I've been stewing about this loss for the last few days now (that and yesterday was my anniversary, so Mrs. Odin demanded most of my attention). It's hard to quantify why I'm disappointed. We had played superior football in our last two outings, so it was sad to see us put together such a flat effort against Houston. We were guilty of mediocrity across the board - offensively, defensively, special teams, and even coaching. Tough loss to swallow, particularly after dominating the two AFC Championship teams the last few weeks. What I Liked I really liked the fact that we stayed in the game, led through most of it, despite the fact that we were flat throughout the game. Perhaps some kind of letdown was inevitable; after all, our team had played with significant passion against New England and San Diego. Ronnie Brown continues to be a joy to watch; I'm amazed how he has looked, particularly when you consider he's coming off ACL surgery. Ricky Williams is showing signs of life. Chad Pennington steering the ship. The pieces are starting to come together. Rushing Game - As expected, the running game continues to be an area of strength for the Dolphins. We averaged right at 4.0 yards on the ground, including 2 touchdowns. If I had a complaint, it was that we didn't run enough, particularly in the second and third quarters. The Wildcat - There's no denying, I get giddy every time I see us line up in this formation. It's so exciting to watch. As a fan, I haven't felt this way watching us on offense since the heyday of Dan Marino. Sunday was no disappointment, as David Lee and Dan Hennig unveiled a reverse flea-flicker that went for a TD. It was well-designed, and a thing of beauty to watch live. Loved it, loved the call. I'm also happy to see us integrating the look as part of our offensive package going forward. We simply gain yards and score points when running it, I don't see it being retired anytime soon. Active Linebackers - Joey Porter is playing at a Pro Bowl level, maybe even a Defensive Player of the Year level. He's been completely reenergized in this defensive scheme. Akin Ayodele made a nice pick early in the game, and Channing Crowder made plays all over the field. This may have been one of the most complete performances we've seen yet from our linebacking core. What I didn't Like It's always easier to genuflect in a loss. It can be summed up like this: We couldn't overcome 4 Texan turnovers, and with our defense unable to get off the field, Matt Schaub again pulled a John Elway, marching his team down the field in the last 90 seconds and scoring. I don't know how we don't look for the QB draw on the last play of the game, but we don't. I'd probably put most of this on Pasqueloni, as I believe the majority of it to be scheme-related, and not necessary something to be blamed on players. What sticks out in my mind is that we had a chance to jump on the Texans early, with the boo birds out in force, and we failed to do so, instead getting mired in a dog fight. Missed chances. Questionable Secondary Scheme - Rather than manning Will Allen straight up against Andre Johnson, we slid him to the inside position and played mainly a nickel scheme against the Texans. This allowed Schaub and company to roll up 380+ passing yards, with the aforementioned Johnson torching us for nearly 180, abusing Michael Lehan and Andre Goodman repeatedly. Allen wasn't much of a help in the middle either, as Owen Daniels and Kevin Walter routinely burned us as well, with Walter getting nearly 100 and Daniels 70. I think we were playing some kind of soft zone, again I only got to see the game the one time. No Sustainable Pass Rush - With Schaub overcoming some early gifts, we were unable to really mount and sustain a pass rush, despite facing an average Houston offensive line. Joey Porter was our pass rush on Sunday, generating one sack and five quarterback hurries. No one else really did anything, as it seemed like we were sleepwalking through large portions of the game. Ronnie Brown: Decoy - One can argue that Brown made reasonable contributions, with 16 touches for 93 total yards and one touchdown. I can see that argument. But it sure felt to me that we went away from him more often than we should have, repeatedly on third and short situations. Maybe this was a byproduct of our shortened scoring drives. I can recall two instances of us passing on 3rd and short, when instead we should have just given the ball to Brown and grinded out the yardage. There's a time for cutesy playcalling, and there's a time to gut it out on the ground. We failed to recognize those times. Offensive Inconsistency - With the exception of the big plays, we suffered from some kind of malaise against Houston. We got away from what we do best - This was the first time since Arizona that our pass attempts outweighed our rushing attempts. Also, related to that, we converted our first third down opportunity with 11:49 left in the game. Defense Can't Get Off The Field - Conversely, the Texans were 6 of 15 on third down, and also converted on their two fourth down chances - including a simply brilliant catch by Andre Johnson. Standout Players We continue to see new faces stepping up and making contributions. That's important to note, especially with a team that is so young. Several players stand out in my mind as having