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At midseason, Miami Dolphins are no longer laughingstock
The respectable Dolphins are making the grade in most areas after coming off a dismal 1-15 season.

BY ARMANDO SALGUERO
asalguero@MiamiHerald.com

If 4-4 feels merely adequate or just mediocre, perhaps it bears remembering that a year ago, the Dolphins were the NFL's laughingstock, a team whose main mission was to avoid winless infamy.

This year, the Dolphins are trying to make the playoffs.

Now that is change truly worth believing in.

The Dolphins' victory total has improved four-fold, which makes them a better bet than the stock market.

The Dolphins have solid leadership from Bill Parcells on down, they have a decent foundation of talent and they have a quickened spirit for getting better.

''We're getting better,'' coach Tony Sparano said Friday.

``We're seeing improvement in a lot of phases, but we got to get better in some phases.''

There are many areas Sparano wants to see improve -- what did you expect, he's a coach.

The third-down offense and the special teams are chief among Sparano's concerns.

But there are plenty of areas where the Dolphins are doing pretty well as the team begins the second half of the season Sunday.

Where?

Well, what follows is a breakdown of the Dolphins at midseason:

• Running backs: Ronnie Brown is second in the NFL in touchdowns among running backs and has two 100-yard games this season. But he's managed no more than 59 yards in the other six games, even as he has been the triggerman for the Wildcat Package. Ricky Williams averaged 12 carries the first five games, but his use and production have declined over the past three games. Patrick Cobbs has been a pleasant surprise as a role player. GRADE: C-plus.

• Quarterback: The biggest difference between the 2007 and '08 Dolphins, aside from coaching and personnel leadership, is the play at QB. It can be argued that Chad Pennington is the team's MVP so far and even if his seven TD passes is not impressive, his ability to make good decisions, stay away from too many interceptions and lead a young offense is invaluable. Pennington needs to get better on third down, where his completion percentage drops from 69.3 overall to 51.6. GRADE: A-minus.

• Receivers/tight ends: Ted Ginn Jr. and Greg Camarillo have combined for consecutive outstanding games the past two weeks, but the Dolphins need an upgrade on the outside. The tight end combination of Anthony Fasano and David Martin has been good, as both pass catchers and blockers. The tight ends raise the overall grade here. GRADE: C.

• Offensive line: The Dolphins are having well-chronicled problems at right guard, but the rest of the line is playing fairly well. Left tackle Jake Long has played as advertised, and the scary thing is he might get better. Left guard Justin Smiley has been a stabilizing force between Long and center Samson Satele, and right tackle Vernon Carey is better after shifting from left tackle. The Dolphins are 15th in sacks per pass play, while their run-blocking has much room for improvement. GRADE: C-plus.

• Defensive line: The run defense, an embarrassment a season ago, has tightened remarkably to No. 9 overall in the NFL thanks to the additions of Jason Ferguson and Randy Starks, and the renaissance of Vonnie Holliday. But the group needs more out of rookies Phillip Merling and Kendall Langford, and pass rushing has been unsatisfactory. GRADE: C-plus.

• Linebackers: Joey Porter is also a team MVP candidate with his 11.5 sacks and high-energy play. The experiment of moving Matt Roth from down lineman to outside linebacker has paid some dividends, while Channing Crowder and Akin Ayodele inside have been mostly effective. GRADE: B.

• Secondary: Will Allen is playing at a Pro Bowl level the past couple of weeks, while Andre' Goodman has overcome early season struggles and is now consistently good. Yeremiah Bell is the team's tackles leader and Renaldo Hill has helped clear away early season communication problems suffered when he wasn't starting. If Jason Allen and Tyrone Culver continue to improve, the big hole this area had early in the season will be alleviated. GRADE: B-minus.

• Special teams: Dan Carpenter has been an undrafted rookie treasure, connecting on 12 of 14 field goals and every extra point. While punter Brandon Fields has improved lately, his 13 punts inside the 20 is only average, as is his net average. The rest is a disaster: Miami is last in kickoff returns, last in defending kickoff returns, and next to last in defending punt returns. GRADE: D.

• Coaching: After struggling to figure out players' roles early in the season and needing to gain trust in some other players a little faster, Sparano and his staff have been absolutely stellar in making the most of limited talent. Miami's game plans are logical and the Wildcat package was an innovative way to find a spark. The Dolphins are the fourth-least penalized team in the NFL, and clock management and replay challenges have not been an issue. GRADE: A.

