I am just going to recap what I wrote yesterday from the first half, and accidentally deleted.. Up until this point which is game 5, 18 quarters of data, I don't see how anyone can legitimately complain about the performance of a young, 2nd year starter, He was firing the ball all over the field..Marshall was 7/105 at the half, Bess had 3 catches 1 td, and Hart had a couple, He drove the team down the field from his 10 before half and threw the 25 yard laser for 6 to marshall who couldn't get both feet in, the play had to be reviewed, so close..If he gets that toe in, were gushing over our young QB. He had one Int on a deep out to Marshall where brandon slipped which allowed Tramon to make the pick, if marshall doesnt slip, he deflects the pass from being picked..The throw was a little inside for one bad throw..also had 2 throwaways that were necessary.also picked up a critcal 3rd and 10 with his feet. All of a sudden, I hear Ian eagle say to Dan fouts, ''Dan, whatta you think of this young QB, there is some rumbling down in miami about his performance this year''..Fouts responds, This is a qb in his 2nd year of starting, they need to be patient, he sure looks polished to me today''.. When I heard that, I must say, I got pissed off, because unless you are a Henne bigot, I don't see the reasoning to complain about this mans performance up until that point and time in the season, if you do, and our reading this right now,I wish you would take a closer look, because all your doing is creating anxiety for a QB that didn't deserve criticism at that point, whatsoever, your only hurting his chances of becoming successful by creating an environment that is not conducive to development..That false negativity can ruin a season by putting undo pressure on a QB, and magnifying the mistakes he does make that could very well be part of the evolution process of a QB. Once again, he had average running back production during the first half putting him in long 3rd down situations..There was that time with the drive after the pick, Henning comes out and has Henne run the ball 3 strait times, we end up picking up 5 yards, we punt, then our punter gets his punt blocked..real smooth.. Marshall, Bess, and Hartline really looked nice on the field together thru the first half, Marshall was spectacular, and Henne was NOT checking down to get his yards. Mr. Gates and Mr. Clay were excellent picks by Irish and address 2 of the weaknesses that contributed to the demise of the team later on. I would also like to add that Henne and his receivers looked sharp against 2 of the best corners in the game. Lets see what happens here in the 2nd half... Great drive to start the 2nd half, good mix of run and pass, Henne to Marshall, Henne to bess, and Henne to Hart, Mcqueef with the killer holding call, and on third down and 13, at their 27 yard line, Henning has Henne pitch to Brown for a 4 yard gain, Which triggers this response from Fouts, ''well that play makes you think that the dolphins were happy to settle for a field goal''. Henne was on point during that drive, the receivers were creating space and catching the freakin ball, and he doesn't take a shot at the first down with Henne..ADDITION BY SUBTRACTION..Goodbye you old fart.. Ian eagle shows the statistic, Miami dolphins with the worst starting field position in the league........nice special teams buddy.. If we dont think that has a negative impact on a team and QB were kidding ourselves...however, it has not affected Henne and his performance, he ignores it and has played well, even though he started that last drive at our 17 yard line...addition by subtraction, goodbye Nolan Carroll, Hello Mr. Gates. Iam gonna say it right now, Cam wake is the baddest mother grabber the NFL..I wouldn't trade his *** for anyone, his bull rush is the most impressive thing ive seen since Lawrence Taylor..He just shadowed Rodgers in the open field and made the play after several deeks by the best..His overall game is so good at this point..He is in elite status for me, and a front runner for DPOY. The defense was so dominant on the drive to start the 2nd half, rodgers was bithin and moanin..lol. Marshall at 9/123..Henne 17/27 bout 200 yards. The oline doing a fine job in this game,holes are big, yet the 2 backs are not explosive and cannot take one to the house..Ronnie brown is flat slow..what happened to that man's speed...hmmm, I know, but I won't say. Wow, check this out, Henne and the offense had possessed