Oh My, Miami!

UPDATE:  Joey Haynos was injured in the 4th quarter and was on crutches and in a walking boot after the game.  He said his foot is not broken, but we will see.  If he misses any extended time the Dolphins could opt to keep only 2 TE’s or find one on the FA market.

16-6 doesn’t sound as bad as what the game last night actually looked like.  In fact, it should have been worse.  It felt much worse.  When the Miami Dolphins pulled starting QB Chad Henne in the 3rd quarter, I gasped at his 10/22 123 yard passing day along with his one endzone INT.  Horrible.  Yes, there were at least 3 drops but 10 of 22?  He missed Brandon Marshall so bad on two plays that you wondered if he was throwing to anyone at all.  Then, the Falcons pulled Matt Ryan and I saw that his day ended in a similar fashion.  13/26 103 1 TD and 1 INT.  So maybe I shouldn’t be so cheesed.  Not.

For whatever reason, Matt Ryan looked much better than his stats indicated.  Not great mind you, not even “good”.  Just better.  The feel of the game seemed to be one of the Falcons offense taking our defense to task.  Again, this is, was, perception.  But what wasn’t perception, was the Dolphins anemic and non-existent running game and offensive line.

This is the Oline that was heralded at the start of training camp as one of the best in the league.  Yesterday, they managed to allow Dolphins runners to average at 1.1 yards per carry heading into the 3rd quarter.  The longest run was an end around by Marlan Moore.  Oh, and Ronnie and Ricky both played through 3.  It was a putrid display of offensive domination and instead showcased a glaring problem on a unit that is going to have their hands full come regular season.

Chad Henne was under pressure early and often and the Dolphins line couldn’t pick up the blitz.  They couldn’t open running lanes, they couldn’t push the defensive line anywhere off the line of the scrimmage.  If the offensive line can’t do their job, then no one else can do theirs.  Period.  The Dolphins offensive line, in my opinion graded out as an “F”.

Which brings me back to Chad Henne.  Henne still has no concept of touch on his passes and I realized his problem last night.  The NFL is not too fast for Henne, Henne is too fast for the NFL.  He doesn’t wait.  He doesn’t let the game come to him.  He has a strong arm but plays way too fast.  Dan Marino had one of the quickest releases in the NFL but the game never seemed to be beneath him.  He was in sync with the game, the speed around him.  He stepped up, out, and reset.  Henne doesn’t do that well.  Instead, he evades and throws.  And that’s on plays that his offense gives him protection.  I’m not saying Henne is bad, just that he needs to slow down and let the game catch up.

The INT in the endzone was his fault.  He threw the ball too low and never looked the coverage over.  Fasano was wide open but the LB that moved into the throwing lane easily knocked the ball up for a tip drill.   It was a good INT though.  Henne will see that in game film, play it out in his head, and if he is smart, he won’t overlook that defense like that again.  But there is one flaw that needs to be fixed and needs to be fixed now.  His rapport with Brandon Marshall.  In a nutshell.  It sucks.

The two looked decent and promising last week against the Jaguars but this week, Marshall was turning his head to look for an errant pass on two occasions.  He was overthrown on another.  He dropped another early on that was really a borderline fumble.  All in all, Marshall is far from the hype he came to town with.  Maybe he should get his “diva” back.  His hands will be fine, I’m not worried, but unless he and Chad Henne develop a solid relationship on the field, this won’t work.

A final note on these two, Dan Henning, the Dolphins OC, needs to get Marshall more involved in the game plan.  You can’t develop anything on a field when you target your best WR 3 times in the first Quarter.  As Keyshawn Johnson would say, “Get him the damn ball”.

Defensively, it could have been worse.  First let me say that Vontae’ Davis played very very well and I like what little I saw of newcomer Benny Sapp both on special teams and as the nickel back.  Sean Smith didn’t start because of a team violation and Jason Allen was beat on Matt Ryan’s lone TD throw.  Allen actually hadn’t played that badly until that point.

The front 7 held the Falcons to 92 yards and starter Michael Turner to 16 carries for 47 yards.  So they didn’t play poorly.  I saw Jared Odrick whiff big time on one play they had Turner bottled up but I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw in LB Koa Misi.  Misi didn’t register any sacks but he did put good pressure on the QB which is something that many were concerned about.  I saw at least two occasions where he forced Matt Ryan into errant throws.

The Dolphins still did not showcase any blitz packages and Miami fans have to be wondering if the Phins will employ the heavy attack style that DC Mike Nolan employed in Denver last season.  Both sides of the ball played very vanilla schemes.  The problem is that it was still sloppy.

Yeremiah Bell came away with his first pick of the pre-season and had a good game as well.

I haven’t reviewed the play of the entire secondary as of yet as I was more interested watching the 7 man front.  I will take a look at that later today.

I came away from this game uninspired and any faulty ideas of the Phins being the team to beat in the AFC East has rightfully dissipated to the point that I can at least now enjoy watching the game without the overly high expectations.  I still think the Dolphins will compete but last nights game showed that this team is far from ready to play an opening season game in two weeks.

Lot of work to do.  On both sides of the ball, and with the coaches game plans.  Last night didn’t work, on many levels.

Maybe when I watch the game again for a second time I will come away with a different opinion, but considering that this is still immediately fresh in my mind, it’s hard not to be at least a little emotional over it.

So hack away!