The beautiful thing about sports is how quickly things can change when the going is rough. Nine months ago we were in the midst of the season from hell. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Injuries, dissension, it seemed like the ghosts of 1972 were forever gone from this franchise. What was once a proud franchise had fallen apart at the seams. But the beauty of football is that once the season ends, we all start back at square one, more so since the introduction of free agency. And the impression that I’m getting after watching the first exhibition game is things are going to be much improved over the next few years here in Miami. Bill Parcells and the gang from New Jersey by way of Dallas brings with it a certain approach to the game that we havent really seen here since the days of Don Shula. And not the soft fuzzy Shula of the 90s but rather the no nonsense approach that was favored in the 70s. There is a system in place and any player that doesn’t fit into that system will be let go. The most important aspect of Parcells football is physical and mental toughness. This isn’t going to be a Cameron or Mike Martz kind of team that tries to beat you by outsmarting you. If the Dolphins win, its going to be because they beat the crap out of you for 60 minutes and wore you down. Not to say that there wont be instances when brilliant plays are called but Bill’s approach is more about trapping you into a tendency and then exploiting at an important point in the game rather then trying to out scheme you., at least on offense. The Giants/ Bills Super Bowl is a great example that when he truly feels outmatched he will resort to scheme to try to steal a game as evidenced by his 2 man defensive line formations in that game. But on offense, his teams have tended to be pretty vanilla. So going into our first exhibition game I was looking for the “character” of the football team that we are building. What I saw, though in only in its first stages, brought a smile to my face. The beginnings of a smash mouth, take no prisoners team is being formed here. Although the athletic talent isn’t here yet, the approach has already taken hold. What I saw on defense was defensive backs flying up to meet ball carriers in run defense. The linebackers knowing their assignments and constantly running to where the ball was, the defensive line holding the fort on run plays and moving up field on passing plays. On offense I saw a physical, run first approach whose success or failure will hinge on the offensive line’s ability to wear you out. Now the approach brought a smile but my brain could see that we are lacking in a lot of areas in terms of athletic ability. Our linebackers seem solid but there isn’t one difference maker in the bunch. The secondary seems to be good against the run but may be taken advantage of through the air. We’re a bit soft inside on our defensive line. On offense, our offensive line looks like it will be good in the run game but may have some lapses in pass protection. Our receivers are a rag tag collection of guys that we’ll just have to make do with this year. Don’t be surprised if we add someone before the season starts. Our running backs will be our lifeblood and they seem tough enough to handle the heavy load they will be asked to carry. Our QB is Pennington and we’ll just have to wait to see how he does. These are all first impressions off of one exhibition game so a lot can change between now and the start of the season. Anyway going into our game against the Jags I will primarily be looking at both lines. I think our season’s won loss column is going to be entirely based on their performance. I would like to see the defensive line stiffen up the middle and our offensive line just improve from last week with a little emphasis on better pass protection. Below I’ve included some of my impressions from the first game and what I’ll be looking for Donald Thomas was a nice surprise for me personally. Having scouted him in college, I thought that he would need at least one year on the practice squad to work on his footwork but his footwork is much improved. He still has a ways to go but credit really needs to be given to our coaching staff here. He’s got a nice punch and if he can improve his footwork a little more could be a really nice 6th round pick. I’ll be watching his feet this game to see how muchof a liability they may be this year Jake Long is not the world beater just yet but for his first game in the pros, he looked extremely solid. He will probably be somewhat of a liability against speed rushers his first year but he’s not going to be a turnstile. I’m really going to watch him on pass protection and see if he improves his footwork from game to game. It is safe to say that at worst Jake Long will be a solid tackle in this league but at best he may turn into a Pro Bowl tackle someday. The feet will tell the story One player that surprised me was Trey Darilek. He doesn’t have the road grader body that I would think Parcells prefers but he was surprisingly effective in the 2nd half. Great feet and positioning , though lacking the heft to maul people, he’ll be a good backup for us if the numbers allow him to stay on our team David Kircus is playing himself onto our team. He simply makes plays. Looks like he’ll be an effective possession receiver. Ricky