Tigers2003
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- Joined
- Oct 11, 2005
- Messages
- 2,314
- Reaction score
- 5
Granted I did not see the game live but TIVOd since I was on a boating trip this weekend. What more can be said of how our first two drives ended besided that they are symbolic of this offense the entire season? The fumble was all Harrsion and not RB's fault. Good D's do that- force TOs. Mare's miss was bad luck due to the poor conditions of that part of the field. Any kicker could slip in that situation. That stuff happens from time to time.
As far as offense we had no running game to speak of. There were little holes in the first half for RB to run through and just about none in the second. By the way it was nice to see Sammy Morris playing again.
Yes, the pass protection was much better than anything previous this season. Which begs the question has it been more of Daunte's fault all the sacks the previous four weeks or the pass protection? I still maintain that it is a combination of both. You have to admire Harrington's poise and decisiveness despite his mistakes on the INTs.
The two INT were both bad throws. The first INT was a bad throw, bad decision on Harrington's part, and excellent execution by the Pat's D. The second was thrown too hard and too far away from Welker eventhough it was off his fingers. Samuels once again was at the right place and time for the Pats. Welker had no fault to do with either one.
I paid attention to the OL line and as stated before the pass protection was encouraging. But in the running game Hadnot was getting little to no push in the middle. Shelton was not impressive at all. Even in pass protection what pressure the Pats were getting were coming from his area of the line. James after being a bright spot in the line for the previous weeks did not help with his penalties and he was getting pushed around during run blocking attempts. Granted he had an injury this past week. The false starts in the second quarter (granted the Pats were sloppy too with their penalties) were ridiculous! Those are things that play a big part in the Dolphins being the masters of self destruction.
The good news is Mc Mike's and Welker's play and Harringtons decisiveness with the football. Kudos to Mc Michael for playing hard and banged up. Welker once again was solid in returns and as the slot receiver. The Booker injury was a case of another bad luck and very fitting the gain was nullified due to the holding call.
On D I liked how we handled their running game. Yeah Dillon had some nice runs in the first half. But, I saw little out of him in the second half and we seemed bent on controlling Maroney. The pass protection from the safety position and LBs (and that includes Zach) were awful as it has been all season. The Pats have their film on us and obviously game planned to throw to the middle and middle left of the field to take advantage of our safteys and LBs. Case in point the 4th and 4 converson in the fourth quarter. The nearest Dolphins to the play were Spragan and Hill. In fact Hill was the main saftey they seemed to target. I suppose they felt after watching film during the week that he was even more of a liability than Tillman; and that is saying a lot!
Once again two big mistakes by the corners will leave the impression on many fans that they stink and played awful. Shame on Daniels for biting on Brown's little juke out on the first Brady TD throw. And, Hill came in too late to help. Not surprising since the safteys seem to be coming in late to help all season if at all. The Allen PI was in fact PI. Yeah I know he turned his head but he was in terrible position and had already made contact by the time he saw the ball. If I was the ref I would have thrown the flag too. Despite two bad mistakes by the corners at the worse possible times both Daniels and Allen played OK outside of those plays. I maintain the real problems in coverage starts primarily with both safetys and the LBs a close second and then the corners.
Saban did not have much of an argument IMHO on the Allen PI. As far as arguments he should have thrown that red flag on the Chambers reception / non reception in 3rd qtr. That was a catch and could have been overturned. By the way did anyone see Mc Michael's reaction when he saw Saban take out the flag and then pull it back?
I am not going to hate on Mularkey's play calling this week as it was not a reason we lost. Mistakes at the most critical times, poor run blocking and execution on offense, bad luck, dumb penalties, and the fact we were playing the Pats were reasons.
From what I have seen these past weeks I am not going to give up as long as we are mathematically alive. And even then this team has to play for pride. I am not giving up on Daunte. However, at this time (and to be clear that may not be the case by the time this season is through) Harrington has shown me that he gives us the best chance vs. the Jets. Unfortunately, the qb situation is a week to week scenario with us. As far as fortune and luck we have none. Luck and bad bounces cannot explain away everthing about a 1-4 record so far. But, is it just me or does it appear the football Gods have it played out that other teams can make mistakes like all do against us (Titans the lone exception and even at that they could have easily beaten us) and get away with it but every mistake we make bites us in the you know where. We absolutely have no margin of error to speak of.
