Some late thought after rewatching the first teamers three times.

marshall blocks like a freight train. makes no sense. He could line up at TE if it weren't for the size different.

It's hard not to get excited about Henne. He can make every throw. He puts too much on them sometimes but he did throw in some touch as the game went on, showing hes been working at it. Really, as you said, the only flaw to his game is he might have too much of an arm.

I'm liking our front 7 a whole lot. That run D is looking solid and we're not even seeing our blitz packages yet. Trent Edwards probably gets a little more worried everyday we inch towards the opener.

Bess and Henne have rapport. There's no doubt about it at this point. Those two just click. Bess doesn't seem to care how hard you throw it at him and Henne must love that.

 

yeah i watched it over a few time boy they are good hope they keep it up next week

 

Good write up DJ

 

I LOVE the rocket arm... First person I've watched that reminds me of Marino! That is scary words, but true. If Henne can keep evolving he has some rediculous potential! I hope he and the Beast work together outside of practice like Peyton and Harrison used to do, that would bond them. Brandon is truly the Beast and he seems to relish it... This O could be special this year.

 

- Marshall is a beast, we don't score on those two pass plays without his blocking

- Turner still rounding off routes in my mind is all but cut

- Grant is a huge pick-up, he is in the backfield often

- Cobb seems to be back in shape, he will also help on special teams

- Why does our special teams coach still have a job?

 

He has definately gotten better at touch passes.

 

I keep hearing about Hennes arm and Ive seen it action myself of course..but is it realy Elite ?? like Carson Palmer Culpepper Elite ?? I am not a great Judge of armstrength.. I knew Marino had a Cannon it was very Obvious..not sure I am seeing that with Henne.

 

If you saw from the replay from the endzone on Henne's 2nd TD pass to Fasano it was a thing of beauty really, he threw it in the only place he could have placed it.

 

Rewatching the game for the third time this morning and one thing really strikes me:

Those announcers are horrible, my goodness "Ernest Wilford" transformed into "Ernest Wilfork"..man...

Will be interesting to see what Sparano does with Charles Grant, he applied pressure on Gerrard when the first teamers where still playing, and he seems to have the knack for applying pressure.

Problem is, who do you let go to keep Grant?

-Odd when Jason Allen is your best Cb who doesn't start.

-Ikaika has talent, so does Charlie Anderson, I suspect they will be movable parts for Nolan's defense.

-Erik Walden has not developed as a Lb..at all...

The rushing defense should be really good this year, depending on whether teams manage to run draws successfully when Nolan has a blitz on, the 3rd team Dline was McDaniel and Douglas and Stanley..two could easily start for us this yr, Stanley is clearly on the Bubble.

-Odrick
-Starks
-Langford

McDaniel/Grant
Soliai
Douglas

That is a good 6 man Dline rotation, but cats like Ryan Baker and Lionel Dotson will duke it out for the #7 slot..and Baker is more versatile and has produced in limited snaps..Dotson has been the invisible man for 2 yrs.

 

I don't know about elite either, but I'm pretty sure it's in the top 10 of current starters. Stafford and Cutler I think are at least as strong as Henne's. Rodgers seems to have a very strong arm as well (or at least a great deep ball).

 

I really like Grant. He looks hungry...figuratively speaking.

He could be a nice pickup for depth.

 

Couple of things I noted.

1. Yeremiah Bell is absolutely right, these DBs need to man up and be more aggressive. The reason he said it, isn't because the secondary is horrible. He said it because they're good but for some reason in the second preseason game they're playing all lax and conservative. It's not time for that anymore. Time to play like attack dogs. Sean Smith's got to get up in a guy's face and dominate him with his huge frame. Vontae Davis has to do the same. Chris Clemons has to play smart and make plays on the ball and not just the receiver. Nolan Carroll, don't be a rookie, get up and play physically. At times it looked like there were pro players out on the field with pro talent, but playing college style ball...and that's why Yeremiah Bell is barking.

2. I thought after a good game against Tampa, Berger stepped back a little. Thought there were snap issues, being slightly late on the snap or slightly early. There were awareness issues, not picking up the stunting DE that came back over his zone and nearly sacked Henne for a safety. There was a play where he and Cog completely failed to dig Terrence Knighton out of the hole with the straight ahead double team. There were good things of course, I can think of a few really keen plays on his part...but it was a step backward from his work against Tampa.