great all-around games. Chad Pennington - I'm a Chad Pennington fan. Does anyone realize how weird that feels to say? Pennington continues to be accurate beyond belief - this week completing a ridiculous 76% of his passes to 9 different receivers. It's hard to quantify how much Pennington has meant to this team; try to simply imagine Josh McCown, John Beck, or Chad Henne leading this team. Somehow, I don't think we'd be 2 and 3. Channing Crowder - Crowder simply made plays all over the field on Sunday. He led the team in tackles, and more importantly, made as many plays behind the line of scrimmage than he did 4 yards downfield. It looks like the light bulb may finally be coming on for him; here's hoping he continues to develop for us at ILB. Easily the MVP of the game for us. Patrick Cobbs - His two plays early were huge, and helped bolt us to an early lead. Nice to see someone not named Ronnie Brown making plays on offense. He played intelligently too; looking the ball in on the flea flicker to ensure that he caught it. I'm not going to say we should put him on the field ahead of Ronnie or Ricky, but it was nice to see his contributions. Greg Camarillo - Call him Chrebet, call him Welker 2.0, call him whatever you want. I'll just call him a playmaker. His timely play, causing a fumble that (nearly) saved our bacon, proved why he is on the field. He's a much more reliable receiver than either Hagan or Wilford at this stage in the season, and his progression to Pennington security blanket has been fun to watch. Invisible Players Some of the guys we had been depending on didn't really show up with their "A" game this week. Players make plays. These guys didn't. Anthony Fasano - Fasano really did nothing of note against the Texans, managing just one catch for 12 yards. I did see he was being kept in to help block Mario Williams. Speaking of Mario ... Jake Long - Not really invisible, but when the guy you are being asked to block gets to your QB not once but twice, well, it gets you noticed, for the wrong reasons. Long also got caught holding. Mario presents a tough matchup, but Jake has to win them if he expects to be a legit LT in the NFL. Tough outing for our #1 pick. Matt Roth - After making plays in the last few weeks, Roth was stunningly silent on Sunday. I haven't had a chance to look at the tape, so I'm not sure if it was due to being double-teamed, or just an average effort from him. I did notice him dropping into coverage more often than what we had previously, so once again, perhaps my criticism should be leveled at the coaching staff. Ted Ginn - So, with the game all but over, we put Ginn out for a worthless kick return, after using Davone Bess (spectacularly mediocre returning kicks, by the way - guaranteed to start at the 25) for the entire game. Why? Overall Thoughts Some folks will point to the calls that were made (and those that weren't made) and point to those as a reason for our loss. I'm of a different opinion than that. In a lot of ways, this felt like the Jets game (except we were the Jets, and the Texans were us). We had an opponent that made some special plays (Andre Johnson), overcame early turnovers, and made the play at the end of the game to win it. It's a tough loss to swallow, without a doubt. That said, I'm looking forward to how this team rebounds next week.
I guess it just me and you who thought the team played flat..ive heard a million excuses and iam sure you will as well. who knows if it true. i guess the texans are a more talented team then us, because if there not well, then i guess they just wanted the game more. Good article by the way.
I just thought we had a chance to come out early and get up on Houston - the crowd was on Schaub, but we couldn't convert a third and short. That kind of set the tone for the rest of the day. I think the team got caught up a little in the Wildcat hype during the week.
I haven't seen a replay of the game ether........Are you sure Long gave up two sacks? Mario played more of the game at LDE and i thought he got both the sacks on that side. I'll have to watch the game again soon.I know before this game Long had given up 3 sacks.Anyways
Nice write up. Ginns dissapearance this season has been really disheartening, we were counting on him to step it up. Whether its the coaches not calling his number, or his inability to get the ball, it just means we are looking at a guy going more toward bust than breakout. He has GOT to do something to turn this around. Why are we using Bess on KOs? Makes no sense. If hes still there next week I think the coaching staff needs to be called out. Its okay to have a guy back there who isnt a big TD threat (Brock Marion?), but hell, he needs to get the ball advanced more. Even Brock usually got us to the 30. And as disheartening as Ginn has been, Camarillo has been the opposite. Not a star, but a player. Hes not a #1, but the guy will make catches, can get open, plays hard all the time. We need to hang onto him.
I had read on Rotoworld (Mario Williams) that Mario had schooled Jake ... If he did the same to Carey, it's still disappointing, but at least Jake held his own.
great write-up as usual VO! hit the nail on the head regarding Ronnie. He was practically invisible in the 2nd and 3rd quarter (not Ronnie's fault) because he wasn't getting touches...that needs to change.
