Only Two Problems To Solve & We're There Man!

[Da 'Fins]

Really there are only two problems with our offensive line:

1) If we pass, we expose their inability to protect the QB.

2) If we run, we expose their inability to run-block.

Other than that, we really have no problems on offense.

DW needs to wake up. I have been a support of this guy for a long time, patiently hoping he knew what he was doing. The fact is, he doesn't. You don't win a race on lousy worn out retreds for tires and you don't play winning football when you can't run or pass effectively b/c the OL cannot block!

Don't give us this :cry: crap about "Oh, their playing an 8 man front!" New England played an 8 man front against a Denver team that has NO QB! Yet, Portis ran for over a 100 yards and over a 4 yard average for most of the game. What lost them the game was a porous D.

Our OL STINKS! It doesn't belong on the field! And the man who build that OL and fielded it is Dave Wannstedt. He Doesn't belong on the field either!

What a shame to have wasted such a solid defense - and an offense that, if it had a good OL - could be good enough to win it all with RW and Chambers. What a waste! I'm sick of seeing great players I love to watch make some great plays and then have it go to waste!

 

[inFINSible]

To be a little more fair about it....Dixon was really the only roll of the dice he took. I mean NO ONE could have figured the WHOLE line would go south in one year.

He gambled on Dixon and lost. But, He took as many lineman as he could in the draft to shore up our depth and plan for the future. He just didn't think the future was going to be this year.

 

[Da 'Fins]

Those are fair points, but you're also not considering:

1) He also gambled on Nails coming back healthy. He is a shadow of the player he was last year.

2) Perry has never struck fear into opposing DT's and has barely gotten the job done. He's been physically manhandled for some time.

3) Ruddy has also had severe problems - how many times have we seen him knocked on his butt in a game? I couldn't begin to count!

4) We've had OL problems going back a number of years. I've been irritated about the bad OL going back to Marino days. He's had several years to fix it and has only made half-hearted attempts. I was calling for an OL pick when we drafted Fletcher.

The problem has been a patchwork attempt. Too many 3-5 round picks instead of trying to get some real studs, as best as he can.

If you're talking about One year, perhaps it's a bit harsh. But, he's been here for four years and has done little to get a stud in the line. He lucked out to have Dixon anyway - when your best OL is a retread from the Canadian league - what does that say about the quality of OL drafts you've had?

 

[i2panzer]

nails is healthy but he gained 75 pounds because of thwe achilles. he lost 50 and now needs to drop about 25 more to get at the same weight.

inFINSible is exactly right... who knew so many problems were gonna happen? we're all predicting 2000 yards for ricky!

 

[inFINSible]

Originally posted by Da 'Fins
Those are fair points, but you're also not considering:

1) He also gambled on Nails coming back healthy. He is a shadow of the player he was last year.

2) Perry has never struck fear into opposing DT's and has barely gotten the job done. He's been physically manhandled for some time.

3) Ruddy has also had severe problems - how many times have we seen him knocked on his butt in a game? I couldn't begin to count!

4) We've had OL problems going back a number of years. I've been irritated about the bad OL going back to Marino days. He's had several years to fix it and has only made half-hearted attempts. I was calling for an OL pick when we drafted Fletcher.

The problem has been a patchwork attempt. Too many 3-5 round picks instead of trying to get some real studs, as best as he can.

If you're talking about One year, perhaps it's a bit harsh. But, he's been here for four years and has done little to get a stud in the line. He lucked out to have Dixon anyway - when your best OL is a retread from the Canadian league - what does that say about the quality of OL drafts you've had?

1) I don't think it was much of a gamble with Nails. I think that Seth was his hedge against that. I would more question why Seth isn't playing rather than blame him for Nails not being the player he was.

2) Funny how we always hear about how well Perry grades out on film but we still have guys who think he sucks. I haven't watched him enough to say one way or the other. So...:dunno:

3) Again, I don't remember Ruddy being a problem before. Nothing spectacular but not a weakness. :dunno:

4) I agree to an extent. We've had problems since the Marino days but, I didn't see JJ try anything but half a$$ attempts to solve it either.

Our biggest problems have been injuries. We have lost too many players to injuries and had too many playing dinged up.

I don't know what you can do to combat injuries except to stock pile talent behind your starters, and that's just not possible in this day and age.

When you can only sign rooks for 3 or 4 years, by the time they develop their contract is up and they want big bucks if they're any good at all. Plus when you sink 8 million into a LT or something that leaves scraps for the rest of the line...So, what do you do?..You try and build a COHESIVE UNIT out of 5 reasonably priced (talented?) players and hope that beats one superstar and four scrubs.

That's what we have been trying to do, It just hasn't worked yet.

But last season it looked like it was working and that's why we are where we are today.

