Dolphins taking a Left turn this season.

[TXFinFan]

So, just a semi-corny observation here. It looks like left handed Ronnie Brown will be running to the left quite a bit this year behind our new left handed, left tackle Jake Long. I wonder if Justin Smiley is left handed as well.

Anyway, looks like we will be heavily run oriented behind what looks to be a pretty solid O-line this year. Long - Smiley - Satele - Mormino - Carey

 

[sadetripod]

I didn't know Ronnie is left handed. I'm very excited for the season. We have (on paper) a really good O-line. I like McCown. His stats are never impressive, but he found ways to win games in AZ. Anyway, I'm off topic....hooray for the lefties.

 

[phish729]

hey lefties have rights too

 

[TurkishFin99]

I just commented about this. Do you guys remember when Sparano told the media that the younger guys need to be a little more well conditioned? Well, I'm going to put all the pieces together and paint a little image for all of you.

What do you get when you have huge offensive linemen that are extremely well conditioned? You get huge linemen that won't be tired in the 4th quarter, which is where most games are won. Parcells is an old-school kind of guy. The kind of guy that likes his football players in top shape (kinda like Don Shula's teams. Boy, those guys could run with the best of them...) Now, we also have to realize that these guys that we have are going to be conditioning in the Florida heat. I remember at one point in time we hadn't lost a home opener in 15 or so years. I really think that the homefield advantage we had (because of the heat and humidity - remember the Broncos game when all the Broncos started to cramp up in the 4th quarter?) is going to be back. Parcells has commented about that heat when he was broadcasting for ESPN. I'm pretty sure that he's going to make sure that we use it to our advantage.

Now, back to our backfield. We have Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams, two pretty good power backs. We drafted Parmelee (sp?), who apparently looks like Marion Barber. Our backfield is big and powerful. I'm pretty sure that Dan Henning is salivating over the options he has out of the backfield. During the Panther's Super Bowl run, they ran the ball 66% of the time, taking most, if not all of the pressure off of Jake Delhomme. Now whether or not Henning sets our offense up the same way has yet to be seen. If it is, I see nothing but good things to come considering the fact that Beck, or whoever takes the starting spot at QB, won't have that much pressure to make plays.

All of this is simply my optimism for our offense going into next season. I just felt like taking a look at some of the potential of our offense. Like I said, I'm really excited to see that there are some good football minds at the top of the organization that know what they're doing. Hopefully they can keep up with their track records and turn this thing around for us Dolfans.

 

[obxsnowboarderp]

I agree with you turkish. I believe in Bill Parcells & Co.

 

[Geforce]

I just commented about this. Do you guys remember when Sparano told the media that the younger guys need to be a little more well conditioned? Well, I'm going to put all the pieces together and paint a little image for all of you.

What do you get when you have huge offensive linemen that are extremely well conditioned? You get huge linemen that won't be tired in the 4th quarter, which is where most games are won. Parcells is an old-school kind of guy. The kind of guy that likes his football players in top shape (kinda like Don Shula's teams. Boy, those guys could run with the best of them...) Now, we also have to realize that these guys that we have are going to be conditioning in the Florida heat. I remember at one point in time we hadn't lost a home opener in 15 or so years. I really think that the homefield advantage we had (because of the heat and humidity - remember the Broncos game when all the Broncos started to cramp up in the 4th quarter?) is going to be back. Parcells has commented about that heat when he was broadcasting for ESPN. I'm pretty sure that he's going to make sure that we use it to our advantage.

Now, back to our backfield. We have Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams, two pretty good power backs. We drafted Parmelee (sp?), who apparently looks like Marion Barber. Our backfield is big and powerful. I'm pretty sure that Dan Henning is salivating over the options he has out of the backfield. During the Panther's Super Bowl run, they ran the ball 66% of the time, taking most, if not all of the pressure off of Jake Delhomme. Now whether or not Henning sets our offense up the same way has yet to be seen. If it is, I see nothing but good things to come considering the fact that Beck, or whoever takes the starting spot at QB, won't have that much pressure to make plays.

All of this is simply my optimism for our offense going into next season. I just felt like taking a look at some of the potential of our offense. Like I said, I'm really excited to see that there are some good football minds at the top of the organization that know what they're doing. Hopefully they can keep up with their track records and turn this thing around for us Dolfans.

Ahh, the great misconception. The Panthers did not run the ball 66% of the time in any of the years Henning was the offensive coordinator. In 2003, the Panthers ran the ball 522 times and passed in 460 times. That a 53%-to-47% ratio of run to pass.

In the playoffs games against the Rams (41 rushes/27 passes) and Eagles (40 rushes/14 passes), the ratio was closer to 66% but not games against the Cowboys (34 rushes/29 passes) or the Patriots in the Super Bowl (16 rushes/33 passes).

 

[SR 7]

I just commented about this. Do you guys remember when Sparano told the media that the younger guys need to be a little more well conditioned? Well, I'm going to put all the pieces together and paint a little image for all of you.