Good teams can lose to worse teams, happens. Its when it becomes a habit that you become the worse team Some days you just get outplayed. This I think was one of them. We need to see how we bounce back next week. If we come out flat again, there will be questions, if we can come out and really compete and look like we want the game then we can assume this one was a mulligan. Small steps, all we need right now is for the team to go out and play hard and play to win.
Either way im not horribly concerned. IMO Mario maaaaaay be the best DE in the league right now. Really, hes that good, a true monster. Obviously its never good to give up a sack, but its whether or not Jake gets better from this that will ultimately count.
BTW, I hope we put to rest the question of WHY Chad is kept in the game for the Wildcat formation. He adds a whole different dynamic to that play than having just another WR sitting there. Teams wont know what the hell to do against it now. It really is a great formation.
When you think back on how many times they kept giving us the ball,then they still win the game.............. That right there shows how much more talented they are then us.
Teams don't commit 4 turnovers and win games. I don't think it's due to a talent discrepancy, but I do think we played pretty average against them.
we had no right to come out flat, this game should of been more important to us, i know i need to get over it..coach said we played hard so i guess what i was seein was a better texan team..who am i kidding, we were lucky to be in that game.
mario williams got two lucky sacks,ive watched the game twice, Jake did excellent, jake is every bit as good for his position then mario is at his.
First one came against David martin, who was abused by Williams. I couldnt understand why our best CB wasnt covering A.J either.
Yea, DJ, I agree.. Jake didn't get "schooled". You have to wonder why his sacks were from careys side.. fasano got beat by williams in one of them, carey couldn't help. I'm very critical of Jake.. at worst, he's stubborn and DEs do not like squaring off with him. he's weak to quick "double" moves but he simply doesn't let you overpower him. Great write up Odin.
You may see it that way but I feel we didn't use our aggressive play calling that gave us those two wins against much better teams than the Texans. I really think we have the players to be a pretty good team. We can and should win more than we lose this year but only if the Coaching staff use our players to their best advantage. Just maybe the QB coach should be calling the plays or let Penny call his own!! But the Run, run, pass and punt just ain't gonna cut it. We have to do some things to cover the fact that we have alot of new guys and the chemistry is just now coming together for us.
If that's the case, I redact my previous negative assessment of Jake Long. Instead, let me ask this question: What kind of pass protection scheme are we running when our TE is singled up against one of the top pass rushers in the NFL? That plays into my "too cute for our own good" comment from my original post ... Let's hope we see a back to basics approach next week.
After 8 years of bad drafts and 8 years of bringing in bad FA, it going to take more then 1 good draft and one good off season to bring us up to being even a averager NFL team,,,as far as talent go's. Heck,,,, JT wanted out of here because of are lack of talent. Even with that said,if we bring Channing Chowder after their QB a few more times we win the game. And if Hill could catch a ball we'd be 4-1 right now......................gerrr anyways
We got 3 turnovers from our defense and one from the offense, I'll take THAT lack of talent all day! Face it we lost that game with the run back and the field goal in the first half, neither should have happened. You add the two times we were 4th and less than 1 in the second half and didn't go for it with our backfield and I say we lost because we lost our ...........! The staff knows what we have in the back 4 on defense plus they see Schaub throwing like he was and yet they put the game in the hands of the defense. I say they went to that well once to often. 4th and less than 1 twice in the second half and we punt=NO guts; No glory!!
LoL it was a hell of a game no matter who won.....hopefully the rest of the games they play this year are as entertaining. The two guys we have playing safety i think play just fine.W Allen looks like a Pro blower when ever he's not playing one lol and when he does play one then he looks sub par. Then the other two guys...........ew AG and ML,nether should ever start a nfl game again.Not just in Miami, anywhere.
Our ST coverage was also very disappointing. Obviously, the play that really hurt us was Jacoby's return for a TD after we were up 14-3 (or 6). If we would of stopped them on that drive and then scored, the game would of been a wrap. It's moments like that on ST that really sting when you think about us cutting Keith Davis. Not like he could be all that much worse than a lot of our secondary anyways. Nice write-up tho man. Enjoyed it. O yea, Joey Porter is the man and I'm glad he silenced all the haters from this offseason. I knew he wouldnt make an *** out of me for defending him so much.
