The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I was going to go with Pennington.

However, after watching a replay of the reverse, I think I'll pick Ginn as well.  Pennington and Ginn are co-shames of the game.

He was great for us this year, however, he should have handled that cleanly.  Then, we would have been right back in it with plenty of time.

ON TO 2009!!!!!!!!!

Pennington threw FOUR FREAKING INTERCEPTIONS.

Noodles in a landslide.

Do I even have to say who?  The stinkin' Jet gets it

HM: The offensive line for giving Penny no protection, and not being able to block for our RBs

Noodles played great all year but he stunk it up today.

Noodle arm and his 4 completions to wide receivers wearing purple. 

Pennington. Good thing that he didn't win MVP or I would be on my way to Miami to take it away from him.

Chad.... P!

I think this will be unanimous...Chad P really had a bad game today.

Miami's fairweather fans in the crowd for being able to hear a pin drop in the second half.

Denver_Broncos is the SOTG, for not taking his whining ass into the offseason when his Donkeys did.

Pennington, and a dishonorable mention to the 12'th man that D_B mentioned.

11-5, AFC East Champions and in the playoffs again.

No SOTG.

Period.

Dear Pennington,

Please don't throw deep.

If you do throw deep, please don't do it to a double or triple-covered player.

If you feel you MUST, please do it to someone who isn't 5-10.

If you really see no other way, please try to get the ball deep if the 5-10 guy is deeper than the trio of defenders and short if the defenders are deeper.

Oh, and, could you tell Henning to lay off any play where a hand-off or toss targets a player who's 5+ yards behind the line of scrimmage. Especially if the target player is moving side-to-side.

Sincerely,

fyo

12 carries 19 yards 

4 pics. One for a pic six, and a boatload of bad decisions. I swear, you MUST be Chad Pennington.

How can you NOT give it to Pennington.  He was an amazing offensive weapon for the other team.   Sacked three times and picked off four times, one for a TD.

Pennington did some things out there today that he doesn't normally do..... he tried to force some throws and he took risks.  Baltimore's defense tends to do that to caretaker QB's

Gotta be CP, but the interior O-line gets a looksie and a knowing nod, too, because it couldn't run block or pass protect.

Pennington because he ultimately pulls the trigger but it's not like he was getting a lot of help: O-line was getting spanked, no running game, receivers had alligator arms.  What can you do? 

Pennington has to get the shame.  It's hard to suger-coat 4 picks.

But that aside, we got no pressure, and we couldn't get any push from our O-line, either.  This wasn't just today.  This has been an ongoing problem with us all year.

It's amazing that we were even in this game near the end.  (We were in FG range with about 5 minutes left, that would've put us within 8.  The Ravens were unable to move the ball.)  That Ginn fumble play that lost 15 yards really killed us.

I leave this season really happy that we're able to win games where we're outmatched, but I'm still concerned that the most basic of building-blocks (offensive and defensive lines) are still suspect.

I'm proud of you Tommy.........you didn't ask for Penny's head and Henne to step in once........... ::) ;D

Then maybe those issues need to be addressed in the draft, rather than getting WR or DB.


Here's a thought.  There are several teams out there (the Vikings come to mind immediately) that are one good QB away from being a serious  Super Bowl contender.  Our deep ball was non existent this season.  Why not consider trading Chad Pennington to one of those teams, and turn Chad Henne loose next season?

I think Pennington's worth on the trading block is a lot less than his worth with us.

We were just overmatched, they were brining more people than we could block including the fact that we were keeping our TE's into block.

If Pennington doesn't throw those picks we are still in the game. Simple. Our defense looked solid yesterday.

Two of those are the direct result of errors by the wide out.  Another was due to him being slammed after getting a stunning 2 seconds to throw the ball. 

Look in Dolphins discussion.

And a great catch to help CP offset those 4 picks a bit.

