Ugly, ugly afternoon for the Miami Dolphins. Hopefully, the Cardinals are a very good team this year, but what made the game so difficult to watch is that we have to confront the very sobering possibility that the Dolphins again are a very bad football team. I hope not, and I really think that the team is better than it showed, but this game was scary.
THE SECONDARY:
There is no way around it. The defensive backs were absolutely putrid against the Cardinals. The Dolphins defensive backfield hasn't looked so outmatched since, well, last year against Randy Moss and the Patriots (guess where the Dolphins are headed next). To start the game there was an unacceptable breakdown by Crocker, our free safety because supposedly he is less prone to mistakes, which led to Dave Wannstedt's favorite, Anquan Boldin, getting an easy long touchdown. Then, minutes later Larry Fitzgerald beats Will "look mom, no hands" Allen, breaks free from him and Crocker, and the game is already over.
It really makes you wonder what the Trifecta was thinking in bringing back the same group of corners from last year. Even though Will Allen had a career year, the corners clearly were not good enough as a unit. Allen is certainly a starter, but probably a #2 corner in the NFL (thanks in large part to his hands), and none of the other guys really belong starting in the NFL. Goodman is a solid nickel-back (who you can always count on for an iffy but backbreaking PI call), not an every down guy, and we really can't be sure what we have with Lehan. Yet, the big three claimed to be satisfied with what they had back there, and this is the result.
My hypothesis is that what really happened is that Parcells and company were more concerned with building this team up front this year, and that's exactly what they did. They (hopefully) understood that the secondary and wide receivers would be raw this year, but calculated that it was worth it to build for the future. After all, games are won and lost up front, primarily. As you can see from my above calculations, this unit needs an ace. The Dolphins are a #1 corner away from having the right personnel in the secondary.
Nevertheless, besides personnel, you cannot have breakdowns. With that, I transition the discussion to being of the safeties. First off, at strong safety we are set. As long as Yeremiah Bell, even though he didn't have his best game, can stay healthy, he is a great player for our football team. However, at free safety we now have questions. The free safety needs to be the quarterback of the secondary, the man who is responsible for preventing the types of breakdowns we saw against the Cardinals (say it with me: safe-ty). Crocker was back there, and to be honest I've already seen enough of him. He was absolutely terrible, missing calls and tackles. It was easy to see why even a bad team let him go.
While I hope he can recover from his neck injury (another great lesson in why you don't put your head down when you tackle), I hope we see somebody else starting at free safety against the Patriots. I would even rather see mistake-prone Jason Allen back there than Crocker, because at least he has shown some physical ability, and with the progress he made last year at the spot, maybe he could develop into a real player for us this year. However, when Crocker had to leave the game, it was not Allen who replaced him, it was Renaldo Hill. Although it does not bode well for Jason Allen in the long term, I was happy to see that Hill already jumped him on the depth chart because I think he is our guy right now at free safety. Before he was injured last year in a game I still have nightmares about, he had played fairly well all season (at least comparatively to some others on the team). Crocker's play so far has made me long for the days with Hill back there, so I think that's an easy change going into week three.
One final note about the secondary: look for Michael Lehan to get in there this week. I'm not sure about the status of his health, but there are those who think he has some real upside, and while we have to make do with what we have on the roster, let's hope to see a budding playmaker.
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