As far as offense we had no running game to speak of. There were little holes in the first half for RB to run through and just about none in the second. By the way it was nice to see Sammy Morris playing again.
Yes, the pass protection was much better than anything previous this season. Which begs the question has it been more of Daunte's fault all the sacks the previous four weeks or the pass protection? I still maintain that it is a combination of both. You have to admire Harrington's poise and decisiveness despite his mistakes on the INTs.
The two INT were both bad throws. The first INT was a bad throw, bad decision on Harrington's part, and excellent execution by the Pat's D. The second was thrown too hard and too far away from Welker eventhough it was off his fingers. Samuels once again was at the right place and time for the Pats. Welker had no fault to do with either one.
I paid attention to the OL line and as stated before the pass protection was encouraging. But in the running game Hadnot was getting little to no push in the middle. Shelton was not impressive at all. Even in pass protection what pressure the Pats were getting were coming from his area of the line. James after being a bright spot in the line for the previous weeks did not help with his penalties and he was getting pushed around during run blocking attempts. Granted he had an injury this past week. The false starts in the second quarter (granted the Pats were sloppy too with their penalties) were ridiculous! Those are things that play a big part in the Dolphins being the masters of self destruction.
The good news is Mc Mike's and Welker's play and Harringtons decisiveness with the football. Kudos to Mc Michael for playing hard and banged up. Welker once again was solid in returns and as the slot receiver. The Booker injury was a case of another bad luck and very fitting the gain was nullified due to the holding call.
On D I liked how we handled their running game. Yeah Dillon had some nice runs in the first half. But, I saw little out of him in the second half and we seemed bent on controlling Maroney. The pass protection from the safety position and LBs (and that includes Zach) were awful as it has been all season. The Pats have their film on us and obviously game planned to throw to the middle and middle left of the field to take advantage of our safteys and LBs. Case in point the 4th and 4 converson in the fourth quarter. The nearest Dolphins to the play were Spragan and Hill. In fact Hill was the main saftey they seemed to target. I suppose they felt after watching film during the week that he was even more of a liability than Tillman; and that is saying a lot!
Once again two big mistakes by the corners will leave the impression on many fans that they stink and played awful. Shame on Daniels for biting on Brown's little juke out on the first Brady TD throw. And, Hill came in too late to help. Not surprising since the safteys seem to be coming in late to help all season if at all. The Allen PI was in fact PI. Yeah I know he turned his head but he was in terrible position and had already made contact by the time he saw the ball. If I was the ref I would have thrown the flag too. Despite two bad mistakes by the corners at the worse possible times both Daniels and Allen played OK outside of those plays. I maintain the real problems in coverage starts primarily with both safetys and the LBs a close second and then the corners.
Saban did not have much of an argument IMHO on the Allen PI. As far as arguments he should have thrown that red flag on the Chambers reception / non reception in 3rd qtr. That was a catch and could have been overturned. By the way did anyone see Mc Michael's reaction when he saw Saban take out the flag and then pull it back?
I am not going to hate on Mularkey's play calling this week as it was not a reason we lost. Mistakes at the most critical times, poor run blocking and execution on offense, bad luck, dumb penalties, and the fact we were playing the Pats were reasons.
From what I have seen these past weeks I am not going to give up as long as we are mathematically alive. And even then this team has to play for pride. I am not giving up on Daunte. However, at this time (and to be clear that may not be the case by the time this season is through) Harrington has shown me that he gives us the best chance vs. the Jets. Unfortunately, the qb situation is a week to week scenario with us. As far as fortune and luck we have none. Luck and bad bounces cannot explain away everthing about a 1-4 record so far. But, is it just me or does it appear the football Gods have it played out that other teams can make mistakes like all do against us (Titans the lone exception and even at that they could have easily beaten us) and get away with it but every mistake we make bites us in the you know where. We absolutely have no margin of error to speak of.