Williams is back. Its like he never took a day off from football. Ronnie Brown needs to step up. Hopefully the knee will allow him to do that Reagan Muaia has improved from last year. He still has a ways to go as a blocker (mainly positioning) but he made great strides. One more year of improvement from him and he’ll be a solid fullback. Lex Hilliard looked pretty solid in the 4th qtr. He wastes no yards once he touches the ball. Didn’t get a chance to watch him block but I’ll be watching for that against the Jags. Beck has improved slightly in his command of the offense but still looks nervous out there to me Henne really shined in my eyes. He’s probably no better than Beck at this point and probably worse but you can just see that he has more potential. Whether he taps into it remains to be seen but his debut was worthy of optimism For all the talk about how bad McCown looked, I gotta tell you I thought he looked pretty good for what he had to work with. He hit a couple of nice sideline passes and just missed what would’ve been a great deep pass Phillip Merling was surprisingly effective as a 3-4 RDE. I still think he’s better suited for OLB but he held his own and got good push on most of his plays. There were a couple of plays were he got turned around but overall just a great job for a rookie playing what I would consider a position not best suited for him. What really impressed me is he played the position straight up and didn’t exhibit any of the world class spin moves he used in college which tells me he’s playing his assignment straight up. Once he gets more comfortable, he’ll figure out what plays to bring his repertoire of moves and we could actually have a pass sacking 3-4 DE which would be an amazing weapon for a 3-4 DE to have. One of the things that really impressed me about his game is his ability to disengage from a block when the play was coming at him and make the play away from him. He’s going to be a beast once he figures this game out completely. Kendall Langford was equally as impressive although he played against the ROT. Between the two rookies we have our DEs covered for the future unless Merling makes a switch eventually to OLB. Rob Ninkovich is borderline material. He hustles and can get pressure but he can easily be taken out of the play. Best thing about Ninko is his hustle. Channing Crowder really looked he took the reigns and became the vocal leader of the defense now that Zach and JT left. Would like to see his game improve but he’s ok for now Reggie Torbor was all over the place and stood out for me. Not great but the best of a somewhat solid yet unspectacular line backing crew. Yeremiah Bell is back and Jason Allen has arrived. Although our corners are average our safeties could be very good. One problem we will have this year is that we have zero depth it seems. If our starters in the secondary go we could suffer through another putrid year. Pray for health back there I thought Carpenter and Fields looked good Sorry for the brief writeup. Its preseason and its my first writeup since taking a break. Writers too need a couple of games to get in shape
Nice write up. I know we have been disappointed before but for some reason I just feel that the Dolphins have finally turned the corner and better things are on the horizon. Bill Parcells may prove to be the best move Wayne has ever made. I know, I know we have had high hopes before to only have them go down in flames but I truly believe there is a different atmosphere in Miami and the Dolphins are finally going to believe in themselves once again. It may be a slow process to get it all put together but at least we can finally see some results.
Not a great game evaluator, writer (engineer) or poster but after getting free lower level seats for the game I was pumped up and figured I'd share my thoughts. I must say it was great to see the first and second teams dominate both sides of the ball, even if it is preseason and just one game. Pennington: It was weird seeing seeing him in a Phins uni but once the game started I realized what we had been missing for a while regarding game management. He may not be a world beater but after a week of practice he looked better than I have seen for quite some time. Good to see someone take command, effectively read the field, recognize/beat the first blitz, check down, scramble for first downs and have an internal clock. Although he did not go deep, his velocity was better than I anticipated. Henne: Good command and poise for a rookie. Nice deep ball to Ginn that looked like a good catch to me. Stared down his receivers a few times and did not seem to consistently recognize his 2/3 third options effectively but nice showing for a rook especially early on against first stringers. Would have been better without a couple penalties/drops. Ricky: Looks good to go and quick to the hole along with good patience and anticipation. Hope he stays healthy and out of trouble. Ronnie: Not many carries but looked like I anticipated coming back from a knee. Slow, uncertain, impatient and too many jukes. Ginn: Very good game and a juggled grab away from a near 100 yard game. Whether it was a bad call or not, he had time and space to drag his back foot and eliminate any doubt on the grab. He also looked unwilling or needs to learn to block. I believe it was Hagan on a reverse