Game Observations from the Seats

[Muck]

I'm not able to be on the computer very much this weekend. And this was probably discussed to death. I thought I'd just offer a quick 2 cents on a few things I saw at the game.

- Hurry back Tim Bowens!! The Titans ran to Zgonina's side all day long, opening up huge cutback lanes for Chris Brown to bust through (including the 52-yarder).

- No pass rush. Jason Taylor was doubled all day long. And if not for us having an outstanding secondary, McNair would have ripped us (or any other team) apart. He had all day to stand back there and survey the field. And that's how he got most of his 73 yards passing: just sitting back waiting for someone to get open the second time around. We've got to get a better rush, or guys like Brady and Pennington are going to destroy us.

- Our goalline defense is outstanding. The Titans simply could not pick up positive yardage against us on both of their trips inside the 2 yard line. And the TD to Kinney on 1st down (on an outstanding play fake by McNair) followed 3 plays (two for a loss) on a series that started at the 1 yard line. But on 3rd down, Reggie Howard got flagged for pass interference, giving Tennessee a fresh set of downs from the 1.

- Lamont Brightful looks like a good addition for us. He's not Dante Hall. But he's fast and he runs north/south.

- I hope the Dolphins can one day field an OL as good as Tennessee's (who's OL is one of the best every year).

- The OL has to become more consistent as a whole. It's as if they took turns being the one guy to fail on a given play. That said, John St. Clair seemed to do pretty well (but of course he got hurt).

- Taylor Whitley is the weak link on the OL. He got pushed around all day long. Especially in pass protection. Unfortunately, it appears our only hope is that Rex Hadnot develops VERY quickly.

- I can't wait for Damion McIntosh to step in at LT. Wade Smith is still a liability (especially) in the run game.

- I like the way Lamar Gordon runs. Certainly one of the more encouraging things I saw yesterday.

- Chris Chambers was doubled all game long. And the Dolphins did little to make the Titans think about doing otherwise.

- The WRs had trouble getting open. Many times, every receiver was covered. And when we did decide to go long, the QB was running for his life before the WRs even looked back.

- Rob Konrad would have certainly helped yesterday as a receiver out of the backfield. His absence gave the Titans one less area of the field to worry about.

- Why didn't the Dolphins put A.J. Feeley in the shotgun on all those 3rd and longs?? 3rd and 19, and they've still got A.J. wasting time dropping back.

- How bad does the decision to start Jay Fiedler look now?? 2 INTs (one in the endzone) and a lost fumble in 2 quarters. And the OL actually blocked well on the INT in the endzone. Fiedler just overthrew Booker. Feeley got 1/4 of the snaps this week and still managed to play better IMO.

- Penalties!! Good lord!! This absolutely kills me. Not only did this record amount of penalties (14) put us in hole after hole, but many times they negated good plays. Will Poole was offsides on CONSECUTIVE ONSIDE KICKS.....the first of which WE RECOVERED. There were several others that negated nice gains on 1st down. Inexcusible. While the NFLPA might not allow it, I'd start fining those guys. Every "dumb" penalty deemed legitimate, $500-$1,000 (depending on your contract). Start messing with their money and I'll bet the penalties disappear.

Ok, that's it for thoughts off the top of my head. Hopefully I didn't forget too much since yesterday. As you can see, I don't have much beef with the defense. They played pretty well. And they REALLY tightened up in the 2nd half (even pressuring McNair on several occassions).

 

[minus]

Good observations Muck.

 

[SkapePhin]

I think Will Poole actually recovered or touched the ball first on that onside kick.. so had he NOT been offside Tenn would have gotten the ball anyway..

Regardless, dumb rookie mistake.

 

[FinsOnTop]

- Why didn't the Dolphins put A.J. Feeley in the shotgun on all those 3rd and longs?? 3rd and 19, and they've still got A.J. wasting time dropping back.

This is the most troubling thing I find about our coaching staff...and I find alot of things troubling about them.

 

[inFINSible]

OMG....you are so right about Zgonina....he got friggen buried constantly.

 

[CrunchTime]

Very informative thread.Some of your points were covered earlier but not in this depth and not from the stands.I heard there was some booing going on.Thats never very encouraging.Its obvious this team still has some big holes to fill.The absence of Ogun may have hurt the DL play.

The problem with the penalties is probably due to having so many new players out there.At one time the offense had AJ ,Slash Gordon ,Eastlick (sp) plus 6 other players who were not on the team last year.It will take some time for the offense to gell.

I agree that Gordon was a good pickup.He seems to be able to find a crease even when the OL is not blocking well.

Thanks for sharing your observations.

 

[Muck]

I think Will Poole actually recovered or touched the ball first on that onside kick.. so had he NOT been offside Tenn would have gotten the ball anyway..

Regardless, dumb rookie mistake.

The referee said that the Dolphins recovered but were not entitled because Poole was offsides.

Unless Tennessee successfully challenged that play, it would have been Miami's ball if Poole wasn't offsides

The paper said that Poole had never been in that position before because that's normally where Patrick Surtain lines up. But Surtain was injured and Poole was forced in.

 

[Muck]

Very informative thread.Some of your points were covered earlier but not in this depth and not from the stands.I heard there was some booing going on.Thats never very encouraging.Its obvious this team still has some big holes to fill.The absence of Ogun may have hurt the DL play.

The problem with the penalties is probably due to having so many new players out there.At one time the offense had AJ ,Slash Gordon ,Eastlick (sp) plus 6 other players who were not on the team last year.It will take some time for the offense to gell.

I agree that Gordon was a good pickup.He seems to be able to find a crease even when the OL is not blocking well.

Thanks for sharing your observations.

The booing was LOUD!! And it was obviously aimed at Jay or the most part. While I'll never boo anyone in a Miami Dolphins uniform, I too was shouting a few obscenities. ESPECIALLY after Jay was picked off throwing into triple coverage. People were just fed up with the Jay Fiedler era and were calling for A.J. They also boo'd when Dave decided to punt on 4th and 1 from around the 50.

As for the penalties, a lot of that can and should be corrected. 9 of the 14 penalties were procedure-based: four false starts, two illegal formations, two offsides, and one illegal motion.

 

[bdwgroove]

Muck,

It wasn't just Zgonina, it was the left DT position in general because the same thing was happening when our newly aquired DT Robertson was in there too. In their defense, they were getting double teamed quite often when Tennessee ran to that hole and then Tennessee would kick out the DE to create a gap and they were quite successful. On other occasions I saw our D-line slant to the right and the RG would just ride our left DT past the hole and he would just take himself out of the play. To make matters worse, I saw on 3 occasions where Junior filled the wrong hole and the RB just cut back for a big gain. Zack is so much more instinctive in the running game. I also saw a good game out of Jay Williams. He didn't make a ton of plays but he didn't get beat, kept his responsibilities and applied presure on thethe pass rush. Robertson also looked good when he wasn't double teamed.

I didn't see the problems that you saw with Whitley and I thought that he did alright in the run game...he just wasn't overpowering. And it was his first start. My complaint with the O-line is squarely with the play of Wade Smith. It was bad enough that he let his man pressure the QB but he let his guy make plays when the ball was run to the other side.