Ricky not breaking the long ones... (and other observations) | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Ricky not breaking the long ones... (and other observations)

grooves12

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Ok, I am sitting here watching the replay of the Dolphins-Texans game from yesterday and will give some of my thoughts on what I have seen so far through the 3rd quarter...

1) I LOVE the Ricky Williams aqcuisition, and I think he is a perfect fit for what the Dolphins want to do. But, I keep hearing the criticism from Saints fans about Ricky getting tackled too easily in the open field, and seemingly never being able to break the long ones. Well, from what I have seen it has nothing to do with his speed, but might have something to do with his SMALL HANDS, oddly enough. Here is what I saw: On two runs he hit a big seam, and had to take on ONE man to break the long one. Now, most great backs in the league will stiff-arm the man in this situation or use one hand to deflect the defenders hands away from him to slip the tackle. Ricky, holds the ball with both hands and takes the blocker head on, trying to run through him. Don't get me wrong... I will take a consistent forward movement all the time with 10-15 yarders coming every now and then, I just think he has more in him. Just something interesting I noticed, Keep your eyes out fot it, you will see what I mean.

2) I was REALLY happy with what I saw from Fiedler last night. I think he will do good for the team this year. BUT, for the first time since Fiedler has been here, I felt like he was holding our offense back. It seemed to me like Norv Turner was getting lots of production, but it was through matchup problems because of all the playmakers we now have. Most of the nice gains were very short passes with lots of YAC by the receiver. There was not enough downfield passing to stretch the defense out. And, I don't know if that's because Turner is trying to mask a weakness of Fiedler or if they are still trying to bring him along slowly, since he is still short on practive time. I like the way they were producing, but I feel if that is what our offense is going to look like all season that we are doing a HUGE disservice to Chambers by wasting his ability.

3) Our offensive line looked impressive to me. Dixon seemed to do a very good job. He did give up the sack at the end of the first half... but he wasn't contantly being beat or giving up on plays early to let his man make a downfield like what I was seeing from Brennt Smith. But, this is the Texans and they are a young team, so the jury is still out on this one to me. But, I definitely saw progress and that is all you can ask for at this time of year.

4) A. Ogunleye... OMG. This guy looks to be a force... in all aspects of the game. He has a motor that doesn't stop, and he is doing it against starters now, so there is no doubt in my mind he should be our starter, and quite possibly a 4 down starter. Kind of makes me said we gave up a fourth rounder for Jay Williams, when we had this guy on our roster all along. But, Jay Williams looks good too... he will be a good pass rusher from the inside for us on 3rd and long situations. I just think if we would have know what we had in A.O. we could have waited a while and picked up Jay Williams for either a lower draft pick... or for nothing, because it looked likely the Panthers would release him. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 and at the time w didn't really know what we had in Bowens and A.O.

What was promising about this game though was... progress, progress, progress... everyone looked liek they were getting on the same page and starting to get it together for the regular season.

I will be watching the 4th quarter later, and might have a few more comments afterwards, but thats it for now.
 
Jay's hip is not full strength which doesn't allow him to have full range and force on his throws.

When his hip is ok he'll be back to having average arm strength. Which is all he needs if he makes better decisions and keeps his accuracy.
 
In regards to the DEs.....just remember that it's a LONG season. And odds are we're going to suffer injuries and/or wear down. So we're gonna need them.
 
I've always known Ogundeleye was a monster. He did the same thing last pre season.
 
I never thought that Ricky would break long ones for us, he is a pounder and I am expecting him to have many good carries instead of a few great carries. Ricky will give you 5 10 yard carries, not one 50 yarder.
 
I had read somewhere today that prior to Walley's blow out knee injury at Indiana, he was generally considered the top DE prospect in the nation. The guy's worked hard rehabbing to come back. Along with RE, another feel good story.
 
do you really expect norv to show everything!

Originally posted by iceblizzard69
I never thought that Ricky would break long ones for us, he is a pounder and I am expecting him to have many good carries instead of a few great carries. Ricky will give you 5 10 yard carries, not one 50 yarder.
NOT
 
No, Norv won't bring out his tricks until the regular season, but Ricky isn't a bigplay back, so don't expect big runs from him, but do expect 4.5 ypc and 1350 yards. :)
 
I'm trying to remember the "Larry Csonka break away threat". Whilst I was young and didn't watch back then, I have seen replays. Wasn't he a bull rusher too? Sorta like John Riggins style. I think they call them a punishing runner. The kind that you don't want to tackle because it hurts. :D
 
I'm getting tired of this Ricky isn't a big play back. This is all based on smack from Saint fans. Why don't we give the guy a chance in our system before we pass judgment? Emmitt isn't fast and he'll brake one every now and again. Even Lamar Smith had a few big runs.

Give Ricky some time and some help around him and he might rumble a bit farther than people think.
 
Originally posted by iceblizzard69
No, Norv won't bring out his tricks until the regular season, but Ricky isn't a bigplay back, so don't expect big runs from him, but do expect 4.5 ypc and 1350 yards. :)

As long as he stays healthy, 1300 yrds should be pretty easy.....i see him getting the ball alot...but i'm not sure about the 4.5 though........he's always been in the 3.5-4.0 range.....perhaps the big arm of jay fiedler will open things up for him. :D
 
ice........., i watched csonka play

Originally posted by IceStorm
I'm trying to remember the "Larry Csonka break away threat". Whilst I was young and didn't watch back then, I have seen replays. Wasn't he a bull rusher too? Sorta like John Riggins style. I think they call them a punishing runner. The kind that you don't want to tackle because it hurts. :D
he was the type who would seek out DB's to run into!
 
Originally posted by PhinKev
I'm getting tired of this Ricky isn't a big play back. This is all based on smack from Saint fans. Why don't we give the guy a chance in our system before we pass judgment? Emmitt isn't fast and he'll brake one every now and again. Even Lamar Smith had a few big runs.

Give Ricky some time and some help around him and he might rumble a bit farther than people think.

I think lamar and emmitt are faster and have better moves than ricky......not to mention the fact that Emmitt ran behind one of the best O-Lines i've ever seen.
 
Now Zonk was not fast by any means, but the thing that amazed me was that he was a lot faster than people give him credit for. I remember many times saying the same thing as he outran opponents down the feild.

ASs for Riggins, he was a big back that was a bruiser with very good speed for a big guy. Now, he would outrun defensive guys all the time. I STILL have nighmares about his stiiff-arm of Don McNeal, and then outrunning the entire Fins D down the sideline for a long TD run. in the SB. Riggo was awesome! Even if he was a jest!
 
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