the ball for 12 mins of the 3rd quarter, were driving once again, at their 25, its 3 and 1, Polite can't get it, than on 4th down, Brown hesitates, and gets stopped short..unbelievable hesitation, an absolute pathetic play by the #2 pick in the draft....completely destroying a beautiful drive..This man has no clue how to run at full speed on a play like that..he may be strong, he may run over some folks, but its not at full speed, he cant let go of that hesitation. Koa Misi is a good football player, I am happy that we went all offense in this draft thru the first 4 picks, well done Irish, I hate that we didn't get my boy CKap, but maybe, just maybe, this draft is what the doctor ordered. The 4th quarter begins with the third quarter being completely dominant over the eventual superbowl champs, they had 3 mins of possession and 2 first downs, the first play of the 4th is 3rd and 12, Jason Allen shows his *** on a soft cushion for a 13 yard gain..addition by subtraction is all I got to say... Imagine if Nick satan left us with something with that first round pick.. Ok, I have just witnessed the worst stretch of play by Henne thru the first 5 games of the season..I say that because before when he has made those 3 int's, he came right back and played very well..4 consecutive incompletions, he was late on 2 throws that got deflected, one was a throwaway, and the other was a tipped pass at the los..This was the drive where we got the ball back after the punt on a bogus penalty..Lets see what he does. Well so much for that streak..He hits Hart on a critical 3rd down with the crowd at their apex, and then the beautifully executed screen pass to fasano for 6..Well done Mr. Henne. After that beautiful TD, Cam wake takes the field, Rodgers drops to pass, Wake comes on the signature bull rush, he literally picks the offensive tackle off his feet throwing him into rodgers scaring the shi$ out the qb, who throws it a way...No, I do not believe I would trade him for anybody not named Suh...He is the most important player on our team, and he's all ours baby, thank you MR. Irish.. Oh, and on the next play, he brought it again, scared Mr. Rodgers into throwing a short hail mary up for a INT.....dropped by SS24, and I mean dropped. 3rd down, They triple team wake, the play is covered downfield, Nelson slips out while Rodgers is scrambling for his life, and hits the big play...Lucky as hell man..They go down to score..If sean catches a very easy fluffy pass, this game is over...That boy has not played that well thru 5 games.. Lets see what Henne does in OT.. He makes a bad decision to throw a deep slant into double coverage on 3rd down, player was not open, incomplete, they punt.. Let me say this, if it wasn't for that double move VD bit on where Jennings housed it from 86 yards out, this defense shut down the best QB in the game...he was one frustrated football player.. Cam wake closes the deal on a third down and 6 for his third sack, a herculean effort that results in the signature celebration...we need to come up with a nickname for that celebration, its bad ***. anyways, we get the ball at the 50, henne to bess for 10, a couple of nice runs with beautiful blocking, and goldie locks closes the deal.. The oline played a great football game, Henne was not touched in the game, clean uni..and the backs had great holes to run through. Well, iam thru game 5, what the hell happens to make this staff bench that Kid I have no idea at this point...
Did not really get much better either, and keep in mind Deej Bonamego had been fired already this was Rizzi's unit and it did not play much better as the season rolled along, I know some devalue ST and what it contributes to winning and losing, of course I believe they are mistaken, but in 2010 our ST was a massive liability. Which is why Gates and Wilson are just fine with me, they are ST cornerstones.
Nice write up Deej. Thanks for taking the time and interest buddy. When are you onto the Pitt game? I'll have to rewatch it when you do.
Not all, much of it goes to Wallace and several young ST players..sucking at ST, R Jones was a stud on ST, Culver was in 09, in 10 he vanished. At times on coverages if R Jones did not make the play then a long return would ensue, got to be a ugly joke. To put things into context, we were just as likely to allow a Return for a TD as to Rush for a TD. Dave Fipp developed 3 pro bowl ST players in SF, so along with Gates and Williams the whole unit should be better.
