http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=jc-cole_bush_role_with_dolphins_lessened_092011 Hell I didn't even like the talk about Bush being an every down back. He's a specialty player, use him as such. If they thought otherwise, well, they also tried Pat White at QB.
Offense was much more open and better when he was in the game more. I think their making a mistake if he is used like he was last week.
They need to use him like he was used in preseason. I'm not sure why he wasn't used like that against the Texans.
NR... I think that was one aspect of the Offense that was missing this week... I know that DT was doing great and TS did not want to break the rythm... but in the end, we did not punch the ball into the end zone... and until the OL gets conditioned and gell, expect short passes and screen plays to get into the EZ... that is where RB would excell at, and is this not the reason they got him for???
I question the use of Fasano one game 80+ yards receiving then the next game ZERO RECEPTIONS FOR ZERO YARDS??????
So one game we use him too much, the next we don't use him much as another guy is tearing it up and suddenly we're making sweeping declarations about his usage? Let's see what happens this week.
75 plays out of 80 is quite the workload don't you think? DTrain was going well, Bush was with the trainers a bit, nothing major but I do expect more balance this week.
Apparently Sparano said if thomas was running like he did vs. Houston we wouldn't see much of Bush. Is there some reason Bush can't be used as a receiver in 2nd and 3rd and long? I guess thats too much for tony to think about. It never ends with this guy. Get rid of him before the season is a right off. Move Daboll or Nolan to h.c. Either one would be better than the useless pile of crap that is Tony Sparano. He is not qualified to be a head coach and has proven it year after year with his inept strategies and personnel decisions during games. You make the big off season signing thats supposed to give the team instant offence and they don't have a clue how to use him. Its so very frustrating.
What? Sparano has always went with the hot hand at Rb, if Dt is getting 5 ypa, why would you take him out of the game?
Of course you keep using the hot hand but there's no reason you can't get Bush in there and take advantage of both of them. Especially in passing situations which is what I said. And Sparano does NOT always stay with the hot hand. Many times in previous years Ronnie or Ricky would be on their way to a big game and all of a sudden he would start giving the ball more to the cold back. There was several posts on the subject last year, me included.
I mentioned this in another thread, but I think it deserves consideration. There's been a vocal contingent of folks (Paul13 primarily) who have been calling for Bush and Thomas to be in the backfield at the same time. I agree. A Pro Set where we utilize both of them makes a lot of sense, as it gives the defense not one but two players to key on. Then there's the elephant in the room. Fact 1: Our Red Zone Offense has been anemic, at best. Fact 2: Reggie Bush, despite our best efforts, is at his most strong when being asked to use his speed in space. Fact 3: Daniel Thomas displayed good burst and good vision on Sunday, gashing the Texans primarily between the tackles. Fact 4: Daniel Thomas played JuCo quarterback and took a lot of single wing snaps as a K-State Wildcat the last two years. Fact 5: This team, especially the offense, needs a spark after a very flat effort on Sunday. Fact 6: We have had great success in the past when looking at unconventional offenses. Fact 7: Josh Cribbs (a former collegiate QB) in what was known as the "Flash Package" the last several years for Cleveland, most recently with Dolphins OC Brian Daboll last season. Add those up and what do you get? *Gulp* I hate to say it, but it may be time for us to consider breaking out the Wildcat, unless we're "holding it back" for when we are out of playoff contention. Thomas has demonstrated that he's capable of being a WC QB, at least at the collegiate level, and Reggie Bush was born to run the Jet Sweep. Daboll has a history of using a very versatile player (similar in some respects to Daniel Thomas) in Josh Cribbs in Cleveland last season. Add all of those factors up and you have to think that the Wildcat is on the table, if not heavily in discussion at this point.
Why are people pining for more Bush? Thomas was much better against the Texans and gives us a legit inside runner. We can still use Bush as a receiver and change of pace back, but I didn't need to see much of Daniel Thomas to know that he should get at least 15 carries per game every game from now on. At a minimum.
The point is not to use Bush to replace DT. 1 catch for 3 yards. Pfftt. Trade plus millions for that? I think we can do better.
