second game impressions?

It was a pick play, and Sean Smith was rubbed off his coverage. That play is almost impossible to stop unless there is a robber underneath or the ref throws a flag. Pursuit sucked though, no reason it should've went for 25 yds.

 

Personally, I've seen enough to know our defense will be slightly better and our offense will be a lot better. That, to me, means at least 10 wins this season.

 

I didn't see the entire game, but I did catch the first half. There are some improvements and some disappointments...

Good...

1) Henne looked like he has progressed as a QB. The reports of his improvement over the offseason and PS so far hasn't been overstated. He was still a little late in getting the ball out, but he's improving.
2) Marshall started his tenure here a week late, but he is a keeper...Tough, fast enough, got some moves, good downfield blocker. All that and he appeared to be not going all out yet...
3) The OL looked better, save for the first drive... Grove re-asserted himself into the C race. Jerry looked ok. Carey seemed to get up gingerly at times...
4) DL is going to be special. There was little dropoff with the second team in place or in the rotation. Starks does look like he belongs there. Soliai wasn't the monster he was last week, but he occupied his 2 and sometimes 3 OL while in there.
5) Penny is something special. He's not a Marino or Favre, but he's a necessary cog in the Dolphins wheel. Despite his limitations, he could step in and make things happen if needed....

Poor...

1) Smith and Davis struggled again. Smith a little worse. Both looked lost at times. Clemons was so-so. He is still just a tad late in reacting and getting to the play. That should improve, but he has the speed to recover nicely. Still, we'll see rookie mistakes by this kid. Hope Will Allen heals up....despite the progress Smith and Davis have and will make, we need him back.
2) LBers were nondescript. Didn't make guffaws, but didn't make a lot of plays. Dansby is the exception there...he's clearly going to be a beast... Lost site of Wake and Misi, again, no major mistakes, but no big plays either.
3) STs....wow...just wow. They will be our bane throughout this season....again. Carroll had a decent return, but we couldn't cover a Pop Warner returner. I realize that STs usually struggle during camps. It's the nature of the business. Heck, on every game I've seen so far, there were more good returns than usual by teams that usually don't allow them, but this team is putrid in coverage. This is the main concern I have on this team right now. Jax may very well have a couple of special returners, but this problem isn't confined to this game or even this season so far. I suspect that after next weeks' game, the STs will be solidified more, but wow...they were terrible.
4) Thigpen didn't distinguish himself this week, from what I saw of him. Mind you, I didn't see much, one or two drives. The second/third teams seem to struggle both offensively and defensively, opposite of last week. There was less enthusiasm from those guys, however the delay may have contributed to some of that...

 

Like what I saw from Henne although he still need to work on his toch passes but he can throw a nice behind the shoulder for Marshall.

Marshall opens up the field Bc of him Fasano caught two TDs and looked like...well a faster Fasano
Really my only concern is our DBs.For alot of Nolans plans we need our DBs to cover man up but it appears we may not be ready yet. Hopefully when W.Allen comes back he can get in the starting line up opposite Davis. And I was impressed with young guys, Ness mad3e some nice tackles, Amaya and weaver also looked good. Want to see more from them.

I think Smith may be only our 4th of 5th best cb.
1. W.Allen
2. V.Davis
3. Ness/J.Allen
4/5. S.Smith

 

I saw an offense make the next step with Henne and Marshall, especially Marshall opening up the field for Fasano and making blocks down field. It was a thing of beauty.

Our defense is still young and not playing that well but I suspect when the regular season comes, Nolan will unleash these kids and we'll see some pressure schemes that help us get pressure on the opposing QB's. Starks may end up being our opposing team's worst nightmare at NT. And Soliai disappeared again, the guy just shows flashes and no consistency. (or if he did I sure missed it)

Do we need to start a "Fire Bonamego" thread? ST's suck, suck, suck!

 

Did anyone else think that the man-on-man that VD and Sean Smith played was extremely loose? Seemed like they didn't get their hands on the WR till he was 2-3 steps into his route.

 

Ya think?

He did a good job of looking off the safeties, on that first TD it was hard to tell since Fasano and Marshall were on the same side of the field.

 

ok..sure...you need to step up your game with some analysis on this board if your gonna earn any respect after that last comment..

forget it, on second thought, I do not wanna know.

If the 3 perfect passes that were dropped by his receivers were added to his stat's, your looking at 14/15 190 yards 2 TD's..with a wet ball.

