Miami Dolphins put 1st half into the books with lead

The Miami Dolphins opened their Saturday night game with the Carolina Panthers with a stalled drive before driving back down the field and drive two for a touchdown. The first half is in the books for both teams 2nd pre-season game and while the first team offense and defense looked good at times, there has also been some concerns.

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Here is a look at the first half ups and downs.

Ryan Tannehill completed his first seven passes while under constant pressure. He was strip sacked on one play but the Dolphins retained possession. Tannehilll looked sharp with his passes and landed a perfectly thrown 40 yard pass to Jordan Cameron who couldn’t hold on after the defender tipped it away from his hands. All in all, good night for Tannehill who led the team on two touchdown drives in three attempts.

Damien Williams has looked good tonight as well scoring twice but it was his attempt at a 3rd score that changed some of the momentum. Taking the ball on the outside near the 2 yard line, Williams stretched out as he was going out of bounds and hit the pylon in the end zone. The ball was actually coming out of his hands and rolled out of bounds and was therefore ruled a touchback. Hardly worth worrying about in a pre-season game.

The above play was set up by a Jamar Taylor interception of Cam Newton. Taylor would be injured later with what is being reported as a quad injury. He has not returned nor does he need to.

The offensive line has not looked sharp aside from Sam Brenner. The Panthers have been moving the line of scrimmage but the Dolphins are using good blocking techniques to move the pressure outside, they just aren’t winning many battle at the point of impact on the line.

Lamar Miller looked good in his short time and James is starting to show a little more pop in his legs taking one run out of the teams own end zone for a 22 yard game.

2nd team units haven’t faired as well again.

Matt Moore has one interception and should have had three. He has not been sharp while in the pocket and worst under pressure. He simply isn’t hitting anything and frankly if one of the two other QB’s were playing well I might actually be considered about him making the team. I really like Moore but through two pre-season games he looks bad.

The Dolphins secondary, 2nd team unit, is struggling as well. Michael Thomas seems to be giving up way too much of a cushion and everyone needs to tighten up. To be fair the Dolphins don’t game plan for this and try different schemes but it’s getting tiresome to see.

Andrew Franks has not attempted a field goal so far this season but had both of his kicks placed out of the end zone.

The Dolphins defensive front consisting of the 2nd team unit is not getting pressure on the quarterback and seem out of place. LB Kelvin Sheppard hasn’t looked all that good and Zach Vigil is getting some early looks with the 2nd team unit now and is looking o.k.

All in all there is a lot of work to do but there are a lot of positives to take away from the early portion of the game.