Official site: "Offense needs to focus on Ronnie and Ricky"

[Agua]

http://www.miamidolphins.com/pressbox/pressreleases/pressreleases.asp?contentID=4210

I don't know if this was written by Andy Cohen or what, but I find it interesting that the Official Site has this statement of direction under "Breaking News".

 

[Superself]

It is common sense!

Linehan needs to get a clue.

Its not about being Wanny-ish either. There are a lot of other coaches who lean on their RBs to get them crucial yards.

 

[arsenal]

ok last game we did that... we passed 22 times ran 24 times... thats what we need to do, but unfortunately the defense kept giving up long *** drives...

 

[Agua]

No, it's not being Wannyish WHEN THE RUNNING GAME IS WORKING. It's being Wannyish to pound travis minus in the middle of the line for 2 downs then incomplete pass on 3rd down. Actually, Linehan is exhibiting Wanny hard-headedness when he insists on passing when we can't do it - it's just his stubborness is pass-oriented rather than run-oriented.

 

[jlfin]

ok last game we did that... we passed 22 times ran 24 times... thats what we need to do, but unfortunately the defense kept giving up long *** drives...

And the offense couldn't finish off drives

 

[HybridPHIN 23]

I think that game was enough to bring attention to all that the play-calling has been poor of late. Adjustments should be made now that our 2 backs are running for 5 yards a carry, and our Qb is struggling to hit half his passes. Ricky hasn't had a reception since his 1st game in which he had 6. We need to get each of these guys 15+ carries and more than a few high % passes their way. Right now CC & Randy are gunna suffer, and it will be real tuff to get Booker, Boston back on track. Lets take it easy on Gus heaving it into traffic, I still think he's a good QB he's just not accurate at all right now, he's got 8 games to do something about it.

 

[AquaInferno]

I think that game was enough to bring attention to all that the play-calling has been poor of late. Adjustments should be made now that our 2 backs are running for 5 yards a carry, and our Qb is struggling to hit half his passes. Ricky hasn't had a reception since his 1st game in which he had 6. We need to get each of these guys 15+ carries and more than a few high % passes their way. Right now CC & Randy are gunna suffer, and it will be real tuff to get Booker, Boston back on track. Lets take it easy on Gus heaving it into traffic, I still think he's a good QB he's just not accurate at all right now, he's got 8 games to do something about it.

He's not a good QB, period..
They're gonna have to run more, get the defense to stack the line, then pass over the heads of opposng 4-6 formations. He can hit some passes, but not most I think it would be best for Gus to pass when necessary. Hopefully the line cuts down on the false starts to avoid 1st and 15 situations.

 

[fishypete]

I rather see 40 runs and 14 passes....run Ricky, Ronnie and Morris bow-legged if you have too. But don't place the game in Gus's hands.

 

[arsenal]

id rather a balance... i dont wanna turn into a 70% rushing team... you cant do that, you need some balance... id want a 55-45 run to pass ratio, i think thats what would be best for our team...

 

[ckparrothead]

Maybe this won't make me popular but, I thought our run/pass mix against the Falcons was actually really good. 22 runs by Ricky & Ronnie, and 22 passes by Gus. Of course, I would not have run WR reverses against a defense we were successful running the ball at with our runningbacks, so you can dump the two Chambers runs into one more Frerotte pass and one more Ricky run, IMO...and then at the very end when the game was on the line I certainly would not have minded 3 more runs to try and get into the endzone, with maybe 1 pass thrown in the mix. So I guess my ideal mix against the Falcons would have been 26 runs by Ricky & Ronnie, 24 passes by Frerotte.

The quickest way to stop your own run offense dead in its tracks, IMO, is to consistently run the ball 40 times a game. This aint the old days, and our OL aint Kansas City's or Atlanta's. If we come by our 40 runs in a game honestly, by means of converting third downs, it would be better...but to make a commitment to run 40 times to 20 passes every game, that would be nuts.

 

[Superself]

Maybe this won't make me popular but, I thought our run/pass mix against the Falcons was actually really good. 22 runs by Ricky & Ronnie, and 22 passes by Gus. Of course, I would not have run WR reverses against a defense we were successful running the ball at with our runningbacks, so you can dump the two Chambers runs into one more Frerotte pass and one more Ricky run, IMO...and then at the very end when the game was on the line I certainly would not have minded 3 more runs to try and get into the endzone, with maybe 1 pass thrown in the mix. So I guess my ideal mix against the Falcons would have been 26 runs by Ricky & Ronnie, 24 passes by Frerotte.

The quickest way to stop your own run offense dead in its tracks, IMO, is to consistently run the ball 40 times a game. This aint the old days, and our OL aint Kansas City's or Atlanta's. If we come by our 40 runs in a game honestly, by means of converting third downs, it would be better...but to make a commitment to run 40 times to 20 passes every game, that would be nuts.

It worked last week:

Ronnie: 23 runs
Ricky: 17 runs

Frerotte: 28 passes

 

[nando03]

Maybe this won't make me popular but, I thought our run/pass mix against the Falcons was actually really good. 22 runs by Ricky & Ronnie, and 22 passes by Gus. Of course, I would not have run WR reverses against a defense we were successful running the ball at with our runningbacks, so you can dump the two Chambers runs into one more Frerotte pass and one more Ricky run, IMO...and then at the very end when the game was on the line I certainly would not have minded 3 more runs to try and get into the endzone, with maybe 1 pass thrown in the mix. So I guess my ideal mix against the Falcons would have been 26 runs by Ricky & Ronnie, 24 passes by Frerotte.

The quickest way to stop your own run offense dead in its tracks, IMO, is to consistently run the ball 40 times a game. This aint the old days, and our OL aint Kansas City's or Atlanta's. If we come by our 40 runs in a game honestly, by means of converting third downs, it would be better...but to make a commitment to run 40 times to 20 passes every game, that would be nuts.

I agree with your assesment completely. I also think that had we been able to keep Atlanta from using up so much time with long drives that we would have had more chances to run the ball with both Ronnie and Ricky. Some people don't realize that the time of possesion in that game was greatly in favor of the Falcons. We only had 4 offensive drives in the whole 2nd half of that game.

 

[nando03]

It worked last week:

Ronnie: 23 runs
Ricky: 17 runs

Frerotte: 28 passes

We ran a total of 47 plays against the Falcons. Its hard to compare what we did the week before because of a few reasons:

A) We were ahead in the Saints game and naturally you run the ball more when you are up to waste time.

B) Saints didn't complete 1 3rd down play, which means to me that we didn't let them have an abundence of long drives and kill time.

C) We ran an extra 11 plays against Saints. That is at least 1 extra drive.

Had we had the same amount of plays against the Falcons, I think we would have won that game. Their defense was getting tired and Vick was getting tired of being knocked on his butt. So it's tough to compare both those games really.