Dolphins-Vikings: The Aftermath

[Samphin]

Well, I don't usually do this, but I felt compelled to based on the threads that seem to be popping up all over the place here. Anyhow, he are my thoughts on the game today.

-This defense may be the best I have seen in Miami in a long time. Seriously, the Jimmy Johnson/Dave Wannstedt defenses were solid, but they were not turnover savvy and often wilted towards the end of games. Not this defense. This defense realizes that it needs a big play (or five) and goes out and makes them.

I swear that Jason Taylor had this game on in his helmet. The announcers were talking about how he had been shut down all day, and then WHAM! JT takes over. Yeremiah Bell continues to play great and Matt Roth had a nice showing today. This is a great sign since our d-line is rather old and next year I really think you may see some house cleaning for the younger guys.

-Olindo Mare has got to go. It has come to the point now that I dread seeing him out there. He really has lost all confidence, or all talent, or both. I wish him well, but he needs to go. We can get this level of production (or lack thereof) out of a league minimum rookie.

-Joey Harrington played ok. Not great, not even good. He played ok. That is much better than he had been playing, but he was stil responsible for some terrible overthrows, a fumble on the one yard line and a god awful, head slapping int. If it weren't for the defense (that out scored the offense) we wouldn't have scored a point in the second half for the seocnd game in a row.

-The receivers looked good today. The drops seemed to not be affecting this team today. I saw Chambers drop one, but he got cracked in his back, so it is forgiven, imo. I was impressed with their hands today. Everyone from Peelle to Booker stepped up.

-Lets not even talk about the running game. That was, yikes...

-All in all, I am happy since Miami won again. This offense still concerns me. They seem capable of moving the ball, but for some reason, the playcalling moves away from what is working and the players on offense tend to find ways to shoot themselves in the foot.

The defense look like world beaters right now. I seriously can't complain about them. They have hit hard, tackled solid and forced turnovers in bunches over the past three weeks. Kudos to Saban and Co. for whipping them into shape.

 

[dominizzo]

Great read

 

[K-Rob]

Yeah baby. 6 more, man. 6 More!

 

[Shamboubou]

I tell ya, when this offense really starts to click this is going to be a very dangerous team. You know another thing that I really have noticed a lot this year is that our defense hurts people. Now I'm not an advocate for injuring a person on purpose or dirty hits, but it just seems like every game we are knocking people out of the game. Like I said before I dont like to see players get hurt, but man this team is just taking them out left and right and I like that they are playing smash mouth football.

 

[elite14eva]

saban said "were gonna be so physical,dominate,relentless in our effort in the way we go about competing in the game he wants the other teams to hate playing us"

 

[MrEd]

Well, I don't usually do this, but I felt compelled to based on the threads that seem to be popping up all over the place here. Anyhow, he are my thoughts on the game today.

-This defense may be the best I have seen in Miami in a long time. Seriously, the Jimmy Johnson/Dave Wannstedt defenses were solid, but they were not turnover savvy and often wilted towards the end of games. Not this defense. This defense realizes that it needs a big play (or five) and goes out and makes them.

I swear that Jason Taylor had this game on in his helmet. The announcers were talking about how he had been shut down all day, and then WHAM! JT takes over. Yeremiah Bell continues to play great and Matt Roth had a nice showing today. This is a great sign since our d-line is rather old and next year I really think you may see some house cleaning for the younger guys.

-Olindo Mare has got to go. It has come to the point now that I dread seeing him out there. He really has lost all confidence, or all talent, or both. I wish him well, but he needs to go. We can get this level of production (or lack thereof) out of a league minimum rookie.

-Joey Harrington played ok. Not great, not even good. He played ok. That is much better than he had been playing, but he was stil responsible for some terrible overthrows, a fumble on the one yard line and a god awful, head slapping int. If it weren't for the defense (that out scored the offense) we wouldn't have scored a point in the second half for the seocnd game in a row.

-The receivers looked good today. The drops seemed to not be affecting this team today. I saw Chambers drop one, but he got cracked in his back, so it is forgiven, imo. I was impressed with their hands today. Everyone from Peelle to Booker stepped up.

-Lets not even talk about the running game. That was, yikes...

-All in all, I am happy since Miami won again. This offense still concerns me. They seem capable of moving the ball, but for some reason, the playcalling moves away from what is working and the players on offense tend to find ways to shoot themselves in the foot.

The defense look like world beaters right now. I seriously can't complain about them. They have hit hard, tackled solid and forced turnovers in bunches over the past three weeks. Kudos to Saban and Co. for whipping them into shape.

I would've agreed with you until you stated Harrington had a good game. I watched the game a second time and saw how from the 2nd quarter throught the rest of the game...Joey continued to throw behind his receivers.

He also overthrew all of them at least twice. He threw the ball away twice and Chambers screamed at him because he came back towards him and was opened and Joey didn't even pay attention and then said, "my bad".

Then, another INT. What was he thinking? Again.

Joey, Ronnie, and Mare sucked it pretty bad today. Sorry.

But I loved our Defense, OLine play, and believe it or not...receivers.

 

[Coral Reefer]

-Joey Harrington played ok. Not great, not even good. He played ok. That is much better than he had been playing, but he was stil responsible for some terrible overthrows, a fumble on the one yard line and a god awful, head slapping int. If it weren't for the defense (that out scored the offense) we wouldn't have scored a point in the second half for the seocnd game in a row.

.

I would've agreed with you until you stated Harrington had a good game..

