Thoughts From the Morning After…

Yesterday was a great day to be a Miami Dolphin. In fact, as a quick aside, this was one of the best weekends of football I can remember. The college game gave us a great few days starting with a very good Oregon-Oregon State matchup on Thursday, then continuing with an amazing Cincy-Pitt game, A very enjoyable (at least for Seminoles fans) SEC championship game, and great ACC and Big 12 Title Games. Not to mention the little joys like USC losing to Arizona or Fresno State winning on the most incredible two point conversion I’ve ever seen. Then on Sunday the Dolphins beat the Patriots by playing, get this, great 4th quarter defense. The day could have gone better, the ’72 Dolphins would have rested a bit easier with New Orleans and Indianapolis losses, but all things considered, this was one hell of a weekend.

Chad Henne

Very nice day by Chad Henne. If you had told me (or anyone) that Henne would attempt 52 passes yesterday I would have told you that the Patriots must have just wrecked Miami. Wrong! And in a way that’s kind of appropriate for the Dolphins season. Miami runs the ball all night and wins the time of possession battle by 30 minutes (45-15, an entire two quarter different in time of possession) on its way to a loss to the Colts. Then throws the ball inexplicably 52 times against the Patriots and wins. I’m not even going to try to make sense of it. I’m still not thrilled with throwing 50+ times a game but I have to be honest, it worked yesterday and clearly even with these receivers Henne is capable of playing well if asked to do that.

I’m still on the fence with Henne, I’ve been highly critical of him in the past but I’ve always maintained I want to see him do well. Yesterday he continued to show us his progression and growth as a player. The last 3 minutes of last weekend’s game at Ralph Wilson are the kind of three minutes than can really make a quarterback a basket-case. But Chad Henne showed no ill-effects from last week. He came out poised and made solid throws all day on his way to some career numbers and his third career game-winning drive. When I look at Henne’s ability to handle adversity I think back to his time at Michigan. Ignoring for a second the rigors of being the starting quarterback at a major university (that alone can make you crack, see the cautionary tale of Wyatt Sexton at Florida State), Henne dealt with more adversity in his senior season than almost anyone realizes. In 2007, Henne’s senior season, with Michigan ranked a preseason number 2, Michigan lost its first two games (one to FCS school Appalachian State) and proceeded to finish 8-4. Henne dealt with injuries all season long. In his senior day at the Big House he struggled and threw for just 68 yards against Ohio State. At that point a lot of guys would have packed it in and felt sorry for themselves. For all intensive purposes his senior season had been a failure in the eyes of Michigan fans and his last ever home game after four years of starting was an embarrassing loss to Ohio State (and current teammate Brian Hartline). Henne responded instead by finishing his career on a high note, leveling Heisman winner Tim Tearbow in the Capital One bowl and throwing up 374 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Florida. It may not seem like a lot, but to me that shows a ton of resiliency after a really trying senior season. My point is this, after fighting through the adversity of his senior season and coming out better for it, three bad minutes in Buffalo just rolled off Henne’s shoulders yesterday. That speaks volumes about Henne’s future as the Miami Dolphins quarterback.

He still has a ways to go. As Brian pointed out yesterday he missed a couple of wide open receivers and under pressure his ball does tend to sail a bit. But he’s gained confidence in each successive start and the fact the Dolphins coaching staff is comfortable to let him throw the ball 50+ times in a divisional game that was very close is promising. Great game by Chad Henne.

Davone Bess

This isn’t a reactive statement to something I saw from Bess on the field yesterday so much as it is to a comment Tony Sparano made after the game, having noticed that the Patriots seemed to be the most intent on covering Davone Bess in the last meeting between the two teams, Sparano said:

"“They started to press him or bring a guy over the top toward the end of that game. … We tried to move him around a lot [yesterday] to take the press off him.”"

So let me get this straight, it’s as if the Dolphins attempted to feature Davone Bess yesterday and he responded with 10 catches for 117 yards and a touchdown… I’m not going to jump the gun or anything here I’m simply stating this because it did cross my mind yesterday… if we did more to get Davone Bess open why can’t he wind up being a very good receiver for us? On the season while also balancing punt return duties and fighting through some bad games Bess has already caught 59 balls. Of his 59 catches this season, 29 of them have converted third downs. That’s No. 2 in the NFL. He’s very quick, even if does lack true top speed, and he plays every down like he’s trying to make an NFL roster. I still think the Dolphins need to address the receiver position in the off-season (obviously) but after listening to all the experts defend Ted Ginn with the line about receivers truly blossoming in their third season, I just think maybe, just maybe, we’re pretty lucky to have picked up Davone Bess as UDFA after the draft last season. Great game by Bess, keep it up.

