1) Which dance does Ronnie do when he scores a touchdown? After getting fined, Brown has said the group choreography is over. It'll be interesting to see what Ronnie does if/when he reaches paydirt this week. 2) After being railed on by his teammates, coaches, and his own family for ducking out of bounds repeatedly last week, Ted Ginn swears he won't avoid contact anymore. Is this the first week we see a more decisive, physical Teddy? 3) Houston Quarterback Matt Shaub comes back from his illness as the probable starter. How do the Texans, who played three explosive offensive quarters with Rosenfels at the helm before melting down last week, respond? And does Shaub look shaky in his first game back? 4) Williams and Okoye are two of the best young linemen in the NFL today. Can our new O-line handle their disruptive force? 5) Wildcat meets the Four-Front. The fledgling Dolphins Wildcat offense will meet it's first true 4-3 defense. Will the Wildcat line up as favorably against a 4-3 formation? 6) Coach Sparano has put a lot of focus on converting on third-and-long plays. Can the Dolphins be effective passing on third and long (more than 7 yards, let's say), or will forcing the ball lead to Pennington interceptions? Big Play Prediction: I think our return game finally lights up against Houston.
1) Which dance does Ronnie do when he scores a touchdown? After getting fined, Brown has said the group choreography is over. It'll be interesting to see what Ronnie does if/when he reaches paydirt this week. Lol. A 2) After being railed on by his teammates, coaches, and his own family for ducking out of bounds repeatedly last week, Ted Ginn swears he won't avoid contact anymore. Is this the first week we see a more decisive, physical Teddy? I'd love to see it but I don't believe it until I do see it for myself. I think its good if he does it one week, I want to see him do it for the rest of his career though. 3) Houston Quarterback Matt Shaub comes back from his illness as the probable starter. How do the Texans, who played three explosive offensive quarters with Rosenfels at the helm before melting down last week, respond? And does Shaub look shaky in his first game back? Pressure him and he'll be terrible. Bank on it. If we don't pressure him, we could get carved up like the Arizona game. 4) Williams and Okoye are two of the best young linemen in the NFL today. Can our new O-line handle their disruptive force? Difficult question here. Mario moves around on third downs I believe to the opposite side so Jake won't face him all the time. I remember reading that Mario likes to lineup wider than the usual End so if we run directly his way, we could have some holes opened up, providing Jake handles his assignment. I think Okoye can be handled in the base offense because I think the duo of Satele and Smiley or Ndukwe can handle him. I'm not worried about Travis Johnson whose an average defensive linemen at best imo. What's interesting is what kind of disruption they do if or when we use the Wildcat. Okoye could potentially do some damage in the backfield against the Wildcat because he's pretty quick. He could also be a problem if he doesn't even set foot in the backfield. He could open up gaps for the Linebackers to shoot through. 5) Wildcat meets the Four-Front. The fledgling Dolphins Wildcat offense will meet it's first true 4-3 defense. Will the Wildcat line up as favorably against a 4-3 formation? The key is for us to be able to swallow up the defensive linemen or at least make them pull with us so that it opens up a free lane on the opposite side of the field. If we fail to swallow up their defensive linemen and they are able to hold up the blockers, the Linebackers could come through and stop the play. Another key is Ricky Williams sweep play. If we can get some yards from Williams then it should make the game much easier. 6) Coach Sparano has put a lot of focus on converting on third-and-long plays. Can the Dolphins be effective passing on third and long (more than 7 yards, let's say), or will forcing the ball lead to Pennington interceptions? I hope so lol. Responses in bold.
