ckparrothead
Premium Member
Just got in from Miami. I've only been able to carry out limited review the tape but I was there live and saw a lot of what was going on during the game. Here are my thoughts.
1. Since it's such a headliner, John Beck was ok. Just ok. Actually on review he jumped out a little better than live. Live, I thought he was just ordinary. On the tape, you could see his decision making a little more clearly. Let's be honest, on that sack he held the ball too long against a package blitz of that kind of sheer magnitude, and then he topped it off by losing a little bit of control on the football when Barber hit him in the back. But, the WRs didn't help him much. He looked hot for Wilford or Hagan and neither of them broke off their routes, Hagan sort of crept forward toward where Ruud was running and Beck would have had to fit the ball awful tight to get it there and not get intercepted, clearly Beck decided he should tuck and run it instead but Barber got him first. That's the bad. The good is, compare this tape with one year ago and you'll see some marked differences. One clear one is that his short throws, backfield throws, etc...are head and shoulders better than a year ago. Accurate darts instead of inaccurate rockets, is what I liken it to. Another thing is on tape you get to see that there were two other pressure moments before the Barber sack and he handled them pretty well. He released a nice one on a short out to Hagan as he was being hit from the front. The one where Wilkerson batted the ball was actually a good read, Wilkerson came completely free right up the middle (line, where are you?) and Beck threw hot to the outside as Wilkerson cleared the lane on his all-out, but he got his backside trailing hand up to bat the thing...good job on his part. Against a top notch D he was playing the field position battle during the first quarter, but couldn't get us up for a score.
2. Ricky Williams sure was something, wasn't he?
3. Ronnie Brown looked tentative to me. One run he got hit in the backfield because Donald Thomas couldn't get over to the blitzing LB fast enough on the pull (tough task). Another run though, everyone did get a hat on a hat and even though the Bucs D did a good job disrupting the integrity of the blocking, the defenders were occupied and some quicker thinking could have turned that one positive. His lone positive run of the night, good hole up the middle but you could see it on the field the defender dove right for his right knee and instead of Ronnie bulling it, he just went straight to the ground, not risking a thing. Is that because it was preseason? Or was that by instinct. I think the latter. He has a ways to go.
4. Matt Roth was a pretty decent OLB. He really moved pretty well, I was surprised. But, no matter where you play him, he's always going to be mostly a plugger. Putting him at SOLB will help the run D, just as it did in this game...but he's not making pass rush plays from there.
5. Charlie Anderson looked pretty good as a WOLB, but just that. Not more than that. He does his job putting on the outside pass rush pressure but he's not good enough to make the QB do more than take a step forward.
6. Not impressed with the 4-man fronts against a first string OL. Quentin Moses was supposed to be ace pass rusher and he made practically zero progress toward the QB in pass rush situations with 4 DLs. They need to find a better pass rush line than Moses, Anderson, Wright and Starks. Wright and Starks might be ok for it but I think Moses and Anderson weren't cutting it at all. But, such is life when you lose JT.
7. Hagan sure picked the wrong time to let his issues resurface. All the sudden, back at practice he's dropping a few and has to work on the JUGS machine after practice. Then, I'm watching him in pre-game warmups and he dropped a REAL easy one. Right then I could have told you he was going to drop one during the game. Sure enough, first pass of the night. But, he did get control of it right away and I don't think he dropped another. Still, he executed a takedown on that one run play, got the flag. And he didn't break off his route very well on that Barber sack.
8. Kendall Langford is a monster. He may be the biggest star of this draft class for now and ever, no offense to Jake Long. He made plays out there that were NOT obvious. Not just the sack he caused. Plays against the run, too...where others got the credit. Jason Ferguson ought to be thankful this guy played next to him. Ferg got turned around completely by a double on one play but Kendall went ahead and made the play, bailed him out. Then of course you have the sack that Langford really caused and Ferg got to keep the sack stat for cleaning it up.
