Fin Thirteen
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Apparently Brian Hartline's response when somebody told him the yardage he stacked up against the Cards!
It was in Bill Barnwell's Grantland piece covering the Dolphins and Hartline in particular. Also mentions Tanny. Be aware that Barnwell does buck the trend of writers calling the Fins irrelevant or incompetent, but he DOES NOT like Tannehill.
[h=3]The Star Hartline[/h]You might not have shocked your friends if you'd predicted that a player in the Arizona-Miami matchup would be the league's leader in receiving yardage through four games, but you would have had to pass up very short odds on Larry Fitzgerald to find the right receiver. Instead, the league's leading receiver is Brian Hartline, who took the lead by compiling a stunning 253 receiving yards on 12 catches in the 24-21 overtime thriller.
So who is Brian Hartline? And is he here to stay? Well, Hartline's the guy who filled the receiver vacuum in Miami, a 2009 fourth-rounder who has quietly started 25 games over four years as a secondary target in one of the league's worst passing attacks. If Chad Johnson hadn't allegedly head-butted his wife in training camp, it's entirely possible that he would be playing ahead of Hartline right now. Because the Dolphins are so thin at wideout they were forced to start Hartline along with Davone Bess at receiver.
While you might expect this to be the part where I say, "Hartline can't do this every week regression to the mean, etc, etc" and pat myself on the back, here's the problem with that: It's hard to have a game this good and not exhibit some level of consistent production at the NFL level. Hartline became the 16th player since the merger to accrue 250 receiving yards in one game, and almost all of those 15 players had meaningful careers at the professional level. It was the sign of a huge breakout for Miles Austin, the last player to do it, and even average receivers like Qadry Ismail enjoyed lengthy careers around their huge game. The only exception on the list is Redskins receiver-returner Anthony Allen, who had a 255-yard game in 1987 that accounted for one-third of his career receiving yards. That game was played by replacement players during the players' strike, though, so Allen was really just the equivalent of the best replacement referee. By all accounts, Hartline's just announced to the world that he's a legitimate starter at the NFL level.
The game was also promising for Ryan Tannehill, who threw for a whopping 431 yards against a defense that had been among the league's best. Alas, it was flashes of brilliance mixed with painful, ill-timed struggles. While Tannehill made a number of nice throws, he threw two sloppy interceptions at midfield on third downs. He was able to successfully adjust his protections at times to properly account for the Cardinals' endless stream of blitzes, but two failed adjustments cost Miami the game. One saw Daryl Washington sprint up the A-gap virtually untouched to force a fumble that the Cardinals recovered, and a second saw Tannehill hit as he was about to throw in overtime, creating an easy pick that set the Cardinals up with great field position. It was Tannehill's best game as a pro, but it was worse than the numbers indicated.
It was in Bill Barnwell's Grantland piece covering the Dolphins and Hartline in particular. Also mentions Tanny. Be aware that Barnwell does buck the trend of writers calling the Fins irrelevant or incompetent, but he DOES NOT like Tannehill.
[h=3]The Star Hartline[/h]You might not have shocked your friends if you'd predicted that a player in the Arizona-Miami matchup would be the league's leader in receiving yardage through four games, but you would have had to pass up very short odds on Larry Fitzgerald to find the right receiver. Instead, the league's leading receiver is Brian Hartline, who took the lead by compiling a stunning 253 receiving yards on 12 catches in the 24-21 overtime thriller.
So who is Brian Hartline? And is he here to stay? Well, Hartline's the guy who filled the receiver vacuum in Miami, a 2009 fourth-rounder who has quietly started 25 games over four years as a secondary target in one of the league's worst passing attacks. If Chad Johnson hadn't allegedly head-butted his wife in training camp, it's entirely possible that he would be playing ahead of Hartline right now. Because the Dolphins are so thin at wideout they were forced to start Hartline along with Davone Bess at receiver.
While you might expect this to be the part where I say, "Hartline can't do this every week regression to the mean, etc, etc" and pat myself on the back, here's the problem with that: It's hard to have a game this good and not exhibit some level of consistent production at the NFL level. Hartline became the 16th player since the merger to accrue 250 receiving yards in one game, and almost all of those 15 players had meaningful careers at the professional level. It was the sign of a huge breakout for Miles Austin, the last player to do it, and even average receivers like Qadry Ismail enjoyed lengthy careers around their huge game. The only exception on the list is Redskins receiver-returner Anthony Allen, who had a 255-yard game in 1987 that accounted for one-third of his career receiving yards. That game was played by replacement players during the players' strike, though, so Allen was really just the equivalent of the best replacement referee. By all accounts, Hartline's just announced to the world that he's a legitimate starter at the NFL level.
The game was also promising for Ryan Tannehill, who threw for a whopping 431 yards against a defense that had been among the league's best. Alas, it was flashes of brilliance mixed with painful, ill-timed struggles. While Tannehill made a number of nice throws, he threw two sloppy interceptions at midfield on third downs. He was able to successfully adjust his protections at times to properly account for the Cardinals' endless stream of blitzes, but two failed adjustments cost Miami the game. One saw Daryl Washington sprint up the A-gap virtually untouched to force a fumble that the Cardinals recovered, and a second saw Tannehill hit as he was about to throw in overtime, creating an easy pick that set the Cardinals up with great field position. It was Tannehill's best game as a pro, but it was worse than the numbers indicated.