3. I still think Ricky needs to step it up and make more guys miss.

4. David Martin, THANK GOD YOU'RE BACK. He hasn't missed a beat while he was gone, he looks like the exact same player to me. He gets up the field so quickly, and he's got such great feet to mirror and dominate DBs in blocking. He and Patrick Cobbs being back will help make the Wildcat growl. There's really no need for Pat White. David Martin had a real block of distinction on Derrick Harvey, who believe it or not was giving Vernon Carey and Anthony Fasano fits all night, on that one rollout play to Fasano that ended up 55 yards for a score. Without Martin's effort on a pretty tough block against a pretty tough player, with Henne rolling right into Harvey's teeth...that play doesn't happen. He also killed it by wiping the outside contain DB off the grid on that successful Wildcat play that was called back on a BS holding call on Fasano.

5. John Jerry is KILLING IT. I mean absolutely, positively, KILLING IT out there. I graded him negatively on only one play in both games so far. You know what he did? It was a short slant and he had the duty of getting his DT's hands down so he was supposed to cut Gerald McCoy and what he did just ended up looking awkward and I think McCoy failed to put his hands up into the passing lane more out of confusion than anything else. Any other block he's one of the best linemen the Dolphins have. He can be isolated on a guy that has some wheels, IN SPACE, and he's going to hold that block. His hands are like pit bull jowls. He locks on and they don't come off. Elbows tucked, he stays in control. He flashes range on the pull, he flashes first step quickness firing out. He's not throwing haymakers yet, but quite frankly, I'm stunned...absolutely stunned. He has been without a doubt the best OL this preseason outside of Jake Long.

6. Speaking of which, Jared Odrick is also killing it. You're going to have to live with him getting on the ground once in a Randy Moss blue moon. He's an aggressive gap penetrator and on the red zone play where Garrard scrambled to convert a first down, Nolan dropped all four linebackers and tried to see what kind of rush he could get out of Odrick, Soliai and Langford. Odrick tried to get that pass rush on but spun through a gap and ended up knocked to the ground, losing contain and opening up Garrard for the scramble. In the regular season, you need three men rushing and one man spying on Garrard...hopefully Nolan knows that...but aside from a bare handful of plays like that, it's impossible to keep him blocked. The guy is a machine. He uses his hands to neutralize the OL's hands right at the point of contact with the initial blow, creating immediate advantage. Snap after snap after snap as I'm grading him I note on each one, he's off his block and is bearing down on the QB by the time the QB is passing the ball. It's such a high percentage, it really is ridiculous. The benefit to having guys like that is there's no margin for error with the QB's timing. If it's a three step drop that ball's got to come out, if your secondary is able to create any hesitation, the big bear's got his paws on you. The other thing that he's done that is really surprising me is that he's able to use his eyes so well and then use his enormous physical gifts to steer the blocker to the ball, then get off the block. He's just physically very impressive and this game is not too big for him, he's already MUCH more solid than Phil Merling EVER was. I mean seriously, he blows Merling out of the water.

7. Which leaves Koa Misi. Funny how things go up and down. Forever all we could hear about was Misi and the front office signs both Marques Douglas and Charles Grant to fill in for Phil Merling which to me signals a lack of confidence in Odrick. And also after wanting to put him at LG the coaches are forced to move John Jerry back to RG which to me signaled lack of confidence in Jerry. Now Jerry and Odrick are looking like monsters out there, and Koa Misi is just sort of a solid player. The problem I have is when people like Mike Berardino, who is trying to circle the wagons for the embattled Omar Kelly on this issue, look at the tape and come away with statements like "disappointed" or some otherwise overall negative perception of Misi. Give me a break. He's doing more good than bad out there. He's actually creating some pass rush which if you listened to some people, you'd be convinced that he would NEVER do that. On that big 30 yarder to Sims-Walker, he jacked up Marcedes Lewis pretty bad and spun out from him, was bearing down on Garrard and would have sacked him if Sims-Walker didn't get open so quickly and so easily against Vontae. If Garrard has to go to the #2 read on that play, he's sacked by the man that supposedly can't rush the passer to save his life. I see some young guy things out there, like that play where he barely got hold of MJD's ankles, he'll learn that he can't give certain players certain angles, this isn't Utah anymore. I really like his burst and his strength though, and he does a lot of little things like when he failed a bull rush on the left tackle on the first drive, he ended up bunched in a pile of bodies because of the zone protection (which is the design, use the crowd against itself) and so he immediately pulled away and started tracking the QB's passing lane to try and get a hand in there, and if he didn't tip that incomplete pass then his hand came a bare inch away from it. I think he tipped it.

