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Tepop ... in case you missed this article!  ;D

No doubt about it, Miami Dolphins' Chad Henne stood out Sunday
http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/story/1369157.html


By EDWIN POPE
epope@MiamiHerald.com
Come on, 'fess up. You know you've doubted Chad Henne at times. You know you've said to yourself, No way the Dolphins entrust their future to Chad Henne's hands.

I know I have. I've cussed so many of his overthrows and underthrows, damned so many of his decisions, despaired of so much inconsistency. And all the while forgetting this is just his second season and those things happen to quarterbacks in their second NFL seasons.

Now I take it all back. In spades. I'm not saying these feelings will never return. Even the greatest quarterbacks don't become complete pictures of poise overnight.

But for Chad Henne it's progress. Boy howdy, it's progress.

To this king -- all right, this co-king (along with winning field-goal kicker Dan Carpenter), of Sunday's 22-21 squeak past New England, we offer a bow especially deep.

You turned the Dolphins around, Henne. Or at least stopped them from sliding farther into irrelevancy. You transformed what would have been their third loss in four games into the win that finally staked them to 6-6 and .500.

You stepped up when the Dolphins needed you most and put the touch in three touchdown drives and then the push for Carpenter's 41-yard winner.

We long ago gave up even imagining anymore Dan Marino numbers, but 29 for 52 for 335 yards and coming back from 11 points down in the third quarter?

Not bad for a guy we all were ready to write off at one time or another.

It was the way Henne did it, along with those guys up front offering human shields: He seemed to leap back rather than step back. He snapped the ball through instead of winding up like a baseball pitcher.

``When we give Chad an opportunity to make plays, he makes 'em,'' guard Justin Smiley said. ``It was like something like out of a movie, man.''

Afterward, though, Henne seemed to be apologizing for not hitting touchdown passes of 58 and 81 yards the way Tom Brady did.

``We were down 14 points, and we're not going to get big chunks running the ball,'' Henne said.

So he settled for what, in his mind, were non-chunks.

Pretty good non-chunks.

On the Dolphins' first touchdown drive, to cut the Patriots' margin to 14-7, Henne hit Greg Camarillo for 29 yards, Brian Hartline for 15 and 14 yards and Davone Bess for 13 on the TD. This was the drive where Henne first looked like a quick-draw trickster, seemingly drawing and firing without bothering to take aim.

On the first field-goal drive, to cut it to 14-10 Patriots, Henne hit 7 of 8 passes. The longest were 20 yards to Hartline and 19 to Ted Ginn Jr.

On the second and only other touchdown drive, Henne hit Bess for 19 and Fasano for 19 more.

I call those ``chunks.''

Altogether, Bess caught 10 Henne passes for 117 yards. Henne loves throwing to Bess because, as the QB puts it, ``Some of the [secondary] guys don't want to press him out there at the corner position.''

They don't like pressing Bess because if they press too close and miss, Bess is apt to be long gone.

Bess offered his own perspective on Henne. ``Every time they throw us the fastball, Chad is willing to hit the home run.''

The whole blooming game was a home run. It was a magnificent contest between one team that's a champ or near-about almost every year and another that's been crying to come even close since heaven knows when. It was more than just Henne and his catchers and Tom Brady and his. It was magnificent protection by the offensive line, too.

Not all those Dolphins involved were Pro Ball names. But Sunday, finally overtaking the Patriots with 1:02 left, they all played like Pro Bowlers in a contest that pulled harder at more hearts than any in recent Dolphins history. Mostly because of the guy we have so often doubted in his brief time here, and doubtless we shall doubt again.

When we do doubt Henne again is when we should remember something Coach Tony Sparano said about him late Sunday, when twilight had fallen and the cheers around Henne's shoulders were only echoes.

``Chad's a very resilient guy,'' is what Sparano said.

I cannot put too much praise on this game myself. He did show poise by hitting the fourth down pass, but the guy missed a lot of wide open throws on Sunday.

He did miss alot of wide open throws, but he got the ones that count/ His accuracy will come with experience. Altough i think it is hard for him to throw the ball and know there is a good chance the WR will drop the ball. It has cost us a few games this season.

No QB in NFL history hits on 100% of their passes, wide open or not! ;)

Montana, Marino, Brady, Young, Unitas etc. have all over or underthrown WRs many, many times in their respectable careers.  It happens.  The kid played very well and got the job done.  Miami WON the game because of a 4th quarter Game Winning drive LED by Chad Henne. 

The throw all most every NFL QB will say is the hardest...The guy is wide open no one around.....

It's so weird.  Of all his games, this is one where I felt he'd have been responsible, if we'd lost.  He put it together in the end, so I'm giving him credit.  He just missed a whole lot of easy touch passes that were very damaging, as well as throwing that pick on a drive, where he had ample time, but just let the ball float.

I agree that it would've been on him, because he was allowed to chuck it 52 times and the defense (against all odds) held the Pats to a respectable 21 points.  But the kid delivered, making the "coulda" argument moot.

I'm still in shock on that part. We have bad receivers and an inexperienced quarterback... and we go throw the ball 52 times. That's insane. Going back and looking at Brady's pass attempts, he's had ONE 50+ attempt game this season and had ONE in 2007. I still cannot believe Henne had 52 attempts. His arm has to be SORE today.

ive never lost sight in henne, i might have said i want tebow, lol.. but i think henne is def our future

i'll say it one last time.....this is Henne's 1st year as our starting quarterback....you can not expect him to be our savior and never make mistakes.....a typical miami dolphins fan has been spoiled for the last 2 decades because we had some guy by the name of Dan Marino.  So we expect greatness from every quarterback since, and we haven't gotten it....you can't call for Henne's head everytime he misses a throw.  PATIENCE my freinds....let him go through his learning curves.

I hate to crap on your logic, but Marino hasn't played for the Dolphins for 10 years.

I agree that we need to give Henne time.  That's not to say that we can't point out his mistakes and hold him accountable.

It's time to give Chad Henne his own song and music genre parody, much like we did with Rock And Roll Jay Fiedler and Classic Rock Gus Frerotte.

Quite as a mouse!!!

i already posted my thoughts in the other thread.  he was as impressive as a running back who has a 100 yard game on 35 carries. Yea he was great on thrird down but neededto be because he was terrible on first and second.  he had a decent day but i wouldnt say he stood out.  and defnitely wouldnt say he outplayed brady.

well i was going with the piss-poor qb's we've had since marino left.....sorry if it got lost in translation....

Its All about The Robot Chad Henne

We all know marino has not played in 10 yrs,  he  is simply meaning that we Fins fans are spoiled by marino. The yrs he has played and what he did.  i still fathom at the thought if he stayed up until Ricky came into the picture. 

i wake up in cold sweats at the thought

He played really well today too except for that one bad pass that got picked at the end.