Lombardi's Thoughts on HOU/MIA Game

Miami Dolphins at Houston Texans

The Dolphins head to Houston for the 3rd straight year having lost the previous 2 by a total of 5 points (last year was a 22-19 loss; in ’06 it was a 17-15 loss). The Texans are 3-0 all-time vs Miami.

Miami struggles at wide receiver badly and the Texans struggle in the secondary. This is the perfect kind of team for the Texans to play. Opposing quarterbacks have a 100 QB rating on the Texans this year.

Dolphins Turnaround

2007 2008

PPG allowed 27.3 18.5

Penalties per game 5.7 4.0

Turnovers per game 1.8 0.5

Turnover differential -7 +1

4th quarter scoring margin -42 +24<<

>>have not allowed any points in 4th quarter

Joey “The Tipper’s” main man, Steve Slaton, has 336 scrimmage yards (242 rush, 94 receiving); Slaton has a TD in the past 3 games

The Texans will have trouble with the power and the physical play of the Dolphin defensive line and front seven. Matt Schaub will need to play well.

The Texans need to find some toughness with their offense. They run plays and look pretty, but they need to get nastier and tougher.

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I can't argue with anything he says here. The Texans pass defense struggles badly because of the loss of Dunta Robinson to the PuP list in training camp I believe. I think they're allowing nearly eight yards per pass and QB's have a rating of over 100 as Lombardi says. As mentioned before, the defense in the fourth quarter is tremendous as we have not allowed a single point in it. I think a big key is our ability to milk the clock with the win. We saw in the SD game, the offense killed the clock with a couple long drives over 60 yards I believe including one inside our own five. Another positive is the turnover differential from last year to this year. A simply incredible turnaround in that part of the game.

I thought that the Texans lack of physicality is a good point made by Lombardi. One player that should rub off some toughness off his teammates is the Quarterback and that's not what Schaub has done. Schaub has taken hits from the sacks but he's not a real leader and that's what could hinder his development into becoming a better Quarterback in this league. With Sage Rosenfels in there, the huddle is different and the team responds much better imo.