Thoughts: Jacksonville Preseason

[Dave Gray]

Positives:
- Pennington was pretty much flawless.  He ran a little, he dumped off a little, he had a few mid-range passes.  Good stuff.  I can't ask for anything more from this guy, especially in his first start.
- The line play, on both sides, was pretty good.  Our O-Line, especially, looks to be doing very well.  I was also happy to see us respond to blitz pick-up.
- Carpenter looked perfect on kicks...not just hitting them, but hitting them decisively, right down the middle, with plenty of leg.  Also, his kickoffs were improved from last week.
- Receivers - Ginn, Hagan got involved and made some plays.
- Converting on 3rd down.
- Ricky Williams looks just like he used to, bowling over guys for an extra yard or 2.  ...it added up and made for a few 3rd and short situations.
- Putting the game away.  For those of you that didn't see this game, it wasn't close.  We were up 19-0 with 6 minutes left.  All of the Jags points came against prevent style defense against 2nd and 3rd stringers.  Also, during that time, our offense was just running the ball to get off the field healthy.  It was a very deceiving 14 points against.
- Henne looked good (not as good as last week), and got lots of playing time, with no big mistakes.
- Sparano was very active on the sideline...Cowher-esque.

Negatives:
- Kick return coverage.  We're getting down there, but missing tackles, or not converging on the ball carrier very well.  The Jags were about to squeeze an extra 10-15 yards more than they should've on just about every kickoff.
- Ronnie Brown had limited play, so we didn't see much, but he went to the locker room with a finger injury.  I don't know how serious.
- Penalties.  Some of the calls were BS, but still, we gotta watch out with some of these illegal shifts and stuff like that.  Not a ton of disciplinary type stuff, but it's definitely something we can work on.
- A few costly drops, but mostly by garbage time players that may not make the team anyway.

Other notes:
- The NFL rules for protecting the QB's head go too far.  I like what they've done with the facemask rule, and think they should incorporate the same kind of rule on hits to the QB.  15 yards for touching a QB's head is overboard.

[phinphan]

Hey that guy returning was kinda like wes welker so I dont think we did so bad.
Our o-line did well and our chad's . Well Chad's in florida are a good thing for now.
If Henne is our second who do we keep. I have no argument to keep either.Do we dump both and hope to pick up a third string.

[phinphan]

That should have been a face mask call for Ricky, The jax announcers said it was and replayed it a couple of times. Then they said the refs have to learn the new rules.

[CF DolFan]

I'm still leary as I feel the game might have been an anomaly.  There is always at least one game a year that happens to everyone and I kind of feel that is what happend in our game. 

The Jaguars didn't seem at all interested in playing us. Del Rio even took the whole "oh well ... they can learn from this" approach. WTH ... Mr. Inensity takes it without getting upset?  I can't say I've seen that before.  Penny's arm appeared to be stronger than it has been against us in years and I'm wondering how all of a sudden he appears to have some zip. Our mistakes didn't hurt us and even they seemed to help us with one every time we needed it ... like Jones-Drew's fumble out of the end zone or the usual Lemon interception.   

I loved the fact we won and am excited that we were successful but at the moment it just kind of has the whole paper champion feel for me.  I'm just thinking once a team takes us serious that we will be squashed back down into reality and realize that we have no QB, an inexperinced o-line and a marginal defense. 

[YoFuggedaboutit]

That game was full of some bullshit calls.  A clear 15 yard facemask gets overruled, they call roughing the passer for touching the guy's head, and a clear catch by Ted Ginn is ruled incomplete. 

Despite all that, our offense marched down the field with precision several times in the first half.  I loved it when Chad Henne came in to relieve Chad Pennington and the offense didn't seem to miss a beat. 

Doctor D and I, as well as our significant others were at that game.  Pics to come in a few moments.

[doctord56]

Tommy and I had a good time at the game; quite a few other dolphin fans in the stands as well.

The dolphins looked like a professional team last night, something that was sorely lacking last year. Both lines played well, Jake is a beast, the QB's were efficient, Ricky ran great, the receivers were going up and catching the ball (the much criticized Ted Ginn looked very good, and Davonne Bess is solid in the slot). Having an efficient NFL QB really seemed to make a difference. Merling and Langford looked like the real thing on the DL, Soliai seems to be waking up and realizing his career is in jeopardy, Matt Roth looked pretty good with the OLB experiment, the run defense was very solid, and 4/4 on field goals.

A few minor to moderate quibbles with penalties and Kickoff coverage, and Ernest Wilford and Sean Ryan played like little girls, but all in all the team is progressing and the talent level is improved quite a bit. I'm not going crazy after one good performance in an exhibition, but there is room for hope. Sure, this year .500 will be quite a reach, but the team is headed in the right direction.

[phinphan]

The dolphins looked great... However seven quarters before a flag was thrown makes me think we are in for a rough season.Tony Saprano woulda had guys wacked for that
Tony Sprano needs to address this with out sounding like a cry baby.Just a thought

[phinphan]

Hey Tommy the roughing the passer was legit As the camera rolled on the ball I knew he got creamed. He got hit hard.....My complaint is they are only calling penalties on us