Six Answers: 1) Chubby Checker's Twist - solo 2) I think he'll make a point of it this week... although I don't necessarily think that means a permanent change. Would be happy if the leaf started to turn, though. 3) We'll get to him if we hold Slaton to significantly under the 5.0 ypc he's been getting. We put Schaub in long down and distance situations, we'll get to him. I think he's still trying to find a way as a starting QB in this league, and I don't think he knows that he knows that the organization is totally behind him. Dolphins make a couple of plays early and get some early pressure, he'll be shaky. 4) Personally, I think it will be a lot like last year. We'll have some success running the ball. It was tough for Ronnie to get 100 last year, but he did. I see something similar here. Also, I think Chad Pennington gets the ball out pretty quickly when he has to. That should handle a lot of their disruption. Then, I think we'll wear them down by the end of the game. 5) Similar in success to what we got with the Chargers, even though that was a 3-4. They'll be as prepared for it as they can given the two or three practice days they've had for it, but the Wildcat is fine against 4-3. Plus, it's not something we use primarily, so I don't think that's what they'll primarily prepare for. We'll get yards if we continue with it, even if it gets stopped for short yardage the first couple of times. 6) I don't think Pennington will throw INTs, he's smart enough to avoid that, but I'm not sure that we'll be that much more successful. The old adage "It's okay to punt the ball" works here. The key for the Dolphins is to stay out of those situations - which means to keep away from the penalty bug (successful so far) and get positive yards on first and second down. I think we'll be okay here. I'm pretty optimistic right now about this game (if my comments don't betray my emotions - I think they do), even though the Texans are desperate... ...anyway, I answered the six questions correctly. What do I win?
One that doesn't cost 10 g's. In the short term, yes. But he is who he s. He's not ever going to be super aggressive. The good news is, neither are guys like Marvin Harrison. I'm more concerned with Teddy's work as a WR. Matt Shaub isn't Philip Rivers... He's an average QB. And as Joey Porter once said, he should be treated like one. We just handled NE's and SD's. I think our line has evolved enough to handle the texans. We'll have to wait and see. Ronnie has the vision to handle it, IMO. And they better hope the perimeter is ready for the R and R express. Would be nice for Ronnie/Ricky to pad the passing stats. The WR on this team need to step up. If they do, we'll be fine. If not, we'll continue to struggle. Just glad our coach is paying attention to detail.
In response to you, Alen.... (your statements in BOLD) I'd love to see it but I don't believe it until I do see it for myself. I think its good if he does it one week, I want to see him do it for the rest of his career though. I don't blame you. I just think Ted needs to actually get angry out there. Get knocked on his butt HARD and get pissed off about it enough to want to HIT someone. If it were up to me, I'd have an Oklahoma drill for Ted every day withTed going against Ronnie Brown every time. Ted'd have nightmares of that smile. 3) Pressure him and he'll be terrible. Bank on it. If we don't pressure him, we could get carved up like the Arizona game. Well, these guys don't have the same class of recievers as Zona did. Johnson is as good as Boldin (maybe), but their #2 is no Larry Fitzgerald. Agreed, though, that pressure is always the name of the game. After Goodman showed a little blip of his former self against the Chargers, I hope he does not regress to giving up big plays. I'm sure the Texans will be working to get Will Allen OFF of Andre Johnson. 4)Difficult question here. Mario moves around on third downs I believe to the opposite side so Jake won't face him all the time. I remember reading that Mario likes to lineup wider than the usual End so if we run directly his way, we could have some holes opened up, providing Jake handles his assignment. - I didn't know that. Usually speed guys do that. I'm surprised mario would give up that inside leverage when he is strong enough to really be a problem inside as well as make moves outside. Anyways, if he sets up wide, then as long as Smiley can secure his block we can run that gap for good yardage. Okoye could potentially do some damage in the backfield against the Wildcat because he's pretty quick. He could also be a problem if he doesn't even set foot in the backfield. He could open up gaps for the Linebackers to shoot through. Precisely why he concerns me. 5) The key is for us to be able to swallow up the defensive linemen or at least make them pull with us so that it opens up a free lane on the opposite side of the field. If we fail to swallow up their defensive linemen and they are able to hold up the blockers, the Linebackers could come through and stop the play. Another key is Ricky Williams sweep play. If we can get some yards from Williams then it should make the game much easier. - Well, I would think that running inside, or at the edges would generally work better against a 3-4, whereas against a 4-3, they front 4 should have you gapped up better at the LOS, but the 4-3 OLB shouldn;t be able to commit as far wide, so it'd be easier to run wide on a 4-3. Ricky generally gets the edge decently, so we may see Ricky do a little better this weekend. That said, he looked sluggish last week, so I don;t know if he has any burst in his legs right now. 6) I hope so lol. - I'm sure we'll try some things on third and long, but the bottom line is that Penny will have to push the ball into tighter spaces more aggressively on that down because our other ways of creating separation won't work on third and long: that is, with average WRs who don;t separate that well deep downfield, we rely on stuff like playaction or spreading the field horizontally... well, on third and long no one is buying playaction and you don't want to run horizontal patterns so you ahve little choice but to send the WRs downfield... since they don;t separate well, Chad will be throwing farther (meaning more time for DBs to react) into tighter spaces. I see an INT on a third and long this weekend if Sparano pushes the offense to throw deep on third and long.
