Big Red 1972
Long Lasting Freshness
The Dolphins have corrected many of the problems we saw in Week 1. The loss of Chad Pennington and Will Allen were not season-ending scenarios thanks to Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland's great drafting. Henne is now starting so the offense is no longer limited by Pennington's arm strength or lack thereof. We're making adjustments in the running game bouncing it outside if we're getting stuffed inside. This Dolphins team is getting better week by week but obviously there is still room for improvement.
Here's what we need to do.
1. Eliminate the big play. This continues to be a problem for us. Its not just the talent on the field. The coaches are equally to blame. We dial up the blitz and sack Sanchez or Brees in the first half and then we hardly blitz at all in the second half? You can't play scared. You can't play not to lose. You have to play to win.
2. Eliminate the turnovers. Bess muffed a punt and lost a pass that wasn't reviewed. Luckily that didn't cost us the game against the Jets. However it did cost us against the Saints and clearly continues to be a problem.
3. Get Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams more involved in the pass game. They are dangerous men in the opponent's secondary. Ask any DB in the league if they would rather tackle Ronnie Brown or Ted Ginn and I think you know what their answer would be. Passing the ball to Ronnie and Ricky will put them in more situations where they can do serious damage. Our receiving corps is not exactly on par with the Colts, Cardinals, or Saints. That's not going to change before season's end.
4. Speaking of Ted Ginn I said it before and I'll say it again. He should be returning every kick and every punt. That will increase his odds of taking it to the house quite a bit. Josh Cribbs has 49 returns so far this season. Darren Sproles has 41. Eddie Royal has 29. Percy Harvin has 28. Before today's game Ginn had 8. He is now tied with Cribbs, Royal, Crayton, and Harvin for most TDs and his 34.9 average leads the league. He is a weapon! Maybe now we will finally use him correctly.
5. Throw the ball deep. Henne has a rocket for an arm. Let's play to his strengths. One failed attempt to Hartline in the 1st quarter is not going to cut it most weeks.
6. There's been a bit of talk about how the Dolphins need to finish games. That's not completely true. Our offense is fine. Its the defense that needs to finish games. Couldn't do it against the Colts. Couldn't do it against the Saints. They finally did it against the Jets and now we're 3-4. If our defense can continue to find ways to win we are playoff bound.
SIDE NOTE: Thank god we re-signed Jason Taylor. That was the biggest no-brainer of all time. Why it took so long is still beyond me. Should have got that done the day after the draft.
Big game against the Pats next week. Huge game. Once we get past them we have Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Buffalo. I know 12-4 sounds crazy but how does 7-4 grab you?
F.Y.I. If the Dolphins were to win out this is the best the Pats, Jets, and Bills could hope for:
Dolphins 12-4
Pats 12-4 (we would win the tie-breaker)
Jets 12-4 (we would win the tie-breaker)
Bills 10-6
I'm not saying its probable. Just mathematically possible. The division still goes through Miami. We control our own destiny. That's amazing considering we started 0-2.
Here's what we need to do.
1. Eliminate the big play. This continues to be a problem for us. Its not just the talent on the field. The coaches are equally to blame. We dial up the blitz and sack Sanchez or Brees in the first half and then we hardly blitz at all in the second half? You can't play scared. You can't play not to lose. You have to play to win.
2. Eliminate the turnovers. Bess muffed a punt and lost a pass that wasn't reviewed. Luckily that didn't cost us the game against the Jets. However it did cost us against the Saints and clearly continues to be a problem.
3. Get Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams more involved in the pass game. They are dangerous men in the opponent's secondary. Ask any DB in the league if they would rather tackle Ronnie Brown or Ted Ginn and I think you know what their answer would be. Passing the ball to Ronnie and Ricky will put them in more situations where they can do serious damage. Our receiving corps is not exactly on par with the Colts, Cardinals, or Saints. That's not going to change before season's end.
4. Speaking of Ted Ginn I said it before and I'll say it again. He should be returning every kick and every punt. That will increase his odds of taking it to the house quite a bit. Josh Cribbs has 49 returns so far this season. Darren Sproles has 41. Eddie Royal has 29. Percy Harvin has 28. Before today's game Ginn had 8. He is now tied with Cribbs, Royal, Crayton, and Harvin for most TDs and his 34.9 average leads the league. He is a weapon! Maybe now we will finally use him correctly.
5. Throw the ball deep. Henne has a rocket for an arm. Let's play to his strengths. One failed attempt to Hartline in the 1st quarter is not going to cut it most weeks.
6. There's been a bit of talk about how the Dolphins need to finish games. That's not completely true. Our offense is fine. Its the defense that needs to finish games. Couldn't do it against the Colts. Couldn't do it against the Saints. They finally did it against the Jets and now we're 3-4. If our defense can continue to find ways to win we are playoff bound.
SIDE NOTE: Thank god we re-signed Jason Taylor. That was the biggest no-brainer of all time. Why it took so long is still beyond me. Should have got that done the day after the draft.
Big game against the Pats next week. Huge game. Once we get past them we have Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Buffalo. I know 12-4 sounds crazy but how does 7-4 grab you?
F.Y.I. If the Dolphins were to win out this is the best the Pats, Jets, and Bills could hope for:
Dolphins 12-4
Pats 12-4 (we would win the tie-breaker)
Jets 12-4 (we would win the tie-breaker)
Bills 10-6
I'm not saying its probable. Just mathematically possible. The division still goes through Miami. We control our own destiny. That's amazing considering we started 0-2.
