3 Stars 1) Dion Jordan 2) Mike Wallace 3) Cam Wake 3 Stiffs 1) Nolan Carroll 2) Ellerbe 3) Koa Misi Bonus - 4) Wheeler Honestly, I have no idea tonight This is a hard one to guess. It could go so many ways. The LBs are there because of Graham and Sproles, a combo of not covering TEs and not tackling elusive RBs in space. I think Wake and Jordan are keys tonight. On offense, we need Wallace to have a big game. Damn it's nice to have stars!
3 Stars - Ryan Tannehill - Dion Jordan - Brent Grimes 3 Stiffs - Whomever covers Jimmy Graham ( I know the Fins will probably use more than one)
Stars: Dion Jordan, Brian Hartline, Lamar Miller Stiffs: Philip Wheeler, Jimmy Wilson, Jonathan Martin
Yeah, I got a feeling Will Davis will like the Primetime lights and make a big play tonight. Hope he doesn't also give one up.
He has been putting up a pretty good season so far. I would also enjoy watching all of the back handed praise people who don't like him will have to write.
Honestly, I'm not worried about giving up big plays. They're going to happen. The key is to make some defensively.
The running game worries me b/c I'm still not comfortable with the protection (QB/OL/Backs and TEs all to blame). If Miller and Thomas are doing damage it'll go a long way towards keeping RT on his feet, giving the receivers time to work down field against their secondary, which is suspect IMO. Stars- OLine, Tannehill, Hartline Stiffs- Trusnik (if any of the LBs can't go), Clemons, Starks-Odrick or whoever is playing the 1 technique
Stats back me up. Carroll has been playing well so far. Not nearly as bad as people like to make him out to be.
Oh I agree. I had a training camp thread saying I wouldn't be surprised if at some point, with Marshall and Patterson being injury prone, Carroll were our #2 CB and playing better than people give him credit for. That said, he is also not great. He's a serviceable CB who makes a few plays but gets burned a little more often than I'd like. What people don;t give him credit for is that he has decent size and great speed, and despite what I consider to be poor change of direction ability, tries to be in the right place at the right time. Not a dumb player. His achilles heel is his lack of cutting ability. The contrarian comment was more an observation on you liking the idea of people having to eat crow.
This isn't something I saw coming prior to the start of the season but this could actually be Jonathan Martin's toughest test to date. Cameron Jordan is playing incredible football from right end, and Junior Galette hasn't been too shabby as a right outside pass rusher as well. Jonathan Martin will face both of these guys and it wouldn't surprise me if he has a lot of trouble with Cameron Jordan in particular.
Ugh. Galette is on that side too? COnversely, if Martin plays well against both and holds down the fort is is a HUGE shot in the arm and validates his progress.
Stars: Dion Jordan, Brandon Fields, Charles Clay Stiffs: Jonathan Martin, Daniel Thomas, Vernon Olivier
I totally forgot about Charles Clay. This is what's great about the 2013 Dolphins.. SO many talented players who could have a huge game!
You may be right, he certainly won't have any trouble with Vince Wilfork this season http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/9747694/vince-wilfork-likely-year-torn-achilles
Here's a shocker for CK. Profootballfocus has Jimmy Wilson as the #6 slot cornerback at 50% snaps (where it starts). Even if you drop it to 25%...he's 9th. NFL rating against in the slot 39.6 with only 9 YAC given up on catches. Caught me by surprise o.O. Going into tonights game Grimes is 4th, Wilson 35th and Carroll 43rd.
Well hopefully Davis/Taylor get to play tonight and they mix it up some. Wonder if having our extra corners will allow us to do something different with TE coverage.
Wallace set to go off.... Playing for his home crowd. Prime time game for prime time player. PLus this is sure to stir up his juices...
Just getting Taylor involved helps. He is physical, aggressive, and can blitz the QB well. Davis, meanwhile, is always looking for the pick 6. I think he gets one tonight.. but only if we shut down the Saints run game and they start to go 4 WR sets (Graham split wide, so really 3WR and split TE).
There's the key right there. I don't think we can shut anyone's run game down w/o Soliai but we cant have a repeat of last week where the offense is consistently ripping off big runs and setting up easy play action opportunities. Hopefully we can put some points on the board early and make Payton a little impatient.
To win this game we need the D to limit the Saints to less than 25 points, imo. And Special Teams MUST win its phase. Thigpen is so overdue for a TD. But we need a block, or forced fumble again on STs. Also, we MUST establish some rushing threat tonight, imo. Screen game is a great suggestion if standard rushing is not working well. We have explosive enough players in all phases. They are NOT more talented than us. We just need to execute.
Stars: 1. Jared Odrick: We need to pressure Brees without Wake and the interior of the Saints line has some injuries. 2. Brian Hartline: We're going to be throwing a lot to keep up and their starting cb is injured and wasn't great anyway. 3. Ryan Tannehill: Continues to show his growth by keeping us in a shootout. Stiffs: 1. Tyson Clabo: The Saints pass rush is actually good for once and our tackles haven't been great 2. Will Davis: This guy isn't ready and the Saints receivers and QB are more than good enough to take advantage 3. Whoever has to cover Jimmy Graham: Dude is a monster
Would Vince Wilfork have ever been an issue for Jonathan Martin anyway? Pretty sure Wilfork would have been more of an issue for Incognito, Pouncey and Jerry.
Just remember, Mike Wallace similarly talked up his matchup against Joe Haden. Then he laid an egg. The coverage and the game plan will dictate a lot of this.
I'm not really sure what more is working in his favor. If the Dolphins head into this game playing Wallace the same as they did against the Browns, they could easily end up with the same result.
1) Joe Haden is better than Lewis (See Haden shutting AJ Green down too) 2) Wallace is playing in his hometown. I always think extra personal motivation is worth something. Just like I expected the revenge motivation to help Dimitri Patterson against the Browns. Now, this may not be revenge, but it's certainly showing up in front of family and friends. 3) Extra motivation never hurt. Wallace is avery proud player, making $60m and wanting to perform so the public sees it (thus the sulking after Cleveland). This is his first primetime game with us. You don't think he'll be extra motivated this week? I do. Now, if you think it makes sense to shy away from him in the gameplan, that's fine. I feel like our best chance of winning this game is to actually use Lamar Miller effectively on runs and screens. If that happens, it opens a couple big pass opportunities off playaction. I think one of those is a Mike Wallace deep shot for a TD.
I honestly don't think #2 is a factor at all. He was equally motivated to play against his rival Joe Haden, to where he was talking smack about it before the game. The motivation was there. The results were not. And #3 is basically just reiterating #2. As for #1 I think where that comes into play is that the Dolphins may have had a tough time implementing the game plan they used against Indianapolis against the Browns because Haden was good enough to cover all potentialities. Keenan Lewis may not be good enough to prevent Wallace catching the kinds of short passes he caught against the Colts. However, he also might be too good and too disciplined to get beaten by the double-move that Wallace used to beat Greg Toler. As for the screen pass that got Wallace a touchdown, that's a different question altogether and will involve other factors on the Saints defense in determining whether we can do the same thing there.