Costly Win Could Cost Season

The Miami Dolphins head coach said last week that his team needed to put Chad Pennington in the game to give the offense a spark. It was viewed as a desperate move. By days end, the Dolphins coach and their GM, Jeff Ireland are desperately looking for not one, but two quarterbacks off the street after losing both Chad Pennington and Chad Henne to what is being feared season ending injuries.

The news of the QB’s wasn’t the only bad news for a team that finally managed to punch in points from touchdowns. Jake Long, the Pro-Bowl LT is said to have a separated shoulder that may sideline him for the Chicago game on Thursday night. Joining the trio of injured starters, Cameron Wake is also a question mark with a hip injury that may sideline him as well.

While all of these injuries are significant, the QB injuries are the hardest to overcome. It is being reported locally that Miami is looking at names like Culpepper, Jamarcus Russel, Jeff Garcia, and Patrick Ramsey. There was also a report that they had contacted the agent for Pat White. If the injury to Henne is significant Tyler Thigpen will be the starter on Thursday night. Thigpen has not received time with the starting offense and was relegated to scout team duties last week.

Henne’s injury is being reported as a patellar dislocation. The knee cap, according to Henne was hit on the side and became dislocated. If that is true and an MRI reveals no cartilage damage then Henne may be able to dress on Thursday although it’s likely he wouldn’t start.

Pennington’s injury is almost certainly going to require a fourth surgery ending his season and likely his career. He injured his arm on the second play of the Dolphins offense and while he stayed in the game for one more play, he was whisked off to the training room and didn’t return.

Tyler Thigpen will be the guy this week and could possibly be the teams starting QB the rest of the way. He led a final scoring drive late in the fourth quarter to put the game away with a 12 point lead. Thigpen looked sharp on all but his first throw and connected with Anthony Fasano on two occasions to move the chains.

While the QB situation, for the second week in a row will be the topic of conversation, it will be the injury to Jake Long that could have huge consequences if he is lost for any length of time. Vernon Carey is the back-up LT and that would only leave Lydon Murtha and Pat McQuistan. If Long misses any lengthy time, the Phins will have to scour the free agent market for depth. They may need to anyway.

Finally the loss of Cameron Wake could be devastating to a unit that relies on his up-field push to collapse the pocket. Wake spent most of the day on the sideline and after the injury did not return to the game. Wake will be questionable for Thursday night awaiting an MRI in the morning. It will be a long line.

More on these injuries to come on Monday when the team begins to better understand what they are dealing with. So stay tuned to Phinphanatic.com for all the latest news and remember to look us up on iTunes and Droid for our Apps’ where you can have that news alerted to you as we post it.