Quick Hits: Dolphins vs. Seahawks

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: This was a bowling shoes ugly game on Sunday afternoon. After starting strong, the Miami Dolphins allowed the Seattle Seahawks to scrap and claw their way back into the game, which wasn’t settled until the closing seconds.

It’s hard to gauge how I feel about this game. On one hand, I’m extremely happy that we won, but on the other I’m exceedingly disappointed in how we finished. For all intents and purposes, this team sure looks like it could find itself in the playoffs, but at the same point they are maddeningly inconsistent, something that really should not be all that surprising given how many new players are on the team.

A win is a win though, no matter how you slice it, so I’ll take 5-4 at this point in time. Let’s get right into it.

What I liked

The biggest thing I liked is that we won. Or, more specifically, Seattle lost. That’s the important thing. I think the team of last year would have found a way to lose this game. Heck, the team of Baltimore and Arizona may have found a way to lose. We won, and that’s important.

• Offensive Variety – Say what you want about Dan Hennig, but he is getting a lot of mileage out of this offense. I saw several unique combinations of personnel and packages out there today – including using an inverted wishbone (!) a couple times in the first half. It’s smart in that it helps to confuse the defenses, something that goes a long way towards masking our deficiencies on offense. Also, as a fan, you had to love the fleaflicker call to Ginn early in the game, and you have to give Pennington credit for giving Ted a shot to catch it. Loved the aggressiveness of the call, and it put Seattle in the hole early.
• Wildcat is Back – You know, with the Denver Broncos shutting down the Wildcat last week, some (including me) were calling for it to be shelved for a few games. We haven’t shelved it, but it’s mutated beyond just a simple one-trick pony. We’re varying what the Wildcat is, by changing the look. Originally, it was an unbalanced line with motion right and Ronnie at QB. However, the touchdowns today came with Ronnie lined up in the backfield with Patrick Cobbs on his left and Ricky Williams on his right. The line was not unbalanced. That’s a completely different formation, and I would argue that it’s not the same formation. Call it the Wildcat 2.0, if you want.
• Running Game is Back? – Well, at long last, we got some yards on the ground. Critics will point to the Wildcat 2.0 as the reason, but to me a run is a run, regardless of how you look at it. You can’t take out big runs and only focus on the small ones – in a lot of cases those small runs are what set up the big one. Good to see Ricky get on track today, although I would have preferred to see Ronnie featured a little bit more. Despite our offensive limitations (and I’ll discuss those shortly), it was good to see us get some yardage in the running game.
• Defense Rising to the Occasion – Some folks will complain about the lack of a defensive effort out there on Sunday, but I think that’s unfair. The defense only allowed 12 points today, and limited the Seahawks to only one offensive touchdown. I saw pretty consistent pressure on Seneca Wallace, and was really impressed with the play of both of our inside backers today. I can’t fault their effort at all, they only allowed two plays of more than 20 yards on the day, and the secondary came up with the plays when it mattered most.
• Another Long Drive – It was great to see us bleed out the clock today, again in the fourth quarter, with a 16 play, 9 minute drive. We had another big fourth down conversion on the drive as well – and Polite is turning into a nice “high pressure” short yardage specialist for us.

What I Didn’t Like

Anyone else think this team may be guilty of believing their own hype? It sure looked that way to me today. After constant discussion of “easy second half schedule” and “playoffs,” the Dolphins on this day looked rather pedestrian, particularly after getting ahead 14-0. At some point this team is going to have to go for the jugular, and step on the throat of their opponent. We had the chance to do it in Houston, we had the chance to do it in Denver, and we should have done it today. It sounds cliché, but we simply have to develop a killer instinct. Otherwise, if they do make the playoffs, it’s going to be a one-and-done scenario.

