1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Dolphins @ Patriots: Quick Hits

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by Vengeful Odin, Sep 21, 2008.

  1. Vengeful Odin

    Vengeful Odin Norse Mod

    21,837
    10,818
    113
    Dec 2, 2007
    Kansas City, MO
    For those of you that were on that ledge before the game, thinking about jumping, you can come down. We've got a resilient team this year. They're not going to fold the tents and go home after a disappointing setback in the desert. They're going to come back, punch someone in the mouth, 21 game regular season winning streak be damned. Today I watched the Miami Dolphins - the same Dolphins that looked lost last week - destroy (and I do mean destroy) the defending AFC Champion New England Patriots 38-13. Granted the Patriots were without their BFF Tom Brady (and video tapes), but it's still a win against the standard bearer of consistent dominance in their home stadium. Hats off to the entire team and coaching staff today, as they picked up a well-deserved and well-earned victory against a division rival.

    What I Liked

    A blowout win against a division rival means that there's a lot to enjoy about this game. Sparano said in his press conference that his players executed the game plans perfectly on offense and defense. I couldn't agree more.
    • Wild Phin - Call it the Wild Hog, the Single Wing, whatever you want. I'll call it bread and butter because we seemed to score whenever using the gimmick formation. I'm really surprised to see it translate to the NFL; most college trickery doesn't work at the next level. Ronnie Brown displayed immense versatility; it's not out of the realm to compare the performance to LT, generally considered the best RB in the game today. Brown becomes the first player in history to run for 4 TDs and throw for another. I said this earlier, but Dan Hennig had to be thinking "Tape that Bellichick, you SOB ..."
    • Emergence of the Running Game - It wasn't all just Ronnie Brown today. Ricky Williams added 98 yards on 16 carries as well, 2 yards shy of having 2 backs go over 100 yards. I don't have the stats readily available at my fingertips, but I believe we haven't had a tandem approach this milestone since the days of Morris, Kiick, and Csonka. In other words, it's been over a third of a decade since we've seen this kind of running game at work. Kudos to the entire front line.
    • Defensive Pressure - We had 3 sacks and applied constant pressure on Matt Cassel. We received key plays from a number of players on defense - Langford, Merling, Holliday, Roth, Porter, Ayodele, Ferguson, Starks. It was refreshing and rewarding to see our defense making plays along the line of scrimmage.
    • Minimal Mistakes - We committed only 5 penalties, which was down from last week in Arizona, and only 1 (Holliday's late hit, in and of itself a questionable call, at best) was of the 15 yard variety. We were extremely efficient on offense - 0 fumbles lost, 0 interceptions, 4/4 inside the red zone. Even more startling (and perhaps most impressively), Miami only had 3 third down chances (converting 2) the entire game. That means our offense was converting on first and second. On the defensive side of the ball it was refreshing to see the team wrapping up and tackling, something that was painfully absent the first two weeks of the season. I counted 0 missed tackles. If your offense is being efficient and your defense is applying pressure and not making mistakes, you're going to be successful.
    • Sore Loser New England Fans - For me, the sweetest part of the game came as CBS cut wide in the fourth quarter, showing hoards of fans streaming for the exits. Someone in chat got it right - they looked like lemmings heading for a cliff.

    What I didn't Like

    After a huge win like this, it's hard to fault anything that the team did. It seemed like we received every break during the game. It's hard to find fault with the effort of anyone out there. Nevertheless, there's always room for improvement.
    • Not So Special Teams - I'll just say that our kick coverage was abysmal today. New England's average starting position was 34 yards, but they had drives that started in Miami territory twice - which is 2 times too many in my book. Faulk is a decent return man, but I can't imagine how this team would fare against a Devin Hester or Josh Cribbs. On our side, Davone Bess only managed to get us beyond the 26 yard line once today (to the 38), the remainder of the time we were stuck starting between the 15 and 26 yard line. At this point it's a dead horse, but Ted Ginn Jr. has to be out on the field playing on special teams. Bess is a nice compliment, but he's not the answer.
    And that's really it. There's not a lot to complain about. We won, against a team that went to the Super Bowl last year, handily.