The Running Backs

The most underrated part of Miami’s offensive performance yesterday was the blocking in the backfield. Miami dropped Henne back 53 times and he got 52 of those passes off. That’s just one sack in over 50 attempts. Not too much to complain about there. But as well as the line played the tailbacks did a phenomenal job of protecting Chad Henne. You knew Lousaka Polite could block (he’s being doing it at a Pro Bowl level all season) and Lex Hilliard has earned the affections of Tony Sparano for doing the unsexy things (like special teams and blocking) but it’s amazing to me how complete and capable of a tailback Ricky Williams still is at 32 years old. He’s a capable receiver as he has shown all season and he can clearly still run with a lot of purpose, but yesterday Ricky showed how good he is at doing the ugly jobs too. Ricky wasn’t featured against New England, he didn’t get as many carries as many (myself included) felt he should have gotten, but he did have one of the best days of anyone on the offense. Every time you saw a red jersey come free off the edge, you saw Ricky pop him and buy Chad Henne a few more seconds. On a lot of those plays that extra half second is the difference between Chad Henne looking like a future franchise QB and looking like a second year starter.

Defensive Matchups

I really like Nate Jones, frankly I think he’s the best nickel corner Miami has had since Terry Cousin. But that doesn’t mean I like seeing him lined up over Wes Welker every time the Pats feel like exploiting that mismatch in the slot. Here’s what I thought was going to happen against the Patriots when Miami drafted Sean Smith and Vontae Davis. To me it seemed all too obvious to lock up Smith, with Randy Moss, they’re both tall and fast and athletic. Then it seemed like you could put Vontae Davis on Wes Welker, since arguably (not arguably actually, factually) Vontae Davis is a much better athlete than Welker.

What’s actually happened is Miami doesn’t like to flip its corners so Randy Moss was going agaisnt Vontae Davis all yesterday (and in the first game) and Wes Welker was in the slot against whatever poor soul was unfortunate enough to be lined up over him. I don’t pretend to have the knowledge it takes to be a defensive coordinator but it was pretty obvious early on that Miami’s defensive decisions weren’t going to bode well against Welker. Now’s the part where I give Paul Pasqualoni a little bit of credit. He got it figured out in the 4th quarter when it counted. Eventually Miami started to leave Channing Crowder behind and let him cover up Welker as he crossed the middle of the field. Crowder, who incidentally I was told had never touched the football in a game before this weekend (not sure if that’s true) almost had a pick on the penultimate drive before actually snagging one on the final drive of the game. Still, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if down the line Miami didn’t just match up Smith with Moss and Davis with Welker and just let them go play.

Vontae Davis continues to progress well. He’s made some mistakes as he did again in the first quarter against Randy Moss, but he also has a really nice nose for the ball and has factored into games in some very big ways. Sean Smith is actually the guy who concerns me a little bit more right now. Smith continues to get himself into great position on a lot of passes but he has struggled with getting his head around on time. All in all though, we all knew there would be growing pains this season. This isn’t that bad. I think Miami has a really exciting pair of young corners.

Cameron Wake

For the love of God, get this guy in the game. I still don’t see why Miami doesn’t just flip into a 4-3 occasionally with Wake in the game at end (I mentioned last week I think our personnel is more suited to a 4-3 now with Jason Ferguson on the shelf). Yesterday on the last defensive play of the game Wake made a beautiful pass rush and got to Tom Brady with a fearsome inside move. After Miami had struggled to get pressure on Brady all day it seemed like Wake needed only to check in to have some level of success. At this point in the season it’s become cliche, but when this guy plays he makes things happen. I don’t care if he’s not a complete player yet, he brings max pressure every time. Simeon Rice was never a complete player either but he certainly factored in quite a bit for the Buccaneers over the years. Let’s get this guy some more snaps.

Playoffs!?

Somehow, some way, Miami is still in this thing. Not to mention the next four games on the schedule are against teams in the AFC Wild Card race. Put it this way, if Miami wins out they will finish the season 10-6 with wins over Jacksonville, Houston, Tennessee and Pittsburgh. They would have a 4-2 divisional record and an 8-4 conference record. All things considered, Miami just needs to win and they’re in. I can’t believe I’m about to say this either but I think that it’s doable. There’s a very big chance that this last game of the year at Miami will feature a 9-6 Dolphins team playing for their playoff chances against the Steelers.

Now this next item is imperative. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IF YOU LIVE IN MIAMI BUY TICKETS TO THAT GAME NOW. Think about this, Miami could have a meaningful home game in January. Now consider that it’s going to be during the holidays and that Miami would be an attractive vacation destination for Steelers fans. Steelers fans are so pious and aggravating they make Patriots fans look like clergy. How sad would it be for the Steelers to make it into a homegame for themselves at our stadium? It’s bad enough when you see pockets of Jets fans at Landshark, but if Miami is in a meaningful game against Pittsburgh and there’s a big Steeler showing, the homefield advantage is moot. It’s not like it’s going to be 90 degree in January. If you live in Miami and have the means, get your Steelers-Fins tickets now and make sure some bumble-bee looking jackass in black and yellow doesn’t take your seat and (ultimately, because trust me they will) boo your Dolphins. You can always scalp ’em if things don’t go well in the coming weeks. Just don’t let the Steelers roll thick into Landshark stadium.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Next week the Dolphins need to travel to Jacksonville to knock the Jags from the sixth spot in the AFC playoff race. Go Fins!