...OK. So im bored as hell at work, and decided I would look into our running game. A lot of talk has always been about how good of a RB Ronnie really is, and whether Ricky is a better RB or not. My feeling has always been that Ronnie is elite talent and that in the right place he would be one of the top backs in the league. My feelings were confirmed after his 2007 season(dispite missing a lot of the season). Ricky was the better runner earlier in his career. My thoughts on Ronnie have tailed a little bit this season and last season on whether hes truely elite or not. After the first three games, and last season, I question Ronnies top end speed, and whether he has the vision or patience to survive outside of the wildcat. Last year his numbers were not good outside of the wild cat dispite our 11-5 year. So this year I figured I would break apart the running game, Wild Cat or not, with him and the rest of the running game. Overall Ronnie is averaging a very good 4.9 per carry this season, while Ricky is averaging a healthy 4.8 himself. Ronnies average dips to 4.1 per carry outside of the WC, which isnt terrible. But Rickys average stays more towards his overall, hes averaging 4.7 outside of the WC. Its astonishing how well Ronnie does in the WC formation, while being nearly pedestrian outside of it. 7.2 YPC in the WC this year. 7.2! Now I know some people will say, who cares whether its in or out of the WC, but I personally do. Because I cant see the WC going into Pitt against a defense like that and doing anything. Much like last year in the wild card game against Baltimore. Very good defenses are going to be able to stop the WC run. We need to be able to run the ball out of regular formation to be successful in this league. So what does this stuff mean? I dont know, to be honest. Does it mean we spend to much time on the WC and its tough to be effective in a base running game because of it? Could it be we dont have the true personel to be a good base running team? Could it be the wrong plays being called? I dont know, I just know with us starting out 0-3, after just a year ago us winning the division after going 11-5, I have begun to panic a little. Yes we have played 3 pretty good teams, but guess what, the rest of the schedule doesnt get easier. And its not the record, its the WAY we lost those. Offense was completely dominated by ATLs defense, do we have the right pieces on our offense line? Was Long the right pick? Signing Carey to a big contract dispite him always being an overweight RT(even though he has been good, not great for the most part)? Was signing Grove to a decent contract worth it when he rarely ever plays 16 games and looked terrible so far? Was Pennys year last year just a fluke? Are these WRs really as bad as a lot of people thought they were? And without David Martin does this TE group lack something and is Fasano overrated like i thought he was? Then we have Indy at home, a game I really thought we could win. And our defense comes out and lays a goose egg. My minds starts running again. Ok, the running game and wild cat looked great. But what about these WRs, very unimpressive showing tonight. I have always been a fan of the Ted Ginn pick, but man is he a ***** and damn he should of came down with that catch at the end. a #9 pick comes down with that. How the hell did this front office miss so bad on Gibril Wilson? Will Allen looks lost and the worst ive ever seen. Why the hell was he signed to an extension and Goodman let go? Bell looks lost at times as well. Porter and JT look old. Our ILBs cant cover and Crowder is just not good at all. Wonder why we chose a 3rd string QB and a gimmick QB that may play a couple plays a game in the 2nd with so many holes on defense? Could of had Rey Rey in round 1. Sean Smith and another defensive player in round 2. Albeit we really needed 2 CBs. Then we go to SD..Gez. What a terrible game to watch. No offense to speak of oustide of the first drive really. And dispite only giving up 23 points to a good QB in Philip Rivers, our pass defense was just terrible terrible terrible. You have the feeling that Manning and Rivers could of did what they pleased at any second when they were on the field, and almost felt sorry for us...I walk away from this game thinking almost the same as game one...Ted Ginn? where the **** are you? Is it really him? These arent hands he displayed at the beginning of his career. Your route running is better, but that pick 6 off Henne was damn near all your fault. That route was just terrible. I could of picked that ball off. I was so done by the end of this game, I had nothing to say. So what IS right with this team? What can I not ***** about? Well for one, the rush defense. And more specifically, the defensive line. They havent gotten to much pressure from the down 3, but in this defense thats not what their asked to do most of the time, and they have done one hell of a job against the run. Hats off to those guys. The ground game in the WC. Amazing against Indy, simply amazing, good against SD as well. The OLine after the ATL game has been solid IMO. Sean Smith and Vonte Davis. While neither has been spectacular, they have both been solid IMO, and the future is bright there. Outside of that, not to much else IMO. Now I know I sound like a ship jumper at this point, but it is what it is. We are in pretty tough division, we are 0-3. With the toughest schedule in the league remaining. Now I still will look forward to every game, and every play. And I will root for us to win every game and every play. But the biggest things i think i will look for the rest of the year, is the questions that will be answered. And i believe they will be by the end of the year... Is Chad Henne our QB of the future? Is Tedd Ginn going to develope into a bonifide thread in the NFL? Is Ronnie Brown that every down back that we need to be successful in this league? Is he worth the money and contract extension? Do we have a below-average/average TE starting for us? Is Will Allen done? Is Joey Porter done? Is Jason Taylor done? Was Long the right pick? Is Gibril Wilson and Bell going to be on this team next year? All questions i think will be answered by seasoned end. It may be a rocky road boys and girls. But at least its going to be interesting at least. But with all that said, Heres to going out tomorrow, and not waiting til seasons end to prove those things! and lets whip some Bill ***! *I dont even know what this thread was about, but i never make them. and i never rant. and with it being slow at work, i just thought i had a good opportunity to. i needed that.
