Dolphins-Bills notes

Secondary: Without Lehan and Crocker, this secondary is going to look very different for the rest of the season, and we are going to learn a lot about some young players. In their first games in their new roles, Jason Allen and Tyrone Culver played admirably, if not spectacularly. I thought the real story was that with JAllen and Goodman in the game, we could play some man press coverage. Clearly we discovered these two guys strengths, as each had easily their best games of the year. Look for the Dolphins to do more of this and mix it up as the season progresses, with JAllen often matched up on big receivers who have killed the Dolphins so far this year. He, and nobody else on this team, has the size and athleticism to match up with them.

"Victory Monday": I like it. Don't expect Sparano to make a habit of it, but it is a good way to sneak some extra rest in over the course of a long season. The key is that everybody comes to work hard on Wednesday after having some extra time away.

Wildcat: The Wildcat worked fairly well against the Bills. I was surprised the Dolphins didn't use it more. You don't like to use it as a crutch for the running game, but if it is working...

ILBs: Crowder and Ayodele did a good job when they were run blitzing against the Bills, but one reason teams have had some success running against Miami is poor gap control by these two. They sometimes get caught overrunning the play or in the wrong gap getting stuck in the muck. I hope to see Crowder improve on this by the end of the season because I really would like to see him around next year.

AFC Players of the...: The Dolphins got two players rewarded with recognition this week when not only did Ted Ginn win AFC Offensive Player of the week for his efforts (don't forget to credit Pennington for another great game), but Joey Porter earned a much deserved AFC Defensive Player of the month award for his stellar play.

Patrick Cobbs: Congrats on the 2 year extension. It's a pleasure to have you around.

Get Ginn on the field!: David Hyde had a nice article pointing out that even in Sunday's monster game against the Bills, he spent a lot of time off the field. Let's hope that after he showed what he can do, he will be spending much more time on it.