- Absolutely. Now here's the kicker. Remember how determined we were to win after the embarassing loss to Arizona? Well, that's probably how the Ravens feel after getting humiliated by the Colts last week. We will be facing wither a totally demoralized Ravens team, or a very hungry, motivated team. - True. Ronnie's recovery is remarkable. I'm still not convinced both he and Chad will make it through a whole season healthy, but I really really hope I'm wrong. This entire offense would become inconsistent and unstable with a rookie like Henne at the helm, no matter how big his arm is his brain would not be able to replace Pennington's experienced judgement out there. - Well, we actually began to sustain drives better when we threw on 1st and second down in the second half, imo. The TOP was becoming a major problem, especially for our defense, so I didn't mind seeing us pass first to open up the run a bit. The run-blocking of our O-line simply was not as dominating as it had been in the previous games. 4 yards is good, but watching that game I never felt like we owned that LOS on the ground. Did you? - We feel that way because it has been working. We'll continue to love the Wildcat as long as it still tends to produce exciting results. I am very happy to see they plan to continue with it as well. I think part of the reason we have the Wildcat is due to our lack of a way to spread the field vertically (Chad Pennington's lack of a deep arm, no true #1 WR to burn ppl deep), in fact Coach Sparano has said as much... so if Chad Henne takes over next year, do we continue to run the Wildcat? Or if Pennington gets hurt and Henne replaces him? - Yep, I said Joey'll get 15 or 16 sacks this year, as long as his body doesn't wear down. It' amazing and great to see that most of his big plays also come at key junctures in games. He has shown great leadership on the field. Akin has been decent. I was disappointed with Charlie Anderson's pass rush the times he was in. Channing... well, if he keeps playing well then he'll get more expensive to re-sign so this regime better already know if it's keeping him or not. - Agree that something in the scheme bears partial responsibility after seeing the middle of the field get taken advatange of repeatedly with no apparent adjustment to stop it (or, at least, not an effective one) - Will Allen may have been playing diged up. I certainly noticed him layting off a little bit when balls were being caught instead of charging in aggressively and closing with anticipation... that may also have been his fear of being badly beaten for YAC though. - We all saw that draw before the ball was snapped, so if the coahces and players didn;t see it coming then its the coaches fault. Schaub had already scrambled up the middle earlier in the game, so our antennae should already have been up for the possibility. A timeout there would have helped save the game. Or a heads up adjustment call by the on-field Defensive captain... which is where having Channing off the field there hurt us. heck, even just tightening up the D-line into the middle on that play would have solved things. The D-line were spread wide as heck. - Well, I've heard some say that the Texans did o good job of getting Johnson off of Allen, so maybe it was something the Texans were doing... but even so, why wouldn;t we adjust the coverage to have Allen locked onto Johnson? That said, Johnson is still better than Allen, and I think Allen may have been playing hurt. - Owen Daniels killed us on several drives. I cannot understand how he didn;t get more attention in the middle. - It looked like man on the outside at times, but some soft zone on some of the middle stuff. I really couldn;t clearly tell either. It's hard to tell when no one at all is close to the WR. - This is what killed us in the game. I already KNEW our secondary sucked, but I also knew our front seven could protect the secondary by consistently pressuring Schaub. Joey was the only one doing that. Roth really failed us on Sunday. So, basically, whenever Joey couldn;t get pressure, Schaub completed huge passes to kill us. Also, I saw way too much of Soliai and Starks early and they did NOTHING to collapse the pocket (Starks dialled it up and penetrated a bit late in the game, but too little too late). I wanted to see Ferguson out there more in the first half, taking double teams to allow our other guys to get after the QB. Our best pass pressure actually comes from the 3-4 front, IMO, not the 4-3 front. Merling and Langford are great 3-4 ends, Ferg takes two men in the middle, and then Joey and Roth off the edges. When we show four front with Holliday at end, or Joey at end with his hand in the dirt, the pass rush disappears. So does Roth, because in 4-3 our LDE is not getting the ame push and attention... why? Because in the 3-4 Ferg is such a load in the middle that the LDE (Langford, usually) is one-one-one and can dominate the Right Tackle.. leaving Roth with either a TE or Running Back to stop him. That's a great match up. If the RG and RT double team Langford, then the center and LG double team Ferguson, meaning that Vonnie/Merling is one-on-one with the RDE... leaving Joey open to rush QB through only the TE/RB or no blocker. Either way, the 3-4 is better