    Standout Players

    First and foremost, this was a team effort. It's hard to single out specific performances, because there were so many great plays, from a variety of different players. You can make a case for nearly everyone that saw the field today, and they all contributed in some way. In my opinion, this was one of the most complete team efforts I've seen out of the Dolphins in a long time, probably going all the way back to Shula's teams. This team has something last year's did not - heart, and they have it in spades.
    • Ronnie Brown - There's Ronnie Brown, and then there's everyone else. Brown was simply on another planet today. I selfishly hoped he would manage to catch a TD late in the game to go along with what can only be described as a career day. Detractors will point to the fact that most of his yards came while in the Wild Phin (© Vengeful Odin, 2008), but there's no denying he looked fast, ruthless, and efficient out there. Oh, and that knee? Looks like its 100%
    • Samson Satele & Jake Long - Satele deserves kudos for recognizing his deficiencies in play, and correcting them this week. I was surprised to see him handling Wilfork at the point of attack, I truly expected it to be another long day, especially when we dropped back to pass. Jake Long played like the #1 pick in the draft. He may never be as fluid or smooth as an Orlando Pace or a Jonathan Ogden, but he's got a workmanlike style and always plays with a mean streak. I'd describe him as a lunch pail guy - he's not the most graceful player out there, but he gets the job done. I think it will be interesting, long term, to compare the careers of Chad Henne and Jake Long to Brady Quinn and Joe Thomas. On Ronnie's 15 yard TD, Jake was one of the key blockers that helped spring him lose. Good game for all of the o-linemen.
    • Joey Porter - When I heard Joey open his mouth (again) this week, I groaned. To my surprise, Porter backed up his words with a superb effort on the field. In his best game as a Phin, Porter tallied up 3 sacks to go along with a forced fumble. I finally saw the player that the Dolphins had invested in - it was nice to see him out there making plays. There's no denying that Porter is an emotional leader on this team. The first sack energized the entire defense and was a catalyst for how the rest of the day would go.
    • Chad Pennington - He didn't toss any TDs, but only 3 of his balls hit the ground all day (a ridiculous 85% completion rate). After a shaky start, a la the Jets game, Pennington caught fire. He looked good at WR, too. I'll call it now - if we continue to use the Wild Phin Formation (again, © Vengeful Odin, 2008), I truly expect him to catch a TD. Pennington is the leader of this team, but how great was it to rest him in the fourth quarter and give Henne some work? I put that in the "things that made me smile today" category.
    • Ted Ginn Jr. - Despite an early fumble, Ted Ginn finally made a modest impact today. Ginn caught the most balls out of all the receivers, and it was great to see him used on quick toss out routes. We made a conscientious effort to get him the ball today. Ginn didn't break any plays, but he was consistently targeted. He's a work in progress, but today was easily his best outing of the season.

    Invisible Players

    As I mentioned above, nearly everyone played well today. That said, there were a few guys that I would have liked to see more of.

    • Davone Bess - Bess never really got on track today. As I mentioned, New England did a tremendous job keeping him in check as a returner. Bess only managed to catch 1 pass for 4 yards. Having Bess and Ginn on the field at the same time reminds me of the days of the Marks Brothers - although neither receiver is in the same league as Clayton or Duper at this point in their careers. Bess is still a rookie receiver, but I would have liked to see him make some plays in the passing game to compensate for his pedestrian day returning the football.
    • Jason Allen - I'm not going to harp on Allen's lack of playing time, or comment on his future with the team. I'll just note that it was disappointing not to see him on the field given the commanding lead we held throughout most of the game. We must be working on something top secret with him, much like we unveiled with Ronnie today. Here's hoping he comes out after the bye and sets the league on fire, or this might be the last we see of him as a Dolphin.

