The question placed to Chad Pennington was..."What's been the missing ingrediant in the Dolphins offense? They seem kind of hot and cold."
....and the answer is what most fans seem to miss.
"As an offense, we have to make sure that we create a spark. Offensive football is about energy, it's about momentum, it's about synergy, and it's about a feeling you have. None of that happens with stats. It's not a statistic. We've got to find a way to create sparks during games. When there is a chance to stick a dagger in a team, we've got to do it. When we have a chance to make a big play and get our crowd involved, that's going to be important."
I have said time and again on this forum this year. The underneath patterns will be there as long as they play two over the top - Cover 2. The quarterback cannot simply look at Cover 2 and say "alright, it's underneath." That's called "taking what they are giving." That's also part of the grooming of a quarterback. But in the quote above Chad Pennington is talking about what's NOT talked about.
There is no telling a quarterback "when the receiver is five yards from the safety running toward him and the corner is running five yards underneath him - he's open." That cannot be done for every pattern in the route tree. The quarterback makes those determinations and he wins or loses with those decisions. All that the staff can do is look at film. Show where there was OPPORTUNITY, encourage him to take advantage of opportunity, and hope that one day the chances will be taken.
It was up to the quarterback to take that step and although he was protected to the point that ABSOLUTELY nobody has had a FREE shot at him, Henne has not taken that step.
http://www.nfl.com/videos/miami-dol...eek-2-Can-t-Miss-Play-Marshall-wins-jump-ball
Now this isn't the best comparison in the world. The play above was a single safety coverage. But remember that this was the FIRST play of Chad Pennington's day in the preseason. If I remember correctly, it was the first time Chad Pennington had been on a field with Brandon Marshall. I would not doubt that before Chad left the sideline he joked to Henne - "Watch this!" It's the preseason afterall and Pennington has nothing to lose. That throw and catch was after an entire half of watching throws underneath from Chad Henne. I filed that in the locker as him showing the kid, "That's all you have to do. Take a chance every once in a while."
The kid seldom took those chances. All that was left was for him to prove was that he was "the comeback kid". As a result of all the parity in the NFL, there was no doubt that this quarterback would get an opportunity to play to a comeback win multiple times this season. He has failed at three glaring oppportunities - Jets, Patriots, Baltimore........
Muck has a quote from Dan Henning that speaks to the damage a quarterback can do to a team. If you look at the games with all of the protection provided, Henne has neither won a game nor has he lost a game this season. THAT is the reason we are 4-4.
Why do you make this move NOW? We are 4-4. This team needs help from the quarterback. It needs......
All of which has not been provided through the play of the quarterback.
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dolfan32323, unluckyluciano, SeattleDolFan and 5 others like this.
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all i can say is yup. lol. you said it all. henne has to get more aggressive
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LOL the OP said all that and you summed it up in one sentence.
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I'm the cliff note version :lol:
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So the offense didn't create the so called spark in the opening drive last week. A run oriented drive that ended with a TD.
so the offense didn't create a spark with the 96 yard drive in Cincy.
The inconsistency is Dan Henning not the young QB but nice spin. -
Ronnie Brown ran the ball 6 times on that first drive. You know the one that scored a TD. Then he ran 3 more times the rest of the day.
Henning treated Henne like Payton Manning instead of a young QB.
Nevermind you just don't get it. :wink2: -
Agree with Zod, and somewhat surprised at you KillahP.
Why the griping?
We hang 28 on the Titans, will you still believe the same? -
28 on the Titans? Fuggin' kidding me POD.
There is not a chance.
You people live in a dream world called 2008.
Pennington hasn't played in well over a year after another shoulder surgery and all of a sudden we are going to score more points than we have in a year.
Not buying it. I was one of the bigger supporters of this FO and coaching staff until today.
I'm done giving them the benefit of the doubt. -
Why bother to play the game then?
And you did not answer my question. -
I am, me, am saying that Pennington will be the answer, and I do believe 28 pts is easily within reach vs the Titans.
People are so used to Henne and winning by 3 pts they have forgotten that we have a lot of talent on offense, Penny will take advantage of it especially if he has the same protection as Chad Henne was given.
Give CP 6 seconds with Beast, Bess and Hartline and Ronnie B and he will hit the open man 95% of the time. -
Didn't ya hear? Games are played on paper now. No way the Browns shellack the Saints and the Patriots in a season.SeattleDolFan likes this.
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I repeat
You people are absolutely insane :wink2: -
I know my Phins, consider, Jake Long had 2 offsides penalties, JAKE LONG.
why?
Offense is out of rhythm and that is just Pennington's game.:wink2: -
wow. Just wow.
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Guest
tl;dr :P
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Yeah you do. I remember you arguing ad nauseam with me last year trying to convince me we would win out.
That turned out great. :wink2: -
I wouldn't be surprised if we did, but to me that's not really a negative on Henne because this is a Pennington type offense and he has the experience. Pennington is starting because we need a spark and I believe we'll get one and have a big game. However, with the first half of the season, I'm not blaming it all on Henne.siciliansith likes this.