What do you get when you have huge offensive linemen that are extremely well conditioned? You get huge linemen that won't be tired in the 4th quarter, which is where most games are won. Parcells is an old-school kind of guy. The kind of guy that likes his football players in top shape (kinda like Don Shula's teams. Boy, those guys could run with the best of them...) Now, we also have to realize that these guys that we have are going to be conditioning in the Florida heat. I remember at one point in time we hadn't lost a home opener in 15 or so years. I really think that the homefield advantage we had (because of the heat and humidity - remember the Broncos game when all the Broncos started to cramp up in the 4th quarter?) is going to be back. Parcells has commented about that heat when he was broadcasting for ESPN. I'm pretty sure that he's going to make sure that we use it to our advantage.

Now, back to our backfield. We have Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams, two pretty good power backs. We drafted Parmelee (sp?), who apparently looks like Marion Barber. Our backfield is big and powerful. I'm pretty sure that Dan Henning is salivating over the options he has out of the backfield. During the Panther's Super Bowl run, they ran the ball 66% of the time, taking most, if not all of the pressure off of Jake Delhomme. Now whether or not Henning sets our offense up the same way has yet to be seen. If it is, I see nothing but good things to come considering the fact that Beck, or whoever takes the starting spot at QB, won't have that much pressure to make plays.

All of this is simply my optimism for our offense going into next season. I just felt like taking a look at some of the potential of our offense. Like I said, I'm really excited to see that there are some good football minds at the top of the organization that know what they're doing. Hopefully they can keep up with their track records and turn this thing around for us Dolfans.

that heat was in our favor cuz we had YOUNG players in TOP SHAPE. that went away i believe around the time of 02-03. whcih is when the downfall of our team came about.

 

[SR 7]

Ahh, the great misconception. The Panthers did not run the ball 66% of the time in any of the years Henning was the offensive coordinator. In 2003, the Panthers ran the ball 522 times and passed in 460 times. That a 53%-to-47% ratio of run to pass.

In the playoffs games against the Rams (41 rushes/27 passes) and Eagles (40 rushes/14 passes), the ratio was closer to 66% but not games against the Cowboys (34 rushes/29 passes) or the Patriots in the Super Bowl (16 rushes/33 passes).

good points but it depends on the sitautions. were they up? so they passed? was teh run game not effective waht so ever so they passed? were they trailing the whole time? etc etc

 

[fatkirstyalley]

After reading this topic I thought we were sponsoring a Nascar Team.

 

[dolpns13]

So, just a semi-corny observation here. It looks like left handed Ronnie Brown will be running to the left quite a bit this year behind our new left handed, left tackle Jake Long. I wonder if Justin Smiley is left handed as well.

Anyway, looks like we will be heavily run oriented behind what looks to be a pretty solid O-line this year. Long - Smiley - Satele - Mormino - Carey

Ronniw should be ambidextrous. when hes running to his left he should left handed, when he is running to his right he should be right handed.

 

[ckparrothead]

There's a lot more involved to being ambidextrous than to just be able to switch which hand you hold the ball in depending on where the defenders are. Ronnie has absolutely seemed to be more comfortable running to the left in his career. He's averaged 4.2 yards per carry to the right and wide right, 4.2 yards per carry over center, and 4.9 yards per carry to the left and wide left. That's a fact.

I absolutely agree with the premise of this thread, we are definitely setting up for a lot of running to the left side. Not only is Jake Long a genuinely good run blocker but throwing a lot of runs over left guard and left tackle will take a lot of steam out of the RDE's pass rush, which will benefit Jake's transition to pro pass protection. Also, Ernest Wilford is known as one of the finest blocking WRs in the game and he will be lining up at Split End, commonly on the left side of the formation.

When you add to that the possibility that the Dolphins end up with Smiley at RG and Murphy at LG, I think that only adds to the effectiveness of running to the left because one of Smiley's biggest strengths is pulling and one of Murphy's biggest strengths is drive blocking.

Put that together with Ronnie being perhaps a little more comfortable running to his left, and you have a recipe for a very left-handed running attack. Even if Murphy ends up at the traditional spot where you put a drive blocker (Right Guard) and Smiley ends up at the traditional spot where you put a pulling guard (Left Guard), this will probably still be a left-handed running unit.

 

[dolpns13]

There's a lot more involved to being ambidextrous than to just be able to switch which hand you hold the ball in depending on where the defenders are. Ronnie has absolutely seemed to be more comfortable running to the left in his career. He's averaged 4.2 yards per carry to the right and wide right, 4.2 yards per carry over center, and 4.9 yards per carry to the left and wide left. That's a fact.

I absolutely agree with the premise of this thread, we are definitely setting up for a lot of running to the left side. Not only is Jake Long a genuinely good run blocker but throwing a lot of runs over left guard and left tackle will take a lot of steam out of the RDE's pass rush, which will benefit Jake's transition to pro pass protection. Also, Ernest Wilford is known as one of the finest blocking WRs in the game and he will be lining up at Split End, commonly on the left side of the formation.

