Fins/Rams: Breakdown

Quarterbacks:

Pennington had a decent game at best. He had a few nice throws, even some when protection broke down, and didn’t make any real negative plays. By the same token, he didn’t do a whole lot to win the game either, and it was frustrating to see him only throw to Ginn and Bess, almost never the backs and tight ends. A nice back shoulder fade to London is worth mentioning, but the most interesting thing that Chad did all day was actually leave the field on a play when the Dolphins ran the Wildcat. Yes, the most interesting…that was the type of game that this was.

Running Backs:

The running game was a chaotic mess today, but I really don’t think you can blame the running backs for much of it. The Dolphins ran a lot of garbage, throwing everything they could think of at the Rams instead of simply running what we run well. Sometimes the plays were there, and sometimes they weren’t, but our running backs were always running hard.

It became apparent early that Ricky was going to be our best runner today, and he was great throughout. He had a nice would-have-been touchdown run if not for a penalty, among many terrific runs. For the last month, really, he has been our best back, but I was disappointed that it took until the fourth quarter to feature him more completely. At that point, of course, he hurt himself. Let’s hope that he’s okay and that this recent injury bug doesn’t continue.

Ronnie was also solid today, with a highlight reel spin on his touchdown run, and he also salvaged a broken trick play by completing a pass to David Martin (who proceeded to fumble). However, he did seem to spend a lot of time on the sideline in the second half, and I wasn’t sure if he was injured, being disciplined, or if (hopefully) it was just the coach’s decision, but he looked frustrated. I’m interested to hear what the story was with that.

Patrick Cobbs was quiet today, but a guy who got a few carries and made the most of them was Polite. He ran the ball very nicely, very hard, and was tough to tackle. That’s one more running back who can carry the football.

The backs played pretty well today, but I don’t think they were used properly, especially considering their lack of involvement in the passing game.

Wide Receivers:

Ginn and Bess both played well today. They were both very active, but unfortunately were the only targets in the passing game all day. With protection, Ginn is very difficult to defend, as his speed in the deep zone opens up comebacks, ins, and outs, along with the vertical. Bess had a nice effort in his game as the number two target, with one really nice catch but also a dropped touchdown. He also was the recipient on a pick play, sadly one of the Dolphins biggest plays of the day. As I mentioned, London had a nice play on a back shoulder fade, and Wilford was basically invisible.

Tight Ends:

Not a great effort from the tight ends today. I was expecting them to play a huge role in the offense after the injury to Camarillo, but to my surprise the Dolphins didn’t really increase the amount of double tight this week. Both Fasano and Martin were pretty invisible in the passing game, with just a reception each, but Martin fumbled his. Also, the only time I really noticed either in the running game was when Fasano got blown up on a pitch play to Ronnie while Miami was trying to run out the clock. Not a good day for these two.

Offensive Line:

With Smiley injured early in the game, the Dolphins suddenly had offensive line issues at all five positions. Long is also battling injury, right guard has been a revolving door, and Satele and Carey have had performance issues all year. Not a great place to start an offense from. Moreover, with Alleman now in the game on every series, it seemed logical for the Dolphins to run the ball a bit more, as he is a very strong run blocker but suspect in the passing game. The Dolphins did some, but not with much of a coherent method.

Jake Long was decent today, but his ankle did appear to be an issue as he got beat by Chris Long once early. Alleman was also good run blocking, as would be expected, but predictably struggled a bit to communicate and move in pass protection. His best play was an early run with Carey pulling behind him. Speaking of Carey, he was called for a second quarter facemask, but the Dolphins did recover and convert after first and 25. Moving back inside, Ike got caught on a weak, unnecessary hold to bring back Ricky’s touchdown, and his play was uninspiring on the whole. In the middle, Satele had an okay day, but he struggled to snap the ball twice in a row in the Wildcat, and more issues is not what the second year player needs.

Overall, I thought the Dolphins really just needed to simplify things and get a push, but there was chaos all day up front and it spread throughout the offense. Hopefully, Miami can get back to basics next week and push the Bills around because right now I would hardly call this an offense.

Defensive Line:

A poor, poor game up front. Not only was there the usual lack of a pass rush, but the Rams pushed Miami around in the running game as well. From the early part of the game and throughout, Stephen Jackson had room to run, and St. Louis was thereby able to control the pace of the game.

I really don't have much to say about any player individually, except that Merling was the only one who approached decent today. Everybody else who played was bad. There was no pass rush and poor run defense. Not a good job, and I'm actually much less confident in the long term prospects of this team up front after watching this game.

