The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

With the backfield talent that the dolphins have, why are the ground numbers so consistenly weak?

Is it the lack of a deep threat?

Or do I expect too much?

I think it's a combination of the following:

1)  The offensive line is young and hasn't gelled yet. 

2)  Ronnie is coming off a knee injury and Ricky hasn't played in two years. 

3)  Opposing teams are stacking 8 men in the box, knowing perfectly well Chad Pennington can't throw the ball deep

4)  Our receivers suck, with the exception of Greg Camarillo. 

Pretty simple game plan. People have been doing this over and over making Chad beat them.

Pennington's weak arm and an offensive line that isn't doing very well.

The offensive line is good at "power" situations. That is, they can generate push and make sure we get that last yard, but they're not good at adjusting to blitzes or "scheming" by the defensive line. They also very, very rarely get to the second level (and this includes tight ends, which is all we have since Parcells/Sparano don't use fullbacks much). That limits long runs where we're way below league average.

Ndukwe and Smiley are the weakest points on the line, IMHO.

Part of the blame does lie with Sparano/Henning, though. Those naked end arounds are not doing any favors for R&R's statistics. Opposing defenses also don't seem to fall for the play fake or delayed handoff anymore. It seems to me that this aspect worked better early in the season.

I don't know why.  There has to be something wrong, maybe somebody on the team is accidently tipping off the play before the snap.  There is no reason that R+R should be averaging that low of ypc esp. when they are only getting the ball on less than half the snaps.  Basically the entire offensive unit is on penningtons shoulders and in order to make the playoffs ricky and ronnie are going to need to take some of the load off.

Chad's been playing well, but teams have been making him beat them.

I don't think it's a result of the actual talent of our RBs.  Our O-line just can't keep that many guys out for that long.

Yesterday especially Denver spent most of the game with at least 8 guys in the box.  They're daring Chad Pennington to throw the football. 

Ted Ginn needs to be more involved in the game plan if he isn't already.  Camarillo is making an excellent possession reciever but our problems in that area are two fold.  Our tight ends apparently don't scare anybody and we only ran 1 screen pass the whole game.

Plus I've seen more empty backfield sets this year than I ever have probably in all my other years watching Miami combined.

Kind of difficult to run when Defenses are stacking the line.

I like Chad but this is what seperates him from the big boys. He simply doesnt have the arm. He is smart and accurate but with a poor receiving core and a weak arm he doesnt scare anyone.

On the upside Chard doesnt make many mistakes.

Of course it is so easy to blame anybody except Ronnie brown, but lets take a look at the numbers.  Curtis Martin in 2002 had 261 carries for 1094 yards, 4.2ypc.  In 2004, Curtis Martin had 371 carries for 1697 yards, 4.6 ypc.   In 2006, Leon Washington had 151 carries for 650 yards, 4.3 ypc.

Funny how Ricky averaged 4.8 ypc in 2002 with Jay Fiedler as the QB, with every team putting 8 in the box, and Ronnie is going to end up averaging 3.5 yards per carry, even with his inflated game against NE when the wildcat was a gimmick. 

I'm not doubting that Ronnie has poor numbers, but he doesn't have holes to run through.  Also, Ricky isn't faring any better.

I'm not blaming Chad for it, either.  I think it's that the only way to beat the Dolphins is to stop the run, and gamble on the long pass.  Chad's been doing his part, and we've been winning.  But when Chad has a doesn't deliver those throws, we lose....just like we did vs. the Texans.

It's simple.  As said earlier, teams are stacking up against the run.  Seven (Line + TEs / FB) blocking eight leaves at least one guy free on every play.  That I can think of, Miami has only completed one "bomb" all season.  All other long gains have been of the "YAC" variety.  Until Miami can consistently kill you deep (like 2 or 3 times a game), this is the best way to limit our offense.