near the Jags 30. Hagan got about 14 yards and a first down but it could have been a potentially big play or TD. In the end I believe Ricky ended up getting a TD anyway but just something very noticable. Other WR's: Bess looked decent and got a couple grabs. Hagan looked pretty good and I don't recall him dropping any balls. Wilford looked consistently terrible. Two passes, one for a TD, could have been better thrown but he looked like he has no fight. The rest, Camarillo and Anderson seemed to get a few grabs each and may have helped their chances. However, I believe it was Foster that a had bad drop and is probably gone. My guess is Bill and Jeff are waiting for other teams cuts to WR. Ginn, Hagan, Bess and probably Wilford (due to contract not play) will stick and they may take a chance that Anderson will make it to PS. Almost forgot Kircus. He did nothing and no Jag wantted to punk his butt. TE's: No one stood out. Peele was the only one I can remember actually making a catch and that was in 3rd quarter. Ryan is a slug. Bad drop and fell down on his only catch. Fasano no grabs and seemed to wiff on a couple blocks. Martin was invisible to me. Long: He held up much better in pass pro than I anticipated. He had the veteran Spicer against him most of the game. He had some very nice blocking for Ricky early in the game. However, on I believe the second field goal drive he got schooled badly by Spicer on 2nd and 3rd down running plays which killed the drive. But that may have been the only two tackles Spicer made. Carey: He had no trouble with the rookie Groves. If Long continues to progress we should be in great shape and just need to worry about resigning Carey. Interior OL: Again I'm not a great evaluator but from what I saw we effectively ran it down their throats, got a good push, no sacks and the Jag's LB's were non-existent. The line barring a few plays looked very respectable. FB's: Grigsby one catch and some good lead blocking. The Juggernaut did not stand out to me and made no one his biach. I'd have guess Mauia is gone. Defense is much harder for me to evaluate, probably because we dominated time of possesion 37 v. <23 minutes. Not many long drives for the Jag's until mop up duty. There was nothing flashy but mainly because they were able to get off the field so quickly. Very solid play. Roth had the lone sack unless you count Crowder jacking up Garrard. Great to see but roughing penalty helped keep the drive alive. This was the Jag's only real threat (besides a missed field goal). In fact, if you take away the roughing and Garrard's 3rd down scramble for 10 yards and a first down they may never have made it into the red zone until halfway through the fourth quarter. In the end Solai made sure the drive ended with the FF. Paul also was getting 1-2 yards into the backfield the times I watched him. Good to see and we need him to keep it up. All-in-all a solid game for the defense and it was great to see them not wear down at all. Last year they would have been worn out 8 minutes into the game. Only 81 degrees but encouraged and interested to see how they hold up against the Jills opening day in the sweltering SFLA heat. I'd be so pissed if the whole Favre/Penny matchup moved it to Sunday night. Special Teams: Not so special except for Carpenter. Field's punts looked good and although his not fast by any means, he got off his punts quicker than I anticipated based on what I have heard (probably Armando). Terrible lanes on kick coverage. However, watch out for the Jag's rookie Witherspoon, he looks like the real deal. Coaching: Special teams need a lot of work. The timeout right after the 2 minute warning was terrible and could have been costly. However, it was not because they ran two freakin draws on 1st and 2nd down. Thank god Henne and Ginn hooked up for about 7 yards or we would have found out Carpenter's true field goal range. Who knows, maybe that was the goal??? Not intending to hijack the thread and can't wait to read your perspective Adam.
I gotta wait till the replay on Monday but from what Ive heard things looked even better than game 1 so I'm very optimistic and cant wait to watch the game in detail
Well I wont see the game till Monday but that was a great piece. Dont be so humble, you should post more often I'll post my thoughts on game 2 on Tuesday but from what you've said I could see myself agreeing with most or even all of it. I dont want to get too eexcited just yet since noone gameplans against you in the preseason. There is definitely talent on the oline but I want to see how they handle defenses specifically designed to exploit weaknesses. Same for our defense. But I would say that early signs are encouraging and after the last few years thats cause for a mini celebration
Thanks for the kind words. I know I've learned a lot from all the great posters on the board. You're right it was pretty vanilla. With all the turnover I'm still thinking 5-6 wins is a good season this year. Anything more would be gravy. But at least I have reason to hope once again.
Yeah I have 5 games as my floor but think we have a shot at 7 if we stay healthy. But you're right, all of those rough years we endured as Dolphins fans seem to be on the verge of being rewarded very soon. And we'll have been there through the rough times, when all the bandwagon fans come onboard
