enigmatics
Go get me a juice box!
Beating Carolina was definately a great win for us, considering that many consider them to be an NFC title contender this year. I saw plenty of positives and plenty to work on so bare with me as I make my observations.
The offense..........
Linehan sure is pass-happy. Now, I'm sure his game-planning has plenty to do with the fact that we're starting a rookie RB and an O-line still gelling, but boy does he love the passing game. Booker and Chambers have such an opportunity playing under this scheme and it showed once again today. It was evident from the get go that Linehan truly wants Chris Chambers to make that jump to the next level. At one point I saw during a replay Chris Chambers pulled a play out of the Randy Moss handbook. What I'm referring to is the hand gesture to the QB. Anyone else notice this? Moss has forever been allowed to throw up his hand when he wants his QB to bomb the ball to him and I saw the same from Chambers today. We absolutely killed them in the short and intermediate passing game. Not surprising considering all the talent we have at the recieving and tight end positions - teams simply do not have the talent nor the depth to match up with us when Frerotte is getting decent protection.
The running game was a pleasant surprise today. However, I'm going to take it with a grain of salt. I give its props, no doubt, but until I see the same results on the road I'm going to take a wait-and-see approach. Ronnie Brown, who I've been criticizing as of late, looked alot better. That 58-yard run was darned impressive and the O-line completely eradicated the Panthers run D on that very play. Whoever was playing left-tackle on that play (McIntosh or Carey) took out two defenders and paved the way for Ronnie. Mr. Brown even lowered the boom again on a defender in order to break away during that long run. He thew up 132 yards on 23 rushes, for the first 100-yard game of his career. Slightly misleading though when you take away his long scamper, without it he would've amassed 74 yards on 22 carries for a 3.36 avg. Again, not trying to hate, I'm just breaking down what I saw out of him. He did look alot shiftier alot more confident, but still hesitated quite a bit back there.
Frerotte looked good. He can definately fire that ball when it comes to those short and intermediate routes I previosly spoke of. I'm still disgusted with his long ball though. Thinking back to his Viking days would lead me to believe that Randy Moss made him look better than he actually was when throwing it deep. I mean he's not even close on the majority of those passes.
The O-line really seems to be coming together with it's pass blocking, but again another area where I need to see them throw up the same performance on the road. I really never noticed Julius Peppers the whole game and that says alot. However, these guys are still killing us with penalties. Saban and Houck absolutely have to get this corrected. We cannot continue to get into 1st and long and 2nd and long. Their concentration absolutely must get better.
Special teams wasn't so hot today. Jones had a decent day punting, Mare was his usual self, but Welker didn't have one of his better days, of course they kicked away from him quite a bit.
As for the defense.........
Our run D and it's ability to adjust is no doubt that foundation of this defense right now. We rotate so many fresh, athletic bodies in there and simply wore down the Carolina O-line. Nobody wants to see our short yardage and goal-line D. We got to Delhomme quite a bit in the 2nd half which I won't complain about, but I would love to see that kind of pass rush throughout the whole game, for not every game we play in will feature the muggy South Florida weather wearing down the opposing team. I wish though that we had a healthy Larry Chester in there. Could you imagine him next to Keith Traylor aka "Truck"???
One play which really stood out was a blitz package where it appeared we sent nearly all the linebackers thru the right side of their line. I've never seen a Miami defense get to the QB so fast, not to mention rendered them completely helpess. Also loved how we're blitzing people, not just to sack the QB or to tackle a player, but also to take out FB's and blockers in the backfield (almost Kamikaze like). Saban's got such a trust in our D-line that once the FB is taken out, our linebackers will eat RB's alive as we did Stephen Davis today, who went for a weak 16 carries and 36 yards.
Our pass defense though, is worrying me quite a bit. Saban's commented that he wants to take out the opposing team's best player. Well that plan went right out the window when it came to Steve Smith. This is the spot where I miss Surtain, because he was the guy we would of stuck on Smith no matter where he lined up. The tackling was attrocious on many of those short to intermediate passing routes Carolina ran against us, especially to Mangum and DeShaun Foster.
The defense, much like the O-line, also suffered from too many penalities and stupid ones at that. What was Madison thinking when he body slammed Steve Smith when the play was dead and they were clearly 3 to 4 yards out of bounds. Not smart, considering that Steve Smith will only get fired up from something like that and burn us like he did. Travis Daniels technique and concentration broke down a quite a bit today too, especially on his pass interference play. Reggie Howard was his typical turd self, can't even get up for a game vs. his old squad. That guy has terrible body balance, not to mention he's simply too small to succeed on Saban's D. You can thank Lance Shulters anticipation for our win. Without his interception, we'd all be on here moaning about another loss.
I won't complain about a win like this, impressive whenever you think back to how bad we were last year and the fact that we're sitting atop the division with the Pats. But, I'm almost expecting performances like this at home this year. We can beat anybody at home, no doubt. We've got the talent and the synergy between the crowd and the players is so nice to see, hasn't been that way in a long time. The true test will remain on the road. How far we'll go this year will be decided outside of Dolphin Stadium.