8. It wasn't all cakes and rainbows for Chad Henne. Jeff Darlington said all three incompletions were dropped but he was wrong. He didn't see the safety coming down in robber on that pass he threw to Marshall in the end zone, and Gerald Alexander nearly had a big interception. If he had the wheels for it, he might have gone 100 yards for a TD.

9. Paul Soliai was again, Paul Soliai, and when the Dolphins get into the tight red area, if they're still in a 3-4 and Paul Soliai has not come onto the field as the NT, then I'll be tearing my hair out. That is not Randy Starks' game but it sure as hell looks like Paul's. This guy plays behind the line of scrimmage, is so ridiculously powerful off the snap. Half of me wonders why he's not starting. Is Kendall Langford better than Paul? I like Kendall, but that's no longer an easy question. And I just realize that I implied that Jared Odrick is already better than Kendall Langford...but...well, damn it's hard for me to say he is or he isn't, what I can say is I know that eventually he will be, if he's not already. But back to Paul Soliai, his night was more quiet, but he still showed the same things that created big results against Tampa.

10. Cameron Wake...still making me want to puke on one play, making me want to dance on another. Sometimes this guy will look as awkward as a jabberwocky with a hangover. He needs to tighten up his balance, and he needs to develop better will and physicality. To each his own but that tackle on Greg Jones for a short gain was not some special play. It was a bread and butter linebacker play, and it speaks volumes to what we expect out of Wake on those kinds of duties in space that DJ over here is tempted to drop trou and flog the dolphin over a play like that (no offense, just havin fun). Hard to imagine a guy with a full training camp being much worse in coverage, but thankfully they will rarely have him do that. Let's just keep this guy attacking the QB and we'll be OK. He can make plays other ways but not consistently. But if he gets to the QB as much as he should, who cares?

 

i know the quality sucks, but here it is again THE ARM....man that ball absolutely gets out of there like a rifle shot..that ball travels around 58 yards with no real effort

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzHgqdrdw8M"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzHgqdrdw8M[/ame]

 

If you are talking actual velocity and actual strength as in how "far" they can throw it...

Henne's arm is stronger than Marino's ever was. Marino's quick release made it quicker and stronger in an actual sense (in game).

There are maybe 4 or 5 QB's in the NFL that are in the discussion of best arms....Henne is one of them.

 

i dont think carson palmer fits the strong armed mold any longer and i´m goin out on a limb here and tellin you guys henne´s arm is stronger than marinos....now lynch me

 

The things I noticed on the replay:

- Henne's timing on those outs to Bess and Marshall was nearly perfect. Those plays are unstoppable when they are executed like that.

- The big change in our offense is our ability to pick up 3rd and long. Last year I went through the play by play of all our games and it was down right depressing how we failed on the vast majority of 3rd and longs. As a general rule, whenever there was a penalty of 10+ yards our drive stalled. (That's why I disagreed when people would say our offense was fine based just on total points) Against the Jags in that first half we overcame penalties of 10+ yards on two of the TD drives and a 5 yard penalty on the CP TD drive.

- Our pass blocking was excellent for the second week in a row.

- I thought that drop by RWs was all on RWs. I didn't think that Henne threw that one all that hard.

- Dobbins had that nice stop against the run but MJD had him by at least three steps on that first third down. We were just lucky that was one of the few passes Garrard missed on.

- The D-line was very solid against the run.

- I think they tell Bess to just fair catch every punt unless he has 20 yards of room.

- Nolan looks like he will be fine as a KR.

- Those chunk pass plays against us were all nearly perfect passes. There is no defense for a perfect pass.