Good shidt DJ. -You touched on exactly why I think Ronnie wont be back this year. He has no vision, he cant anticipate and it causes him to dance in the backfield while he tries to figure out where to go. Reminds me of McGahee, but slower. Ricky has the vision, but he's even slower than Ronnie, and doesn't run as hard. Watch him, you'll see him going down at the first sign of contact way too often, for my taste that is. -Sean Smith with the drops, WTF? Dude has 1 INT for his career and about 10 drops, that aint coincidence IMO. Gotta be something mental w/ him. -The Jennings TD I put partially on Bell, he had deep middle on the play. For some reason he sucks down on the crossing route (which was also open) and leaves VD hanging. Vontae jumps the out as if he was expecting help to the inside, cant say for sure thats just what it looked like to me. -Dead on w/ the OL, it was thier best game of the season. If we had decent backs we might have run for 200 yds. The holes were big and consistent, Henne had all day to throw most of the time. The Pack played man, bad mistake vs Henne. The next team to do it was Oakland, and Henne ate their asses up also, even w/o Marshall. - Dead on w/ Cam too. 2nd game in a row where Wake was beasting on some young RT, week 4 it was Vollmer, this time Baluga. Neither guy could handle him. -Another good game for Henne, with solid games vs Pitt and Cincy (mostly) coming up. I know a lot of people think he deserved to be benched but I think he was made the scapegoat. The staff was looking for a spark and Pennington was their guy. Penne was the better fit for the offense we were runnning, and he was the unquestioned leader of the team. From that standpoint I understand the move, but I DO NOT think the move could construed as an indictment of Henne's play, he was having a decent season up to that point. I'm off to watch the heat game, looking forward to next installment DJ, keep em coming my dude.
CFL baby, starts 7/3, that is my plan B during the labor strife. Shou has never commented upon this, but I'd like folks thoughts on the offense more or less giving up on Henning?
Thanks DJ.... I think people should remember....DJ was very much not in favor of Henne last season....I think this is a very objective look at his strengths and weakness'. I think DJ will show....something changed in Henne the last third of the season...and I believe alot of it was not just his fault.
Yeah the last part of the season was a train wreck offensively. In about a 3 week span: -Henne got benched -Penny got hurt -Henne got hurt -Berger got hurt -Berger's back up (Procter) got hurt -Long got hurt -Marshall got hurt -Carey got hurt -Hartline got hurt -Marshall came back, but wasnt 100% -Carey's backup (Murtha) got hurt We used 3 QBs, 3 Centers, 3 RTs, 2 RGs, 2 LGs, 3 practice squad TEs, 3 practice squad WRs, plus Kevin Curtis. Meanwhile the entire league has caught on to what Henning was doing offensively. The FO leaks that Henning isnt coming back after the Buffalo game IIRC, Henning starts throwing players under the bus in the press. It was a complete circus. And people say Henne "regressed" down the stretch, damn right he did LMAO. Keep in mind, our offense was average at best even when they were fully healthy. So IMO it's unrealistic to expect good QB play from Henne under those circumstances, he's not good enough to overcome all of that. There are only a handful of QB's in the league who can, and none of them are 2nd or 3rd year players. I think Henne is going to surprise a lot of people this year, if not, TP, KM & I are going to have to find a new forum lol.
thanks for the time and info it took to write that. here is my problem with henne. i was a henne supporter til the last couple of games, he is horribly inaccurate on the deep ball, shows no ability to bring a team down the field in the 2 min. drill , can't comment on leadership since i'm not on the team , doesn't even try to hide the ball on p.a. those 3 issues there are why i'm not a fan. yes i get the argument that the defenses adjusted to him last year after having a year of film on him but that doesn't excuse two of the three problems i have with him.
Padre, the negative dynamics our special teams gave us, took away this teams identity and lost games..I would say that thru the first 5 games of the season we have dominated on offense and defense and were brutally murdered on special teams, the balance was so out of whack it lost football games..
