Wow. We're 0-2 and Henne Looks Great. I Eat the Crow.

I can't think of a single RB that holds on to the ball after that hit.

 

One that doesn't run upright and holds the ball with two hands in traffic would of had a better chance.

DT seems like he's getting it together as far as not hesitating, but he just needs to run a little lower and tighten up his game. If he does that then we'll be in good shape.

 

It was a good hit, but one of the big criticisms of Thomas was fumbling problems, and here he put the ball on the ground in a big situation. If he goes a few fumble free games then it is probably a false alarm. If he puts it on the turf again, there will be questions.

 

Daniel Thomas particularly seemed to be taking a few strides later in the game the more touches he got. Overall, encouraging.

I said before the season started though, you have a young rookie tailback that fumbled in college and is especially raw for a rookie because he's only been taking true tailback snaps for two years, you're going to live with fumbles and other miscues (that we haven't even seen yet). That's one of the reasons I didn't like marrying a Reggie Bush with a Daniel Thomas. But having a 100+ yard day, that was the unexpected part, and that was very encouraging about him.

 

I agree with this. You seem to be speaking truth tonight because I agree with two of your posts in a row.

 

Henne was 12 for 30 (40%), 170 yards, 1 TD/1 INT and a QBR of 56.3.

Despite that, I give the kid a pass today; he did some things right, some wrong. But Henne didn't put together this abomination of an Offensive Line, and decide to throw half the game off his ***; Henne didn't decide that Reggie Bush was best used running between the Tackles, without running any of the plays that were run with success with Bush during the preseason; and Henne didn't put together a roster with about half a TE among the three corpses we have at the position.

And Henne didn't allow Matt Schaub to look like an All-Pro with 72% passing, 2 TD/0 INT and a 118.5 QBR. Henne also did not allow 136 yards rushing by ATL's Running Backs. Henne didn't play yet another 60 minutes of football without generating ONE takeaway of any kind.

So, to me, the kid gets an "Incomplete" this week, with an opportunity for a make-up exam later.

 

The Dolphins finally have a QB that can play, he's no Brady and nobody should even think about comparing those two. Brandon Marshall is finally showing up after taking last season off. We may also have found a running back in D. Thomas. Forget the fumble, Ricky Williams, IMO, best college RB ever, had fumbling issues.

 

Not blaming Daniel Thomas for one fumble. He is a rookie playing in his first game, amazing he played as well as he did. It's the coaching staffs fault for having to rely on a rookie. Why no pitches or screens to Reggie Bush? Or no Hilliard? Even LJ, the one time he ran gained a couple yards. Just going to keep pounding a rookie?

 

Interesting that Chad Henne can have a 79.3 QB Rating on the season, leading his offense to only 30 points during the competitive portions (114 minutes) of the last two games, and the general supposition around here is "thank god we finally have a quarterback".

Kyle Orton was openly criticized for the production he had during garbage time. But I'm sure the same people that did that criticizing will insist on saying that Chad Henne led his offense to 37 points in 2 games rather than 30 points.

 

I was kind of surprised that LJ didn't get more carries, IMO, Hilliard sucks, so I'm happy he didn't get any carries.

 

I wonder what kind of numbers he could put up if he had time to throw and not have to deal with DL in his face every time?

 

I see no justification for that statement.

And if you REALLY want to take out his "garbage time" stats from the Patriots game, that's fine with me.

That would make him 34 of 66 (51.5%) for 484 yards (7.3 YPA), 2 TDs (3.0%) and 1 INT (1.5%), with 5 Sacks for -37 yards, 7 runs for 44 yards and 1 Fumble.

Goes from a 79.3 QB Rating to a 79.4 QB Rating. Goes from 6.6 net yards per play to 6.3 net yards per play.

 

Probably won't know this year.

Encouraging though for how much defenses have been in his face, he's taken very few sacks, moved amazing in the pocket and escaping, and has really done a great job of ball control and security.

Stats don't show you his improvement in a lot of areas. Namely mobility and making a lot of throws that he couldn't the last few seasons. He's been one of if not the most consistent players on this team so far.

 

In general, it's hard to debate with anyone who was so invested in rookie QB to replace Henne.

 

I agree with you. I do, honestly. But the extent to which he actually IS better is being overrated, IMO.

I think he's absolutely changed his style. But a style change can often be mistaken for automatically being better, when really it could be just different. I think the changes we've seen in Chad Henne's game DO make him better in absolute terms, but his limitations continue to show up even after the style change, and in all likelihood they signify limitations of upside potential.

 

You SEEM to be very mistaken.

 

This is my greatest concern; we've seen Henne improve, but the mental side of the game still seems to be difficult for him, and the fact that he hasn't learned by his fourth season that every pass doesn't need to be fired at MACH 10 might indicate that he simply never will get it.

 

I wouldn't look into stats now when judging Henne. You watch him play, he has improved.

 

Henne's one of the least of our worries right now.