• Overall:

The Dolphins don't beat themselves, don't make many mistakes and never quit on a play or a game. Twice this season they faced potentially catastrophic circumstances after starting 0-2 and then sinking to 2-4, and twice they recovered strongly. Considering where they were last season, 4-4 seems like heaven. GRADE: B-minus.


http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/miami-dolphins/story/762019.html (http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/miami-dolphins/story/762019.html)

 
 
 Bill Parcells/Jeff Ireland and Coach Sparano have done an UNBELIEVABLE job of turning this franchise around...I am so glad Wayne H. made the right (and smart) move by bringing in the big Tuna.

Just a few years ago, during the JJ and early Wanny years, 4-4 would've been a major disappointment. 

Imagine what a few seaons of complete suckitude can do to the way a fan views a 4-4 record.

Quarterback: C+.  Pennington looks great at times, and he does dumb shit at times like the pick 6 today, he also misses some throws I don't think a pro QB should miss and the ball takes forever to get to the outside. 

Running Backs: B. I like the blocking from the fullbacks, Patrick Cobbs has been a pleasant surprise as a reciever out of the backfield.  It seems to me they don't get enough carries sometimes and Ricky Williams in my opinion got off to a slow start.

Wide Reciever: B+. I don't understand why Ted Ginn isn't in on every play and why they don't throw him the ball 20 times a game.   The guy is absolutely electric when he gets the ball in his hands.  Camarillo has been another pleasant surprise as a possession reciever.  Devone Bess also looks like he has a future on this team.  Past that I haven't seen much.

Offensive Line: B.  They seem like they go through streaks during games where they play real well and then they can't handle blitzes all of a sudden.  This is a young group and by and large has performed well for us.  They got pushed around a little too much against Baltimore and Houston.

Tight End: C-.  Fasano and Martin need to be more involved in the game plan.  Fasano had some drops and plays inconsistantly in blocking as well.  Martin seems to be the recieving tight end of the two but he's not exactly a legit offensive weapon either.

Defensive line: B.  Love what I see from Langford and Ferguson.  Vonnie Holiday seems a step slow.

Linebackers: B.  Crowder and Ayodele play well for stretches but I think their pass coverage needs work.  Matt Roth gets an incomplete for changing positions in the middle of training camp.  Joey Porter is having a carreer year.

Secondary: D+.  We still give up too many big plays on third and long, usually to a wide open reciever.  Yeremiah Bell and Will Allen are playing well but Allen looked a step slow this week against Bobby Engram and Koren Robinson.  Andre Goodman has stretches where he plays real well and then disappears too.

Special teams: D+.  Specifically our coverage sucks.  We give up massive returns every week.  Punter kicks real well 4 out of 5 and then shanks the next one.  Dan Carpenter has been at least adequate as the kicker. 

Coaching: B-.  Paul Pasqualoni has to come up with a solution to pass defense problems.  It's been 8 games and he hasn't done it.  Defense plays pretty well against the run.  Dan Henning abandons the run at times in games and I don't understand why.  It could be the players we have too the jury's still out.  Sparano at least looks like he brings enthusiasm, Discipline and a work ethic to the team that seemed to be missing under Cam Cameron.

Plenty of room for improvement, but they've come a long way.

watch the hawks defense closely, and you'll see a perfect example of "8 in the box". i mean the backers were literally lineman, and then they would blitz an additional guy from all different positions (from the sides, up the middle, delayed, etc...).

the last drive for a td, i think it was a free blitzer coming from the corner and the perfect play call was to ronnie coming out of the backfield to that side. believe it was like 3rd and long again or something like that. it was a great call...

I should have put that in there.  I understand the whole 8 men in the box thing, we actually got into that last week.  That's why Brown and Ricky's numbers are down.  What I get upset about is they don't do anything in the running game (even screens I count as running plays) for two and three quarters at a time.  We had control of the Bronco game.  They started stacking the line with 8 and 9 guys in the box.  Ok fine.  Throw on first down.  But don't throw on first, second and third down.  Same thing against Seattle.  He gets control of the game.  8 and 9 men in the box.  They start passing on first second and third down and don't really go back to running the ball until the 4th quarter.  Denver is more excusable because they have a decent football team.  Against teams that suck, you don't do something dumb like get a 14 point lead, then start throwing the ball all over the field then your quarterback gets a blitz, stares a guy down and it gets picked and run back for a touchdown (that's twice now...remember the Baltimore game) now the other team is back in it and pumped up.

