What the tape saw: Cleveland Browns at Miami Dolphins

[DKphin]

Miami Dolphins

- The main problem with Chad Henne (notes) is that he seems to process everything a step slowly, and his physical game reflects that issue. He reminds me of Drew Bledsoe in that regard — in and out of the pocket, it just takes him too long to get up to speed. His blitz and pressure recognition are each average at best, and he's not able to evade pressure in the pocket as the best quarterbacks do. You don't have to be a speedster to evade pressure; Tom Brady (notes) and Peyton Manning (notes) are two of the all-time best at that, and nobody would ever mistake either one of them for Michael Vick (notes) . But they understand how to shift their positions and re-set their feet quickly to throw. With Henne, that same kind of pressure upsets the applecart and destroys the play far too often.

- Of course, it's not all his fault — the Dolphins' interior line is a work in progress, and I'm hard-pressed to find much good to say about Richie Incognito (notes) from a blocking perspective. The lack of a consistent deep threat also hurts.

- Running back Daniel Thomas (notes) is coming along, but he's still struggling with blitz pickup at times — the Chris Gocong (notes) sack was at least in part the result of Thomas letting Gocong fly right by on a six-man blitz.

- The Dolphins use formations as their play tells a lot — they're not very formation-diverse, and that really handicaps them in an era when most of the best offenses can run all kinds of stuff. If it's run, far too often it will be heavy I-formation, sometimes with an added H-back. If they go trips, it's pass for sure. One way to make that offense breathe a bit more would be to find ways to create unexpected plays out of different formations. The Packers and the Saints are probably the best at that, and they won the last two Super Bowls. It's not a coincidence.

- In the end, you can see why there's so much talk about Tony Sparano's job. There are things going on with this organization that he has no control over, and the botched offseason hunt for Jim Harbaugh proved that. But there are times when a team just needs an overhaul, and the Dolphins have too much talent to be this bad, They're not world-beaters by any means, but they shouldn't be this bad.

http://m.yahoo.com/w/sports/home/bl...id=0eef6sbZ_YANc.TrJujxqn5d&.intl=US&.lang=en

 

[flynryan15]

Seems fair! Maybe a little to nice.

 

[dolphone]

Lousy analysis.

Regarding Henne: There were several plays where he stood up to the pressure and made the throw. And if guys in his face were a problem, what happened on the TD play? He's no master at feeling the pressure, sure, but he gets the ball out often enough. I shudder to think what a Bledsoe or Leftwich would look like with out OL.

As for the OL, he misses the fact that the inside has probably been the most consistent part of the OL this season. Incognito sure didn't play well this past game, but he had been pretty good for the past two. The big problem in the OL isn't inside, it's outside and its name is Marc Colombo.

Also, "If they go trips it's pass for sure"? First of all the Dolphins don't run trips a whole lot. They run a lot of 3WR sets, but no trips. If that's what he means, however, he's sorely mistaken: the Dolphins *love* the shotgun draw. Sure they pass a lot from that formation - but what team doesn't? I agree they are limited in formations (it's basically I formation 2-TE, or 3 WR for the most part). But this limitation isn't that much of a hindrance - their offense churns along nicely with it, and so does the Pats'.

Overall a very flawed analysis from a guy who obviously doesn't watch a lot of Dolphins football.