Henning on the offensive problems

[CF DolFan]

http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/sports_football_dolphins/2010/12/miami-dolphins-dan-henning-on-scapegoats-and-solutions.html

I think this is a pretty interesting read. He is basicly saying the same thing as the minority. 

Just finished up our final Coordinator Thursday in which Dan Henning, who is widely considered to be heading toward retirement, held court for what could be the final time as chief playcaller for the Miami Dolphins.
If that’s the case, he will be missed. No matter what you think of his work on Sundays, the man is a treat each and every Thursday. Has been from the moment he walked into the building.
Anyway, here’s what he had to say after being pressed about Chad Henne’s worthiness as a long-term Dolphins quarterback.


“Let me just make this very clear,” Henning said, sounding a bit Nixonian there for a second. “It’s easy to find scapegoats. It’s not easy to find solutions. So when you determine that this guy is it, then you take him out of the mix and found out it wasn’t him, then you were wrong.
“You’d better do the due diligence, you’d better dig, you’d better find out what you think is wrong, why did this change, why did the chemistry change, are we doing the right things here, there and everywhere before you determine that this one guy or that one guy is it. That’s the easy part: to just pinpoint somebody out and then take him out of the mix.
“If I am the problem,OK, — Dan Henning, if I’m the problem — and you take me out of the mix and it works great after I’m gone with the same operation, hey, I’d love to be able to say, ‘Take me out of here.’ OK? I don’t  believe that. I don’t believe it’s any other one individual on the offense that has caused the offense to settle down and not be as good as it’s been in the past. There are solutions to be found, but you have to do some due diligence and you have to dig.”
After weeks of blaming poor execution, injuries and a lack of speed for the underperformance of the league’s 30th-ranked scoring offense, Henning was asked in his possible swan song if there was anything he — Dan Henning — could have done better to fix the problems this year?
“Well, I keep thinking every week,” he said, “and I study what we do and what I do specifically and I try to determine whether I’m trying to put the people in the right place and then we make the little changes that we think we have to get away from doing this because this guy doesn’t do this well and then we go in there and then there’s something else that [someone] doesn’t do well. When you’re trying to find these solutions, it’s not an easy task, especially in the middle of the season when you start losing people. We felt we came out of that Raider game [a 33-17 win] playing pretty good, and then we lost Brian [Hartline], and Brian was a big part of that.”
So, it sounds like the answer is “no.” At least nothing that Henning is comfortable sharing  publicly.
“I don’t think there’s anything easy about it,” Henning said. “I think you have to look at the operation and determine if it’s managed well, if it’s organized well, if you’re making good decisions. All of that has to be evaluated and then you determine what the solutions are. Maybe you then find certain individuals don’t fit with other individuals, I don’t know.
“But I do know it’s not an easy task to say, ‘OK, this is it and that’s going to be the answer.’ Too many people have done that in this league for years and years. You change the quarterback, you change the head coach, you change this guy, that guy, then the next thing you know it comes around in a circle again.”

[MikeO]

He sounds like a moron.

Seriously. We all know what the problems are! And YES there are scapgoats in life. Especilally in sports where they are easy to point out. Especially when they are painfully obvious

[Pappy13]

Sounds an awful lot like "I don't know what is wrong and I don't know how to fix it" to me.

[MikeO]

He makes Brian Hartline sound like Jerry Rice. Once Hartline went down we couldn't rebound. Seriously, Brian Hartline?? Really? You can't rebound from that?

[badger6]

My humble opinion of the offensive problems in order of priority.

1. OL
2. QB
3. OC/HC
4. TEs
5. WRs
6. RBs

[masterfins]

My humble opinion of the offensive problems in order of priority.

1. OL
2. QB
3. OC/HC
4. TEs
5. WRs
6. RBs

you forgot to mention the waterboy

[Sunstroke]

Miami's waterboys have all had pro bowl seasons... Their "chug to splash" ratio was off the fucking charts.

[Dave Gray]

I think that Henning is correct in one area, but he is missing another part.

Both he and fans are making the same mistake: the single cause fallacy.

