ever did, anything to climb the next rung on the ladder. Kinda like a kid that is not dumb and knows he only needs a B to pass and when he achieves that mark he stops trying. Thats Murtha. As some said, IF they find another OT that can beat him out he may not even be active on game day. Right now I can not tell you who is better, Murtha, Columbo or this new guy Willis. I am pretty sure Carey is staying at Guard though. Outside of him and Incognito we have no one else on the team capable of being a starting NFL guard. No, Garner is not one either. Jerry still does not impress me and Feinga is strictly backup/game day inactive material. This new kid DJ Jones is pretty interesting. Joe Berger can only play center. Thats abou it. IMO

 

Only thing up in the air about the starting 5 is who is going to play RT. Mix and choose all you want but its Long, Incognito ,Pouncey and Carey. Sure they may switch Cog and Carey but there is no one on this team that is better then those two at the guard postion.

 

Kinda like the domination of the Orca 5 or whatever that was?
You are right though. Nothing is set in stone. It is pretty clear at this point that Carey is playing guard unless there is epic failure somewhere.

 

No.

If the D only allows 10 that's pretty damn good; but if the O can only score 9, it's gonna be a loss every time.

The awesome D of the '85 Bears had Walter Payton and Willie Gault scoring on the other side from Jim McMahon having a career year. They didn't win on D alone. No team ever has. You have to be able to score when you need to.

 

I think in today's NFL you can still ride a dominating defense into the playoffs. The Jets are living proof of that. But I don't think you can make it much further on just defense alone. The rules of today's NFL favor the teams with the strongest offenses.

 

Barring injury, Lord forbid, the only thing up in the air is who is the RT. Long, Incognito, Pouncey , Carey are in. RT ? Still to be discovered

 

That and it is a tough way to try and win as it requires 60 minutes of high performance from the defense and I'm not sure we have reached that stage..yet.

And I'm focused on special teams as well, the upcoming Atlanta game will be a huge test for that as Keith Armstrong is one of the top ST coaches in the NFL, I want to see how that unit performs.

 

well...... Gates is our Gault; Lex is our Walter; and Tony is our sun glass wearer..... soooo there!!

 

I agree with you Billy, which is why I said "a little up in the air." We know for sure Long at LT and Pouncey at C, and Carey and Richie are the two guards. The little still undetermined is which one plays LG and which plays RG, as well as who will be the RT.

Right now, it could be any of Colombo, Murtha, Garner, Barbre or even Willis. If I had to put money on which of those 5, I'd lay a dollar on it being Murtha, but nothing more.

 

Could be.

Soliai came into camp with something to prove after competing during the offseason with his friend and fellow franchise tag player Ngata in Utah. Burnett is a huge upgrade to Crowder if stats mean anything and it looks like Jones has passed Clemons on the depth chart. If W Allen is healthy, he’s another big upgrade over Sapp.

Still way too early to tell but I think these guy have a chance to be dominant.

I’m not sure why you switched the topic to the OL.

If Jake’s ready to go to start the season the OL will be fine.

An OL of Long, Incognito, Pouncey and Carey only need 1 more guy to step up and man the RT spot out of Garner, Murtha, Kopa, Jones, Columbo and Willis. From what I’ve read at camp Murtha is handling Jake’s spot admirably. I don’t know enough about OL play to say he can play both sides.

From what I can tell, it’s all up to Henne.

 

Lex is closer to our Walter Sobchak than our Walter Payton.

 

I believe it's 17 points that the offense must average to win a NFL. I remember the Buc's Warren Sapp saying that.

 

If Henne has a QBR above 85 we're in the playoffs.

Of course, if Marc Columbo plays RT Henne may have trouble accomplishing that.

 

Well the Jets did in 2009. We'll need a strong running game though, and some luck. Hope we can rely on the run so Henne doesn't have a chance to throw late INTs with the game on the line. That's one reason I think they should sign Ricky, more running weapons. Speedy, creative Bush with Young and hopefully great Thomas with veteran who can still go in Ricky. I'd like that.

And let's hope the D can get turnovers. Some pick 6's would be nice!

 

Those were SB defenses.... The question was can we get into the playoffs with this D.
Plus the offense might be better than some might think.,

 

Do not know much about Willis so right now, I have to say the RT will either be Columbo or Murtha. I know many looooove Garner here but believe me, the guy is not a starter, not at all. Very good backup but no way a starter. Now, Willis may come on or someone else that is found in the rubble of OTs out there. Like I said in another post. These FA that signed this year only started practice Thursday and most of that was walk thru crap. I am in no way freaking out because I know someone will either step up or be found.

 

Why couldn't the Dolphins ride the defense into the playoffs?

Baltimore
Pittsburgh
Chicago
Tampa Bay
Carolina

These are/were teams that went to the playoffs whose success was based on their defenses and of that short list there, I do believe all of them were Super Bowl Champions.

The old adage holds true. Offense wins you games, but defense wins championships.

 

You've been cranking out the big lebowski references the past few days.

I approve.

 

2007 Steelers or 2009 Steelers? 2009 Steelers win had a lot more to do with the offense.

Also, Panthers lost to the Pats

 

Do not overlook ST, me and Rafi have went round and round on this one, but a team needs every edge they can find when trying to win that way.

My one caution for this theory is last yr the defense was good, does it mean this yr the defense will be as good as well? Not always teams can fall off.

 

Only mistake I see is asking Henne to "manage" and play conservative..he is never going to be Pennington he needs to have a lot less conservative play calling to be successful and let him TRY to win the game instead of not losing the game...jmo.

 

No.....the defense isn't that good where this could happen.....

 

NaboCane you are 100% right .

I dont understand the lets focus on defense crowd. our defense has not been the problem its been the offense and the inability to pass the darn ball

Its my belief that Miami had a super bowl caliber team when we had Welker, Chambers , Donald Lee , and Ricky but wwe were good that year we lost to the pats we had derick Rodgers, Zach , Bowens and I think Surtain, Brock Marion, and My main man Sam Madison.

the bottom line is No , A defense cant carry a team when your special teams have big issues and you cant throw the ball just refer to the oakland playoff game .

 

It would suck if Miami lost the superbowl next year.

 

Really got off topic here....The question was "Can this team ride the D into the playoffs?"

My answer is that we just simply don't know yet.

ILB - Let's say we improved the ILB with Burnett (I'm not totally convinced about that. Crowder wasn't as bad as many here seem to think and the stats between the two were pretty close). Outside of the starters, we have Edds, Spears and Trusnik and a bunch of other more or less camp fodder guys.

OLB - Wake has taken that next step, he may even get a little better. Misi showed some promise and was at least solid, he should improve, but that's just a guess. JT will add some versatility in a limited role. Who else is there ?? Spitler ??

S - Have we improved the S positions ?? They were mediocre to poor last year. Some of that had to do with guys developing, but if you look at the really good D's, they tend to feature a dominant S...we don't have that yet. Are Jones, Culver, Clemons or Nolan dominant or even indicating from their play last season that they are on the cusp of that ?? I didn't see that.

CB - VD and SS look like a pair to be reckoned with, but have they really arrived ?? Davis might be a bit further along, but has he shown to be dominant ?? Smith had a tendency to digress some, or at least not really get better as the season went on. Allen is coming off an injury and age is creeping up on him...If he can man the 3rd CB spot, and the other two can improve we will be set. What about injury ??


So, just like the O, there are several things that have to happen in order for this to become a 'dominant' D. It is good. It has been improving. It isn't dominant. No, at this point, I don't see us riding the D into the playoffs unless the O improves in buckets. That could happen, the odds are against either, but if things fall into place...

You just never know...