I would definitely use the Wildcat in the goal line area and in short yardage. These two have very good capabilities in that regard.
Damn Thomas can throw actually. I don't think you can blitz the CBs against him. He can throw a good 40-45 accurately.
Say Miami were to run a simple sweep for Bush coming from his position as slot receiver. How would a defense react to Bush? It would severely threaten their zone no? Perhaps they'd have to have a CB shade Bush the entire game. That split second of whether Bush gets the handoff could be a major pain in the *** for an opposing team because you're dealing not only with a conventional QB but also a legitimate running game. Reggie Bush can- run well in space Block- the CB who is roaming the field with him Daniel Thomas can run up the gut Henne can fake handoff to Bush run the ball and yet still run PA deep to Clyde Gates It's a very confusing, very dangerous formation because of the presence of a real QB. There's the run option, the sweep option, and a pro level nfl passing attack. How many teams have even deployed that kind of attack with a real RB as the slot receiver?
Ummmm....... uhhhhhhh......... ummmmmm......... man, this is harder to resist than I thought. I'm just gonna hold my breath till I pass out and pray someone gets the thread closed before I come to.
I think the game plan, based on our struggling D, was to pound the rock at them to keep their O off the field. The O couldn't pound the rock consistently, and as usual we didn't make very many adjustments during the game and by the time they started to use Bush more to his strengths, we were behind and fighting to stay in the game. Bush needs about 20 touches a game to get untracked and have the chance to break one, be that in a run or pass situation. He'll break one if we feed him consistently. But we failed in that this past game...
I'm not. I thought 8 years was more than enough...Oh! you mean Reggie? I'd hope we find a way to use them together. Nothing wrong with two running and receiving threats in the backfield together. That's what NE does with Woodhead and Green-Ellis.
I tend to defend Ross, but I think some politics played in to this.. Celebrity player who banged one of the Kardashians.. A nice poster of Reggie plastered on 95 like he has actually accomplished something in the NFL worth of a full sized ad... I'm sure this was a football decision, but I'm not so sure that it involved this other aspect..
I saw an interview done with one of the Miami Dolphins' pro scouts. I think Reggie Bush was purely a football decision. The pro scout was asked about Reggie Bush and his reply was that the big question on him was just health, is he healthy now and would he stay healthy. Otherwise, it was "easy" to scout him on tape, and Reggie was a "human highlight reel". His implication was basically that it's obvious that Reggie Bush is a premier football player but that health alone makes him a question. Which convinced me even more strongly that the pro scouting department of the Dolphins that I've been complaining about for years...really IS a mickey mouse operation, and is making Jeff Ireland look even worse than he really is.
Why did it take so long for them to determine that Reggie Bush was not a between the tackles, north-south running back? Did they actually think he was an every down type of running back, when he was never that in NO? Bush is an outside threat and a good compliment to a back like DT but not an inside outside threat but thats JMO. I really feel that Bush is going to make his mark and make some big plays but not as a workhorse type of running back like the Dolphins have needed.
While watching a stream of the game and using the chat, I had fun typing fist pump every time the Dolphins lined up to kick a field goal with fellow fans, and teasing the whining coming from the fantasy footballers crying about Reggie not being used enough. Seeing Reggie stop running after he hit the line because he keeps his head down, I guess he's afraid of being hit by 290 pound DL and wants to avoid seeing them, was frustrating. Severely limit the Reggie runs and figure out ways to isolate vs LBs in the passing game.
I don't know that the brainfart...er I mean braintrust is ready to abandon any ideas they've had about Bush being a featured back. That said, I don't think that they determine 'featured back' by the number of carries, more like the number of touches. Bush needs 20-25 touches a game and if he does, it's likely he'll break at least a couple of those for long gainers. The Texans kept him covered like a blanket whenever he roamed outside, whether he had the ball or not. If our OL had given Henne a bit more time, some of the underneath patterns to Bess, Fasano and Marshall might have been completed. If the D contains/shadows Bush and it opens up some other offensive guys, then we are fine. I don't recall how often Thomas and Bush were used together, but that could give us some flexibility that no all offenses have, but it's all predicated on the OL play...ours has been less than average so far.... I just think this debate is how you determine what a feature back is. I don't think they care whether he runs BTT or not, so long as he's moving the ball...