 

[PhinPhan1227]

Originally posted by inFINSible
To be a little more fair about it....Dixon was really the only roll of the dice he took. I mean NO ONE could have figured the WHOLE line would go south in one year.

He gambled on Dixon and lost. But, He took as many lineman as he could in the draft to shore up our depth and plan for the future. He just didn't think the future was going to be this year.

First of all, Dixon wasn't a roll of the dice. It was a 100% certainty that Dixon was NOT going to play 16 games this season. That was a dead set surety. So right there, the roll of the dice was that a 3rd round draft pick with barely one year of college experience could stand in for the best player on our O-line. The other roll of the dice was that Jaime Nails, who proved in Buffalo that he couldn't play if he was overweight, would be able to return to 100% health, weight, and speed by week 1. Again, not something that was exactly a favorable odd. I don't blame Wanny for not overspending in FA...but I do blame him for not doing more in the draft when there were good players who could be good TODAY available at #2.

 

[DOLFANMIKE]

Re: Only Two Problems To Solve & We're There Man!

Originally posted by Da 'Fins
Really there are only two problems with our offensive line:

1) If we pass, we expose their inability to protect the QB.

2) If we run, we expose their inability to run-block.

Other than that, we really have no problems on offense.

DW needs to wake up. I have been a support of this guy for a long time, patiently hoping he knew what he was doing. The fact is, he doesn't. You don't win a race on lousy worn out retreds for tires and you don't play winning football when you can't run or pass effectively b/c the OL cannot block!

Don't give us this :cry: crap about "Oh, their playing an 8 man front!" New England played an 8 man front against a Denver team that has NO QB! Yet, Portis ran for over a 100 yards and over a 4 yard average for most of the game. What lost them the game was a porous D.

Our OL STINKS! It doesn't belong on the field! And the man who build that OL and fielded it is Dave Wannstedt. He Doesn't belong on the field either!

What a shame to have wasted such a solid defense - and an offense that, if it had a good OL - could be good enough to win it all with RW and Chambers. What a waste! I'm sick of seeing great players I love to watch make some great plays and then have it go to waste!

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/columnists/jeff_miller/7176841.htm

I wonder if the play call where Griese fumbled the game away was actually a play action fake to Ricky, with Ricky double teaming with Wade Smith on the DE? If so it was a great call that was poorly executed.

I wonder how many other plays on both sides of the ball fit into that same category?

 

[DeDolfan]

Originally posted by inFINSible
To be a little more fair about it....Dixon was really the only roll of the dice he took. I mean NO ONE could have figured the WHOLE line would go south in one year.

He gambled on Dixon and lost. But, He took as many lineman as he could in the draft to shore up our depth and plan for the future. He just didn't think the future was going to be this year.

However, Wannstedt himself said that the OL was the top priority heading into the off season. I would hardly qualify a 3rd and a 4th or 5th rounders as addressing the problem Depth yes, but depth was not the problem. It was starters. First he lied about sayiond Dixon would no longer be a LT but LG. he reneged on that later and then Dixon went down again. Rolling the dice on a perrenial injury prone man is a bad gamble in anybody's book.

 

[inFINSible]

Re: Re: Only Two Problems To Solve & We're There Man!

Originally posted by DOLFANMIKE



http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/columnists/jeff_miller/7176841.htm

I wonder if the play call where Griese fumbled the game away was actually a play action fake to Ricky, with Ricky double teaming with Wade Smith on the DE? If so it was a great call that was poorly executed.

I wonder how many other plays on both sides of the ball fit into that same category?

:up:

 

[DeDolfan]

Re: Re: Only Two Problems To Solve & We're There Man!

Originally posted by DOLFANMIKE



http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/columnists/jeff_miller/7176841.htm

I wonder if the play call where Griese fumbled the game away was actually a play action fake to Ricky, with Ricky double teaming with Wade Smith on the DE? If so it was a great call that was poorly executed.

I wonder how many other plays on both sides of the ball fit into that same category?

Yeah, it was PA. Faked the handoff to Ricky and then he runs left, all the while Smith gets knocked off his block into Ricky's path with freeney blowing around the outside. iMO, Ricky was running the underneath crossing route and with everyone else clearing out that area, the ball would've gone to Ricky on about the 5 and his momentum could've carried him in. But, Smith and Ricky collided, Ricky couldn't get out, not that it would've mattered anyway cuz at that point Freeney was a split sec away from Griese. If a double team had been called for, then I don't think they would've run PA with it and Ricky would've just slid over to the left to chip on Freeney coming from the outside where he was coming from all day. Tivo is a great thing to use to break these things down. Even slo mo alone can't tell it all. But when you advance frame by frame and hold it, you can certainly see what happened.

 

[FinsGoToGuy]

Re: Re: Re: Only Two Problems To Solve & We're There Man!

