Key to the Game: Texans at Dolphins

[hightempo]

Wishful thinking on my part to think the Dolphins would win this game.

But I did think several of the issues I raised definitely reared their head. I said I couldn't speak of a "key" for the Special Teams because that seems like a lost cause and I can't think of anything to fix it, and that if the Texans win this game by a margin then I expect special teams became an issue. Well, special teams were a hell of an issue.

Glover Quin was a big problem today. And the Dolphins never isolated him in man coverage.

They DID manage to isolate Brandon Marshall on Jason Allen, which produced their only touchdown on the day as the Beast ripped JA to shreds.

A lot of the running success was exactly what I hoped, using formation shifts to manipulate how the Texans play their strong side/weak side personnel, then taking advantage of better run blocking on the left side of the line. The other thing they did was, as I hoped, not run plays that didn't make sense into numbers mismatches...making the necessary calls at the line to get us into better plays.

I thought the team did really well when it passed on the Texans' base package, and did more poorly when the Texans brought out their nickel.

The most concerning aspect of this team is its tendency to fade at the end, not finish out games. That's big. That happened a lot in 2007. Early in the season, you couldn't necessarily tell that this was a team that was about to go 1-15. But they showed many of the same issues that this team has shown.

When I've criticized most of the moves this regime made in the off season, I think a lot of people kind of naively just pinned it all on the QB situation, as if I'm unhappy with whatever the Dolphins do JUST because I disagree with how they've handled the QB situation. I've said many times though that in many ways the QB situation is a lost cause, there were no perfect answers there. The best they could have done was try and set themselves up for the future, while doing some things that might have eeked out a bare few more wins in the present than otherwise would happen. In reality I criticized all these moves, including negligence at the safety position, negligence at pass rusher, negligence on the offensive line, negligence at tailback, negligence at tight end and negligence with the coaching staff...because the Dolphins were putting themselves on track for a disaster this year. That's the bottom line.

As I've said many times, that 'give up' attitude we saw in Week 17 of last year...we could see that more along the lines of Week 7 this year. That's the week I'm watching out for it, because if we start out 1-3 heading into the bye, then lose that Jets game coming out of the bye, and come back home to play the Broncos on a day Stephen Ross has pegged for honoring Tim Tebow (the Bronco) and the other Florida Gators for how awesome THEY were (in stark contrast to how bad WE are), then this team, its fans, everyone could go into full revolt. The Broncos game is a game we should be able to win, or at the very least be competitive in, but I wonder if the team will just not show up at all, like in Week 17 of 2010.

so what now ck?

 

[ckparrothead]

so what now ck?

Unfortunately, we wait.

If it's any consolation, I believe we'll get a reprieve from the doom and gloom next week. I think we beat the Cleveland Browns.

Of course, I've already been wrong on predicting a Fins victory so I could be wrong about that one too.

 

[hightempo]

Unfortunately, we wait.

If it's any consolation, I believe we'll get a reprieve from the doom and gloom next week. I think we beat the Cleveland Browns.

Of course, I've already been wrong on predicting a Fins victory so I could be wrong about that one too.

i think henne has turned a page. i really do. but i think u get what u get with him at the end of the day. hes just going to be inaccurate on some throws, and misjudge the type of throw or the amount of touch needed on certain throws at times. i think u can win with henne i believe he will be a top 15 guy, maybe back end of top 10. i dont think thats enough at the end of the day unless all the other pieces are really really good.

and i love marshall, but i dont believe he is a goto guy, and what i mean by that is hell make plays for u. but when it matters can u depend on him? and i think the answers no. hell drop a ball. or hell gas. or hell run the wrong route. or hell give up on a play. its all the small things but they add up. and i believe henne really WANTS to go to him. even looks for him now. but i think marshall at times will make henne look bad. at times hell make him look good to. i think their relationship has evolved. i dont know if it can every really click tho. i just trust marshall anymore. and i love the guy. but u need santonio holmes on the other side to complement the guy.

that being said, i dont know that i want us to beat cleveland anymore. this team is not going to make the playoffs. if they dont give up they will be around .500 may even be able to fight their way to 9-7. i dont see it happening. tony is going to lose this team at some point. his message will be stale. it may have already happened and if so 6-10 at best.

with that in mind, we will have a new head coach next year. if its gruden, henne isnt an ideal west coast guy. and the new coach is going to need a qb. and since our last 3 regimes, in their INFINITE wisdom decided it was in the best interest to pass on AVAILABLE qbs with franchise potential when a quarterback wasnt currently on the roster. (wanny - brees, saban - rodgers, parcells - ryan, ireland - mallett) it goes on and on. i only hope we can be in a position to be able to add a franchise qb to the roster. if we dont have a top 10 pick - the odds of adding that player significantly decrease. so we can only hope.

 

[ckparrothead]

I don't think Chad Henne has turned the corner. I think he's finally playing in a style he should have been coached to play all along, but as we go on in this new style of play, we will keep seeing his weaknesses and limitations more and more.

In the end, I just don't believe he's good enough to make it work unless you get everything perfect around him. A play-action quarterback that makes bad decisions off play-action. A bad athlete that now makes a lot of his best plays running the ball. A guy with perfect delivery that gets his passes batted at the line a ton. There continues to be something missing. You want a guy that elevates the level of play of the guys around him. Chad Henne continues to highlight their weaknesses in too many ways.

In the end, he'll plateau. We'll see that this change he's undergone is a change, a little bit for the better, but not a lot of bit to the better. In the end the guys you're talking about in the #12 to #15 range at QB...they tend not to be good enough like 4 times out of 5, and then they'll have a great year where everything around them falls just right. Why is that something we want?

I think Brandon Marshall will tend to disappoint you at some moments but surprisingly if you pay attention to a lot of receivers out there, many of the biggest play makers have that same exact quality. Look at Andre Johnson. He had a big drop on a deep ball during the game just like Marshall did. That ball that got thrown over top of Nolan Carroll, where the announcers said Carroll may have gotten a piece of it? Carroll did not get a piece of that ball. He wasn't even close. The ball dropped perfectly right over Andre Johnson's shoulder, and he dropped it. It could have been a big play. In fact, had the game gone the other way, someone somewhere could have looked at that play and said...had we made that play, we win the game.

For Jeff Ireland it's not just Ryan Mallett. I don't know why people make such a big deal out of that one. To me it was just one more (among many) moves or non-moves the front office made that just didn't make sense. But there have been PLENTY of others. Most people just tend not to think about them. Mallett's not the only QB they passed on in that Draft. They passed on a bunch of them. They liked Christian Ponder, they didn't have the guts to trade up for him. I don't know if they liked Gabbert or not. I know they liked Jake Locker and didn't make efforts to go out and get him.

But as I've said many times, none of that would have even mattered for this year, 2011. The failures of 2011 were destined to be surrounding many things aside from QB, but also kind of including QB.