When you add to that the possibility that the Dolphins end up with Smiley at RG and Murphy at LG, I think that only adds to the effectiveness of running to the left because one of Smiley's biggest strengths is pulling and one of Murphy's biggest strengths is drive blocking.

Put that together with Ronnie being perhaps a little more comfortable running to his left, and you have a recipe for a very left-handed running attack. Even if Murphy ends up at the traditional spot where you put a drive blocker (Right Guard) and Smiley ends up at the traditional spot where you put a pulling guard (Left Guard), this will probably still be a left-handed running unit.

I understand there is more involvment with a runningbacks game than being able to switch the ball with their hands, but you cannot discredit the fact that one of the most important aspects of a runningbacks game is the ability to switch the ball to the outside when running to the outside lanes. If runningbacks are unable to do this the chances of a fumble greatly increase.

I know Ronnie prefers the left side to the right side but you cant run to the left side 100%. So being ambidextrous is extremely important...

A little fact.. Contrary to Ronnie's running to the left the majority of the time, an interesting stat for the 2007 season was the NFL, on average, had run to the right of almost 70% as opposed to the left.

 

[FinfanInBuffalo]

I like McCown. His stats are never impressive, but he found ways to win games in AZ.

He was active for 10, 14, and 9 games for Ariz in 2003, 2004, and 2005 repectively. The Cards won 4, 6, and 5 games those years. He was not successful in either Ariz or Oak.

 

[Digital]

I have said this before, but I think it bears repeating. Most defenses are set up a certain way. They have their strongest run-defending DE's and LB's on the left side of their defense, which means they are usually playing against the RG, RT and usually the TE. Then they put their faster (often smaller) pass rushers on the right side of their lines, which means they are usually playing against the LT and LG. It makes sense because most QB's are right handed and can throw the ball away or move in the pocket to avoid the rush easier when they see people coming in front of them (towards the right side of their OL), and the left side of their line is their "blind side." So, defenses give themselves the best chance to sack the QB by genrally placing their best pass rushers on the QB's the blind side. Most of the best edge pass rushers are speed guys, and they tend to be weaker against the run than their counterparts on the other side of the defense. Thus the offenses put a premium on quick LT's that excel in pass protection to counter that. This is the typical NFL dynamic.

Now, when you have even a decent run blocking LT, it's not at all unusual for a RB to average more yardage running left than right--regardless of any of the players' handedness. To me, this is the extremely rare appeal of a guy like Jake Long. He is good enough to handle the NFL pass rushers at LT, but he's a truly dominant run blocker. If you put a great run blocker at LT, your running game is going to create such a mismatch that the defense is going to need to change a lot to gameplan against that. Either they overcommit the safeties leaving them prone to the long ball to Ginn, or they slide their LB's over to compensate, leaving more room for the strong side to clear holes to the right, or they flip-flop their DL and/or LB's to get the better run-stoppers on the right side of their defense (the left side of our offense). In any of those situations, we greatly benefit from an unusually strong run blocking LT. Consider when we moved Carey there. He was a good run blocking RT, but compared to LT's he was very good.

This system puts opposing defenses working against their strengths and overcompensating for their weaknesses, which IMHO is a great thing for us.

I'm not saying th at it's not a factor that they're left handed, in fact I think it's definitely an advantage to have your LT be left-handed because his left hand (literally) is the last line of defense the QB has. All I am saying is that I think any RB's production to one side or another is by and large a bigger reflection of his blockers than it is his handedness.

I'd bet that if you did a similar comparison year-by-year of our other runners, that you'd find the biggest differences running left vs. running right would be who played at LT and LG as compared to who played that game at RT and RG. Let's face it, we haven't had a great line in a while, so it's rare to have many linemen that excel at both run blocking and pass blocking. Where your run blockers play is very important IMHO. With pass protection, it is important, but I'd say that even more important is how good is your weakest link on the offensive line.

 

[Digital]

He was active for 10, 14, and 9 games for Ariz in 2003, 2004, and 2005 repectively. The Cards won 4, 6, and 5 games those years. He was not successful in either Ariz or Oak.

I think what he meant was that the years McCown played for those dreadful teams, they tended to win more in the games with McCown as QB than the games after they replaced him with someone else. For some reason McCown keeps getting a shot, winning a few and losing a few more, then he gets yanked in favor of someone else who loses more and wins less.

To me, that doesn't sound like such a bad pickup for a team like us. Hopefully he can milk out a few wins (6-10?) for us while we impatiently wait for Beck and/or Henne to develop ... or until we draft yet another non-franchise QB with a first day draft pick. There literally wasn't any good FA QB's to get this year, so I'm comfortable with McCown for a year or two. No, he's not the answer, but hey, at least he knows how to work with a bad team and still give it his all.