• Turnstyle at Right Guard – Right Guard makes good deodorant, but they don’t offer much in the way of protection for the Miami Dolphins. Seattle exploited RG all day, regardless of who was manning the position. It’s progressed (regressed?) to the point where it’s seriously crippling our ability to run, and even pass, the ball effectively on offense. Julian Peterson had a heyday out there, in part because our line couldn’t pick him up on the blitz.
• Stubborn Playcalling - We aren’t helping the situation, because we continue to try and pound the ball directly behind RG, when we’ve got capable tackles on either side that are better options. Maybe it’s our running backs don’t have any vision, I don’t know. But we have the #1 pick in the draft, a guy that coming out was rated higher as a run blocker than a pass blocker, and for some reason we never run behind him. I don’t get it. Regardless, we have to find someone capable of being adequate at the position – not locking it down, by any means – but someone who won’t be a liability for the offense.
• No Emotion – This kind of goes along with developing a killer instinct, but we displayed absolutely no emotion in this game after the Pennington Interception Pick Six. (On that subject – it’s a damn good thing we aren’t turning the ball over a lot, because this team is not built to withstand turnovers. Today is a perfect example.) I wanted to see some fire from someone on the field, but I didn’t get that sense of unity or purpose that I would have liked to seen. This allowed Seattle to hang around, before ultimately Yeremiah Bell came up with another save-our-bacon play to end the game.
• Shutting It Down – Aside from playing without emotion, our second half play calling, outside of the fourth quarter drive, was as vanilla as you can get. Much like the team itself, it seems our play calling goes through periods where it looks like strokes of genius, and periods where I would swear Wannstedt was running the team again. Going forward, we have to have more of the former, and a lot less of the latter.
• Special Teams, Special Teams, Special Teams … – Coming into the game, there were two things I was worried about. One was Seneca Wallace’s mobility, which was negated during the game. (Not by the Dolphins, but by a pulled groin). The other thing that I was concerned about was our kick coverage. Rightfully so. Seattle averaged 16 yards on punt returns and 33 yards on kick returns. They consistently started on their 40 yard line our better. We can’t continue to cover kicks like this. It’s a serious deficiency. Speaking of special teams, how great was that TD by Ginn to start the game? Oh … wait. I cannot believe we had another Ginn TD called back due to penalty. I think that’s what, 4, 5? Surely that has to be some kind of record.

Weekly Game Balls

As has been the usual with the team this year, it was a different set of players stepping up and contributing. It’s good that this team doesn’t have one or two players that they constantly rely on – there’s 11 guys out there at any given time, and it seems like it’s always someone else who steps up and starts making plays.

• Ted Ginn – Ted Ginn made this list after his play on the opening drive. That kick return, although negated by penalty, was all Ginn, who made one move and was gone. He also deserves kudos for an incredible catch in double coverage on the fleaflicker. Simply a phenomenal individual effort. Ginn did have a drop, but he still caught 4 balls for 67 yards. Good to see him used on the slant route, something that really needs to be a staple of this offense, particularly how often teams are blitzing us.
• Ricky Williams – The gameplan called for Williams to be the feature back today, and Williams responded to the call. 125 yards of total offense, including a beautiful 51 yard touchdown run. There’s still gas in Ricky’s tank – keep in mind he’s only 31, and really hasn’t seen much in the way of action since 2006. Priest Holmes put up monster numbers at the same age, and while I don’t think Ricky will approach those kind of numbers, I do think we can count on him for more meaningful contributions in the future.
• Channing Crowder – You know, I don’t know if there’s a more inconsistent player on defense than Channing Crowder. There’s times where he disappears for stretches, sometimes even games at a time. And then there’s days like today, where Crowder came up with 7 tackles and two assists, including several tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
• Yeremiah Bell – It’s high time I recognize Bell’s stellar play for us. He’s our leading tackler (8-1 today), and consistently comes up with big plays. Today, for instance, he made the stop on fourth down, preserving a hard fought (albeit sloppy) win. He’s quietly having a good year, and if he had any kind of hands at all you could argue that he belongs in the Pro Bowl.
• Matt Roth – This just in, Matt Roth has been found. After being missing in action since the San Diego game, Matt Roth emerged from hibernation hungry and ready to make plays. 5 tackles, 1 assist, and half a sack. He’s still a liability at times (such as on the Jones 33 yard run), but it was good to see progress and noise from Matty today.

Goats of the Week

With as poorly as we played today, I was tempted to indict the entire team. I don’t think that’s really fair though. We had some standouts (as I listed above), but we also had some guys who really didn’t contribute at all. I’m leaving Pennington off this list – as much as that interception hurt the team (and boy, did it), he was our field general on another masterful fourth quarter drive. We don’t do that with anyone else under center.