9. When Paul Soliai first got into this game, he was a beast. He was doing an excellent job, and making plays he did not make a year ago. Conditioning may still be a problem for him though, because as the game wore on he definitely tailed off. The coaches would do well to keep a live rotation of Ferg and Soliai so that neither gets tired.
10. Anthony Fasano, were you actually playing tonight? Because it didn't just look like you took Aaron Haltermann's number, it also looked like you took his skill set. Seriously, step up and make a name for yourself, nobody's going to do it for you.
11. Penalties, god damn penalties. Seemed like every single penalty was against us. Just goes to show you, shock a team all you want, culture doesn't change overnight. Only four of the nine were by people that were here last year, so it's not like they're the prime culprits. Davone Bess accounted for two procedural (read: unnecessary) penalties. Son, you're just going to make Jeff Ireland's job easier when it comes to justifying claiming any semi-talented WR off waivers and filling out our 4th and 5th WR spots with fresh faces. Jake Long got one false start in his four year career at Michigan. First night as a Dolphin, he gets one. WTF? Camarillo, you really think you can afford that holding call? Nope. Good thing he blocked well.
12. Our substitutions need to get a lot cleaner. This was something you could see live at the stadium. They were constantly just a step or half step behind where they need to be and on some occasions it led to the ball being snapped before our guys were really lined up. Sloppy.
13. Jayson Foster isn't proving Parcells a genius yet.
14. This is definitely going to have to be a 3-4 defense. I liked how the 4-DL set got traction later in the game but let's face it, that was against the Bucs' second and third stringers. Early during the time that counted, the same guys that rushed as a 4-DL line just a second ago, played a 3-4, and got pressure, made things happen. 3-4 all the way.
15. Torbor's got some juice. But he plays a bit reckless.
16. Dan Carpenter, I think you may have officially just made this team. What an impressive debut. First kick is off the infield, no problems. Second kick is a 49 yarder. Also kiddy cornered a kickoff really well.
17. Kircus certainly survived another week. McCown, unfortunately, may not. He was AWFUL out there. He played like a man with one foot out the door.
18. Rob Ninkovich impressed me a little bit out there. Good pressure, nice lanky frame, bad penalty though.
19. Lots of passes out there. I wouldn't have thunk it. I thought we'd have seen 40 runs out there, with how important that aspect of our offense looks. Instead we got 15. Yikes. By my count coaches called 33 pass plays, 15 run plays. Not at all what I would have expected...by a long shot.
20. Of course I wasn't going to go the whole list without talking about Henne. Chad looked like...Chad. It was like watching him play at Michigan, with all the same challenges and all the same strengths. This is a guy that is going to need to get a quality pair of receivers working with him for a long time to where they get on the same page and can read each others' minds. When/if that happens, that is when this guy will take off. This game sort of highlights the differences between the two QBs that played (and didn't stink). I think Beck is sort of a rhythm guy that will be at his best reading the field and taking what he gets. Henne's the sort of guy that reads the play before the snap, maybe makes one quick look at the rotation of the safeties or the coverage of the corners as he drops back, settles on a receiver and throws it to that guy according to what he read. Instead of adjusting who he throws the ball to, he adjusts the ball placement. Like I said, when his WRs get use to him and can read each others minds, he should be good. He handled pressure two times that stuck out at me. Once he got the ball out to the sidelines on an out as he was getting pummeled in his back. Second time the OL inexplicably allowed a blitzer right up the middle to practically tackle him during his drop, and he threw a cutoff to Wilford's outside shoulder that could have been caught if the guy's name wasn't Ernest Wilford. I've seen Peyton Manning make that throw to Marvin Harrison a dozen times or better. That's a pro throw. Handled pressure really well. Took that blind side hit from Wilkerson like a champ. Of course, he was not without his chinks in the armor either. Accuracy broke down deep. For all the talk of Beck getting passes batted at the line, Henne had just as many. Looks like Drew Bledsoe when he tries to break the pocket. And you know, sometimes a check down WILL move the offense...just saying.