 

My impressions watching on a very small screen:

- Henne looked sharp and the offense overall is vastly improved over last year.
- I do think that Henne will at some point have to learn/trust to just throw it up to Marshall like Penne did.
- There were still too many drops by the receivers.
- Marshall showed why he's so valuable. On every catch he made somebody (usually multiple people) miss. He caught a pass that was just a jump ball. It wasn't a perfect pass, if anything I thought the DB was in better position, but a receiver with a physical advantage in a game where the DBs aren't allowed to touch him borders on unfair. On the long TD to Fasano, the middle was wide open. That sounds like exactly what Sparano was saying Marshall would provide. Marshall was also the key block on two of the TDs.
- CP is clearly the back-up over Thiggy. He doesn't have much arm, but he manages the game so well.
- I'm not as worried about the DBs as many. Although I expect we'll have a week of panic/complaint posts much like we did about Henne this past week. The passes that were completed on the starters were all inside routes where the DBs played outside leverage. You'd like them to be closer but reality is that with a good receiver/good route/good pass those will be completed 8/10 times. With that coverage you're relying on pass pressure and the FS. Clemons should have been there earlier. I think he's the real culprit. And our pass pressure will be diminished as we are staying pretty vanilla in the preseason.
- The kick coverage was pretty bad. If it continues we'll almost be better off kicking it out of bounds every time. They were getting to the 40 yard line nearly every time anyways.
- The run defense was surprisingly solid. I couldn't really tell how the individuals inside the DL were holding up, but as a unit the DL seemed solid. Jax's successful runs all seemed to come off the edges and there weren't many of them.
- I think White is toast. The main reason for keeping him around may be so they don't have to use CP's arm up.
- Of the four WRs competing for the 5th spot (Turner, Moore, Wallace and Pruitt) Turner should be fourth.
- Carroll looks like he should be our KR. I don't think he's great, but he has enough speed that he could break one or a few longer ones. He's an upgrade over Cobbs at least.
- I'm afraid that Bess will once again be our PR. And we'll get another season of watching him fair catch punts that every other PR would gain yardage on.
- We finally got holding called on a Wake rush. That guy gets held every play.

 

I'm all for the onslaught against who ever tries to proclaim Thigpen better, but I've read twice where we had three drops. Hartline. Marshall. Rickys was not a drop and just a showing of how henne still needs to work on his touch throws. That was all Hennes fault

 

Ah yes, Clemons should have been there to help Vontae considering he was in man coverage on the slot coming across the field. Bell played centerfielder and shifted to the right side because the X receiver was doing a vertical I believe.

Oh yeah, The FS should have been there on The Smith completion where Dobbins picked off Smith and Clemons was on the other side of the field covering deep 3rd. Sims Walker ran a drag after the pick by Dobbins and had the entire field open.

One more time, The FS should have been there with Smith when he got his *** annihilated when Thomas sunk hips hips and cut inside. Clemons was covering another wideout.

The DBs had nothing to do with it, right?

 

Anyone who thinks thigpen is better than henne does not understand the game of football. Yes thigpen can move around and 'extend' plays but that seems to get him in trouble. Henne is so very underrated when he rolls out and throws, in my opinion he's just damn good at it.

 

For about the 20th time:

Special Teams units are being rebuilt, we are somewhere in between 2008's 30th and 2009's 12th unit in terms of proficiency, but I have to say Jason Allen and Nolan Carrol look at home in their roles.

I like Ty Thigpen's game, I saw one boneheaded throw, I saw several good throws, and he bounced back from that crushing hit he took.

Cam Wake made a really good play out in the flat.


I thought Marlon Moore made some good plays, a pity he isn't a Special Teams player.

I thought Pat Turner regressed, Thiggy put the ball where it had to go, Turner monkeyed up his route, he is not a consistent Wr.

Nate Ness got used like a sanitary wipe.

Loved the Amaya interception, dude skied for the ball and it was just a beautiful play.

Still beaming over Chad Pennington's play, when he is in the game you just know things will run properly, what a pro that man is.

 

BTW, Henne's throw to Brian Hartline was an absolute laser beam, it came in so fast all the replay showed as a shadow of a football hitting Hartline in the chest.

 

ive watched it three times, it was a good pass, with the right amount of zip, he actually threw it effortlessly...hit him exactly where a receiver wants the ball, slightly above their forehead....It was a really bad drop....