    Overall Thoughts

    A blowout win heals a lot of wounds, and a lot of the negativity and despair that was present after the Arizona game last week will be washed away after today's thumping of the Patriots. I still think this is a 6-10 team, but it's nice to see flashes of what this team will be in future. The move to put Ronnie at QB with Pennington at WR was nothing short of brilliant. I'd go so far as to call it the coaching call of the year, not just for the Phins, but for the NFL. Best game plan I've seen against the Patriots since the Super Bowl. There's no denying that when healthy, Ronnie Brown is a Top 5 back in the NFL. He may still be hampered by the knee for the rest of the year, but he displayed the same vision and skills that had him leading the NFL in total yardage prior to the injury last year. Working Ricky Williams as the change of pace back was a welcome wrinkle (and something I suggested last week). We applied constant pressure to Matt Cassel and forced him into playing from behind, something that he was obviously not comfortable with. Pennington spread the ball around when Ronnie and Ricky weren't running roughshod, and we minimized mistakes in all phases of the game. Terrific effort by the entire team, and I don't recall a more satisfactory and complete victory than this one.
     
  2. brandon27

    brandon27 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

    45,652
    19,304
    113
    Dec 3, 2007
    Windsor, ON. CANADA
    Excellent write up!

    I'd add Derek Hagan to your invisible list. We saw him get some solid playing time previously, I dont recall seeing him out there at all today. I know his name didnt get called, and he didnt catch any passes... I was a bit surprised there.

    Brown and Porter are real standouts for me. Brown... well its self explanatory. Porter is too i guess. He shot his mouth off, basically guaranteed a win, and then went out there and backed it up with what... 5 tackles? 3 sacks and a forced fumble? We NEED porter to be like that every week.
     
    Vengeful Odin likes this.
  3. Vengeful Odin

    Vengeful Odin Norse Mod

    21,837
    10,818
    113
    Dec 2, 2007
    Kansas City, MO
    Great call on Hagan. I didn't even think about him. That's the definition of invisible, right there. It looked like we went with Camarillo / Ginn / Wilford / Bess as our core WR group, leaving Hagan on the sidelines.
     
  4. muscle979

    muscle979 Season Ticket Holder

    15,863
    6,275
    113
    Dec 12, 2007
    Evans, GA
    Special teams stunk. Fortunately the offense and defense played extremely well. I can't recall the last time I saw both of those units play so well in the same game.
     
    Vengeful Odin likes this.
  5. alen1

    alen1 New Member

    52,811
    20,365
    0
    Dec 16, 2007
    I like this formation a lot as it is clearly effective. However, I don't know how useful it will be in the future. Teams will eventually figure it out but if we throw it in there at times, it could still be good for us. Teams that over-pursue on plays could have a difficult time with that. One key statistic about the Wild Hog offense is that 47% of the rushing production at Arkansas came out of that formation. Brown was very similar to McFadden (in college) today.

    Starks impressed me today. That read on the screen was beautiful. Merling and Langford are making plays which is nice. Even Moses made a play out there. Great team effort today.

    I wasn't aware of the penalty total, thanks. Two key statistics that stood out to me today and I thought were important were 0 sacks allowed and 4/9 on third down.

    Samson really impressed me today. I thought he would struggle because Wilfork is a heavy one but he didn't really have any problems. One thing about Wilfork that I pointed out in the past is that if you run directly at him, it is likely to be a successful running play.

    I really had no problems with him running his mouth because we had nothing to lose. If we lose, oh well. If we win, he's a genius! He had a good game today. I know we have been critical of him since he came to Miami but this year, he's second in sacks and has his highest tackle total through 3 games since 2003.

    You nailed it. One thing I liked is that he didn't force any throws like he has in the last three years.

    Great write-up once again, this is one of the things I look forward to after the games.
     
    Vengeful Odin and WharfRat like this.
  6. Vengeful Odin

    Vengeful Odin Norse Mod

    21,837
    10,818
    113
    Dec 2, 2007
    Kansas City, MO
    Thanks Alen. Appreciate the Kudos.

    I think we will have to add some wrinkles to the formation to continue to be able to use it. It's one thing to unveil it against the Patriots and surprise them, it's another completely to run it when teams have a chance to game plan against it. However, I'm sure it gives San Diego (and the rest of the schedule) something to study and figure out how to stop in film study.

    Still can't believe it was as successful as it was today.
     
    alen1 likes this.

Share This Page