The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I got a chance to see the game again yesterday... for some reason I don't notice a whole lot during the actual game... and there are still a bunch of things that need to be worked on - on some things that probably can't be worked on, but still suck.

Punt/Kick Returns. I don't care who is back there. Right now, they both suck. Don't fumble the ball. Don't try and run a ball back that would have bounced inside the 5 unless you are desperate or the defenders are far away. And don't (try to) catch the ball running in the wrong direction (i.e. towards your own end zone). Seriously, our return game is among the worst in the league and it's not JUST blocking. Oh, and Bess needs a lesson in reading the field.

Pennington. There was a thread here about the biggest difference between this year and last... well, Sparano certainly does one thing exceptionally well: He plays (schemes) to his players' strengths. Pennington's arm still sucks. He cannot throw an effective deep ball - too much hang time, not enough rocket. The issue of arm strength also affects other throws. On one play Sunday, he was scrambling to his right and threw the ball to Fasano on a critical third down. Fasano was lined up right, almost in the slot and ran a post. He was WIDE open with no one in front of him. But Pennington was moving right and had to throw across his own body. The result was a pass that was well behind and to the right of Fasano, who did well to stop and go back for it. All in all, it was a nice gain and a new first down, but had Pennington been able to throw the ball harder, Fasano could have gone for 30 yards instead of 10. Power isn't the only issue, though. He tried to thread the ball maybe 3 times against the Chargers. Only one succeeded. His timing with the receivers just doesn't seem right either, although much of that is probably due to the receivers sucking.

Wildcat. Everyone's raving about it and it has been succesful, no question. But to say Ronnie has run it flawlessly is a huge overstatement. I'm not trying to belittle his abilities or accomplishments, but there is a lot of room for improvement. He's not a quarterback, I know, but he is still struggling to get the timing of Ricky's motion down - as well as getting the snap off at the right time. His fake hand-offs will hopefully also get better. Again, this shouldn't be interpreted as coming off negative... just pointing out that there is room for significant improvement, meaning that the Wildcat could be even more effective going forward than it has been so far (although I don't know how effective it will be against Houston's 4-3... both San Diego and New England run a 3-4).

Run defense. They did a GREAT job Sunday, no question. One problem, though... whenever the D-line and rushing linebackers failed to get penetration into the backfield, San Diego could run for 5-10 yards up the gut every single time. Sproles, in particular, had a lot of huge runs that were basically just straight hand-offs, run straight up the middle, completely undisguised. Maybe that's a 3-4 issue, I don't know, but I don't think we can count (Roth, mainly) getting that much penetration every single time. There were numerous plays where San Diego's O-line let Roth through completely untouched. He lined up next to the DE and just rushed the QB straight on. Untouched.

Sorry FYO, although you are correct about the return game I think you may have missed on your other points.

Punt/Kick Returns - agreed

Pennington - Absolutely solid and arm strength is more impressive than I expected.  Does he have Henne-like zip on the ball?  Absolutely not!  If there had been no reports on his arm strength and I had no prior knowledge of his injuries, people would not be all that concerned with it.  His intermediate throws have had a fair amount of ball speed, definitely enough for the NFL.  Chad keeps the chains moving and allows the team to avoid being one dimensional.  I am very impressed with his decision making overall.

Wildcat - Should not be viewed as an opportunity for explosiveness and more as a method for creating discomfort to the opposing defense.  Simply put, it makes them think about things they are not used to thinking about.  Whether the play is successful or not, it helps keep their defense from developing any kind of rhythm (and I believe defenses have a rhythm just like offenses do).

Run Defense - I don't totally disagree, but our D-line seems pretty well conditioned and has a fair amount of depth for rotating players.  They may get beat pretty good a few times (who doesn't?).  What I see as a plus is that instead of teams opening it up with the running game in the fourth quarter, our defense is better setup to be fresh and more able to handle making the stops you need to make in the fourth.

True Problems...

Free Safety - They seem to be getting better, but wow do they give up some huge opportunities for the other team to strike with the deep ball.

Ricky Williams - He doesn't scare anybody right now and this will become a problem.  When he is out there by himself, defenses will start playing back and get away with it.  He really needs to break a few tackles and put a little fear in defenses.