Didin't even read it. Scrolled down and posting this. Just for typing all that you deserve thanks Now ill be reading it
lmao! you might not like what you read, its mostly just random rants from me..ive kept them in all year so..
I think that it would be important to see how many carries Ronnie has outside of the WC per game. When he has 17-20 carries, even without the WC, his average goes up. He may not be as fast as say, AP, or LT, but when he gets to the second level, if he has some steam, he will knock the safety on his *** and be gone for a TD. Ronnie is quicker, IMO, than people give him credit for. Also, Ricky gets alot of calls for sweeps and tosses, and it seems that Ronnie gets calls for dives and slams. That will affect the YPC avg too.
Nice rant, my main comment is that the reason it's preferable to be able to run out of a base formation is that the defense doesn't automatically anticipate run and run blitz. If the WC develops into a legit passing threat than it will work against any defense (Pitt, Balt. or whomever). It really just comes down to blocking. Last year the WC failed against the ravens b/c their players beat our players in one on one blocks.
I think the problem with that is, how can the WC develop into a legit passing threat? that is with Pat White getting the snap rather then Ronnie, which in turn takes away the dual running threat as well. IMO Patty White on the field is not a great threat to run in that system, how many QBs run successfully right up the gut? it doesnt happen
We are running the WC too much for my taste, I would rather do more out of conventional formations and then go play action off of it. Also the pick 6 was not Ginn's fault for 2 reasons. Reason one is that it was 100% Henne's fault for looking left, staring right to try and move the coverage that way, and then turning back left and throwing before reading the S at all, who was in perfect position to make the pick, which he did. Reason 2 would be that the receiver Henne was trying to throw to on the play was Bess, not Ginn. People have gotten down on Ginn to the point that whenever a receiver is perceived to make a bad play he gets blamed for it... Though honestly if you go back and watch it Bess did nothing wrong. He leaked out to the are he was supposed to but was perfectly covered, its just not a ball Henne should have thrown. As long as he learns from it though its OK.
Agreed. And the thing that bothers me about it that you can only run the ball a certain percentage of the time, if you use the WC this heavily, and run out of it just about every time then it can start to take away the unpredictability of your base offense as well. When we want to run we do it out of the WC, meaning that if we are in our base offense then the chances of it being a pass are much higher then they would be if we were running out of a conventional set. We are starting to get too predictable for my taste.
Last years 11-5 was a great year to be a Dolphin fan but unfortuately it lulled us into a sense that the Dolphins were better than they actually are. Maybe the 0-3 start will help us all realize that this team is still a work in progress and great things aren't built over night. We all new before last year started that this team was in a rebuild mode and that years of wasted drafts and bad personnel decisions would be difficult to fix, but I think it will be fixed. The team may have started the season overconfident because of last years record but I think they got a reality check and are trying hard to correct things.
While I wasn't a fan of the White pick b/c of that reason, I think they could use him to run on the edges. And it doesn't have to take away the dual run threat. All you'd have to do is run it more towards the end. You still make the same read and if the end drops in, White pops it outside. They actually did that against the Colts. White made the right read but then lineman missed the block.
