Dolphins @ Eagles

I watched John Beck's first start from the comfort of my home. Here's what I saw:

-41 degrees, 15mph wind, and light rain in Philadelphia against Jim Johnson's defense...not ideal conditions for the first start of Beck's NFL career, but I think the idea that Cameron has is to get him some tough experience before his first win again the Jets in a couple of weeks.

-I'm not sure about Rod Wright. He has played a lot, but has been relatively invisible all year, part of the terrible run defense. On an early play he looked as slow as Keith Traylor while chasing McNabb.

-Jason Allen interception - I love it. Way too much time for McNabb to throw though.

-Nice drive by Beck early. He showed great feet when he eluded the rush and ran for a first down, and he had some nice strength throwing down the field. I could get used to hearing "Beck to Ginn."

-3rd and 11 on the Eagles 29 with 20 seconds left in the 1st quarter: another tactical error by Cameron. Run the ball, switch sides, and let Feely kick into the wind. Instead, we passed incomplete and had the field goal attempt knocked down by the wind.

-Beck is struggling with short passes, which is normal for a young quarterback. On the short passes he is throwing the ball too hard and has been inaccurate. It will probably take some time, but before too long he should develop that touch that veteran quarterbacks instinctively know when to use.

-I really liked a lot of what I saw from Beck, especially early, but it is easy to see that this is his first start. He needs to get used to being pressured by NFL defensive lines, and he needs to catch up to the speed of the game, but I think we might have a winner here.

-Lehan's corner blitz worked on two separate occasions. I like that better than him in coverage.

-Field's terrible punt out of the end zone cost Miami 3 points. These are 3 points in addition to the ones Cameron may have given up by not switching sides before Feely's field goal. All these points have really added up for us this year.

-I noted in the 2nd quarter that the Dolphins should try max protect to get some time to throw down the field, which Beck was doing very well.

-The linebackers did not play well today. We really missed Zach's knack for always being in the right hole and not missing tackles. A lot of our run defense issues today came down to linebackers being in the wrong place, allowing running backs to find huge alleys.

-I understand the theory that with a young quarterback you want to minimize the pass rush by running the ball often. However, running for 1 yard on every 1st down play doesn't do Beck any favors. An effective running game helps the young QB, but forcing obvious passing situations does the opposite.

-The only note I had from the entire second half of the game is that the run defense fell apart, but Jason Allen came to play.