Field Goals - Not sure we can depend on Carpenter when the pressure is on.  And he will definitely be needed in some tight games in the near future.

Tight End Depth - If either of these guys gets hurt, we are in deep, deep trouble.  We need both of them badly for our success to continue.


Anyway, that is the way I see it.

I mentioned in another post that I wouldn't be surprised seeing Ricky Williams line up as the QB. How about this, line Ginn up as the QB with Ricky to the right of him and Ronnie to the left. Or how about a Ricky hands off to Ronnie who double reverse it to Ginn.
Why not turn it into a flea flicker play ? Theres many options to modify the wildcat.

I think it is kind of retarded to call a qb who is 39/49 for 450 yards and 0 interceptions in his last 2 games a problem. 

His performance has been vintage Pennington. This is what he does and he's great at it. No question. It does, however, limit what you can do offensively. The Jets got tired of it eventually and replaced him.

It's not that I don't like Pennington. As I've said elsewhere, I really do - even when he was a Jet (although I don't like admitting that). His arm strength just limits what can be done with him, as the Jets have experienced repeatedly.

He has fairly good technique, so he can "mask" that poor arm strength when he is able to really step into a throw, using both his legs and body rotation to get good power. That works for the intermediate throws and he's had some good ones that I remember. But if he's pressured and either flushed out or just unable to step into his throw, he just cannot put enough zip on the ball.

From reading your comments, I actually think we agree quite a bit ;). I've covered the Pennington bit in another post, so I would delve into that here except to point out what I said about the Chargers before we met them: Their big weakness is passes to tight ends and slot receivers.

It comes as no surprise that Camarillo underneath and Fasano got loads of yardage. According to the play-by-play, 25 of his 29 pass attempts were labeled SHORT. Two of those four long passes were in the fourth quarter: One was where he overthrew Martin, but we got a PI call on it to get us out of punting from our own end zone. The other one was the ball he threw across his body to Fasano, where arm strength clearly cost us a lot of yards. Probably the best "deep" pass was the TD pass in late in the second quarter - a high jump ball to Camarillo (lined up wide right) 17 yards deep. The last one is the long ball where Martin got hurt. This one looked a bit like the TD floater to Camarillo. Even though he had plenty of time and space to step into his throw on both occasions, they both had quite a bit of air.


I agree completely. I was just pointing out that the execution hasn't been "flawless" like the commentators keep saying. That also means that there's room for improvement and considering how often the formation has been used, I think that improvement will come.


Well, we've been AHEAD in the 4th these past two games. That kind of limits how much the opposing team is going to run in the fourth ;). We'll see what happens when they need to stop a team from grinding out the clock and give our Offense a shot at putting points up.

As for Ricky, I'm actually surprised at how well he's done. His runs behind left tackle were not a success - and there were a few times when the Chargers penetrated our O-line and got to him. When going around the ends, I think he did quite well. Runs to the right also did quite well, for some reason.


Seriously, Martin might be a capable blocker, but his routes are not nearly as sharp as those of Fasano. It's remarkable that both tight ends have more yards per catch than any of our recievers (well, excpet Wilford and Hagan, who have 1 and 3 reception, respectively - I'm comparing to our 3 "primary" receivers, Camarillo, Ginn and Bess). If Fasano goes down, we have a huge problem on offense.

Here's another problem for the Dolphins.

To make the playoffs, we are going to have to overtake either the Bills or the Patriots.  That's going to be a tall order.

"What's that? Uh -- Playoffs? Don't talk about -- playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game!"

Interestingly, when I typed playoffs into my google search bar on Firefox, it suggested "playoffs jim mora". Pretty weird that the most popular search regarding playoffs is combining it with jim mora.

We still have two games against Buffalo... and we've already beaten the Pats.

Plus Buffalo's next game is against SD while NE draws SD and Denver, so it's not like they have a cakewalk.  If the 'Phins can go into Buffalo with first place- or a share of it- for the division on the line (and Buffalo possibly questioning themselves if they go 0-2 after a 4-0 start), maybe it'll be enough for them to smell blood in the water.    Not saying it will happen, but just mentioning possible scenarios.

You guys are insane. We lose to Houston on Sunday.

If we do, then I will go insane.