Pod, with us playing in horrible conditions twice, once we get a dry surface, it might actually give us an edge.

 

Not sure where you learned your football, but the "X" refers to the split end where I come from. That would be Mike Sims Walker, who ran a skinny post on the first big play. The slot WR, who was covered by Clemons, ran a dig route and the Z (flanker) ran a shallow cross looking route. No one ran any kind of vertical, I believe you might want to go back and check the tape.

As a fellow smart @ss, I applaud your ability to inject sarcasm into your posts. But for someone who's stating the obvious, and not doing a great job of it, you seem a little to proud of yourself. Clearly Clemons wasn't to blame for every single completion and open receiver, myself and others are discussing it here http://forums.thephins.com/showthread.php?t=52660.

Actually sounds kinda similar to what you were trying to say, just w/o the phantom vertical route, and a few other mistakes .

 

The worst place a QB can place the ball is right in the chest/stomach area. Absolute worst area.

 

Why is everyone saying that without the drops that Henne would have been perfect in terms of completions? Are you all forgetting about the forced throw into the endzone that almost went for a pick 6?

That aside, Henne played great and pretty much made the right read on every play. Marshall blocking like he did was incredible.

 

Odd, Bill Walsh thought the ball should hit the Wr in the chest area so they did not have to break stride by bending to catch the ball.

 

Hell no. That area is the area where you cannot use your hands. I want the ball away from my stomach where I can use my hands everytime and not use my body.

 

This was a reception Deej, that ball had smoke coming off it.

Because we play our first two games on the road, the chances of rain would be less no?

 

cut a 4th qb and 5th wr and sign a kickoff specialist

 

Bill Walsh knew a thing or two about the passing game.

 

Yeah, but I am just giving my opinion since I did play football at a high level as a split end. I absolutely hated it when a ball would come to my stomach area.

 

Not stomach area, chest so your hands do all the work and you do not have to break stride to catch the ball then restart down the field.

BTW Deej, I think Marshall wears those things on his arm due to his tatoos' content..maybe he has some less than PC stuff tatted up..

 

hey dolphin fans here's some input from a jags fan that was at the game

*chad henne is the real deal, stay away from the wildcat and give him the ball

*vontae davis was good against the run but was sub par against the pass

* Marshal is a beast, we couldn't tackle him and in the long bomb he caught he was perfectly covered

*the dolphins pass rush was lacking, i expected more since we where without our starting right tackle, a left tackle that just came back from injury and missing most of camp, and david was sacked +30 times last season

* dansby is beast

* thigpen looked scared

*polite scares me

 

I'm wondering if the defense will be the cause if this team only winning 7 games again this year.
That was Jacksonville. Lemme say it again, Jacksonville.

 

that lobbed-over-a-tall-tower pass that penny through to marshall looked like a ridiculous idea from the very start, and it seemed to be the first and only option on that play.

do you think penny did that to teach henne "hey look, i know youre trying to not make a mistake out there the whole time, but look, you can just throw it up to brandon marshall and he'll catch it."

 

That was beautiful to watch.

"See Chad, Brandon makes you look like Joe Montana, just throw it up there, it is amazing to watch.."

 

Spoken like a WR. I like my passes at chest-eye level, or down around my knees if I hear footsteps.

 

That was preseason. Let me say it again, preseason. It's good to see some success, and great to see no injuries, but as a barometer for regular season success, it's useless.

 

The BEST passes are the ones that are in front of you and you HAVE to use your hands and cannot use anything. Running a slant or dig and the ball is thrown a yard in front of you and have to use your hands only.

 

And for the people saying the coverage faults were attributed to the safeties on top of the CBs, think again.

"We had things there in man coverage that we didn't take care of," Sparano said. "That concerns me because it's two weeks in a row where the ball is completed down the field on us a few times. We had a couple of chunk plays. They're a good group, but we have to be able to clean some of that up."

 

I was thinking the very same thing. Teach by example. Penny's a smart cookie.

 

I saw alot of good things.

The ugly had to be Special Teams if we can't give the kicker time to clear the ball very bad things will happen. We got off lucky this game with only handing over 2 points from it.

 

iam talkin about the drop by hartline in the beginning on third down, would of been a first down, and the ball was not a laser beam, it had perfect velocity on it, maybe were talking about 2 different things..sorry for miscommunication.

 

this is a point from last week, which was when the ball does come in close to your stomach, sternum area, than to me there is such a thing as the art of the body catch, especially in bad conditions..