DJ, great write-up man, and I agree on all your points re: Henne, Wake, the O-Line in this game, and Ronnie. I actually flew out to Lambeau for this game (8 rows up, right to the side of the endzone where Marshall was barely out of bounds on replayed TD). First game since I was 6 and went to Foxboro in 1993. Cam Wake was a monster this day. I had a perfect view of him rushing in on Rodgers all day long, and boy was he getting frustrated - as were their fans. I was pretty disappointed in our fans at the game - we're on the road at an important point in the season, and ALL the Dolphins fans in our section were yelling "Henne sucks, get him out of there, can't hit the side of a barn, garbage, he's no Marino is he?." And I honestly don't get it. Even on this message board (which is easily the most knowledgable Phins site anywhere) Henne is the scapegoat and is blamed for everything. At this point, he's barely started a full season worth of games...and he's already dealing with this? Why bring in another young guy if we have no patience? Can't believe S Smith dropped that INT...is this the same guy who made that one-handed grab against the Saints in preseason? I can see him exploding and getting a ton of INTs in one game sometime this year. At this point in the season, I'm much more upset Ronnie, Ricky, and even Polite than I am Henne. Ronnie and Ricky's fumbles, Ronnie being sluggish and indecisive, Polite whiffing on blocks...it was even more painful to see in person. Our line was opening HUGE holes this game, and our RBs were doing nothing with them. I also think Marshall not getting his feet down on that TD was on him. Our D was tough, and I honestly didn't think GB was ready for it. We almost stopped them (just like we did the Vikes) on 4 straight plays at the goal line at the end of the game. We deserved to win this game. For all of Henning's terrible calls, the Fasano TD was actually a great play call. Great touch by Henne too. I DVR every game and rewatch it during the week after the game - and some I save longer (I still have and rewatch the 2009 Monday Night Jets win where Henne had the awesome last drive, the Patriots win in MIA that ended with the Crowder INT, Panthers Thurs. night game, last year's Vikings and Packers games) and I've seen each 4 or 5 times...and when I get away from the craziness that is gameday chats and postgame forum threads....I see lots of positives and improvements in Henne's game. I think the team is closer, all-around than lots of us are thinking, and could very well surprise us if we canput it all together. I think Henne can get better with the deep ball - the deep throw to Ginn that got called back vs. Hou was the nicest long pass I had seen from a Dolphins QB since even the last couple years Marino was playing. You don't see too many QBs hucking it 60 yards with no problem, putting it on a WR in stride. It'd be great to see more consistency...and I think it will help Henne having a speedster like Gates who can separate enough that there's some room for adjustment to the pass. As for the 2 minute drill...we weren't helping Henne too much with Play action calls and 8 yard comeback routes either...
I think the Docta might be onto somethin Sho, I wont comment until I feel I actually see the signs of sabatoge.
And Rodgers was still behind Favre, holding a clipboard and learning, at this point in his career. Giving up on new QB's every year and a half isn't necessarily the answer.
Probably 3 games were lost directly to poor ST play (and poor utilization of ST by Sparano), we do not need a top ST unit (though it would be nice..) we merely need them to do what they are supposed to do. ST is also one area were a lack of speed in the backup LB corps becomes pronnounced, Q, Ike, really are not ST guys and yet because of 45 man gameday roster restrictions they have to play ST along with Wallace and Moore..
Wow. If anything, that should show you how deep their supporting cast is. When Rodgers was out with a concussion, Matt Flynn looked Rodgers-like against the Pats.
I studied the QB's in the draft as hard as I could coming away with coveting Kaepernick, thats because I was over Henne when last season ended..I may of made a mistake, 5 games of data is pretty significant..what Iam waiting to see is if thE theory that defenses figured Henne out with zone is something that I really need to look at.
Well since we're spinning one liners, how about if the Giants hadn't blown a 21 pt 4th qtr lead vs the Eagles last year, the Packers would never even have made the playoffs. NFL QB and all. Rodgers sat on the bench for 3 years watching Brett Favre BTW, so if you want a compare his career to Henne's, Rodgers hasn't played a snap yet.
are you serious Linus?, people were calling out Henne in this game?, if thats true, than thats how bamboozled they were at that point..unjust negativity is a cancer.
remember Horton, I am only taking this game by game, and at this point and time, there is no evidence of that, his game at the position has been well rounded.. I will say this, its very hard to be accurate on the deep ball when the chances are so random....Henning does not have a downfield mentality when calling plays..Up until this point I have seen no signs of him earning the checkdown label, he has distributed the ball to all spots on the field with effortless velocity.. I'am not good at this but if someone could take away those three picks, and recalculate his passer rating after 5 games that would be cool...Wheres my boy ''good will hunting''?
Henne's problem with me is he does nothing to show he is a NFL starting Qb, let alone our Starting Qb. When I say nothing I mean he does not make something out of nothing, he does not hit tight throws, he does not hit throws down the field, he more or less is fundamentally well coached (for example he does not botch handoffs) but he has not taken the next step. BUT he could take that next step, and I love his toughness, if the new offense features 4 wides and 1 Rb I think Henne will flourish, until then though, I'm more than happy that we drafted DThomas to be the Rb as our best hope of the offense improving, at this point, is for a Feature Back to emerge.
In the section I was in, yes...can't say anything for the rest of the stadium/any other venue of course. I had probably 5 sets of 2-3 Dolphins fans in front/behind/to the side of me, and all those comments I just wrote were yelled throughout the game. Especially the first drive - I believe there was a short route run by Bess that was overthrown and then the next throw was a screen to Marshall that Henne threw over everyone to avoid an INT...and these guys booed, yelled get this guy outta here, how do we win any games with this joke? The craziest part to me was that this was on a drive where he drove them all the way down the field, like 50+ yards to Marshall, throws a TD to Bess....we're winning 7-3....and we're mad? This could've been just a few people for all I know...but it just seemed unwarranted at the time.
We're not talking about defense here. Although, even with their defensive injuries, it's not like Rodgers needed to overcome it since it finished 2nd in scoring defense allowing 15 pts/game, 24 INTs, and gave up very FEW big plays on defense which really helped Aaron. How messed up was their special teams?
Great write up dj. I have a question regarding NFL Rewind though... Say I buy the off season subscription package for $19.99. Do I get to watch any game I want, whenever I want throughout the entire 2010 season and can I watch games as many times as I want? Also, when would the subscription end? Thanks
How can a guy be benched and it's not an indictment on his play? This wasn't a punishment for behavior handed down by the league or the team. It was absolutely an indictment on his play and his lack of ability to the lead the team to score points, mainly TD's.
NFL Replay is great. Kudos to you for going through the game and watching it. However, I don't need to re-watch the games to tell me we had issues with our QB play. We had issues everywhere, and QB was one of the many. The season is over. Hopefully there will be another one this year.
I dont know when it ends but yes, you can watch any game, any team, as much as you want..and the features while you watch are exceptional, replay each play is one, skip plays, and each play is listed and scripted out with stats.
The thought process is if he's played 5 games at a hi level, even in loss, then how could the benching come so abruptly relative to the evolution of a 2nd year starter... The goal is to find out whether the variables around him set him up for failure..Did he truly deserve the benching, and what do we really have as a QB going into the year.. I'am not saying he doesn't become responsible, I'am just saying that after 5 games, no way in hell should he of gotten one peep from a fan, teammate or coach.. Linus tells us the story of fans calling him out in the first quarter of the game...That is completely inappropriate and unjust, only providing pressure that was not deserved..
yup, I agree, we did have eventual problems at the position, I just wanna look deeper into why, was it a skillset issue, or just an inevitability for a 2nd year starter considering the weaknesses of the team, including coaching.
because by examining play by play the position your able to see how the athlete executed his personal responsibilities, its imperative for an accurate projection moving forward.
