Sleeping with the Fishes Week 1 breakdown

Sleeping with the Fishes :an Analysis of game 1 from a Dolfan in Jetsland


Nothing feels better than to be downing a few cold Guinnesses and watching the Dolphins beat the Jesters in an Irish bar in NYC. Unfortunately I’m writing from distant memory on that feeling since our beloved Dolphins lost the first game to the Gangrene. It was definitely a game we could have won but in all truth deserved to lose. It was an ugly affair with flashes of competence but really more filled with us trying to get our sea legs under us. Unfortunately time ran out for us or we might have been able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Chad Pennington was king of the dump off in the first half. By the second he started throwing more mid range 8 to 15 yard passes. His second half performance was far encouraging and hopefully he can find someone other than Camarillo or Fasano in the next game. Considering the pressure he faced and the inability of our wideouts to get separation it was a commendable performance. Still the feeling here is that he simply doesn’t have the personality or the arm to attack a defense vertically and unless we’re competing for a playoff spot by week 10 we should consider putting Henne in to give the offense more aggressiveness in the passing game. Week 10 would also allow the offensive line to gel more. Henne will need to have a clearer pocket than the one Pennington had to deal with Sunday.

Ricky and Ronnie were mostly bottled up by an aggressive and effective Jets run Defense. Ronnie showed off a very quick burst which seems to indicate that he is 100% or close to 100% back. Ricky was slower but if given a hole more willing to plow through it. Ricky also had a beautiful over the head catch on the sideline in the 4th qtr that gave us a chance of getting a win. Boomer Grigsby has one year to improve or he’s gone next year. He’s in the bottom tier of Fullbacks and with players like Javorskie Lane available in the draft next year I could see us spending a draft pick on that position. (editors note: lol boomer’s gone)

Camarillo and Fasano carried us through the air. Ginn had a hard time getting seperation and Bess was sporadic. Hagan did nothing. Camarillo is our Wes Welker right now. Wilford is going to have to be given playing time soon. We simply don’t have the talent at the position to allow our coaches to try to send a message. The season has started. The time for messages is over. Start the most talented players. I’m not worried about Ginn. He’ll be fine. He’s still learning how to beat press coverages but that will come. Hagan however needs to be sent packing I think. He’ll have the rest of the season to play it out but I don’t see anything in the guy to make me believe that he solves anything. The important thing to remember with Fasano is not to mistake having a great game with being a great player. Fasano is a nice addition and may very well thrive in this offense but he’s not a superstar and we’ll see how he does now that teams will have to gameplan for him.

The offensive line was hit and miss on both run and pass blocking. We have a ways to go before we are the run dominating team Parcells and Sparano expect us to become. Carey had an ok game but had his troubles here and there. All of Dolphin nation breathed a sigh of relief when he got back into the lineup after taking a play off because of a back bruise. Satele and Thomas had many miscommunications on blitz and stunt pickup and will have to improve dramatically if Pennington is too survive more than a handful of games. I personally thought Smiley played the best of all the linemen. Thought he was the only lineman to get a grade of B or higher. Long was awkward. He lunged in the run game, had his feet out of position in the pass game and generally was welcomed to the NFL with a rough matchup. Still, he had some moments in run blocking and pass protection that makes me think his progress is coming along at a good rate. He really needs consistency in footwork and balance. Expect him to be somewhat of a liability over the next few weeks but hopefully improving enough that by the middle of the year he’ll start becoming a solid linemen that wont need to be watched as much

Overall we’re an offense that showed flashes but lacked any kind of sustained ability to impose a running or passing attack. We are very much a work in progress and will need to improve in all facets of the game every week to become an effective unit.

Defensively, the line played alright with the DEs having a better go of it. Merling and Langford show a lot of promise and both made plays. The NTs had some pass rushing pressure but were a bit overwhelmed in the run game. Overall a solid effort but nothing spectaular.

The linebackers were horrendous. Ayodele was probably the worst of the lot. I cant tell you how many times he took horrible angles to plug a run and got taken out of the play when he was the one who should have made a stop. He probably cost us 30 yards of field position through his mistakes. Crowder made some plays but was out of position way too much and another LB that suffered bad angles. Porter didn’t have the burst needed to apply effective pressure from the edge. Lets hope he improves as the season wears on. Hopefully it’s just the lingering effects of being sidelined this off season. Didn’t see much of Torbor so I don’t think he made too many bad plays, then again he probably simply didn’t make that many plays altogether so read that however you want. Overall this unit has to improve. Right now this is our number one priority going into the off season.

The secondary was a glass half full and half empty. Will Allen and Yeremiah Bell filled up the glass with stellar play. Goodman and Crocker shattered the glass with horrendous play. I fully expect us to experiment with those two positions till we find the right or best combination.

Fields had a poor game I thought

Bottom line in all of this however is that the Jets were a pretty good team. They will compete for the AFC East title this year. It wasn’t the worst of efforts when you consider the level of competition. The offense at least showed flashes throughout. The bigger concern right now is the linebacking corps and secondary. Arizona is also going to be a tough team though probably a notch below the Jets so if we can be a notch better next week we have a chance to get a victory.

 

I know there was a part of that game where I thopught. OMG Wannstedt is back lol. It seemed to loosen up a bit in the 2nd half