HB Draw, the death of a Dolphins MNF win

[qmar]

Not to dwell on some decisions that were made, but I feel the need to vent. Can't keep it inside any longer.

Let me start by saying that Henning was smart in starting the game off with a bunch of draw plays. With Freeney and Mathis on either end, the draw play is a perfect option to take away those two guys. At some point throughout the game though, the Colts are going to pick up on this. As we noticed, in the early part of the 3rd Quarter, the Colts started holding Freeney and Mathis back to wait and see if the draw was coming and with this came the death of the draw play for us. At this point, we should have decided to start running some standard dives, tosses, counters, etc. They were not being fooled by the draw any longer.

So we continue to run draws on every single drive including the first 2 plays of the most important drive of the game. 2:36 left in the game with 2 timeouts from your own 25 and you run 2 draw plays to start the drive????? Are you kidding me? While I believe in these situations, a draw may be a good option. Defense is thinking pass, you may catch them off guard. You are not going to catch the Colts off guard when you have broken the record for the MOST DRAW PLAYS called in a game (exaggeration here). This was poor play calling on Hennings part. Plain and simple. They got too conservative on the drive before and continued their conservatism on the most important drive of the game when you are down 4.

There are countless other individual plays which irked me (wasting timeouts, QB sneak on 3rd and 1 with less than a minute left, etc.), but the draw play is what got to me the most.

I even recall myself saying on the first drive, "smart play running the draw, Freeney and Mathis will have to think twice about speed rushing to the outside". That's one of the points of a draw, throw them off a bit and also give your QB some time later in the game since they will have to play beware of the draw. You DO NOT just keeping running the draw over and over again.

I'm done. Thanks for allowing the venting session. Please reply if you have any thoughts on my rant.

 

[wonderl33t]

I disagree. The offense was solid all game, aside from getting some FGs when we should have gotten TDs. The only bad play calling was during the last drive, I agree that running was not smart right there. Otherwise I think the play calls were very good.

Side note - I was very surprised that the draws work at all. I generally don't like them, seems like they rarely work

 

[qmar]

I disagree. The offense was solid all game, aside from getting some FGs when we should have gotten TDs. The only bad play calling was during the last drive, I agree that running was not smart right there. Otherwise I think the play calls were very good.

Side note - I was very surprised that the draws work at all. I generally don't like them, seems like they rarely work

They usually only work with speed rushers. Gives the back a lane.

Did you not notice how easy the Colts started stopping the draw after we ran it 8 or 9 times. Yet they continued to call that play on 1st and 2nd down. Penny would pick up a key 3rd and 6+ via an out pattern to Ginn. After the 1st couple drives the draws were worthless and they were especially devastating on the last drive.

 

[Finfang]

I disagree. The offense was solid all game, aside from getting some FGs when we should have gotten TDs. The only bad play calling was during the last drive, I agree that running was not smart right there. Otherwise I think the play calls were very good.

Side note - I was very surprised that the draws work at all. I generally don't like them, seems like they rarely work

What about the drive before that when we played to kick a field goal and go up three with three minutes left. On 3rd and 6 we run the ball to get in the middle of the field to kick a FG. That was the worst call of the night. Everyone was so happy we had just taken the lead but we left Peyton with three minutes on the clock. You never do that. Very dumb move. You keep attacking that defense and you finish. We had them there and we gave it away.

I'm still pissed about that call!

 

[Phinsfan210]

why are we complaining about our offense, i just dont get some of you....

 

[qmar]

What about the drive before that when we played to kick a field goal and go up three with three minutes left. On 3rd and 6 we run the ball to get in the middle of the field to kick a FG. That was the worst call of the night. Everyone was so happy we had just taken the lead but we left Peyton with three minutes on the clock. You never do that. Very dumb move. You keep attacking that defense and you finish. We had them there and we gave it away.

I'm still pissed about that call!

I'm with you. That was a stupid call and it's even more frustrating to hear Tony come out and say he thought it was the right call. Regardless, a tough moment for me as well and for me falls right behind the dreaded HB Draw.

 

[qmar]

why are we complaining about our offense, i just dont get some of you....

Was the defense good on Monday, NO. I won't deny that, but honestly, they have alot more talent on offense than we do on defense. Peyton is one of the best QB's of all times, they have a good enough line, and Clark and Reggie are Top 5 at their respective positions.

No matter what position our defense put us in, we had a chance to win the game on offense on two different drives. We got conservative and let Peyton have over 3:30 minutes to move down the field. Obviously, it only took him about a minute.

While our defense looked shaky, it's still very young and they were going up against an experienced and talented offense. As sad as it is to say, I put this loss on the play calling at the end of the game.

 

[deathdisco]

What about the drive before that when we played to kick a field goal and go up three with three minutes left. On 3rd and 6 we run the ball to get in the middle of the field to kick a FG. That was the worst call of the night. Everyone was so happy we had just taken the lead but we left Peyton with three minutes on the clock. You never do that. Very dumb move. You keep attacking that defense and you finish. We had them there and we gave it away.

I'm still pissed about that call!

What is funny, they go for it on 4th down and not kick the fieldgoal and turn the ball over and then Manning gets it back and the defense hold's them, and then we go to overtime, and Manning gets the ball back and scores and win, and you would all be like, why didnt just kick the field goal and we would have won.

It doesn't really matter either way, we lost and now I hope we just keep improving and get better and get out of SD with a win.

 

[BGtoKNfor6]

Hindsight being 20/20, I personally felt we SHOULD have gone for it on 4th down instead of missing that field goal. I mean the colts couldn't stop our run all game and if we did we didn't get it, I would be bummed but at least we tried.

Either way you cut it, the game calls were horrible at key times for the offense and for most of the game defensively. The way we allowed them to kick a field goal at the end of the first half was absolutely atrocious. I think that was smith who should have come up with the interception and he didn't.

We left too much on the field that game.