• Ike Ndukwe, Andy Alleman, Shawn Murphy – These two turds consistently allowed our running game and passing game to be blown up today. Their pathetic play almost has me wishing we would try Carey at RG and someone else at RT, though I think that just moves the problem to a higher profile position along the offensive line. Shawn Murphy can’t seem to even get on the field at this time, which is extremely concerning to me. We’re razor thin along the interior of our line, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect a fourth round guard to contribute, particularly half a season in.
• Kick Coverage Unit – Aside from Patrick Cobbs, there doesn’t appear to be anyone on special teams that can pursue correctly, let alone make a tackle. I don’t know how we allow things like this to happen; I understand Seattle has a good unit, but it blows my mind we consistently allow huge returns in the kicking game.
• Joey Porter – No doubt this will be controversial. Porter was his usual disruptive self in some cases today, but overall we got more pressure from Roth and Charlie Anderson. I don’t know if that’s because Porter was double-teamed (which happened some). We moved him around, away from Walter Jones, but he still didn’t get to the passer. We really could have used a big play on defense, particularly late in the game, and Porter, for the first time all year, didn’t deliver. I suspect we’ll see him back next week, however.
• Ernest Wilford – Blah blah blah Overpaid garbage blah blah cut at the end of the year blah blah what a waste blah blah blah.

Overall Thoughts

This was a tough game to really judge. We won, and that’s important. We also won ugly, which is something that playoff teams have to do. We are no longer last in the division, which hasn’t happened in quite sometime. All that said, I don’t recall being this dissatisfied after previous wins. Perhaps much like the team is dealing with the sudden reality of being favorites, we as fans need to tamper our expectations a bit. After all, this is a team coming off a 1-15 year, with some many new parts on offense and defense they’re hard to keep track of. With so much youth, and a team that really hasn’t been a team very long at all, efforts like this are to be expected.

I was hoping that the Denver game and this game would help to clear up exactly what to expect out of this team, but I find myself still not sure of what to expect. I’m extremely concerned that this team has developed the habit of playing to the level of our competition. Good teams, teams that go deep into the playoffs, have a solid running game and win the ones they are supposed to win. Those are hallmarks of a Parcells team. Really, I haven’t seen either from Miami. All that said, I’m not officially pushing the panic button until next week. If we fail to beat the Raiders convincingly, or even find a way to lose to the game, then that’s a bad sign.

I’m confident that this staff will correct these issues, however. This regime has proved it learns from it’s mistakes, and credit to Coach Sparano for that ability. It’s all too rare, especially in the head coaching ranks. . I think we come out next week and whip an Oakland Raiders team that is vulnerable on both sides of the ball. And really, at the end of the day, we are 5-4 and in the hunt for the playoffs, regardless of how we got there. As a fan of a team that was 1-15 last year, I can’t complain about that at all.

 

Yeah ... forgot about that, actually. That would have ended the game right there. Yeesh, did we dodge a bullet or what?

Like I said, this team isn't built to withstand turnovers. We had one today and it nearly cost us the game. Two would have sealed it.

 

Alleman looked better than Ndukwe, but neither did a lot, at least for me. They are consistently getting walked back in the running game and passing game.

Murphy can't even get off the inactive list, let alone sniff the field. I'm hoping it's because he's a raw prospect, but it's still concerning. At this point, we would have been better served drafting someone else, maybe a CB or WR.

 

I don't know that Channing Crowder will ever be Zach Thomas, and if that's your expectation for him, you may be a little disappointed. I thought that Crowder was as active as you could ask of him today, and made some great plays in the backfield that helped to kill drives.

I was impressed with Matt Roth, who stepped up his game a little bit as Porter was double teamed. We hadn't really seen that in 4 or 5 games or so.

Hopefully we can use the Oakland game as a building block for the rest of the year.

 

Anything's possible. It's clear that neither Alleman or Ndukwe are the answer there. And let's be clear, they really shouldn't be asked to be. Ndukwe is a backup capable of playing in brief spurts, not a starter for an entire season. Alleman looked a little better than Ndukwe, at least to me, but wasn't a clear upgrade. I have seen Frye enough to be able to see if he would be a decent fill-in or not.

There's holding on pretty much every call, but I'm with you. One play Jones had him in a UFC style headlock and there was no call.

These are the kinds of games that bad teams find a way to lose, and good teams find a way to win. Even though I wanted a dominating performance, I'm glad to see us on the way to being a good team.