 

I disagree about Philly. Their line was making some good run blocks. On one screen Peters was blocking 30 yds downfield. Watching Evan Mathis, I was asking myself, why'd we cut this dude again? The Falcons had no sacks too.

 

The strength of the team is Henne and the WRs, imo.

 

Don't forget, our kicker has better tackling form than Sean Smith......lol

 

Yup. IMO there's no NFL QB looking good behind our Oline vs Houston. No protection; no passing lanes; no cutting down guys to keep their hands out of passing lanes.

 

Rock his batted ball are his fault imo, he needs to change arm angles sometimes, and you can tell by the strip that his release has a little hitch in it, always had it, that gets the defender a little jump on the block passes.

 

So does his receivers dropping passes and his OL being beaten.

 

Chad Henne's always had an inordinate number of balls batted down by defensive linemen. IMO, it's not a delivery problem. It's his tendency to freeze his feet, and his lack of low peripheral vision. If you notice, many of the interceptions he ends up throwing that are more strongly his fault, are instances where he's not seeing threats to his passing lane from underneath it.

I'm absolutely, positively, perfectly willing to throw out that garbage time interception Henne threw against the Patriots. It meant nothing. But then, so did his 8 of 13 for 102 yards passing with 1 TD and 3 runs for 41 yards rushing.

 

And he'd still have a very high completion percentage, Average, and rating. My point is, watching the team, he isn't the problem. Can we upgrade over him? Sure. But is he the problem? Nope. I lay all the blame on the coaching staff.

 

Every quarterback suffers from dropped passes. In Week 1, Henne's receivers dropped 3 passes. Cam Newton, Josh Freeman, Matt Ryan, Sam Bradford and Matt Stafford suffered worse. Rex Grossman, Mike Vick, Joe Flacco, Eli Manning and Kyle Orton had the same number of dropped passes.

It's like people demand that everyone around a guy play absolutely perfect, otherwise it's perfectly OK for him to have a sub-80 passer rating.

 

He's not bad, but he's not great. He's not going to be a QB who will carry a team. He can win with great players around him and a competent coaching staff...but it's very questionable if the Dolphins have that.

He's not as talented as Pennington obviously, if he could stay healthy he could have taken a team far. But is Henne more talented than Fiedler? I won't comment, not really sure honestly.

 

There is no "THE" problem.

There are many ways this team could be better. They could be better if they had a better short yardage ground game. They could be better if they had better defensive stamina. They could be better if they had better defensive communication, and/or more experienced players. They could be better if they had better pass rush. They could be better if they had better pass protection. They could be better if they had better running backs. And yes, they could absolutely be better if they had a better quarterback.

 

I generally agree with this; however it seemed today that we could not keep defenders out of passing lanes. IMO there's a fine line between blaming the QB for not making plays when his lanes are obtruded and blaming the offensive line for not creating the lanes in the first place. If we ran more play action, IMO we would've curbed some of that pressure. Also, how many screens did we run? Did we run any?

 

Dropping a pass and dropping TD passes in close games are quite a bit diff when you aren't just looking at the stat.

What's the point of you listing other dropped passes? The situations will never be the same or even remotely similar in most cases.

But instead let's act like Henne's weak passer rating is the reason we lost those games.

 

We did run at least one screen, possibly two. Screens definitely accounted for at least 1 of Henne's 12 completions. I think it was the Daniel Thomas catch for 10 yards, so it did net us some decent yardage.

But Miami isn't necessarily an effective screen team. Not a fan of their execution of it.

 

And on the flip side lets act like a guy with a 79 passer rating who has led an offense that scored 15 points per game during non-garbage time is 'the lone bright spot' of the team.

 

It happens to the best of them. It also happened to A. Johnson near the end-zone, but no one is questioning his abilities. It happens, but that receiver has to contribute with big plays and Marshall does just that. Marshall is the least of our problems.

 

There is some weirdness on this board about Henne. He has been one of the top three players on offence both games. Football is a team game, no one player, not even the QB can do it by them selves. No one is claiming that he is one of the best QBs of all time, so If your argument against him has the words "Tom Brady" in them, you're missing the point. Henne played well enough to both win and to score more points than the Dolphins scored. He didn't win or score more points because it is a team game and his team wasn't good enough. He has clearly shown that he was the best option the Dolphins had this off-season. I think that question is the crux behind the Henne debate, and the reason that some don't seem to want to give him the credit he deserves. There is no reason to think that any of the other choices would be playing better on this team. This doesn't mean that Henne doesn't still have some issues. He isn't Tom Brady. He missed a touchdown with a poor throw while scrambling, in addition to Brandon dropping the one. He and Brandon need to get on the same page more too. It wasn't as bad as last week, which is encouraging. Also, I don't know if it's Henne or Daboll keeping Bush in to block, or have him leak out late, but it needs to stop. Bush's skill set is the reason you got him, so use it.

 

Stats are overrated anyway.

 

When have I ever said anything remotely similar?

I agree with the thought that Henne has improved, played consistent, and has not been anywhere near the reason we lost either game.

How many points did Carpenter and Marshall leave out there? Another 13 maybe?