Dolphins-Redskins Commentary

NOTE (from the future): Columns from before the start of the 2008 season are a little bit all over the place. I was doing a lot of experimenting with how I want to write this blog, and a lot of the posts either never made it to the inter-web or moved from my notebook to the computer way after the fact. I'll make note of the ones that were added later, but the notes were all current when they were written anyway. The following is the first real post that I wrote, following the 2007 week 1 Dolphins-Redskins game.
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For the Redskins game my commentary might be a little thin (note: it actually ended up being quite extensive). I actually traveled out to Washington for the game (nice stadium, the end zones are right on top of the field at FedEx, which creates a nice advantage...also, as smart a crowd as I've ever seen at a football game), so I didn't get to take any notes and didn't get the benefit of replays. However, the big points were pretty clear, so I can hit on that well.

First the game run down:

The offense right off the bat and throughout looked pretty consistently inconsistent. There were glimmers of the astute play calling of Cameron, but it didn't matter because the Dolphins didn't execute consistently. In fact, the offense looked strikingly similar to Dolphins offenses of years past to the naked eye. However, if you looked closer, you could see little strings of successful plays, Trent Green doing some really nice things, and Cameron's knack for exploiting match-ups. Nevertheless, it was the same story, and if the stupid penalties, missed responsibilities, and dropped passes continue to hinder Miami, we are going to see more of the same results.

An interception on the first defensive series was great to see. However, penalties held the Fins back early. An illegal formation negated an 8 yard Ronnie run to start the drive; my old football coach used to always say that there is nothing in the playbook for 1st and 15, and it's true how damaging those penalties really are. A 25 yard penalty on special teams later cost the Fins good field position. A 2nd and 3 became 3rd and 12 because of penalties again, and the Skins went up 3-0 despite being outplayed.

The defense looked good early. It was interesting to see Taylor and Porter as down linemen in the dime package. On offense, the no huddle had some success early. The offensive line was not opening up any holes, but Chambers started to get involved, which was nice to see. It will be interesting to see what type of receiver Chambers is this year because as of now we really don't know. He's never had a really good quarterback, and he's never really solidified himself as a number 1 receiver in the NFL (in fact, his value over replacement player (VORP...or here as DPAR) ratings from footballoutsiders.com show how downright bad he can be... http://footballoutsiders.com/stats/wr2006.php). Hopefully, with Trent Green and Cam Cameron, we'll learn who the real Chris Chambers really is and if he's worth hanging on to.

The time management before halftime was downright unacceptable. However, give credit to Cameron for being gutsy and apparently knowing his team and going for it...it worked, so everybody is happy. More on this later...

On the first drive after halftime, we learned something we already knew. Travis Daniels is not a man to man cornerback in the NFL. He has been great with the Dolphins since he was drafted, and I am a big fan of his, but the fact of the matter is that Dolphins cannot leave him in man without taking a huge risk. It's also worth noting that Randle El is a great athlete, and he proved it on this day. Portis scoring on the 19 yard TD run was a horror to watch, but the scary thing was that it was only the beginning of Miami getting run over this year.

Now, with about 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, the Dolphins had 4th and goal on the Washington 1. Remember that before HALFTIME, when field position is irrelevant, the Dolphins decided to go for a TD with 4 seconds left and succeeded. However, in this situation, Cameron sent Feely on to tie the game. While I do understand that the score becomes more relevant to these decisions as the game nears the 4th quarter, I do not understand how our gutsy, young head coach can make the objectively ill-advised move of going for the TD just before halftime, risking leaving with nothing, and then kick a field goal late in the 3rd quarter when at the very least, we leave the Skins backed up to their own 1. For now, I'll give Cameron the benefit of the doubt in knowing the situation or something that I potentially didn't know, but I hope this type of decision doesn't become a habit in the future.

The one thing that I fear about losing Mare is losing the touchbacks. You can't overstate how important those are.