The offense..........
Linehan sure is pass-happy. Now, I'm sure his game-planning has plenty to do with the fact that we're starting a rookie RB and an O-line still gelling, but boy does he love the passing game. Booker and Chambers have such an opportunity playing under this scheme and it showed once again today. It was evident from the get go that Linehan truly wants Chris Chambers to make that jump to the next level. At one point I saw during a replay Chris Chambers pulled a play out of the Randy Moss handbook. What I'm referring to is the hand gesture to the QB. Anyone else notice this? Moss has forever been allowed to throw up his hand when he wants his QB to bomb the ball to him and I saw the same from Chambers today. We absolutely killed them in the short and intermediate passing game. Not surprising considering all the talent we have at the recieving and tight end positions - teams simply do not have the talent nor the depth to match up with us when Frerotte is getting decent protection.
The running game was a pleasant surprise today. However, I'm going to take it with a grain of salt. I give its props, no doubt, but until I see the same results on the road I'm going to take a wait-and-see approach. Ronnie Brown, who I've been criticizing as of late, looked alot better. That 58-yard run was darned impressive and the O-line completely eradicated the Panthers run D on that very play. Whoever was playing left-tackle on that play (McIntosh or Carey) took out two defenders and paved the way for Ronnie. Mr. Brown even lowered the boom again on a defender in order to break away during that long run. He thew up 132 yards on 23 rushes, for the first 100-yard game of his career. Slightly misleading though when you take away his long scamper, without it he would've amassed 74 yards on 22 carries for a 3.36 avg. Again, not trying to hate, I'm just breaking down what I saw out of him. He did look alot shiftier alot more confident, but still hesitated quite a bit back there.
Frerotte looked good. He can definately fire that ball when it comes to those short and intermediate routes I previosly spoke of. I'm still disgusted with his long ball though. Thinking back to his Viking days would lead me to believe that Randy Moss made him look better than he actually was when throwing it deep. I mean he's not even close on the majority of those passes.
The O-line really seems to be coming together with it's pass blocking, but again another area where I need to see them throw up the same performance on the road. I really never noticed Julius Peppers the whole game and that says alot. However, these guys are still killing us with penalties. Saban and Houck absolutely have to get this corrected. We cannot continue to get into 1st and long and 2nd and long. Their concentration absolutely must get better.
Special teams wasn't so hot today. Jones had a decent day punting, Mare was his usual self, but Welker didn't have one of his better days, of course they kicked away from him quite a bit.
As for the defense.........
Our run D and it's ability to adjust is no doubt that foundation of this defense right now. We rotate so many fresh, athletic bodies in there and simply wore down the Carolina O-line. Nobody wants to see our short yardage and goal-line D. We got to Delhomme quite a bit in the 2nd half which I won't complain about, but I would love to see that kind of pass rush throughout the whole game, for not every game we play in will feature the muggy South Florida weather wearing down the opposing team. I wish though that we had a healthy Larry Chester in there. Could you imagine him next to Keith Traylor aka "Truck"???
One play which really stood out was a blitz package where it appeared we sent nearly all the linebackers thru the right side of their line. I've never seen a Miami defense get to the QB so fast, not to mention rendered them completely helpess. Also loved how we're blitzing people, not just to sack the QB or to tackle a player, but also to take out FB's and blockers in the backfield (almost Kamikaze like). Saban's got such a trust in our D-line that once the FB is taken out, our linebackers will eat RB's alive as we did Stephen Davis today, who went for a weak 16 carries and 36 yards.
Our pass defense though, is worrying me quite a bit. Saban's commented that he wants to take out the opposing team's best player. Well that plan went right out the window when it came to Steve Smith. This is the spot where I miss Surtain, because he was the guy we would of stuck on Smith no matter where he lined up. The tackling was attrocious on many of those short to intermediate passing routes Carolina ran against us, especially to Mangum and DeShaun Foster.
The defense, much like the O-line, also suffered from too many penalities and stupid ones at that. What was Madison thinking when he body slammed Steve Smith when the play was dead and they were clearly 3 to 4 yards out of bounds. Not smart, considering that Steve Smith will only get fired up from something like that and burn us like he did. Travis Daniels technique and concentration broke down a quite a bit today too, especially on his pass interference play. Reggie Howard was his typical turd self, can't even get up for a game vs. his old squad. That guy has terrible body balance, not to mention he's simply too small to succeed on Saban's D. You can thank Lance Shulters anticipation for our win. Without his interception, we'd all be on here moaning about another loss.
I won't complain about a win like this, impressive whenever you think back to how bad we were last year and the fact that we're sitting atop the division with the Pats. But, I'm almost expecting performances like this at home this year. We can beat anybody at home, no doubt. We've got the talent and the synergy between the crowd and the players is so nice to see, hasn't been that way in a long time. The true test will remain on the road. How far we'll go this year will be decided outside of Dolphin Stadium.
