Well, since the last one was such a hit I figured I'd give it another shot. Again, no Ugly category since it's only preseason. Not everyone will make a category either, consider themselves fortunate The Good Chad Vick. I mean Chad Henne. Fair to say his best preseason game as a Dolphin? Well, statistically speaking his game in week 2 last year vs the Jags in preseason was better. He had a 151 rating then, 11/14 152 yards and two touchdowns. This game he threw for almost 200 yards but no touchdowns. Of course, it's not all about the stats. Command of the offense, audibling into a better play here or there, and pocket presence were all there tonight. Still not perfect though if I am being ehem objective. Three deep passes could have been touchdowns. He rushed the first two. If the OL starts to gel and he feels more comfy back there, he'll settle in and hit those passes, we hope. But the escapability by ChadVick? Haven't seen that in.. forever. A confident and healthy quarterback who i think likes this new offense. The man is free to fly. Now next two weeks, can he maintain it? Reggie Bush - Talk about a guy running possessed. He was in full beast mode. He showed every reason why we traded for him tonight. It was all there for everyone to witness, including our regular season opponents. He adds something we haven't had in a while coming out of the backfield. A threat to take it the distance every time he touches the ball. He looks great. He's in awesome shape. Daniel Thomas - rough start for #33 down on the goal line. But the rookie grew up before our eyes tonight. 12 carries 52 yards and a touchdown. The more he carried the ball, the more comfortable he looked. Big backs need reps to get a feel. He's gonna need his touches consistently. Brandon Marshall - First game of the season. He was in regular season form. He would have had a big night if he had played four quarters. One negative was the block on a nice Bush scamper. Mike Pouncey - If your qb has a good game, you have to then look at the center as one of the guys that made it possible. Word has it he was a stud tonight (i'll check this when I watch the game again). They certainly tried to run behind him with Thomas to a degree. Kevin Burnett - wow what a difference a week makes? Last week I was ready to see Edds in the starting lineup. This week, I'm ready to vote Burnett into the pro bowl. Overreactions each way? Probably But Kevin had a great game tonight, making several key tackles, especially on third down. He was all over the field. Just wish he'd caught that INT. noteworthy? Thought the first team defense was on tonight. After last week, it was a good turnaround for the unit that is oh so important to this teams early success. Also no turnovers tonight... by either team... Lastly Brian Daboll. Solid. Except for the end around... He's going to find ways for this offense to get big plays. Two more opportunities tonight on Clyde Gates deep balls. Just a matter of time before #10 gets one. Also thought Dedrick Epps had a fairly decent game as he tries to seperate himself from the pack of the group of tight ends struggling to make this team behind Fasano. Liked what I saw from Alama-Francis tonight. I think he's ahead of Trusnik in that fourth outside linebacker battle. Also liked what I saw from Marvin Mitchell in that battle for the fourth inside backer position. The guy was just signed this week and I saw him making plays. Bad Lydon Murtha - the penalties were drive killers. Otherwise, he didn't have a bad game. Marlon Moore - Did have one nice catch, but should have had a TD later on a deep pass from Matt Moore. Catch the ball. Make the team. Don't catch it, see you next week for another chance. Nic Grigsby - he and Kory Sheets are inevitably linked as one may make the squad while other likely does not. This week it was Sheets getting the better of Grigsby. Last week it was the other way around. Stay tuned on this battle. The infield dirt - hey, at least it didn't rain. Bush was happy. Nolan Carroll - thought he struggled tonight in many different areas. Coverage, special teams and tackling. The poor tackling was evident on a couple of throws his way. Pay attention to Reshad Jones on how to bring someone down. With Will Allen sitting out again, you'd expect both Sapp and Carroll to make the team, but you never know.
Oh i forgot: Bad Chad Henne Haters... nowhere to be seen tonight. CK, Aqua, Nabo, schmoo? to name a few...
Great post altogether. Moore did lose a fumble which led to their TD. The difference between Chad and Matt tonight pretty much killed any talk of a QB competition IMHO.
#1. It is preseason. There might be a chance that they have something better to do. That is pretty much it.
A lot more positives than negatives. Nice to include Burnett. His pass defense looks like a big upgrade over Crowder which was the D's Achilles heel. Of course, nothing is more encouraging than QB play. Henne really does look like another player so far.
lol.. they all have something better to do? isn't that a coincidence. I expect CK to be here, he's always here..
<--- does that happy face still work? I consider you more of a fence sitter. Kinda like myself Some call it objective.
Hey now, it was all Fasano's fault. Seriously, I am probably a Henne homer but I am tired of seeing thousands of posts about that one pass haha.
No I debated an int caused by a dropp by Fasano on a poor throw by Henne Clay caught a pass tonight for a first down on a throw that was much worse. That was a great catch.
Just to piggyback some... Thought it was weird Nate Garner was our 2nd team Center. I've not heard of him practicing there since the 2009 Panthers game where Grove and Berger went down and he was taught to snap on the sidelines, but there he was, doing a solid job of it. Cameron Wake and Koa Misi lined up opposite of their normal base 3-4 spots, with Wake lining up on the strong-side and Misi the weak-side. Generally Wake is on the weak side and switches in Nickel packages to go against RTs. Maybe they wanted to get Wake some work in the run game. Randy Starks seemed like he was the #2 NT behind Paul Soliai, rather than Ronald Fields. Odrick got the start opposite Langford at DE, and Starks subbed in for Nickel packages and then like the 2nd or 3rd series lined up at NT the entire time with the starting unit. I don't think he actually got a snap as a "DE" per se. I think Kevin Burnett has opened things up a bit in terms of Nickel D, 'cause at one point both the safeties came up and Karlos Dansby dropped into a deep zone in the middle of the field. Not a Tampa-2 style thing where he got the middle between two safeties... he was the sole guy over the top in what looked like a cover-3 with the corners. When Dansby flushed Newton out of the pocket, they heavily overloaded that side of the line, with Jason Taylor moving from the weak side and lining up next to Wake with Dansby outside of them.