Considering you can't even read a post I find it hard to put any weight to your game analysis. Your posts are the same thing over and over. You're one of the guys on here that feel you have to trash everything Harrington does to save Culpepper's career for some reason. He dosen't need your help. You can admit Harrington played ok without orphaning Culpepper.

 

[feelthepain]

Good read overall, but these two things bother me a bit.

-Joey Harrington played ok. Not great, not even good. He played ok. That is much better than he had been playing, but he was stil responsible for some terrible overthrows, a fumble on the one yard line and a god awful, head slapping int. If it weren't for the defense (that out scored the offense) we wouldn't have scored a point in the second half for the seocnd game in a row.

-The receivers looked good today. The drops seemed to not be affecting this team today. I saw Chambers drop one, but he got cracked in his back, so it is forgiven, imo. I was impressed with their hands today. Everyone from Peelle to Booker stepped up.

Joey had the fumble and pick yes, but he threw the ball very well today. Of all the money players on O, Joey has the least amount of time in this system. I'm not making excuses, but 5 games in I don't expect Jake Delhome or Marc Bulger kinda stats. He would be playing better if the other weapons would pick it up a bit. I'll place blame on Joey alone for the two turnovers, but other then that he had a good game. So with the overthrows included that's what, maybe 12 bad plays out of 42 by Joey??? Since the QB does more with the ball then anybody on the field, I'll take those odds.

 

[LoneWulF]

im still hoping for the playoffs, but man if culpepper is healthy and returns to form next year, maybe a few good pickups in the draft, an impact linebacker, we could really be a good team next year

 

[Aussiefinfan54]

i am still rooting for playoffs and i believe joey can get us there!

 

[FinfanDuda]

I believe we will make the playoffs, but it will be the defense taking us there. Scarrington looked like he was starting to self-destruct in the second half.

 

[Simone007]

Considering you can't even read a post I find it hard to put any weight to your game analysis. Your posts are the same thing over and over. You're one of the guys on here that feel you have to trash everything Harrington does to save Culpepper's career for some reason. He dosen't need your help. You can admit Harrington played ok without orphaning Culpepper.

I cant understand why you cant say Harrington sucks without becoming an hater. I can forgive some interceptions, but he continues to overthrow or underthrow, he's not more productive that Frerotte for sure

 

[jacques strapp]

Harrington could have done a bit better but he also did connect with Chambers for a long td which was called back because of a penalty (that wasn't Harrington's fault) and he did put the fins in position for a field goal (that Mare missed again can't be blamed on Joey H). Yes , he threw an interception, so what, there were several QBs who threw ints on Sunday (Brees,Manning,Rothlesburger, etc)

 

[dolphan117]

Good read overall, but these two things bother me a bit.




Joey had the fumble and pick yes, but he threw the ball very well today. Of all the money players on O, Joey has the least amount of time in this system. I'm not making excuses, but 5 games in I don't expect Jake Delhome or Marc Bulger kinda stats. He would be playing better if the other weapons would pick it up a bit. I'll place blame on Joey alone for the two turnovers, but other then that he had a good game. So with the overthrows included that's what, maybe 12 bad plays out of 42 by Joey??? Since the QB does more with the ball then anybody on the field, I'll take those odds.

If you work out the math of that reasoning what you are saying is that you are OK with a QB having bad plays on 28.5 percent of his snaps. That's only 4.5 percent from a full 1/3 of the game, I am NOT OK with those odds. He also finished the game with an unspectacular QB rating of 76.9 with his usual "What was he thinking" pick of the game......

I'm not going to sit here and bash him because I have just resigned myself to not expecting him to be much more than what he was brought in to be. A backup QB who we wouldn't have been able to get for a 5th/6th round pick if he was a legit top level starter.

I have said from the start that he may play better in the future after we have had a chance to coach him up and rebuild his confidence but for this year I expected him to be average. At best. So far that looks to be about right.

 

[volk]

I cant understand why you cant say Harrington sucks without becoming an hater. I can forgive some interceptions, but he continues to overthrow or underthrow, he's not more productive that Frerotte for sure

I won't call you a hater, but I will call you a total pessimist. The fact is, Joey had an excellent first half. He played very, very, solid. The fumble in the red zone is being attributed to Joey, but I watched the play several times, and despite the smugness of the announcers, I don't see any clear evidence that it was Joey's fault. I call that one 50-50 Ronnie and Joey. The pick later in the game was definitely Joey's fault...no doubt about it. Joey was also responsible for a drop and recovery.

Examining Joey's day reveals a decent, if not great, outing. Still, Joey connected on a long ball, and made critical throws when they were needed. Even though Joey's day wasn't "stellar", I still have to be impressed. How many other QB's out there play as well as Joey played with zero running game? The fact that Joey did enough to help us win this game with NO running help (check the stats) is pretty amazing. Don't forget, Joey tossed a long touchdown that got called back on a penalty, and got us into 44 yard field goal range only to see a miss by Mare. That's 10 points right there. Take away the shared fumble at the 4 yard line, and we likely have another 7. That's 17 offensively scored points by a completely one dimensional pass attack. That's DAMN good.

Joey may not be the most accurate, but he has been accurate enough. Don't forget, receivers get paid too. It sounds like many of you think Joey sucks because he isn't Manning or you have some irrational sense of pride connected to Culpepper. Manning plays for someone else, Marino is retired, and Culpepper has a devastating injury and may never return to form. Try to be thankful for a change.