for our pass rush in terms of our personnel. - It got so bad that by halftime I was asking if Ronnie was hurt or something, because we were seeing so little of him. I think, to some degree, the outside runs had more emphasis this game and Rickey is better at those (so they say). Also, the Texans seemed to really swarm the run, not giving us a lot on the run-first offense. I think that shortened some drives and made us decide to mix it up more. We simply had trouble running inside with consistency. -Ugh. just... ugh. How we are we this bad on 3rd and longs? Well, it goes back to a double whammy: soft-throwing, accurate QB plus WR's who can;t separate. Add that to a third and long where the defense is more committed to coverage and you have tiiiiny windows to throw into that are far downfield and a QB whose velocity makes the throw take a long time to get to those tiny windows. By the time the ball gets that far, the DBs have forever to react. Chad Pennington simply can;t LASER the ball 12 or 15 yards downfield into tight coverage with recievers who can;t separate. The personnel we have are going to suck on third and long. - I could live with that if Hill had caught that almost-interception. Standout Players We continue to see new faces stepping up and making contributions. That's important to note, especially with a team that is so young. Several players stand out in my mind as having great all-around games. - Even as I state Chad's limitations, I am a huge fan of his as well. He is the reason we have won two games. He is so accurate and makes such great decisions that it really helps us run the offense we have. We need his efficiency to keep teams honest against the run. What he lacks in arm, he more than makes up for in leadership, and great great decisions on the field. - I'm not sure I'd put him over Joey. I agree, Channing had a very good game, but without Joey's pressure, that game wouldn;t have even been that close. Also, where Channing makes plays, Joey makes big plays. The best thing Channing did was run Andre Johnson down. that WAS awesome and worthy of praise. Plus, it saved a touchdown. Heck, if we don't extend him soon he'll ask for more than we're willing to pay. Of course, Ireland and Parcells may already be planning to let him go, anyways. - Plus he's a solid special teamer. Now if only he'd make more ST tackles! - Yeah, he's very head-up. His strip on Wilson's interception is one of the many reasons he's a real footballplayer... a coach's player. He actually turned down Harvard to play for Stanford. Not a dumb guy, by any means. Maybe he should be bunking with Ginn and Jason Allen in the hopes that something will rub off. Invisible Players Some of the guys we had been depending on didn't really show up with their "A" game this week. Players make plays. These guys didn't. - Yup, Mario had Anthony busy. Still, that pass off his hands for the Wilson INT... not good. - I think Alen is right.. I saw Mario Williams working against Vernon Carey on the left side for at least one of those sacks, and I think maybe both of them. - I agreed above. To some degree it was because the outside guys weren;t overwhelmed dealing with Langford... so anytime Roth underperforms, check Langford too... but also, Mat seemed to run 'through' blockers again instead of having moves to get around them. He's still a bit of a bullrisher mentality, which means he is not well-rounded yet as a passrusher. As a result, when Matt faces a player who suits his style, he'll own him and have a great pass rushing day. When Matt faces a player who handles bullrushers well, Matt will disappear. He needs to add another dimension to his game. That said, his motor often nets him sacks if the QB is a run around outside the pocket type... but Schaub tended not to roll out to the sides too much. More a pocket guy, or run straight ahead. - That probably pissed me off more than anything except not seeing the QB draw coming at the end. So, pretty much back to back two coaching issues, imo. - Agreed. I expect the Ravens to play for their manhood though. Not sure how we'll fare. It all depends on Flacco. I think that the success of the first two games was partially due to defensive co-ordinators not having any film to dissect yet. Now, Flacco has disappeared. I think we'll figure out how to neutralize him. Also, don;t forget the sub-plot of Cam Cameron having a chance to torch the team that crap-canned him after only one year. It'd be great to beat the Ravens and hold them to under ten points. Really validate the offseason coaching moves.
Another thing is I think Hochuli called the wrong number on the holding call. I think it was on Carey because I remember seeing the hold take place and the ref threw the flag right in Carey's vicinity.
Yeah, I guess, huh. It's a little much for me to write that much stuff in a reply. Prolly made Odin go "wtf??" lol. Sorry, Odin. I'd do a writeup if my schedule were more consistent so I could do it week by week. I kinda like replying though.
That D can't get off the field was a huge problem last season and seems to be rearing it's ugly head again this year. It was a problem with the Cards and with the Jests as well... Seems like when we have to have pressure on the QB, we just can't get it...