At the risk of being labeled a risk taker , here's my prediction for what a certain someone will be saying later, and I'll try to keep it shorter: Chad Henne, he was ok, as I predicted. I had a feeling the gameplan would be to make him look good, to give him some confidence, and there's nothing wrong with that. Quarterbacks, however, should connect on those deep throws. If you're going to make the next step in your development as a quarterback, you need to hit those deep passes. It's not enough for me. I'm not going to settle on that performance as the bar needs to be raised higher. We'll see next week how well he does in Tampa Bay. Against a better defense. A team that will be extra motivated after being slapped around by the Patriots, who I predict will score 28 points in the first half in week one against us.
I think Henne needs to work on his deep ball accuracy too. I wonder how much of that he is doing in practice. I know he can do it because that ball against the Jets on MNF 09 was absolutely perfect to Ginn. I just want Chad to be that quarterback again.
I think Garner got time at center last week against the Falcons in the 4th quarter. He also saw time tonight at left tackle while Murtha was probably getting chewed out on the sidelines (or forced to sit out a series). I didn't know Berger was out due to injury tonight?
He really needs to be able to set his feet to connect on the deep pass. He's like a cannon that is on wheels without the cinder blocks holding it in place.
You bastage! I was calling him that all during the chat while watching the game with Medi and all the others. I didn't get one positive or negative reaction from the audience... so expect the same here. I am just glad I wasn't the only one that came to the same jovial conclusion. *Fist Pumps to ya, Fist pumps*
1. Garner played C last week too and imo looked better there than at tackle. 2. Imo, Misi has been predominately on the right side and Wake on the left regardless of down. Then Ike plays right side after Misi comes out and Trusnik plays left in the 2nd team base defense. 3. I don't recall Starks at NT in the base defense, but I do know I saw #95, Fields, playing a lot of snaps after the 1st teamers stopped playing.
Wow... That's deep Ogre. That never even entered my train of thought... I was all centered on Henne scrambling for first downs. haha.
Still not sold on Daniel Thomas. I was encouraged that he bounced back from an awful start, but I just think he'll always be limited with his lack of vision. lol Can't believe I'm saying Reggie Bush looks great running through the tackles. Obv the million dollar question is how long can he stay healthy.
I wonder how much of the overthrows to Gates right now has to do with building trust if the ball is left up there that Gates will be the one to go up an get it and not let it get picked. Thought Henne was throwing the ball well in the 11-20 yard range with accuracy and velocity. Definitely excited about his play tonight. Perhaps not on the "bad" but a little sloppy play tonight it looked like Hartline almost fumbled on two different occasions. Take care of that ball Brian!
I think Thomas is a good one-cut runner. Along the goal line the OL didn't create any holes to cut to and Thomas looked lost of what to do. He may not be that power back that plows into the pile and pushes it forward driving his legs. That goal line (haha) leap he did to land on the 2 yard line as he fumbled looked just awful! Hopefully Sparano will be leaving the 3rd and 4th and short yardage to Polite to pick up.
A pass you decided was a poor throw even though it hit the receiver's chest, making it well within his receiving radius and should be caught 99% of the time. I would agree it was not a perfect pass, but it certainly was not poor either. A poor pass is one the receiver has no humanly chance of reasonably catching. There are more degrees of passes than just perfect and poor.
You can tell your friend who wrote that profanity laced tirade that Epps was drafted last year, by the Chargers in the 7th round.
You know the drill. Odds stacked against all of us on that inevitable Monday night. Baby steps = bigboy steps. We are much better now than a year ago.
The Good: An entire half of football w/o subbing Henne for a wildcat run when he's hot. Stick that in your applesauce and swaller it, Henning.
That is a pretty good CK impression but in his defense he predicted that Henne would have a good game tonight.
I'm not sold on Daniel Thomas either. Even if he got a good start, there's always that rookie wall to contend with. Let's just say I'll be considering Reggie with a late round draft pick in my fantasy draft, he'll soon be the #1 here. If you think about it, it's been a heck of a thing to commit to Daniel Thomas like this. We let Ronnie and Ricky walk, we went cheap with Bradshaw, we ignored guys like Harrison. We really committed to this kid in a big way before his first snap. My dream scenario would be to work a trade with Oakland for Michael Bush after the 3rd preseason game. Sheets, Carroll and a 3rd rounder should do it! (j/k) Two Bushs in the backfield, what you you nickname that?
I may be overstating this, but after Vontae came flying in about knee high on third and long on the side line, Newton was never a threat after that.
Not gonna lie. I am not a Henne Homer, but not quite a Henne hater even though i question him weeek in and week out. Tonight I was excited by the production of our offense. i have high hopes although i am skepticle. The one thing keeping me humble is the fact that we played the Panthers' the owners of the #! pick of last years draft. Nothing to become too proud of.