That could work but I have a real problem believing that one can change their ways. HardkoreXXX made a post about Ginn working hard, despite being jammed in the SD game, and making a play across the middle. I think that's an improvement and a step in the right direction for him to be considered a good receiver in this league but I still have a difficult time believing he can change the way he plays. They aren't in the same class but they could still do damage. I don't know if the Texans will try to get Allen off of Johnson to be honest with you. They could but Johnson is a physical receiver and Allen struggles against that. I can only hope that Goodman reverts this his old ways. I only saw the first half of the Charger game but I do plan on watching it this weekend again. I agree. That's a good point about running wide. Greenwood is kind of slow so if we ran his way, it would/could be an advantage. The thing is if we run the Wildcat and choose to run wide, without pulling the opposite way of the initial run play, wouldn't it be better for the shooting 'backers to get to the back due to the play taking time to develop? Yeah, I said the same about Ricky. I think his sweep will be one of the keys for us in establishing the run game in the Wildcat formation. (assuming we go to it.) I agree, that's one of the things we could do. I wouldn't have a problem with a draw either. A draw to Ricky Williams to try and gain some yards. If we don't convert then we just punt. As Finrunner said, "its ok to punt."
Personally, every game is big each week in football, but this one is big to me because if we win big it says to the rest of the leauge that we did not beat under performing powerhouse teams, and we just got lucky. A big win here goes a long way in legatimizing what we are building here in miami.
i am amazed that onone has either flamed or backed my very first post here. Im not sure if thats a good or bad thing?
I hope he gets so tired from running into the endzone that his a** is too tired to do anything but drop the ball and go back to the bench. Week by week I'm losing ground on my feelings for Ginn as he disappears every week to see guys like Bess & Camarillo take the spotlight. I almost guarantee if we don't see him give it a try the only time we'll see him on the field is walking across it after the game is over. Yes, I think the pass rush will keep Shaub moving in the pocket. I hope we can make them go from 10 to 15 sacks given up. TBD Given the shift with Long going to double tackle the right end I think it will match up well with almost any formation. I say we go 3-5 in 3rd & 7 - have to start somewhere right?
Answers in bold, Hero. I hope he gets so tired from running into the endzone that his a** is too tired to do anything but drop the ball and go back to the bench. lol Week by week I'm losing ground on my feelings for Ginn as he disappears every week to see guys like Bess & Camarillo take the spotlight. I almost guarantee if we don't see him give it a try the only time we'll see him on the field is walking across it after the game is over. I'm asking Ted for my engagement ring back too. I loved him based on College highlights. Now I realize that the reason he is so electrifyingly elusive in those is that the wuss hates getting hit. Yes, I think the pass rush will keep Shaub moving in the pocket. I hope we can make them go from 10 to 15 sacks given up. - I expect that the combined number of Sacks/INTs will be five. The mix depends on whether Schaub takes the hits or throws up ducks to avoid the sack. Given the shift with Long going to double tackle the right end I think it will match up well with almost any formation. - Carey and Long, side-by-side, are almost as good as nachos and beer. I say we go 3-5 in 3rd & 7 - have to start somewhere right? why not.
Ive got one question. How funny would it be if we abandoned the wildcat this week and went 5-wide all day long?
No way.. why stop there. I want us to run THIS: Football's A-11 Offense: An Illegal Procedure? : NPR VIDEO: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJOm-IJcbg0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJOm-IJcbg0[/ame]