Only Browns numbers are down.  Ricky is averaging 4.4 ypc. 

You were perfectly happy to use "DYAR" when it suited your purpose of trashing Ronnie, but if you look at advanced metrics for Ricky, he's horrible. He's 31st in DYAR and significantly below average in value per play (DVOA), whereas Ronnie is 13th in DYAR and above average in DVOA.

What DVOA does is interesting, because unlike yards per carry, it doesn't weigh all carries as being equal. Getting 5 yards on a 3rd an 15 is of very little value, whereas 5 yards on a 1st and 10 is a solid run. Ricky's low DVOA suggests that he's getting a higher percentage of garbage time carries and a lot of "meaningless" long runs on long downs. Basically padding his stats, but not doing anything to help the team win.

Ricky's 3 fumbles also aren't counted in the 4.4 yards per carry, so basically you're choosing to ignore touchdowns, fumbles and situational aspects and instead focusing on the ONE SINGLE metric where Ricky is better than Ronnie: Yards per carry.

Bottom line, Ronnie is contributing a heck of a lot more in terms of getting us victories than Ricky!

FYI, Ronnie has ZERO fumbles despite almost 50% more carries than Ricky.

Finally, I'd just like to note that my intention is not to slight Ricky. I think we have a great pair of running backs. You cannot separate a running back from the line he runs behind (and factors like a noodle-armed quarterback).

Well this weeks stats haven't been updated on football outsiders.  Also, Ronnie is getting 60% of the carries, but getting 85% of the red zone carries.  Not surprising that he has more TDs than Ricky.  Kind of like Varsity blues where the black kid gains all the yards and the white kid scores all the tds. Ricky is also gaining a yard more than Ronnie on first down carries.

And your thinking is what? One game is going to make up that HUGE difference between the two?

The "smart" thing about DVOA is that it counts value per play, so it doesn't matter how many plays Ronnie gets compared to Ricky. It's also "smart" in that if you had a running back who got a lot of first downs, or other good runs, on a long drive, that back would get more value than the one who got the final 1 yard touchdown.

The whole basis of DVOA is "what change in win-probability does this play result in" (and then adjusted for defense). The simple fact is, Ronnie is contributing vastly more to winning, per carry, than Ricky.

EDIT: And, just FYI, the new numbers are up NOW. Ricky had a MONSTER of a game, improving in DVOA from -10% to +3.5%. Ronnie had a good game, edging his DVOA up from +5.0% to +5.4%. No one is questioning that Ricky had a (much) better game against the Seahawks than Ronnie, but for the season thus far, Ronnie has been the more valuable player - both in total value and in value per play.

EDIT 2: Their weekly commentary on individual player performances over at espn.com are up as well. Ricky had the second best performance of any running back this week. This is the accumulated DYAR stat, not the individual per play stat.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3694286

Ronnie is at 5.4% and Ricky is at 3.5%.  Which is most likely cause Ronnie has gotten 26 redzone carries compared to 5 for Ricky. 

eh, i am not going to argue anymore.  you don't seem to be like most miami fans who think that Ronnie brown is a god.

You seem to be forgetting the PER PLAY aspect of DVOA again.

  ::)  Yeah, he really showed his noodle arm on that beautifully thrown flea-flicker to Tedd Ginn (who made an amazing catch).

So far that is the #1 highlight reel of this season.  I can't decide if that was a better throw or a better catch. How it wasn't batted down or intercepted I don't know. Insane!

the whole point of stacking the line is to force you to throw. what is great about this coaching staff is that they don't stare down 9 guys at the line of scrimmage and try to run it anyway.

the hawks stacked the line the entire game... go back and watch the film. its not ideal to throw as much as they are throwing the ball, but its what the defenses are giving them.

It's hard for me to describe, Dolfan13.  What I see on Sunday makes sense to me (throwing with 9 guys in the box) and yet the timing of it in my mind seems ridiculous at the same time.  I can't really explain it.