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so you think the only reason we are 4-4 is because of the QB.
you need to go back and watch bro :up: -
So, Pennington comes in and it will magically put the offense back into rhythm?
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Good point, let us examine that shall we?
Buffalo Bills game: Chad Henne's worst in his career: loss
Patriots game: Wake sacks Brady forcing an interception to crowder
Jags game: 14-10 Phins win
Titans Game: Henne throws interception in OT giving Titans win
Texans Game: Texans start out hot, we go down 17 pts, Henne does not rally us back
Steelers Game: Henne throws a int that winds up being a TD, Henne benched for a supposed "injury" Henne standing on sidelines holding helmet
Thiggy comes in, rallies us to 2 TD's, but falls short.
Do tell, what exactly has Henne done?Killerphins likes this. -
Yes, what is more, Pennington will have the offense working in rhythm and timing, even the running game will improve.
Pennington will set the pace for the offense. -
I have the same feeling that Padre does. Pennington could be the one to produce a spark on offense...
MikeHoncho likes this. -
Dude, your QB totally dictates how your defense is going to tackle and [not] cover the opposing Tight-ends. Not to mention special-teams coverage assignments and lanes (which, to their credit they fixed). He also determines what balls receivers drop that hit them in the hands.Killerphins likes this.
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Henne never took the lob shots to Marshall that he should be taking once per quarter, we can all see that. But I also see that Henne wasn't trusted y the play callers. He wasn't given the authority to audible, which not only undermines his confidence, but his standing amongst his teammates. How can you be the franchise QB and you're not even allowed to audible to a slant when you see an all out blitz coming? Most of all, there were too many 3 man routes. I don't care how good or bad the QB is, if you're consistently outnumbered 6-7 or 8 to 3 in the secondary, you're going to struggle in the passing game. We didn't just max protect when we were trying to throw deep (like most non pee-wee league teams), we made a habit of it. So either Henne really sucks, Henning really sucks, or both. We're going to find out on Sunday won't we?
SeattleDolFan likes this. -
Good post Pod
fair enough put all the blame on the young QB
I'll just stop *****ing and buy into it
Pennington is going to get it done.
I heard it from you -
Does not mean the defense will, does not mean the Special Teams will either.
Titans have the #4 ST unit in the NFL, their Returner, Mike Mariani, is a returner stud, 26.8 ypa avg 1 TD.
Pennington will help the offense, of that I am 100% certain.:up:MikeHoncho likes this. -
LOL Come on Pads. Funny how you didn't mention Henne's big game and game winning drive to beat the Pats.
Or how he rallied us down from 18 points in the 4th quarter in Tennessee.
Bull**** Henne didn't rally us back against the Texans. We lost that game by 7. Remember that beautiful bomb Henne threw to Ginn that went for a TD but was negated by the Polite BS penalty?
To say Henne didn't do anything is pretty ignorant. -
The Texans game was never that close, Henne also threw the game losing interception and odd how you admit the Bills game.
As for the Pats game if one recalls the patriots were driving down the field when Wake hit brady causing the interception?
We were up by what..2 pts? -
Wait, are you discounting Henne's game against the Pats because the Pats had a chance to win in the end? You serious? And no, they were not driving down the field.
Henne didn't throw any game losing interception against the Texans either, don't know what you're talking about.
Also, I know Henne played like pooh against the Bills, just like he did this past Sunday against the Ravens, but you know what? I'm not concerned about it because he's in his development and young QB's tend to struggle during development.GMJohnson likes this. -
Also Pads, as much of a Henne supporter as I am, I stand behind Sparano's decision to start Pennington because we will win games with him while Henne learns some more from the sidelines. However, I'm not giving up on Henne as the franchise QB because I've seen enough good from him to believe.
siciliansith and padre31 like this. -
Forgot about the 20+ consecutive completions vs Jacksonville :up:. The near perfect game vs. NY. The winning drive vs Tampa. Overcoming Ronnie's injury. He wasn't too shabby at Carolina on a short week either.
All Henne did was rally us from 0-3 to 7-6 and the brink of the playoffs. Ignorant indeed.Rocky Raccoon likes this. -
Same here Bro, I am NOT tossing Chad Henne overboard, not at all, I for one have far more faith in the lad developing further than the minority of people who think Sparano is done with him as a Qb.
I think people should consider:
11-10 that is his career record.
In places like SF, Detroit, Cleveland, would be considered at least solid, probably much more than that for those franchises and that is with Henne still in the Larvae stage of becoming a NFL Qb.
I'd rather have Henne than:
Alex Smith
Colt McCoy
Jimmie Clausen
Kevin Kolb
Charlie Whitehurst
Ryan Fitzpatrick
David Gerrard
Starters all, imho Henne is better than anyone on that list. -
Honest question.
So if Penninington goes down which is entirely possible do they have faith to put Henne back in or will it be Thigpen? -
Should be Henne, but I'd expect Henne may be the #3 Qb and Thiggy #2 as we will probably see some WC with Thiggy in the mix.
Only way I can see Thiggy starting this year is if the last game doesn't matter. -
A lot of people are asking this and I don't know why. It would be Henne and it really isn't a question. It's not like Henne hasn't proved he can play, he has.
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