Thoughts on the Buffalo game

[Dave Gray]

We controlled both lines of scrimmage and greatly outplayed the Bills in general.  However, despite the whoopin' we put on the them, the score was close.  I can think of a few plays:

- Marshall WIDE open deep -- overthrown.
- Marshall open deep a 2nd time -- underthrown and dropped.
- Missed FG within very makeable range.
- 2 guaranteed pick 6es that hit our DBs in the hands.
- Buffalo's only score came on 4th and 10, when we blew coverage.

I know that you can't be given credit for things that you don't do, but I think that in most cases, these plays go the other way.  ...or at least some do. 

Also, we weren't the beneficiaries of crazy plays, gimmicks, etc.  Our scores and moving the ball came on honest, us vs. them play.

I'm concerned that we only beat the Bills by 5 points, but I am actually impressed with our play, especially the line play on both sides of the ball.

[USO-ORLANDO]

I think we played down to them.Its was kinda like a preseason week 5 game for us.

[USO-ORLANDO]

I don't wanna play the IF game but.......2 almost ints (one for 6) and a missed FG,Not to mention the drop by Marshall for the for sure td (he did lose his shoe)

[bsfins]

I think we seemed a bit confused on what we thought the Bills were gonna do against our offense....(This is sort of my reply/agreement to Pappy's post in the Chad Henne thread)...Henne needed to see the the receiver open before he threw it,great when they played a zone defense against us(considering most of the defense is looking at the QB,if the receiver keeps running it's usually an easy pick).When they played man,to man,he needed to let it fly anticipate a little bit...I'm hoping this will come with time with Marshall.

Sorry back to my original thought,we ran bunched receivers,and max protect thinking it was a blitz,and they didn't blitz,we dumped it off.When they did blitz,we didn't seem to make them pay,or take advantage of it.We seemed to want to run the short crossing routes all day,the double outs,a button hook and a deep in combo route...

[Brian Fein]

The Dolphins play like this against a better team, they get blown out.

The game was only this close because of our mistakes.  It should have been 27-10 instead.

[Pappy13]

^^^ I agree.  Now maybe it was the fact that we were playing the Bills, but playing not to lose is not the way to start the season out fast like Sparano has been saying.  I would have much preferred we showed a little spark in the offense to gain some confidence.  A win is a win, but there are wins that give you confidence going into the next week and then there are wins that don't.  This one was the latter.

[masterfins]

I was at the game yesterday, and it was nice to see the Fins win in Buffalo for a change.  There were more Dolfins fans there sporting their Jerseys than I have ever seen before.  Davone Bess seemed to be all over the field making catches.  I thought they pulled Fasano out too much during 3rd and mid yardage plays; leaving Hartline in who didn't seem to be that effective.  Always good to get a win, but they need to open up and throw the ball long, there were very few plays were the receivers were sent long.

[Doc-phin]

Good point about Hartline, Masterfins.  I agree. 

Here is my game analysis, not that anyone cares.

General stuff:  Between the wind, the strength of the Bills being their backfield, and lack of tape for gameplanning it is no shock to me that we dinked and dunked and ran a lot. 

Offense:  Hartline sucked, Henne struggled with accuracy and holding the ball too long (like many opening day QB performances), our O-line kept the defense's hands off our runners but struggled opening holes, Marshal looked better than expected after his preseason performance, Bess looked a little timid but otherwise played well, but overall there was nothing the Bills could do as we just out physicalled them and played keep away with the ball.

Defense:  Dominating line and linebacker performances, aggressive corner play that needs to capitalize next time, outstanding work by Bell, Dansby, Vontae and Clemons, no weaknesses were exposed except for the one mental error on fourth down.  You can't ask for much more out of the defense for the first game of the year!

Special Teams:  Can't return block worth a damn, kicking struggled with the wind, coverage was better than preseason and may end up being good after a few games.

Final thought...  Our new additions played very well and several of our returning guys looked better than last year.  We came out healthy and next week is a better test of what we can do this year.  Our offensive strength is game planning and scheme, we have tape on the Vikings so even with their strong defense I expect to see a little better performance next week.

[TEKGOD]

Fins need to find out who their deep threat is & not live/die with Marshall. #14 ... care to step up?

[mecadonzilla]

I would like to think the conservative offensive game plan was for the Vikings benefit.  Since Minnesota played Thursday night, this week is a mini-bye week for them, and all they had to do was sit back for a few extra days and watch videos of the Dolphins.

I'm not sure if this is the case, but I can hope.  If not, it's going to be a very long season watching some very boring offensive football.

[yuppi]

and punts. lots of punts.
our offense was actually pretty good last year, looks like we took a step back in that game.

[fyo]

I actually thought our O looked pretty good. Ricky was a little hesitant at times, but made up for it by bulldozing well. Ronnie looked really good. The Wild Cat looked boring -- one time they didn't even bother setting Ricky in motion. Henne had a couple of underthrown balls and that one overthrown one, but looked good, took care of the ball, mostly went through his reads well. Marshall looked great when he caught the ball, although he did have 3 drops.