Dolphins @ Cardinals: Quick Hits

First of all, let me just say what a tough game to watch, as a fan of this team. 31-10, ugh. The game was pretty hard to watch, all the way around. Regardless, let's try to find that silver lining and look at what went right (and more often what went wrong) for the Dolphins out in the desert.

What I Liked

Answer: Not much. It's hard to find anything meaningful that came out of this blowout. Nevertheless, there was one thing that made the game somewhat exciting to watch.

• Glimpses of the Future - I liked that Chad Henne came into the game and led the team to a TD, even if it was in garbage time. I thought Henne displayed good decision making skills and a cannon arm. There were a couple of miscues with the receivers, but overall it was a nice drive and Henne lived up to his billing. Good to see him in the game in a "live fire" scenario. I'd say Henne is one of the few players who have looked as good in the regular season as he did in the preseason.

What I didn't Like

There was plenty to not like about this game. Take your pick, and you're probably right. Here are the ones that stood out for me:

• Defensive Schemes - Someone explain to me how you put Akin Ayodele on All Pro WR Anquan Boldin. Terrible scheme on that play, and it was a trend that would continue throughout the day. A lot of the failure is on the players, but at some point you have to question the calls that are being made out on the field. For those of you that don't think Boldin is a #1 receiver, I've got some game tape to show you.
• Secondary Play - I can blame the first Boldin TD on the scheme, but our Safeties and Cornerbacks played poorly throughout the afternoon. Whiffing on tackles, giving up large chunks of yardage. Even the normally reliable Will Allen made some mistakes out there today. It was an ugly day for the team, with Warner racking up over 350 yards and 3 TDs before exiting the game early. I'm extremely concerned that, after a Chris Crocker injury, it was Renaldo Hill checking into the game, and not Jason Allen. I don't know what is up with Allen, I don't get to see Dolphins practice, but his lack of meaningful playing time is extremely disconcerting.
• Anemic Running Game - I don't know what has happened, but the running game, assumed to be strength of this team, has simply not existed the first two games of the season. I thought Arizona would serve as a "get well" game for this team, but that was not the case. The vaunted tandem of Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown combined for 22 carries and a paltry 53 yards. That works out to a pathetic 2.4 YPC rate. Those kind of stats simply aren't going to get it done. We've got to be able to consistently get at least 75 - 100 yards out of this duo in order to be competitive. I did like the second effort I saw out of Ronnie today, as he seemed to get stronger as the game went on. I'd like to see Sparano shake it up and give Brown the early carries next week, as it seems he needs that time to get warmed up.
• Wide Receivers Still AWOL - Another week, another awful outing for "The Worst Wide Receivers In The NFL" (© Miami Dolphins WRs, 2008). The lack of a productive Wide Receiver is absolutely crippling the offense. It's allowing teams to key on the running game, because there is no respect for the Miami WR core. Can't argue with the strategy. In review, Hagan made his customary drop of an easy pass, Camarillo was average, Wilford was active and failed to catch a pass, and the raw Bess made a few plays. We'll get to Ginn later.

Standout Players

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  Chad Henne - Henne looked good in mop-up duty moonlighting as our quarterback of the future. That doesn't mean we hand him the reigns next week, but it's nice to see a drafted QB playing well in relief duty. I may be overreacting, and I hate to say it, but Henne's improving play will probably spell the end of the Beck era in Miami.
• Ronnie Brown - As I alluded to above, I believe Ronnie should be starting. Now. Next Week. Going forward. We resigned Ricky, and that's all well and good. But we need to be using Ricky as the change of pace back, and Ronnie as the workhorse, not vice versa. Brown's stats aren't much to sneeze at (13 touches, 34 total yards), but he played his heart out there - and deserves to be commended for not quitting. I don't know why we ran to the right so much today, but I'm hoping we make an effort to just bang it up behind Jake Long and Justin Smiley against the Patriots next week.

Invisible Players

You could make the argument that the entire team was invisible today. For the most part, I'd agree with you. There were a few players who, in a bad game, failed to do anything of note, and deserve to be called out. Here are today's Invisible Players:

• Samson Satele - I love Satele (just check my avatar), and as a fan of the dude's play, if anyone is going to call him out for it I feel like it should be me. It looks to me like Satele has regressed. He's having immense trouble at the point of attack, and getting driven backwards by bigger and stronger nose tackles. I don't know if the plan was to have Donald Thomas help him, and that's part of what happened today, but Samson spent most of the game getting blown up. I expected a lot out of him this year, but so far his play has been average at best.
• Ted Ginn Jr. - I don't know what Ginn Jr. did to not play today, but failing to make an impact until there is 6 minutes left in the game is not good. Part of that is coaching - there are ways to get him the ball, but part of it has to be the player too. The fact that he was not out there for KR or PR duties concerns me as well. Coming out, we all knew that Teddy would be a work in progress, but it's disappointing that he has not made any plays in the first 2 games of his sophomore campaign. I know folks are going to label him a bust, but I still think it's a little early for that label. However, a few more afternoons like this, and I may change my opinion.
• Joey Porter - Did Porter even play today? With Fitzgerald and Boldin owning the Dolphins secondary, it was up to our front seven to put some pressure on Warner to help take some pressure off of them. As one of our "big name" players, I expected to see Porter make some plays. I don't even recall his name being called.

Overall Thoughts

What a difference a week makes. For a team that showed such signs of life against New York last week, it was disenheartening to see such sloppy play today. We were awful in pretty much all phases and areas of the game today. It's obvious, after two weeks, that this team is very much a "work in progress," and that we have a long way to go before we are competitive again. We're going to be challenged next week facing the Brady-less Patriots, and we've got the Bye the following week. That said, I'm not quite ready to hit the Panic Button yet. We were competitive against the Jets, and played poorly today. With such a new team, that's bound to happen. It's a 16 game season, so we just have to stay positive.

 

On Satele, I want to see how he handles playing against a 4-3 before I deem him a failure. Through two games though, I'm very concerned. It was clear watching the game that a major component of the Cards front 7 defensive scheme involved attacking the C/RG spot via stunts and blitzes. I'd say it was a successful strategy.

I think Satele is hurt by the absence of Donald Thomas, because his strength isn't brute force at the point of attack. He needs help in that area. He's more of a finesse, pulling upfield type center.

 

I'm in pretty much complete agreement on the Allen vs. Crocker argument. Our entire secondary pretty much looked terrible yesterday. If we can't stop 3 step drop passes, we're in pretty bad shape. Several times during the game yesterday the announce crew stated "it shouldn't be this easy in the NFL."

The other concerning part is that 2 #1 draft picks and a #2 draft pick (Allen, Ginn, and Satele) have all either regressed or nearly disappeared. That's not good.