Thoughts From the Morning After

Yesterday Miami went into Jacksonville to beat the 6th place Jaguars and completely muddy the waters for the AFC wildcard picture… and nobody seems to care. No one in Jacksonville seemed to care as was evidenced by the abysmal attendance. I travelled to the game from Tallahassee and despite boasting of its highest attendance all season (thanks entirely to Dolphins fans) the stadium was still empty. ESPN certainly doesn’t seem to care, they’re busy talking about the Patriots. And I watched part of the NBC coverage and after showing the highlights of the Dolphins beating the Jags they proceeded to completely ignore the results and instead spend five good minutes with Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison breaking down the pysche of Randy Moss.

So in review, the national media would rather talk about possible problems with an 8-5 team who just beat a 5-8 team at home than talk about the fact that there is now a four-way tie between the Dolphins, Jets, Ravens and Jaguars for the last spot in the AFC playoff picture. Fortunately this is a Dolphins blog, so we do care. And I promise for the rest of this article I won’t mention the Patriots unless it’s to mock them…

Now, normally I start by breaking down the offense. But yesterday it was the defense who played the best so I’m going to look in their direction first…

Stopping the Hypheners

Tony Sparano said this was a key to the game in the middle of the week. Miami needed to shut down Mike Sims-Walker and Maurice Jones-Drew. They did just that yesterday on the way to arguably their toughest performance of the year. I don’t like to take anything away from other teams or discredit them at all. But after watching them yesterday I will have to supress a giggle the next time a Jags fan tells me they have a good offense. Miami made them look flat-out lousy. To their credit they did have a touchdown drive in the first half but a good chunk of the yardage came from David Garrard scrambling for his life and it didn’t take long for the Dolphins to make adjustments and cut that junk out.

For the rest of the day the Dolphins held a dinged up Mike Sims-Walker to just one catch and a healthy Maurice Jones-Drew to under 60 yards. And if not for a long reception on a seemingly blown coverage to Tory Holt, the Jaguars probably wouldn’t even have scored again.

Defensive Resiliency

If you ever wanted to know what it was like to be a Steelers or Ravens fan, we kind of got a taste yesterday. Fortunately none of us had to dress like bumble-bee looking idiots or wear purple. But the Dolphins started the game by forcing three-and-outs on six of the Jags first eight drives and then finished it by not allowing Jacksonville to convert any points off of the Dolphins’ three turnovers in addition to shutting the Jaguars down on several fourth down attempts.

At the beginning of the year I don’t think this defensive unit would’ve been able to come on to the field and respond like they did to some of the adversity of the game. In fact, I emailed Brian as I was leaving Jacksonville and we both agreed at the beginning of the season the Dolphins would not have won this game. But this defense is stifling right now, they don’t back down, they play confidently and with a ton of poise. If this is the defensive unit that shows up for Miami the rest of the season then we might get to watch a few extra weeks of football after all.

Rookie Corners

Is it just me or does it seem like Vontae Davis has now surpassed Sean Smith as the better of the two rookie corners. To take nothing away from Sean Smith (who is having a very solid rookie season) it just seems a little like he’s hit a rookie wall. It’s totally understandable and it happens to a lot of guys, but I can’t ignore that Smith has now been beat three straight weeks for big passing plays. Davis on the other hand, even despite a strange turn of events that saw Jason Allen start over him on the first series, has seemed to improve each week. And his run defense comes as advertised as we all saw on a huge third down tackle of Maurice Jones-Drew.

It may be as simple as the fact that sitting behind Will Allen the first few games of the season have given Vontae Davis some fresher legs, but at this point Vontae is the best corner on the team and he’s beginning to show that he’ll be a very good corner in this league for years to come. As for Smith, he’s still doing a ton of good things. He frequently finds himself in the right position to make a play on the ball, he just needs to work getting his head around quicker. Apparently as Tory Holt discovered he’s also susceptible to a good double move. It’s all fixable and a lot of it just comes with experience. But for now it seems like Vontae Davis has surpassed Sean Smith as our best corner (and rightfully so considering where he was drafted).

Randy Starks and Cameron Wake

It seems like every single time Miami has needed a player to step up the past two weeks, that it’s been Randy Starks and Cameron Wake to the rescue. Both are 26 years old and both look like they could be a huge part of this defense for seasons to come. Yesterday Starks applied pressure all day, factored well into run defense and came up with a big sack to end Jacksonville’s drive on fourth down inside of two minutes. Then with the final seconds ticking off and Garrard just trying to buy time to heave it deep, Cameron Wake showed his athleticism by catching Garrard from behind and sacking him to end the game.

Both of these guys are just monsters. Wake was held so often by the Jaguars offensive line yesterday that he deserves to be a sent a Holiday Gift Basket as an apology from Mike Pereira at league headquarters this morning. But cheating doesn’t stop Cameron Wake, he just wants it more than anyone else on the field and he’s going to get to the quarterback whether you like it or not (and whether you’ve ripped the jersey off his back or not). It was good to see Miami put Wake in consistently towards the end of the 4th quarter when Jacksonville had to pass so he could just pin his ears back. Even when Wake wasn’t getting the sack he was still applying pressure and forcing David Garrard to move and throw before he really wanted to. If I had to pick the Dolphins best rookie, I don’t know that I could take one of the two corners over Wake at this point. Not that it’s fair Cameron Wake is technically a rookie at 26 and after playing in another pro sports league (but I’m a ‘Nole and Chris Weinke won a Heisman as a balding 27 year-old man once, so I’ll grant Wake the exception).

