Miami Dolphins Questions

Miami won’t play like they did against Atlanta. You will probably see a compact offense, with long efficient drives to try to win the time of possession battle. The defense will probably shut down Addai and be able to put some pressure on Manning. However, we do have somewhat of a suspect secondary, and if Manning starts lighting it up and we have to play from behind we’ve got little chance. Pennington doesn’t have the arm to overcome a 17 point deficit, nor the receivers.
However, I do think this will be a close one. This guys are going to come to play with a chip on their shoulders and a death threat from Coach Sparano so they should make it a fun game.

We make a living out of playing tough, efficient mistake-free football and obviously that didn’t happen since we had 4 turnovers.
Our O LIne was awful, allowing pressure 21 out of 34 passing situations.
We couldn’t establish a run game and our receivers either weren’t getting open or Pennington just didn’t have enough time to find them.
Plus our Special Teams decided not to show up.
On a positive note, our defense played very well. Our front 7 limited Michael Turner to under 70 yards on the ground and less than 3 yards per carrie.
Bottom line, we are a tough,disciplined football team but we are not extremely talented so making game changing mistakes is not an option.

however, there are some worries.
As you mention, we are starting rookie Sean Smith opposite Will Allen, and while he had a strong outing against the falcons, breaking up two passes and a deep bomb to Roddy White, he did make some rookie mistakes. He was getting burned deep mainly because of the receiver’s ability to make him bite on long routes. That resulted in White being open in the end zone twice, good thing Matt Ryan misfired. We don’t expect that to happen with Manning throwing the ball.

As you mention, we are worried about our Safeties too. Wilson and Yeremiah Bell are both very physical players but don’t fare well against the pass. However, Wilson is coming of a season playing out of his natural position with the raiders so we expect him to get into a rhythm and play like he did with the Giants on the Super Bowl run. The main point here is that we don’t think our Safeties can contain Dallas Clark, just as they couldn’t deal with Tony Gonzales.

He has actually overplayed first round pick Vontae Davis. Smith is a physical freak, he’s got the size of a safety but the speed of an elite corner. However, what has impressed us the most is his playmaking ability. This guy has the potential to become and interception machine in the long run.
However, against Atlanta, he did commit a couple of rookie mistakes against Roddy White, so I’d expect Reggie Wayne to have a good day when he is going against Sean. Not a field day but a good enough day.

our Franchise Left Tackle being manhandled by John Abraham all day long I’d say Freeney worries me the most.
The thing is, we believe we can shut down Addai and force you to pass. With that said, we know Manning can’t be stop so we might as well try to put a lot of pressure with Jason Taylor and Joey Porter and hope the damage is minimum.
However, we can not allow the opposing pass rush to have a field day again with our O-Line. Not only because we would not be able to establish the run, but because if we don’t give Pennington enough time to throw our young receivers won’t be able to get open and he’d had to force his throws, which with a not so strong arm, would be a disaster.

We have our own as well.

At the end of the day you are talking about Payton Manning. However that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t even dress up for the game (they).
The key word against Manning is not stop but contain. How can we do that?
1-Win the possession battle, keep him on the bench as long as you can.
2- Stop the run, make them one-dimensional
3- Taylor and Porter put some pressure and force a turnover or two
4- Don’t forget you are going into this game with a rookie at the slot and a french guy on the other side of Reggie Wayne, so its not going to be as easy.

However, yes, I do agree with you. Payton Manning can’t be stopped.

plus Jake Grove and Donald Thomas on offense.

First off, last year our secondary was horrendous. We struggled not only with any passing offense in the league, but we also lacked a playmaker to make things happen.
This offseason we picked up FS Gibril Wilson as a Free Agent in hopes that he would be an upgrade over Renaldo Hill at pass coverage. However he is yet to show up.
Then, we picked up CB Sean Smith in the second round of the draft. As of now we can say he was a sleeper. He is a physical freak, with both size and speed to cover elite WR. However, he is still a rookie and has a long way to go.

On Offense we picked up C Jake Grove on free agency as well. This was certainly believed to be an upgrade over Samson Satele, our previous center. The intention is to – with a 155$ O-Line- develop into a pound the rock team with ronnie brown and ricky williams as our HBs. However this is yet to happen and has us kind of disappointed.
The same with OG Donald Thomas, he is a 5th round pick entering his second year in the NFL, but since last year he got injured on the first game of the season you could say he is an acquisition. We expect the same out of him. He is a big bruising offensive guard and definitely a huge sleeper in last year’s draft.

That scenario would certainly be the perfect storm down in Miami. If there is anyway we are going to stop the Colts powerful offense we have to start by shutting down the run while forcing 3rd& long situations. if we are not capable of doing that it won’t only mean that Manning and Co. will face short yardage situations all day long were they can explode short passes on jason taylor and joey porter while in coverage, but that Indianapolis would have a great chance of wining the possession battle.
As for the gameplan. Yes, I definitely think the fins would have to change their strategy. To paint you a picture, this is basically how Miami’s front 7 plays and what their strategy easy:
Miami goes with a 3-4, Jason Ferguson is the nose tackle thus he is in charge of filling to gaps and stopping the run. Alongside him play Kendall Langford and Randy Starks, both big linemen. Jason Taylor and Joey Porter are the OLBs and in charge off supporting the run in running situations. The key is here, if Jason Ferguson can be an imposing force down the middle and both Taylor or Porter aren’t liabilities in the running game then all is cool.
If, as you propose, Addai starts running up their throat I think this could happen:
Miami basically abandons the pass rush during first and second down, and switches to a 4-3. Taylor or porter come out of the game in favor on Paul Soliai, the back up NT. Then you would have Ferguson and Solai in the middle and Langford plus Starks (who would probably come out to in favor of philip merling who was more of a pass rush ability) playing the end of the line. Plus the support of Chaning Crowder (ILB) on the second level.
However, even if this brought a solution to facing the run, it would open up the passing game for the lack of a pass rush.

Up until now neither Jason Taylor or Joey Porter have been a liability in stopping the run, but it could certainly be the case this Monday.

for a short gain. We did see a more complex wildcat with Pat White under center and one flea flicker from Brown to Pennington that went for a 20+ yard gain. However, in the aftermath of the game many people were wondering where the good old wildcat had gone. We came to a conclusion. The wildcat with Ronnie Brown is not a gimmick anymore in Miami’s playbook, it is just one more “base” formation we may use given the appropriate time. I suppose we didn’t see it last week because we were trying to establish the run the regular one and the offense just wasn’t clicking at all.
This monday I would expect to see very little stuff with Pat White-if any- but the regular Wildcat not less than 6 or 7 times. This regime wants this team to run the ball successfully and take advantage of both ricky williams and ronnie brown, if that means the wildcat has to come out, then it will.

The crowd at Land Shark stadium is somewhat of a “?”. I wouldn’t say by any means that playing down in Miami is a nightmare for visiting teams. Specially when the team is playing poorly (look 2001-2007) and more over, on Sunday morning when its hot and full of women and alcohol its more of a “fiesta” than anything else. However, last year I attended two games pretty similar to this one, meaning, lots at stake and full stadium. And it was loud, really loud. Plus, we have a section of fans that will do anything for the team, including last season, where San Francisco was marching down the field in their hurry up offense during the 4th quarter to end our playoff contention dreams, our defense was completely gassed out and needed a breather, of course, we had no time outs left. Next thing I know there is a kid bursting down the field from end to end. Officials had to stop the game, giving the defense about 40 seconds rest. Next play Porter sacks Shaun Hill on 4th down and the game is over.
So watch out !