Originally posted by DeDolfan
But when you advance frame by frame and hold it, you can certainly see what happened.

Or not it that case !

 

[DeDolfan]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Only Two Problems To Solve & We're There Man!

Originally posted by FinsGoToGuy


Or not it that case !

Or not, what???

 

[Da 'Fins]

Re: Re: Re: Only Two Problems To Solve & We're There Man!

Originally posted by DeDolfan


Yeah, it was PA. Faked the handoff to Ricky and then he runs left, all the while Smith gets knocked off his block into Ricky's path with freeney blowing around the outside. iMO, Ricky was running the underneath crossing route and with everyone else clearing out that area, the ball would've gone to Ricky on about the 5 and his momentum could've carried him in. But, Smith and Ricky collided, Ricky couldn't get out, not that it would've mattered anyway cuz at that point Freeney was a split sec away from Griese. If a double team had been called for, then I don't think they would've run PA with it and Ricky would've just slid over to the left to chip on Freeney coming from the outside where he was coming from all day. Tivo is a great thing to use to break these things down. Even slo mo alone can't tell it all. But when you advance frame by frame and hold it, you can certainly see what happened.

I have the game on tape and watched that play several times. It happened exactly as you described it. And, Freeney already had Smith clearly beaten by the time Ricky bumped Smith. If they had done a double team, it wouldn't have been a sack.

It does appear that they were potentially setting up a screen to ricky on the other side.

 

[Da 'Fins]

Originally posted by inFINSible


1) I don't think it was much of a gamble with Nails. I think that Seth was his hedge against that. I would more question why Seth isn't playing rather than blame him for Nails not being the player he was.

2) Funny how we always hear about how well Perry grades out on film but we still have guys who think he sucks. I haven't watched him enough to say one way or the other. So...:dunno:

3) Again, I don't remember Ruddy being a problem before. Nothing spectacular but not a weakness. :dunno:

4) I agree to an extent. We've had problems since the Marino days but, I didn't see JJ try anything but half a$$ attempts to solve it either.

Our biggest problems have been injuries. We have lost too many players to injuries and had too many playing dinged up.

I don't know what you can do to combat injuries except to stock pile talent behind your starters, and that's just not possible in this day and age.

When you can only sign rooks for 3 or 4 years, by the time they develop their contract is up and they want big bucks if they're any good at all. Plus when you sink 8 million into a LT or something that leaves scraps for the rest of the line...So, what do you do?..You try and build a COHESIVE UNIT out of 5 reasonably priced (talented?) players and hope that beats one superstar and four scrubs.

That's what we have been trying to do, It just hasn't worked yet.

But last season it looked like it was working and that's why we are where we are today.

On Perry: A quote from the Herald: "Wannstedt's analysis on Monday was that the Dolphins are getting less production at three of the five starting spots: left tackle (Smith), left guard (Jamie Nails) and right guard (Todd Perry). Wannstedt said center Tim Ruddy and right tackle Todd Wade were playing ``about the same.'' Further, we picked up two OG's this year - that shows they don't expect Perry or Nails to be strong. Personally, I think Perry has been lousy every year he's been here except last year he was decent. I watched him on film from Sunday - he was blown away. He gets blown back (as does Ruddy) quite often by physical DT's.

On Ruddy: If he was solid, why did we draft a center last year and why does he keep switching them? B/c Ruddy has not been solid. We've needed an OT for several years, but last year we draft a center?

On Nails: He definitely wasn't going to come back 100%. Even if the reason is his playing weight - Wanny had to know he would not be able to work out with the achilles. It was only an extremely rigorous workout regimen that made Nails a good player last year. He also likely has lost quickness due to the achilles - There isn't a player who doesn't.


On only being able to sign 3-4 rookies, etc., well ... your argument would say you can never hope to build a good OL. If you draft decently and add the right players - you can build an OL.

Our problem, if you notice, is that we've had ONE 1st round pick who was an OL in the last dozen years. That will not get the job done. Especially when OL has been a weakness for so long. It's not about injuries (we've only had two - Dixon and Nails). It's about getting talent at the starting spot to begin with. It just hasn't happened. Even with a healthy Dixon and Nails, we would still have weaknesses, imo.

 

[DeDolfan]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Only Two Problems To Solve & We're There Man!

Originally posted by Da 'Fins


I have the game on tape and watched that play several times. It happened exactly as you described it. And, Freeney already had Smith clearly beaten by the time Ricky bumped Smith. If they had done a double team, it wouldn't have been a sack.

It does appear that they were potentially setting up a screen to ricky on the other side.

Yup, that or that underneath route I mentioned. Either route didn't matter tho. but in any case, Wade should've had help in that situation with the game on the line tho. Should've had Konrad still in or even minor. I've seen him do some decent blocking as well.