Chad Henne

I read an article that said Chad Henne struggled in the 4th quarter yesterday. I’m calling BS. Henne made one bad throw which was arguably a better defensive play than anything else. When another player comes off his man to make an interception, I can credit the defense for that. And even if it were Henne’s fault, at no point yesterday would I argue that Chad Henne was struggling. All he did was tie a franchise record for consecutive completions (more consecutive completions than even the great Dan Marino ever had) and unlike Chad Pennington’s string of completions (which is still quite impressive in and of itself) Henne was throwing vertically at points.

I was very hard on Chad Henne earlier this season and I say this with all seriousness, I hope he continues to make me eat my words. Yesterday Chad Henne was the best Michigan quarterback in the NFL (but did you hear Tom Brady was playing hurt) and he was clearly the best quarterback in the game. He stood back in the pocket patiently and fired lasers at his receivers all day long. Had it not been for the turnovers Miami would have blown Jacksonville out and it wouldn’t have been because of our running game. I still don’t want to jump the gun and jinx anything, but with every good game and with every win Henne picks up, he seems to be solidifying his role on this team for years to come. It starts with an “F” and it rhymes with Sanchize. And maybe the pundits at ESPN anointed the next great AFC East quarterback a little too early this season…

Receivers

Last week Davone Bess stepped up, this week it was Greg Camarillo. I knocked Henne a few weeks back specifically because he didn’t seem to raise the level of play from the receivers around him. I take that back. I admit here and now that I was wrong in that assessment. For the second time in two weeks Chad Henne connected with an undrafted free agent for over 100 yards and once again Miami’s receiving corps actually looked productive. Bess and Brian Hartline each added three receptions a piece and even Ted Ginn made a nice sideline catch. My only fear, as I mentioned to a friend yesterday, is that Miami’s receivers may play well enough the rest of the season that the Dolphins front office doesn’t go out and get a number one after this year.

We all know Bill Parcells‘ take on primadona receivers, so if the rest of the season Henne can throw the ball well without one I wouldn’t be at all shocked if Miami tried to address other needs this offseason. But I think that would be a huge mistake. Camarillo, Bess and Hartline are all solid guys, but they would only get better with the addition of a legitimate number one receiver if just for the simple fact that they would almost always see single coverage. I don’t know who the Dolphins could look at, that’s another article for another time, but for now it’s good to see the receiving corps improving when we need them at the end of the season.

Turnovers

Hopefully Miami got all of its holiday charity out of the way yesterday in Jacksonville. It’s inconceivable to me how the Dolphins could possibly fumble five times in one game. Fortunately only two were lost, but still, that’s Cleveland Browns level junk. It’s pretty obvious what the offense is going to be focusing on in practice this week. Ricky Williams’ fumbles were very out of character as he is typically a pretty sure-handed ball carrier. I don’t pretend to have any explanation and unfortunately from up in the stands I really couldn’t tell whether someone got a helmet on the ball or if it was just poor technique on the part of our running backs.

Davone Bess just needs to hang on to the ball better. I really like Bess, he does a ton of things very well, but he needs to work on fumbling because it’s been an issue that has plagued him this year. What I will say about Bess though, is watching him on the sideline after he fumbled you can tell that he is a young man that really does care. It’s never OK to fumble, but at least Bess doesn’t just trot back to the bench and sit there like it doesn’t phase him. I don’t want it to go the other way and end up affecting him the rest of the game either, but it’s good to see the level of vested interest that this team plays with. So many football teams around the NFL operate like it’s nothing personal, not the Miami Dolphins. It’s very personal.

Tony Sparano

There’s a bunch of things I like about Tony Sparano, especially his ability to get the most out of his players. Call him the anti-Wannstache, but Sparano is now 6-0 in December and seems to get this team to fire on all cylinders right when it needs to. Obviously I think next year it may behoove the Dolphins to start the season better, but there aren’t a lot of coaches whose teams can overcome the sorts of injuries Miami has had this season and pull themselves out of an 0-3 hole to get firmly back into the wild card picture. Inexplicably Tony Sparano didn’t win the Coach of the Year last season (despite the greatest single-season turnaround in NFL history). If he doesn’t win it this year then something’s really up. Unfortunately it will probably go to Jim Caldwell or Sean Payton for taking a very good team undefeated. But I think that’s a cop-out. Tony Sparano deserves to start being mentioned as one of the best coaches in the NFL. Bill Parcells and Jeff Ireland have very little to do with the Dolphins ability to persevere this year. The majority of that credit goes to Sparano.

Playoff Hopes

Just win, baby. The Dolphins just need to win out and in all likelihood they will head to the playoffs. Patriots fans are in denial about their team struggling but take it from us in Miami, don’t go into Ralph Wilson Stadium if your head isn’t in the Buffalo game. Buffalo has played well for their interim coach Perry Fewell and New England hasn’t played well on the road. Early this season Buffalo gave New England a good run at Gillette Stadium and I think it’s very possible New England could slip much the same way Miami did two weeks ago and really make a race of this division. Either way, AFC East or Wildcard, Miami is right in the thick of things these last three weeks…

And as a brief side note, how sad is it that another college football season is more or less over and the NFL is winding down… It seems like we were just reading training camp reports.