That's about it. G'night folks.
1. Since it's such a headliner, John Beck was ok. Just ok. Actually on review he jumped out a little better than live. Live, I thought he was just ordinary. On the tape, you could see his decision making a little more clearly. Let's be honest, on that sack he held the ball too long against a package blitz of that kind of sheer magnitude, and then he topped it off by losing a little bit of control on the football when Barber hit him in the back. But, the WRs didn't help him much. He looked hot for Wilford or Hagan and neither of them broke off their routes, Hagan sort of crept forward toward where Ruud was running and Beck would have had to fit the ball awful tight to get it there and not get intercepted, clearly Beck decided he should tuck and run it instead but Barber got him first. That's the bad. The good is, compare this tape with one year ago and you'll see some marked differences. One clear one is that his short throws, backfield throws, etc...are head and shoulders better than a year ago. Accurate darts instead of inaccurate rockets, is what I liken it to. Another thing is on tape you get to see that there were two other pressure moments before the Barber sack and he handled them pretty well. He released a nice one on a short out to Hagan as he was being hit from the front. The one where Wilkerson batted the ball was actually a good read, Wilkerson came completely free right up the middle (line, where are you?) and Beck threw hot to the outside as Wilkerson cleared the lane on his all-out, but he got his backside trailing hand up to bat the thing...good job on his part. Against a top notch D he was playing the field position battle during the first quarter, but couldn't get us up for a score.
2. Ricky Williams sure was something, wasn't he?
3. Ronnie Brown looked tentative to me. One run he got hit in the backfield because Donald Thomas couldn't get over to the blitzing LB fast enough on the pull (tough task). Another run though, everyone did get a hat on a hat and even though the Bucs D did a good job disrupting the integrity of the blocking, the defenders were occupied and some quicker thinking could have turned that one positive. His lone positive run of the night, good hole up the middle but you could see it on the field the defender dove right for his right knee and instead of Ronnie bulling it, he just went straight to the ground, not risking a thing. Is that because it was preseason? Or was that by instinct. I think the latter. He has a ways to go.
4. Matt Roth was a pretty decent OLB. He really moved pretty well, I was surprised. But, no matter where you play him, he's always going to be mostly a plugger. Putting him at SOLB will help the run D, just as it did in this game...but he's not making pass rush plays from there.
5. Charlie Anderson looked pretty good as a WOLB, but just that. Not more than that. He does his job putting on the outside pass rush pressure but he's not good enough to make the QB do more than take a step forward.
6. Not impressed with the 4-man fronts against a first string OL. Quentin Moses was supposed to be ace pass rusher and he made practically zero progress toward the QB in pass rush situations with 4 DLs. They need to find a better pass rush line than Moses, Anderson, Wright and Starks. Wright and Starks might be ok for it but I think Moses and Anderson weren't cutting it at all. But, such is life when you lose JT.
7. Hagan sure picked the wrong time to let his issues resurface. All the sudden, back at practice he's dropping a few and has to work on the JUGS machine after practice. Then, I'm watching him in pre-game warmups and he dropped a REAL easy one. Right then I could have told you he was going to drop one during the game. Sure enough, first pass of the night. But, he did get control of it right away and I don't think he dropped another. Still, he executed a takedown on that one run play, got the flag. And he didn't break off his route very well on that Barber sack.
8. Kendall Langford is a monster. He may be the biggest star of this draft class for now and ever, no offense to Jake Long. He made plays out there that were NOT obvious. Not just the sack he caused. Plays against the run, too...where others got the credit. Jason Ferguson ought to be thankful this guy played next to him. Ferg got turned around completely by a double on one play but Kendall went ahead and made the play, bailed him out. Then of course you have the sack that Langford really caused and Ferg got to keep the sack stat for cleaning it up.