What's happening is exactly what I thought would happen. In preseason all of us were excited to see the one/no-back spreads, the quick slants and all the things done to maximize Bush's utility and minimize his weaknesses. We were all hopeful that Sparano had finally gotten his fat foot off the Offense's throat and that we might finally see what we had in Henne. But the caveat I made was "IF" Sparano let go; it's clear that he hasn't. It's clear that the new formations in preseason came with Daboll, including the smart use of Bush; it's also clear that this regular-season direction to play a lot of the same old non-spread formations is a regression that indicates Sparano putting a governor on Daboll's Offense. And it's painfully clear by comparing preseason and this last game that Daboll knows how to use Bush, so it can't be him. This stubborn insistence on using Bush the wrong way; but, furthermore, to continue using Bush the wrong way in the face of abject failure, has the stamp of one man on it, and one man only: our meathead of a Head Coach, Tony Sparano. This flies in the face of Ross' stated goal of a more dynamic Offense, and this time there's no excuse—we have the personnel, and Henne has showed that he can play at a high level when he doesn't have two dinosaurs sitting on his chest. For this reason, I redouble my belief that Sparano is fired at the bye, and we either get an altogether-new administration, or Nolan interims until a new administration is chosen after the season...bet on the former, since we'd still have 12 games to play after the bye and the season would not be lost at that point. Unless Sparano is retained after the bye; in that case, let's just talk draft until the end of the season.
I think you're going to see Miami do that this weekend. Todd and I have been talking about how it's very possible Miami will look at certain aspects of what Clemson did against Auburn and simply run both 4 WR and 3 WR sets (including Bush) with Thomas in the backfield. The Jet sweep will allow Miami to threaten the edge on every single play, retain their successful shotgun running game, and put speed on the field as you would in a normal pass play. Plus there's a good chance it'll help Henne read the coverage.
To be fair, I thought the running game looked much better when they went to the 2TE formations. They also were in shotgun for more than half the offensive plays. 34 of our 60 plays were out of a spread formation. But I'm not sure how Bush was used the wrong way. If he's lining up in the backfield you're going to have to at least run him between the tackles at some point, or you're compromising a lot. His primary use is going to be forcing defenses to declare pre-snap when he is on the field.
They were effective though out of 3 WR sets as well. That will remain the base offense unless a team flat out is man handled at the point like Cody was Pouncey. Bush can't really play RB, you can't have a RB on the field very often that can't run at all behind the tackles unless it's third down and long. The defense will love that since they can really just pin their ears back and ignore the draw up the middle and plays of that sort.
I'm not sure why they would have a CB shade Bush instead of treating him the same as any other WR. The advantage that Bush provides is that when he is lined up in the backfield, the defense theoretically has to maintain their gap responsibilities regardless of his ability between the tackles.
You can't treat Bush as just any WR because if he hits that boundary he's extremely dangerous in the run game off of a handoff. No WR can run with power, speed, and ability like Bush can on the edge. If you are not following him to the edge in motion it's a simple handoff with a numerical advantage of 3 guys on that side of the field versus two DBs on the part of the defense. The defense still has to maintain gap responsibilities because of a guy by the name of Daniel Thomas. If there is no jet sweep, the play is simply a run play out of 4 WR and Bush hits the outside CB in a block, the Z WR (Marshall) hits the SS and the slot WR (Hartline) engages their dime CB. If you choose to run zone Henne will know your coverage at least short and have an overload on that side.
But the defense still has to account for Bush when he's in the backfield a lot differently than if he's lined up as a receiver.
Against a dime back and nickel back yes. Against Haynesworth and LBs no. How would you account for Reggie Bush if you see him lined up at WR. You account for him as a WR. Most WRs though can't take a handoff in motion and run like Reggie Bush. That element forces to shade him with a fast, great tackling CB, possibly a guy like Darelle Revis.