I didn't see exactly what happened with Taylor's roughness penalty, but he usually doesn't make stupid plays like that without good reason. I stand by him out of loyalty. The one thing that I can't stand by is if he continues to be so quiet in the pass rush. He is a difference maker, and though I might be spoiled by the Taylor of last year, he needs to be the best player on the field for the Dolphins to win games. The one sack was nice, but where was the usual Jason affecting every play for the rest of the game?

The Redskins drive which culminated with them taking a 13-10 lead was almost exclusively on the ground. This is when I started to really get frustrated with the defense. If there is one thing that I can't stand, it is a defense that gets pushed around and can't stop the run even when they know it's coming. It's really disheartening.

The Dolphins next drive was great. It was the type of drive that you usually see teams make against the Dolphins after a big score. They marched down the field, and looked like a real offense...until they got to the 8. Holding, grounding, and it was 2nd and goal from the 28. Field goal. No lead. And our fate was (at least partially) decided by a coin flip.

When the Dolphins got the ball back before OT, and Green made that too-perfect pass to Fred Smoot (nightmares of Fiedler to Tory James in the playoffs a few years ago), I had to question the decision to throw a sideline pass with 28 seconds left. Either be conservative or aggressive with 1 minute left. Please, no more high-risk low-reward plays in that type of situation.

Crazy play to end regulation. I can smile about it because it didn't affect the outcome. Give Taylor credit because right after he knocked the ball down (to Randle El unfortunately), he made the tackle and actually forced a fumble.

I don't want to talk about overtime. I told you how I feel about being run over and powerless, and this overtime was absolutely embarrassing. That type of play makes me sick to my stomach, and it was clear that the Redskins had the Dolphins personnel match-ups figured out and exploited them.

Notes:

Trent Green played a nice game in his first start with the Dolphins. He is a confident and competent leader, and he played the quarterback position with a sence of poise that we haven't seen in Miami since you-know-who.

Ronnie Brown did not see the ball as much as I would've liked, but I don't blame this on him. Throughout all of the criticism he has received for not living up to the hype of a #2 overall pick, he has been a hard working back who has always made the most out of what he's been given. He runs hard, delivers hits, protects the ball, has speed, catches passes, and hits the hole WHEN IT IS THERE. The only problem has been that holes haven't been there for the last few years. So, he gets the unwarranted criticism that he is a dancer. If I had to run behind the Dolphins O-lines the last couple of years, I wouldn't dance. I would run the other direction. In this game, the situational factors of the line not opening anything up and Cameron wanting to test Chatman lead to less carries for Ronnie. We have got to get him the ball, but more importantly (and Cameron knows this), we need to get him the ball in situations where he can be successful. Let's see how this develops over the course of the season.

The O-line needs to get better. Decent pass protection, but no running room. If you want a successful offense, it starts up front. These guys are going to be the key to Cameron running the type of stuff that he would like.

The defensive line looked as bad as it has in quite some time. There was very little pass rush all day, and the way they got run over at the end was flat out terrible. This unit is what dictates the success of the defense. We need to pressure the quarterback and dictate play on this side of the ball, and that didn't happen today.

The backers and secondary were what we thought they were. Zach, Channing, and Joey will do as much as the guys in front of them allow. Look out, because Crowder might be becoming the best out of all of them (if he gets his head on a little more consistently).

Yeremiah Bell's injury is bad news. He is really special. A great athlete with an nose for the ball. Sad to see him injured so early (especially because we learned that Tillman is not a starting safety last year).

Conclusions:

Overall, I'd really like to see the offensive and defensive lines step up because they got beat today blocking and tackling, and you are not going to win many games if you don't produce in those areas. We saw more of the same mistakes that have haunted us for years on offense and we saw an entirely new problem on defense which needs to go away quickly. Before today, we had every reason to believe that Porter and Roth replacing Spragan and Carter would mean great things for Taylor and Co. Let's hope that today was the exception and we can get to some quarterbacks and stop the rush in the future.