ckparrothead
Premium Member
Miami Marine Mammals
Ricky Williams might struggle behind Miami's porous offensive line.
In Ricky Williams, the Dolphins finally have the power back they have been dreaming of since Larry Csonka -- actually, since Norm Bulaich. But does the team have blockers for him? The great Miami OLs of the past are now historical items. Only Mark Dixon and Tim Ruddy are credible starters on the current Fish offensive front, and if you have a weak heart, you would perhaps rather not know the identities of the gentlemen competing for the LT spot.
Miami in recent seasons has played good defense by featuring top corners plus an undersized but fast front seven. The problem is that the undersized but fast front seven wears down as the pounding of the season adds up. The result is that during the last decade the Dolphins are 53-21 in September and October (the league's best record through that span) but go into an annual tailspin commencing Dec. 1, Miami in the last decade being 24-30 from that day on. Late-season defense fold-ups has culminated in the Dolphins being outscored an embarrassing 215-87 in the playoffs in the last five years, with an average 16-point margin of defeat.
There's little reason to think history will not repeat, with the Dolphins defensive front shrinking in 2002 to the smallest in memory. Five of the front seven (David Bowens, Morlon Greenwood, Derrick Rogers, Jason Taylor and Zach Thomas) are undersized speed players who will be beat up and hurtin' by December.
Hmmmm, the above is a totally straight sports item. What's it doing in Tuesday Morning Quarterback?
ESPN previewed the AFC. So what do you guys think? Is the defense doomed before it started because our D is so undersized its always hurting in December?
It certainly stands to reason. Think about every late season slide we've had. Zach's always hurting by the end of the season. Derrick Rodgers got hurt toward the end of the season. And more importantly the BIG guys on are team get hurt toward the end of the season like Daryl Gardener and Tim Bowens. Think of it kinda like Bowens' knee injuries. He hurt one knee, then has to have surgery on the other because he was putting too much pressure on the other knee when he was favoring the original hurt knee. The front 7 could be similar. Because the big guys on the front 7 are carrying more than their share of weight due to the undersized nature of the rest of them, perhaps its putting more strain on everyone.
So maybe we should start someone like Adewale Ogunleye at DE who doesn't lack in size like Dave Bowens does. And maybe we should find ourselves a big LBer who can run, to take over for Derrick Rodgers in the longterm. Elijah Alexander I think might still be available, he's big. I dunno just shots in the dark but I have criticized the undersized nature of our D before.