Feeling Great About 2-0 Start
By author
I am in no way going to complain about the 2-0 start for the Miami Dolphins. They have won 2 on the road to start the season, one they were supposed to win, the other they were supposed to lose. But what I will do is pick apart the Miami offense, and sing high praise to the Miami defense.
Dolphin fans all over the world shoud be really excited about the 2-0 start. The win last week over the Buffalo Bills was expected, even though over the past few years the Dolphins have had bad luck playing in Buffalo. Today’s win was something that wasn’t expected, as Bret Favre and the Minnestoa Vikings were supposed to easily handle the Miami Dolphins on their home turf in Minnesota.
What we saw today from a fans point of view was gratifying on the defensive side of the ball, and once again disappointing on the offensive side of the ball, but progress was made by Chad Henne. He seemed to trust his receivers a little more early on in the game, and it paid off in the end.
Henne finished the game 9/15 for 114 yds and 1 touchdown. Yes, he only threw the ball 15 times. Ronnie Brown ended up with 13 carries for 80 yds, and Ricky Williams added 10 carries for 30 yds. Each back had a costly fumble, but overall did a fantastic job against one of the best front 7’s in football. This was made possible by the great performance of the offensive line, which only allowed 2 sacks.
Henne made some noise early, with a 46 yd completion to Brandon Marshall on their first offensive play, and finished that drive with a TD pass to Brian Hartline for 5 yds. After that, it seemed like Dan Henning and Chad Henne went into game manager mode, and left the rest of the game to the defense, which played really well.
Say what you want about the Miami defense. This game could be looked at as a bad game from Bret Farve, who had 3 interceptions, and was sacked 3 times. Or it could be looked at like an outstanding performance by the Miami defense, that forced 3 interceptions and had 3 sacks. I’m leaning on the defense as the main ingredient for the bad performance by Farve.
The Miami defense played well today. They had 2 huge 4th down stops, and forced 4 turnovers by the Viking offense. Jason Allen, the former first round pick from 2006 had 2 picks, and one more taken away by an offsides call. Vontae Davis had the other pick near the goal line. Miami could have had 3 picks last week as well, but their defenders couldn’t hold onto the ball like they did this week. Miami also forced a fumble in the endzone, which was recovered for a touchdown by rookie LB Koa Misi.
The Miami defense kept Bret Farve on lock down almost all game. The only big plays they gave up were to the TE Visanthe Shiancoe, and a few runs by Adrian Peterson, who finished the day with 28 carries for 145 yds and a TD. Other than that, Farve looked uncomfortable in the pocket, and Miami was able to bend but not break and get the win. The pressure they were able to get on Farve was no doubt one of the keys to the victory!
The Miami offense looked just a tad better today than they looked against Buffalo. The running game was a lot better, but the passing game still needs some work. It’s easy to see that Henne is being developed with a game manager mentality. He didn’t force any throws, and once again didn’t throw any interceptions. This is contributed to the defense keeping Miami in both games thus far. Henne hasn’t had to win either game for Miami, and I’m sure the coaching staff is rather pleased with that. With the defense playing as well as it has thus far, Henne just has to make sure he does just enough to win games. I’ll be interested to see how Henne does once the game is on the line, over the past two weeks when he has had a chance to put games away, he hasn’t lived up to expectations. This could be contributed to the play calling, but we will never know if the play calling is geared to hide his faults. If Henne can prove he can lead the Dolphins to victories, the sky’s the limit for this team, especially if the defense can continue playing this well.
Phins Up!
BEL