I don't really know who should get the Shame (part of me wants to say the O-line, really, because as several people said already, we really never got any push in the run game and had much more difficulty with pass protection in this game than we did in the first game with Baltimore, which really surprised me, regardless of Baltimore's defensive skill; part of me wants to still put it on Penny, though, because as BingeBag says, I also truly believe that if Chad doesn't throw those picks [or whomever/whatever you want to place the blame upon for the INT's], we would still have been in that game...the defense really did play well for the most part), but I think the fundamental problem for our difficulties against the upper-echelon teams such as Baltimore of this season are the lack of interior strength/push/whatever you want to call it by the o-line as well as a lack of overall explosiveness by the d-line/front seven outside of Porter, who truthfully kinda disappeared down the stretch (not only a lack of sacks but also a lack of big tackles/plays with the exception of the FR yesterday).


I probably should have inserted this post by Dave prior to my spiel, but yeah, essentially I agree with you, Dave.  We really were still in this game (I think it was actually still 8 minutes of game time left when Ginn fumbled the reverse) at that point, but as crazy as it might have been, I think we would've had a shot if we could've scored a TD on that series, regardless of whether we went for (and got) a 2 point conversion.  Even assuming we went for and didn't get it, that would've still made it 15-20 and I would've liked to see the way both sides played with all of the momentum in Miami's favor and the pressure really on Baltimore at that point. 

Also like you, I'm still concerned about those two different aspects of our two lines.  Generally (though it didn't happen so well this past game), I think our offensive line pass protects well, but I also think they hardly ever get the regular, consistent run-blocking push needed.  The only instances where they seem to do well run blocking is short-yardage situations, particularly "quick hitters" like the fast handoffs to Polite and/or Cobbs.  I'm fine with that, it's great to get firsts on 3rd and short rather than getting stuffed, but with our offensive player skillset, I think it'll also really help us if we can run the ball on 1st and 10 and consistently get 4-6 yard runs rather than 0-3 yard runs like we would against even only average defenses.  Speaking of the offensive skillset, I am pretty satisfied with what we have, especially down the stretch.  That's hard to believe coming into this past season, but I think we'll be fine there, particularly if Camarillo can come back healthy.

As for the d-line/front seven, I think we need to be able to get better penetration (that's what she said, right?  :D) on both run blitzes (it seems we never really get negative *gains* or no yardage gained except on 3rd/4th and short situations) and definitely known passing situations.  We were seriously generating no pressure on Flacco yesterday, and I can just see New England, whether it's a banged-up Brady or Cassel, going to town on us in both games next season unless we can do a better job in that regard.  So, yeah, basically I've turned this post into a "who we should draft?" post that should have been in the other topic.  Sorry about that, guys!   :D

One more thing about D-Line play.  It's not just about not giving up points.  It's about getting off the field quickly, creating turnovers, and disrupting pace.

Ideally, you want to rattle a team's QB, and then let him sit on the bench and think about it for a while.

Even when we don't allow a team to score, we're not doing it with pressure.  It's with downfield coverage.

We need another rush LB and that's it...maybe a big nosetackle....we have to let guys like Langford and Merlings develop....how many lineman do you know of were lights out there first year in the league?

The Fridge kicked ass as a rookie.... on both sides of the ball.

you cant put da blame too much on Penny.  The Raven D was just dat damn good .  They were out for blood an miami just looked like a lost team.

Cant give the shame to one person,   If u got to give it,  give it to the Team.

Because Pennington is one if not the main reason Miami had a great year.  Next year will be tougher and the only proof that Henne has it (I believe this info from your other posts) is preseason and in an Arizona game where the Birds had lost interest from the beatdown they were delivering.  BingeBag makes a good point about Pennington's trade value.

Henne will get his turn soon enough and until then I'm not convinced he has the brains to go with the big arm.  Throwing the deep ball to Ginn every play only sounds good in theory...God knows the other receivers aren't going deep and Ginn has trouble separating from DBs.  Why not upgrade at WR to help Pennington (and Ginn) next year and Miami for the future? 

Re: Pennington being traded...

I think that the NFL has shown us time and again, that you need to have two competent QBs on your roster.  They help each other, they compete, and they fill in.  We have a sure thing in Penny, and Henne may be a star later, but there's no need to push him.  Things are going well as they are -- don't screw with them.