Here are my statistical observations for Week Three: (rankings do not include Monday night game statistics) [this is a Club level post, but I have posted #1-#5 of my 12-point list here as a sample for people in the main forum] 1. "Kicked To the Curb" The Dolphins Davone Bess ranks 2nd in the NFL in Punt Return average, but 32nd (out of 32 NFL teams) in Kickoff return average. Whatever the reason Ginn has been sitting out on special teams, it may be time to put him back there on kickoffs. A little extra production from that area would help the team's offense with better starting field position. 2. "Talkin' Sack" Joey Porter, the Dolphins' 20 million-dollar man, is tied for second-most sacks in the NFL, with 4 sacks. If he keeps up this pace, Porter would project to 21 sacks. No one expects Porter, who tends to wear down with nagging injuries, to hit that number, but a 16 sack season is within reach, as is a Pro Bowl berth. 3. "Middle-of-the-Road" The Dolphins are performing about middle of the road in all offensive categories: 13th in the NFL in passing yards with 212.3 per game; 17th in rushing with 112.3 yards per game ; and 17th in scoring with 20.7 points per game. Even though the young Dolphins may not maintain this standard all year, the numbers currently look much more promising than their final 2007 numbers: 24th in passing (189.4 yds/gm) ; 23rd in rushing (98.1 yds/gm) ; and 26th in scoring (16.7 pts/gm). One might even expect the numbers to improve as the Offensive line gels Chad Pennington gets comfortable with the entire playbook, and the receivers develop some chemistry with their QB. 4. "Building a Brick Wall, One Brick At A Time" On the other side of the ball, how is our new, young defense doing? Through three games Miami's defense ranks 17th in total yards surrendered (318), a doughty 11th against the run (90.7 yds/gm), but a shaky 25th in the league against the pass (227.3 yds/gm). We are 18th in the NFL in points against, averaging 21.3 per game. San Diego's visit will be yet another challenge for this defense. Oh, and our 2007 ranks? 23rd in Total Yards (342.2), 4th Passing Yards (188.7) only because of the next stat, a league-worst 32nd ranking against the run with 153.5 yards given up on the ground each game meant no one needed to throw to beat the hapless 2007 Dolphins. The Dolphins biggest defensive improvement has come against the run, from 32nd to 11th. Ferguson, Langford, Merling, Holliday, Roth, Crowder, and Ayodele have been solid against the run. 5 ."In The Land of the Armless, The One Handed-Man is King" The Dolphins are tied with ten other teams for 18th (or 27th, depending on how you look at it) place in Interceptions with only one pick through three games. So which member of our secondary got the lone interception. "Randy Starks!", I say cheerily. "Uh, isn't he a Defensive Lineman?" you reply. I nod. The entire Dolphins secondary nods with me.
Remember when Jason Taylor had more interceptions than our CB's a few years back. Could be the same again.
Great write up and #1 proves ginn needs to be on kickoffs, and keep bess in on punts. Like many here have stated, were happy with Bess on punts but ginn needs to get on kickoffs. Great write up. I think as good as porters sacks look, Langford will be better than him overall by the end of the year. He has not looked like a rook at all, and i couldn't be more excited about his ceiling. He's got attitude and tenacious playing too. Langford will make us all forget how we missed JT. Our secondary will get the INT's. It will come, the fact that yesterday they were jumping and getting in front of WR instead of always playing catch up showed me that the more pressure our front guys get, the easier it will be for the secondary to jump balls. We saw yesterday they got hands on the ball, when that starts to happen, they'll start hauling a few in (and dropping some as well of course) But finally they are not having to always help the run stopping like last year, now they can focus more on coverage and stepping into throwing lanes. This win was big in this teams confidence and development, and you pointed it out very well. Great list
I know Jason Allen can get picks as well as our safeties but Will Allen still has hands of stone and Goodman seems to have picked up on that. If picks are going to come our way, it's likely from the safeties.
DB will almost certainly be addressed next offseason. I agree that our safeties probably have better hands than our corners, though that's not saying much.
Renaldo Hill has to be kicking himself this morning. I suspect that Jason Allen would have made that play, but I suspect that's probably a sore subject. Nice write-up BPK ... somehow I missed it in Club Level.
Brother Barry nice write up! I have disagree with you San Diego. They are not healthy now. LT with his toe, Gates is banged up, and they have no Turner to back up LT like last year. Sproles is carrying the load for them now, but how long can he do that? There defense is giving up a lot of points. With a week off to prepare and watch two of there games while our boys are resting up, I think we can hang with them if we keep on improving.
Yeah I'm the biggest Joey supporter (some of you might say apologist) here but 10 sacks out of Joey and that is a huge season. But you never know. Keep playing to the high level and he may get there. jason allen led our whole team last year with 3 ints. That's pathetic. Pathetic that our DBs can't generate INTs and pathetic jason isn't playing more.
FFIC i can see your argument for sure. The only thing that is concerning is Sproles as of the MNF game is catching and running out of the backfield very well. Chambers and rivers have found a chemistry (3 tds/ one per week) and have shown some consistency and the Defense got some confidence last night, albeit it was in the form of INT's via Brett "Throw hard and something will happen". I don't think its out of the realm of possibility, but 2 things need to happen. Pennington has to keep playing mistake free ball. HIgh comp. percentage low int's. And our D line needs to get at rivers. He's been fairly good so far, but that doesn't mean with some pressure he won't make mistakes, he's not that good yet. Although we do need to see the confident team come and play like we saw in NE, if week 1 or 2 dolphin team shows up were in trouble , because if you don't play right, SD can score on you in a hurry, from SP Teams, Offense and defense. I hope our guys get to rivers early and often. I think Langford, Merling, Vonnie and Porter can. Should be a tough test and a great game, great litmus test for our guys letting the NFL know if the win in NE was a one off or if this new team is for real.
Yeah, it got lots of views but not many replies in Club so it hit the second page and wasn't noticed. Maybe I'll post on it and bump it just once. I usually hate bumping my own threads, as it looks pretty cheesy, but I'd like people to get to see it (especially since THIS list is only five points and the club version is 12 points) B.
I think San Diego will be more vulnerable later in the season as LT wears down. Right now, especially coming off their Monday night win, they have a lot of confidence.
With Cason and Cromartie back there, Pennington will have trouble hitting our so-so wideouts. Avoiding the INT will be huge. That means it's really on the O-line to make sure we run the ball so effectively that we rarely need to pass.
Yes, that is true. But which one their meandering safeties will they match up on Fasano or Martin controlling the middle of the field? Fasano creates a mismatch just due to his physical style of play. He ain't fast, and he ain't pretty - but he is a physical presence in his route running and has the attention of opposing defenses.
Fair enough. The mid-to-deep seam should see lots of action... keep it away from those corners! Of course, if our running game is working well, the middle will become VERY susceptible to Play-Action. I don't expect to see as much Wildcat/hog/Phishbone/Phishhog/WildPhish formation in the next game though... so we'll see how we do when Vernon and jake aren;t run blocking as a duo... that means relying more on Satele and Ndukewe than last week. Dunno.
Lt should of been taken out of that game late in third, early in the fourth. You could see he had no burst, and was hurting. Also they miss Merriman, and Cooper will just be coming back off his 4 game suspension for steroids. He will be rusty.
Here are the sites if you want to read about the Chargers. San Diego Chargers Football Schedule, Roster and Statistics Chargers : North County Times - Californian Today's article on the Chargers. Win didn't solve all of Chargers' problems