Linebackers:

The linebackers, the usual ringleaders in the hitting parade that is the Miami defense, were flat out soft today. If there is one thing the Dolphins defense needs to do to be successful, it is hit, and they just didn't do it today. All of the linebackers deserve a share of the blame in the run blocking woes, with Matt Roth having the best game of the bunch, and Joey Porter was completely neutralized by a half-speed Orlando Pace.

My best guess at why nobody on the defense came to hit today is that they had a bad week of practice. When you have a bad week of practice, you are unsure of where to go, and you play slow. The Dolphins played slow today, and without fire or passion. We cannot continue to play down to our opponents and expect to get better.

Credit Akin Ayodele for making a big play on defense. He came up with a huge pick, even though there was no pressure on Bulger, and though he doesn't get a lot of press, he is absolutely our best linebacker in pass defense.

Secondary:

The defensive backs were excellent today, putting last week's game behind them and getting back to the form they were playing at before. The outlook was ominous at first, with Pace picking up Will Allen's first blitz perfectly and Joey Thomas looking completely outmatched filling in for Jason Allen on two early PI calls. However, from that point forward they had excellent coverage with no real pass rush on Bulger, especially impressive because Miami blitzed a lot today. It's not often that you can blitz, give a quarterback time, and still shut him down. Credit the secondary along with the ineptitude of the Rams.

Interestingly, the only time the Dolphins did get pressure on Bulger was when Will Allen was getting in the backfield. He blitzed a lot today, much more than Miami can continue to afford to send him, but was effective for the most part. Additionally, Renaldo Hill had a big interception, and Goodman closed the day out with his pick. The secondary won this game.

Special Teams:

Coverage was good all day. Credit Patrick Cobbs, Nate Jones, and Courtney Bryan all with nice special teams tackles. Unfortunately, on the returning end Miami did nothing. Tasker, announcing the game, seemed to believe it was because Ginn has been playing offense which affects his ability to return. However, if you watch the game you can see that the Dolphins don't block anybody on kick returns. Ginn is fine.

As far as kicking went, Carpenter made all of his field goal attempts and actually set a rookie record for consecutive conversions, so kudos to him. Unfortunately, we seem to be having leg strength issues, however, as Brandon Fields averages a paltry 41.6 yards per punt. These two are not working wonders for us in field position.

Coaching:

I wasn't impressed with the coaching job today, and am starting to eat my words about the A+ coaching job that I thought Sparano and company were doing. The offense was all over the place today with no coherent strategy to put this awful team away, and the Dolphins overall didn't seem like they came ready to play.

It is the responsibility of the coaches to get the team up for every game, not just when they feel like it, and I'm worried about the effects of Miami playing down to their opponents. Any coach will tell you that the main goal is to improve every week. Especially with a young team like the Dolphins, who are trying to build something, it is imperative to always be looking to get better, never to be satisfied, even if you feel like you played pretty well last week. If you play down to opponents, you aren't focussing on improving like you should, and the end result will be that you don't realize your potential. You can't just decide to all of the sudden play great when you are in New York on December 28th. It needs to be a steady grind, working until you get there. It's something Sparano has preached and the Dolphins had done until the first Bills game, but since then it has been five lackluster, incomplete performances, and I worry about where they are headed. They need to get back on track.

Another issue that I have had is that Sparano is bad at challenging. He has not been good at it all year, and he missed another opportunity when Jackson appeared down short of the chains on a third and one in the second quarter. Whoever is in the booth for Miami needs to get better at that.

Finally, I am at last going to question the decision to move to a 40 front in passing situations. While I understand the theory with our personnel, isn't one of the great things about the 3-4 that you can go after the passer in countless different ways? The Dolphins' pass rush is very vanilla and simple to read, and in a very basic sense it seems odd to have an extra down lineman (it's much more than just Joey Porter and Charlie Anderson putting their hands on the ground) in passing situations. I'd like to see a bit more variety next year.

Notes:

-During one drive in the third quarter, Torry Holt perfectly exemplified why I have always hated him. On one play, he heard footsteps which led to a dropped pass on a completely catchable ball, and on another he committed offensive pass interference to force his team out of scoring range. I'd much rather have a Greg Camarillo on my team.

-Despite the ugly win, the Jets, Pats, and Bills all lost, so today ended up being a pretty good day for Dol-fans.

-Of all the day games today, only Tampa Bay won at home. This is the second week in a row that road teams have a winning record. So much for home field advantage in the NFL.