- On that second TD pass to Fasano, the S was a step late getting there. I thought he was a step closer to Marshall's side when the play started. My guess is that is one of those plays that doesn't get completed last year with no true #1 on the outside.

- I think we have to find a way to keep Grant on this team.

 

as always agree with all what you wrote, i think there is no way grant is not making that team, that would be a shocker

 

If he duplicates his performance in game three , he is a lock.

Philip Who????

 

I know everyone says Davis slipped on the big catch, but he slipped trying to catch up because he whiffed on the jam at the line, I just watched the play over again. He was beat from the start as soon as he missed that jam.

 

Great detailed analysis, thanks guys!

 

More or less, if the season were to start tomorrow, a legit case could be made on whether or not Merling would be on the roster bubble.

He of course wouldn't be, however he wouldn't start.

The one thing on that Henne deep pass is, do we have anyone who can run that route anymore? Seriously I know people like Hartline but would he be 4 steps ahead of the defensive back 50 yds down the field?

 

Vontae seems to get beaten most frequently when a guy with long speed (Sims-Walker, Moss) begins a Go route, gets Vontae to flip is hips, then they cut inside on a post route.

The route Sims-Walker beat Vontae on looked very similar to the route Moss used to beat Vontae for the TD in last year's Pats game.

That tells me he needs more confidence in his safety help, both on the go route (so he doesn't bite on it so hard out of fear of being outrun without help over top) and to the inside (Clemons has to be quicker to read that inside cut by the WR that always loses Vontae.

Dansby's length in pass coverage could also help Vontae with this issue, if Dansby is put in a deep middle zone.

 

Our big plays this year won;t come from outrunning the coverage, but from a) Playaction creating broken coverage and/or b) Receivers turning a shorter catch into a long gain through YAC and blocks from other WRs... like Fasano's TD.

 

I think Hartline could run that route nearly as effectively. He wouldn't have four steps but he'd probably have two.

 

No.

The only wr's that have speed are competing for the last wideout spot , or not yet on the roster .

 

I'm hoping David Martin brings that ability to the table as the deep portion of the field will be open most days. And YAC is fine, you do also need to stretch that field a bit Bpk to keep the Free Safety honest.

 

nice analysis on vontae

 

Some game highlights

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNtRxo7-iD4"]YouTube- miami dolphins at jacksonville jaguars preseason game 2010[/ame]

 

i think the thing to remember is jacksonville came into that game banged up on both defensive and offensive line. i think we should take our strong performance with a grain of salt and wait to see how they perform against atlanta who at least is healthy

 

We may need to, but we don;t have a talented speed threat to do it.

The way we'll keep safeties honest is that Marshall's physicality (not speed) demands safety help. Same result.

 

I'm a little surprised on seeing so many comments here and at sun-sentinel/herald from posters & beat guys saying they "hope" Grant makes the team.

I'd like to know how could he not, being as good as he is and being somewhat versatile. He's far superior to the rotational guys we've had for D-line in the past. I do not think whether he makes the team or not should be in question.

 

What I really noticed in that highlight video was how often they checked down to the running backs, last yr it seemed like Ronnie and Ricky were just after thoughts in the passing game.

That and now both Dan Henning and Mike Nolan are up in the press box with David Lee and Bill Sheridan playing Field Commander for the offense and defense.

 

What surprised me was the fact that they were open. Wide open.

I do not know if this is going to continue into the season, however maybe a benefit of having Brandon Marshall means that the runningbacks will have more room to run.

Last two seasons if Miami was down 20 points with 3 minutes in the fourth quarter and driving from their own 10, Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams still had someone who made sure they were tightly covered.

 

Dan's arm was strong but not super strong. As Sec126 said, quick release, early recognition, perfect placement = best passes ever.

Dan's passes were things of beaut, but we're not talking Jeff George flick it across the field type arms.

 

I've been wondering the same thing, guy is just not getting it done. Blame some of this on switching players in & out of ST's to see who can stick on the bottom of the roster, but our ST's have sucked for a couple years and Bonamego just seems to get a pass.

Good post/thread DJ, but your threat of WildCat threads is toothless, we all know you'll be starting them all season anyway

 

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