9. When Paul Soliai first got into this game, he was a beast. He was doing an excellent job, and making plays he did not make a year ago. Conditioning may still be a problem for him though, because as the game wore on he definitely tailed off. The coaches would do well to keep a live rotation of Ferg and Soliai so that neither gets tired.
10. Anthony Fasano, were you actually playing tonight? Because it didn't just look like you took Aaron Haltermann's number, it also looked like you took his skill set. Seriously, step up and make a name for yourself, nobody's going to do it for you.
11. Penalties, god damn penalties. Seemed like every single penalty was against us. Just goes to show you, shock a team all you want, culture doesn't change overnight. Only four of the nine were by people that were here last year, so it's not like they're the prime culprits. Davone Bess accounted for two procedural (read: unnecessary) penalties. Son, you're just going to make Jeff Ireland's job easier when it comes to justifying claiming any semi-talented WR off waivers and filling out our 4th and 5th WR spots with fresh faces. Jake Long got one false start in his four year career at Michigan. First night as a Dolphin, he gets one. WTF? Camarillo, you really think you can afford that holding call? Nope. Good thing he blocked well.
12. Our substitutions need to get a lot cleaner. This was something you could see live at the stadium. They were constantly just a step or half step behind where they need to be and on some occasions it led to the ball being snapped before our guys were really lined up. Sloppy.
13. Jayson Foster isn't proving Parcells a genius yet.
14. This is definitely going to have to be a 3-4 defense. I liked how the 4-DL set got traction later in the game but let's face it, that was against the Bucs' second and third stringers. Early during the time that counted, the same guys that rushed as a 4-DL line just a second ago, played a 3-4, and got pressure, made things happen. 3-4 all the way.
15. Torbor's got some juice. But he plays a bit reckless.
16. Dan Carpenter, I think you may have officially just made this team. What an impressive debut. First kick is off the infield, no problems. Second kick is a 49 yarder. Also kiddy cornered a kickoff really well.
17. Kircus certainly survived another week. McCown, unfortunately, may not. He was AWFUL out there. He played like a man with one foot out the door.
18. Rob Ninkovich impressed me a little bit out there. Good pressure, nice lanky frame, bad penalty though.
19. Lots of passes out there. I wouldn't have thunk it. I thought we'd have seen 40 runs out there, with how important that aspect of our offense looks. Instead we got 15. Yikes. By my count coaches called 33 pass plays, 15 run plays. Not at all what I would have expected...by a long shot.
20. Of course I wasn't going to go the whole list without talking about Henne. Chad looked like...Chad. It was like watching him play at Michigan, with all the same challenges and all the same strengths. This is a guy that is going to need to get a quality pair of receivers working with him for a long time to where they get on the same page and can read each others' minds. When/if that happens, that is when this guy will take off. This game sort of highlights the differences between the two QBs that played (and didn't stink). I think Beck is sort of a rhythm guy that will be at his best reading the field and taking what he gets. Henne's the sort of guy that reads the play before the snap, maybe makes one quick look at the rotation of the safeties or the coverage of the corners as he drops back, settles on a receiver and throws it to that guy according to what he read. Instead of adjusting who he throws the ball to, he adjusts the ball placement. Like I said, when his WRs get use to him and can read each others minds, he should be good. He handled pressure two times that stuck out at me. Once he got the ball out to the sidelines on an out as he was getting pummeled in his back. Second time the OL inexplicably allowed a blitzer right up the middle to practically tackle him during his drop, and he threw a cutoff to Wilford's outside shoulder that could have been caught if the guy's name wasn't Ernest Wilford. I've seen Peyton Manning make that throw to Marvin Harrison a dozen times or better. That's a pro throw. Handled pressure really well. Took that blind side hit from Wilkerson like a champ. Of course, he was not without his chinks in the armor either. Accuracy broke down deep. For all the talk of Beck getting passes batted at the line, Henne had just as many. Looks like Drew Bledsoe when he tries to break the pocket. And you know, sometimes a check down WILL move the offense...just saying.
That's about it. G'night folks.
