Week 1 Open Thread: Dolphins at Redskins

by Matty I on Sep 9, 2007 12:05 PM EDT in News Comment 12 comments

Miami Dolphins (0-0) at Washington Redskins (0-0) Sunday, September 9
1:00 pm EST, CBS
FedEx Field
Partly Cloudy, 81 degrees
Line: Redskins -3, Over/Under 34.5

Today's Inactives

Dolphins: RB Lorenzo Booker, QB John Beck, S Courtney Bryan, DT Steve Fifita, CB Andre Goodman, DE Rob Ninkovich, LB Abraham Wright and DT Rodrique Wright

Redskins: CB David Macklin, TE Cody Boyd, DT Lorenzo Alexander, WR Shaun Bodiford, DT Ryan Boschetti, RB Marcus Mason, and OL Todd Wade

3 Absolute Keys to the Game

1. Contain Santana Moss. The last time Will Allen saw Santana Moss, Moss torched Allen, who was a Giant at the time, for 3 long touchdowns in a Redskins win. This time, it will again be Allen assigned to the duty of covering Washington's top receiver. The safeties are going to have to do a better job than New York's did at bracket covering Moss. Shutting Moss down will go a long way to improving Miami's chances of winning.

2. Win the field position battle. In a game where both offenses have question marks, it'll be very important for the Dolphins to play smart and win the battle of field position. Miami needs to be smart with the football and not commit any turnovers which would put Washington in great field position. By keeping Washington's offense in average-at-best field position, Miami can take advantage of their great defense and force the Skins' offense to really work for any points. Not to mention, Ted Ginn was drafted in part to improve the Dolphins' starting field position by excelling in the return game. It's time to start seeing a return on that costly investment.

3. Attack on offense. This is the dawn of a new day for Dolphins football. The Dolphins have never had an innovative offensive mind like Cam Cameron before. The Dolphins must not play too conservatively and rely on the defense like they've done in the past. Instead, they need to set the tone of the season and attack, attack, attack. Now, I'm not saying for Miami to be careless, but I do think they need to be a creative offense and, for once, stop being afraid to take some chances.

Prediction: Dolphins win 17-13

GO DOLPHINS!!!!

**UPDATE**: 7-3 Dolphins lead at the half. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw Cam decide to go for it with 4 seconds left at the 2 rather than kick the sure field goal. And that's why I'm going to love him. What a call. And Trent Green has looked very good so far. The running game is...uh...shaky to say the least. Let's see what the second half has in store for us.

**UPDATE**: This was supposed to be the dawn of a new day. Instead, it's the same old story, as the Dolphins find ways to break our hearts, losing in OT, 16-13. In a nutshell, they could not run the ball and they couldn't stop the run. Not a good formula for success. Full recap coming tonight or early tomorrow.

0 recs | Comment 12 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

2nd half

Scary start to the second half - the Skins may have found a hole in our run defense.

by tenaciouslee on Sep 9, 2007 2:48 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

let's see..

...how Miami adjusts

by Matty I on Sep 9, 2007 2:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

HOLD ON THERE, BUCKAROOS!

This IS progress. Trent Grenn was 24 of 38, for 218 yards, a TD & NO INT's! Can we PLEASE put the Trent Green doubts to rest? He accounted for 218 of our 273 total yards, with no dumb a** plays.

The running game still blows goats. Ronnie's fault or O-Line? BOTH, I think. This is going to take time. We have such a young line, and not 1 player in the same spot as last year. It will get better!

We actually won the turnover battle & time of posession. These are HUGE posatives for a team that is offensively STARTING FROM SCRATCH!

Let's give credit where it's due, realize we shouldn't be expecting a Super Bowl team in week one, and see how this team grows from here.

Dave

by davehowardcustom on Sep 9, 2007 4:46 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Ronnie's fault?

They didn't give him the fucking ball! and there were no fucking holes!

And don't say that Chatman hit the holes because he didn't get shit either

Was Mularkey calling the plays or something, the playcalling was godawful!

I'm gonna go e-vent.

by Patssuck456 on Sep 9, 2007 4:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm gonna take a deep breath.....

Well, i'm heartbroken. I was unable to follow the game on tv here in upstate NY (stupid Buffalo Bills). I followed via NFL.com game center. The obvious to me from here was the lack of a running game. The offense was one dimensional, and i'm sorry - ain't nobody beating a Joe Gibbs coached team where he can run the ball effectively and they can't. I was surprised by our lack of a run 'd' overall, and Joey Porter seemed to be non-existent. He was credited with only one tackle up and until the 4th quarter (was he out for a long period? I don't know). I'm angry, because I felt this was a winnable game - but despite the flaws, it was nice to see good production from the QB position. I can't help but believe that the d will improve, but God help us if we can't do a better job rushing the passer and stopping the deep throws (Randy Moss anyone?). That killed us. Winning makes all the difference. If the Dolphins can find a way to beat Dallas next week, we'll all be more optimistic.

by mikem1224 on Sep 9, 2007 7:43 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

"Winning makes all the difference."

You're exactly right. If the Dolphins on today, then the fans wouldn't be talking about how the defense couldn't stop the run. Or how the Dolphins couldn't run the ball. And they certainly wouldn't be criticizing Cam already.

by Matty I on Sep 9, 2007 7:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Cam is still the man

Yes, and I know the fans are disappointed but I would like to point out - Cam is the reality. We can sit and complain, but to what end? A new head coach next year means a new offensive system and more rebuilding. I say we support Cam and be fans rather than detractors. It's not like the final score was 42-7 (or whatever Pittsburgh demolished Cleveland by).

by mikem1224 on Sep 9, 2007 8:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

silver lining?

One thing I was really impressed with was how comfortable Trent Green looked in the pocket, even when it was collapsing on him. He's a poised veteran and that could go a long way in aiding this offensive line in their efforts to gel as a unit.

Their penalties, and the timing of them, were killer today.

But I do think that the Redskins' defense did a great job as well. I think we'll look back on this game in weeks 6 or 7 and see that the Dolphins weren't the only team to struggle against that unit.

by DCDolphin on Sep 9, 2007 8:53 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

4th Quarter

The Dolphins pretty much gave up on Ronnie Brown and I was mad, since I knew our passing wouldn't get the ball close to the endzone.

by Beck4Mercy on Sep 9, 2007 9:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Ronnie Brown

11 carries!!! Only 7 went to Chatman so not much to question there, but why did the Dolphins throw it 38 times???

The Redskins never had a big lead, yet it was 2:1 passes to runs.

I tried to convince myself not to stress about this season as Cam & Randy need time, but this loss hurt as much as the ones last year did.

by Mindtornado on Sep 9, 2007 10:14 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It was a....

very winnable game so this is definitely disappointing. Unlike playing in NE, say in December, this was a game we could have easily taken.

Ironically, the one thing I thought the dolphins OL would be Ok with, running, turned out to not be the case. Then strangely enough, we couldn't stop the run when our problems had been mostly in our secondary.

I don't think any of us could have predicted that the reason the dolphins would lose was due to run being able to run or stop the run - woah, that sounds a lot like those Dolphins teams of the early 90s!

by Natalya on Sep 10, 2007 1:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Cam & Jesse

I don't understand how Cam mismanaged the clock so much. In the future you kick the field goal there. Also, I don't understand why Chatman is getting carries that Ronnie should be getting. The short yardage ones.

Matt

by Matt27 on Sep 10, 2007 1:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs