Random thoughts from a deranged mind: -Why the **** is Larry Johnson on the roster? -We have two backs now who play? That's it? -Paul Soliai is a fullback? Not a bad idea though. -Anthony Fasano CAN catch! -Chad Henne can play -Our defense wasn't ready for this game, not physically, not mentally. That's a huge disappointment to me. The Pats clearly took advantage of our lack of conditioning. Why is Vontae sitting on the bench and not back in the locker room with an IV? -top 10 defense? -after the hundredth time of Solder smacking Wake down, would you not try to move him around? -Reggie Bush won't last at this rate -but he sure is exciting to watch -so is our passing offense -if only our running game could do anything -Jake Long didn't look conditioned to play, was that him getting a laugh from Sparano (or was it a grimace from Tony) at the end of the game? -Why was Larry Johnson active? -Why was Larry Johnson signed again? -Jason Trusnik special teams extraordinnaire? Two holds on kick returns that really hurt us. -Nolan Carroll was kept over Will Allen. -Nolan Carroll looked bad -Larry Johnson was on the bench -So was Dante Rosario -perhaps we should have taken something out of the Jets defensive play book and faked injury a couple of times to slow down the Pats offense with the no huddle -Benny Sapp is your typical nickel back. Sometimes he makes a great play (like the int by Odrick). Sometimes he can't make a tackle (Welker TD) -Reshad Jones did gamble, but the guy is a playmaker. Almost picked six on the goal line pass by Brady to #52 -no other safety on our roster could have made that play -Sean Smith still can't tackle -Vontae Davis is overrated. He certainly shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as Revis. -nor the same sentence. ^those were two sentences -I like Chad Henne -But our offensive line is going to get him killed -we should sign Gerrard as a backup, BACKUP! -But Chad Henne is not elite. And if you go into the draft next year with a top five draft pick and a couple of franchise qb's on the menu, you know what needs to be done. -That's just the truth, not a knock on Chad. There's a reason why elite qb's are rare. -we need another edge rusher. Koa Misi was invisible tonight. -should have kept Quenton Spears -Why did Brandon Marshall call a timeout on first and ten? -if I see another jump pass to Hartline in the endzone I'm going to puke -why did we keep Roberto Wallace active and not use him as a receiver? -Larry Johnson -Need to take Bess off punt returns. And bring back Phil Livas! -I like Gates. He's a rookie, lets keep it in mind. -Incognito's holding calls were drive killers -we may have the worst guard tandem in the league -Why is it when we blitz, six guys vs five blockers, we can't get there. But yet, when the Pats send five guys, against six blockers, they get there? -nice to see Chad Henne score a TD with a qb draw for once. That was a nice play call. -Dan Henning would have called a reverse -Daboll will be fine. -But our defense needs to make some plays, these shootouts won't work -How can the Pats be better conditioned than us in this heat? -Short training camp I guess. -Texans up next, do they run a no huddle? I think they'll use it even if they don't. Until our defense can stop it, we'll see it from everyone. It's a copy cat league. -Just one game... relax. We weren't supposed to win this one. Beat Houston next week....and we'll get better as time moves on. -anyone find Larry Johnson yet?
I want to see Larry Johnson on Sunday. Same with Dante Rosario. I think the defense will bounce back.
"perhaps we should have taken something out of the Jets defensive play book and faked injury a couple of times to slow down the Pats offense with the no huddle" I guess you heard me yelling through my TV. I didn't understand why they wouldn't try that. It's tacky but not illegal so who gives a poo...poor coaching??
You know what...Koa Misi WAS invisible tonight. I didn't hear his name once. Hell, all of our LB's were invisible. I didn't hear Dansby. I didn't hear Burnett. Wake had the one sack. I didn't hear Jason Taylor other than being hurt.
Marshall called timeout to cover up for his false start.... Larry Johnson left his diapers on the bus and was unable to suit up for tonights game... Henne looked confident and accurate and like he could be a very serviceable qb....Lights looked on tonight, now can he be consistent. I didnt like daboll's goaline play calls at all, but i do like the overall offensive gameplan. Incognito and columbo are as bad as we thought they were..... I fully expect will allen to be re-signed tomorrow and lousaka polite.
I mean at some point you have to do something... stop trying to match up with the personnel, go nickel and live with what you got. Jaws said it. Isn't that why we have Burnett and Dansby to play in the nickel and not have to be subbed off? I didn't expect our defense to not be prepared. This isn't the first time we've played New England.
Well, at some point you just have to give credit to the Pats. I mean, we just don't matchup well with that offense at the moment. There have been times in the past, with a prime Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas, Surtain and Madison, that they didn't matchup well vs us. But we matchup well vs the Jets.
Sapp is who he is but wish we had a better corner so smith could play nickel and cut sapp.... Carroll awful guy was lost and that's an understatement. Dansby. WTF. You are the heart of this defense! Missed tackle after missed tackle. That was an embarrassing performance by our d and it starts with the capt. Looked like capers old def. Out there nobody knew where to go or line up.
good point about the missed tackling. Our d looked slow. Their D looked fast and rarely missed a tackle. Huge difference in the game.
The defensive scheme might be a bit complicated. All these coverage switches are pretty ridiculous. Back in the 4-3 defense days under Saban we would kick the **** out of this Pats O.
Ya know. Dolphins got to the 1 yard line twice but only got three points out of that. Imagine if wed scored Tds both times. Plus that last drive with the clock running out? Defense was bad. Goal line offense equally bad.
My last comment of the night is this. Yes, Henne played better tonight and the offense was more explosive. But when all is said and done, the fact is that over the last two regular seasons, the Dolphins are now 1-8 at home. To me these are the only numbers which mean anything in regards to the play of the Miami Dolphins.
One thing is quite clear in watching tonights games... Chad Henne >>>> Kyle Orton. Sometimes the best moves are the ones you don't make.
And I believe that is now 9 takeaways by this "vaunted" defense in those nine games and we are still -10 in the turnover margin.
Given our interior OL and RBs, I have a feeling short yardage/goal line offense is going to be an issue all year. Solai at FB? Really?
Fun write up . Lots of salient points , however I am much more impressed with Henne than you appear to be. When do Ireland and Sparano become truly accountable? Now? or end of the season? How much real contribution have we gotten from the majority of our draft picks? How much developing have the coaching staff provided? They are ultimately responsible , lots of negatives I saw tonight from those two tonight to be very blunt.
They should already be being held accountable. This offseason I've lost a ton of faith in Ireland. The handling of the personnel was awful and tonight highlighted those problem areas he fudged. OL was awful..... awful. Instead of going all out to bring in a Guard we bring in a RT and a weak one at that in Colombo. We had no grind it out tailback to try to establish a running game even if the OL was playing well. A team like N.E. you have to establish the run and slow them down. I'll say it again, not keeping one RB out of Ronnie or Ricky or pressing hard for one of the FA tailbacks was a massive mistake They let themselves go into a season relying on a rookie and a situational back to carry the load. After realizing they made a mistake they have to bring in a retired and a soon to be retired RB in desperation to man the position. Then they don't even attempt to give Larry Johnson any carries in an attempt to slow this game down and give their defense a rest. We have a one man pass rush. How did we address that situation? Bringing in Jason Taylor? Another player that is clearly done. Stellar move. Sparano isn't off the hook either. I did not expect to the Phins to win this game but the awful fashion in which they lost was inexcusable. Penalties, conditioning issues, performance of the OL.... my god.... they have talent issues but I saw missed assignments and complete confusion while missing blitz pickups. Badly prepared. Oh and our secondary needs to shut the hell up and figure out how to cover somebody. Smith, Davis, Carrol all played awful and my god Reshad Jones was the worst of them all. Yes this is the Pats but were supposed to have a top defense right? We've played this team better with less talent on D before. Inexcusable. What I was pleased with to a degree was Dabol's game call. Good overall execution and he mixed it up pretty well. Obviously he's very limited with what the team has put on the field for him with the OL and RB issues. Considering those issues he did pretty damn well.
One other thing.... Is it just me or does anyone else get incredibly irritated watching a 150 pound yard gnome named Woodhead run right up the gut of our defense while seemingly appearing like a 250 pound FB that can't be tackled? Are you F'ing kidding me?
I think whenever we are in a 4 man line, that's part of a nickel or dime package, which would make it a 4-2 or a 4-1 I guess. Never as a base defense, I would agree.
I would have thought that four man line we put out there should have been the team's strength and their major advantage with guys like Starks-Odrick but apparently not.
The good Henne-Had some bad throws but looks like he improved big time and is finally ready to step up. Fasano-Made some tough catches had a great night. The bad Offensive line-It was just bad. Long needs to get back into game speed because he looked awful out there. We really need some depth on the line. The running game-Bush had some nice run but we really need a big bruiser back there. Not running a big back really affected the plays down on the goaline. The ugly Secondary-Holy **** Vontae runs his ****ing mouth about him and Smith being the best duo in the league YEAH ****ING RIGHT. Getting beat by Slater twice (who?). Sapp made 1 good play which forced a TO into a score but was AWFUL. Nolan Carrol couldn't defend ANYTHING out there. I can't believe someone so bad could be on the roster. Reshad Jones put back Clemons please my goodness. Return game-Seriously we can't bring Livas in? Can't put Bush back there? Really really need a dynamic returner.
Marshall was also really good. He's a fantastic receiver. If Brady him he could cause incredible trouble for any defense.
We haven't heard anything bad. Also another note: Watching the game highlights and from what I can see Haynesworth was a monster. With Wilfork next to him in the 4-3 these two are incredibly tough to stop from collapsing the pocket. It makes Henne's game all the more amazing. Long got his *** kicked by the way.
This is why many of us have not believed and have called for their heads for over a year now. Its going to be as long a season as I have dreaded.
The good thing with Ireland-Sparano is that I think they've built a talented team. On offense and defense there's talent up and down the roster and most of that talent is pretty young but these guys aren't capable of really taking the team to the next level. As far as Nolan-Daboll good coordinators can be found, the main thing though is whose a good candidate for a HC?
No pressure on Brady was the story...Misguided faith in Jason Taylor's ability. Misi was better than Taylor IMO. Soliai was sidelined by the no huddle. Carroll had the 'deer in the headlights' eyes in the midst of his meltdown. Vontae was as flat as I've ever seen him. I saw Pouncey completely upside down on one running play early.
Now do you see why I have been wanting Sparano & Ireland gone since last year ? They are NOT championship winning material. They have no clue how to build, or coach a team to a championship. BRING IN BILL COWHER !