We're not bad because of Henning or Henne or any other one thing.  That doesn't mean that you don't replace anyone, as Henning seems to be suggesting.  But it also doesn't mean that you replace someone and expect a completely different result.  You have to keep tweaking.

This combo of Henne and Henning doesn't work.  I believe that it's more the former than the latter, but it's probably a combo of these two plus other things -- poor run blocking and a top-down overly-conservative outlook on the game, in general, to name just a few.

[dolfan13]

bad qb play magnifies all your weaknesses ten fold... just like great qb play makes the whole team look great.

no its not a single problem on offense. the oline is worse than last year and the rb's are not as good anymore, but bad qb play just makes everything significantly worse.

it's not even bad qb play so much as downright putrid production from that spot. bring a guy in that even gives you 20 td's and 9 int's (something middle of the road), and the running game would be much improved.

[MikeO]

bad qb play magnifies all your weaknesses ten fold... just like great qb play makes the whole team look great.

no its not a single problem on offense. the oline is worse than last year and the rb's are not as good anymore, but bad qb play just makes everything significantly worse.

it's not even bad qb play so much as downright putrid production from that spot. bring a guy in that even gives you 20 td's and 9 int's (something middle of the road), and the running game would be much improved.

And when our #1 WR was downright bad this year it doesn't help any. Bess is a nice player. A guy you love on your team. But he is a #3 WR at best in the Wes Welker role working the middle of the field and underneath. And we are depending on him as a #1 almost because Marshall has played so bad, if you don't consider the "name" and "reputation" of Marshall and judge his season on its merit, he was slightly better than Ginn was for us. Too many dropped balls a few HORRIBLE unsportsmenlike penalties that killed drives. Not enough big plays. And he did little to improve our passing game.

[norad34]

There are three things which I think have hindered the Dolphins offense...

1. Sparano tinkering with the offensive line. He should have just left it alone. Injuries to key players (Nate Garner) didn't help either. Get your o-line settled and let it go. Plus, he is running a 1980's offense. In this league, the pass has become the dominant feature, even if its a seven yard out on first down (see Tom Brady).

2. No speed. The speed needed is on the bench (at WR Moore and Wallace). Ronnie Brown has no 5th gear and Ricky has it from time to time but he's older.

3. Too much of a dependence on Brandon Marshall. It's ironic that Henne had one of his best games without Marshall in the lineup (at Oakland). It appears when Marshall is in the game, Henne almost feels obligated to get the ball to him. Jay Cutler actually said a few years back that Marshall gets lazy and doesn't run clean routes. I think that NFL Playbook backed that up earlier this year. Plus, Henne seems punked by Marshall. Not even Rich Gannon took crap from Jerry Rice and Tim Brown. I'm starting to feel that Brandon Marshall could be a little overrated.

4. For the first three years, the Dolphins have concentrated on the defensive side of the ball in the draft. It has somewhat paid off. If Sparano stays, they MUST upgrade almost the entire offense (WR, RB, RT, C, TE)

[Pappy13]

bad qb play magnifies all your weaknesses ten fold...

Actually I think it's just the opposite.  Poor play around the QB magnifies the weaknesses of your QB.  The offensive line is a shambles which has hurt the production of Ricky and Ronnie which has allowed defenses to play 2 deep zone coverage all year forcing everything to be thrown underneath which forced Chad to check down or throw into double coverage.  When he checked down, our receivers couldn't get yards after the catch and when he forced it into double coverage it was picked off.

I do agree with Henning on 1 thing.  Losing Hartline hurt a lot more than people realize.  Hartline was actually decent at stretching a defense.  When he got hurt, there was no one who could get deep quick enough and those safeties that were playing 2 deep zone took another 2 steps up to the line of scrimmage, making even the underneath throws tough.  At least we were kicking FG's with Hartline, once Hartline was hurt, the offense came to a screeching halt completely.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

My humble opinion of the offensive problems in order of priority.

1. OL
2. QB
3. OC/HC
4. TEs
5. WRs
6. RBs

You might want to move RB a bit higher.  Three out of four incumbent RBs are FA. 

[Pappy13]

You might want to move RB a bit higher.  Three out of four incumbent RBs are FA. 

But the one who's not, may be the best RB for the future.