Miami Dolphins 2009 Record: 0-1

I wasn't even going to post, because I have read everyone's comments about the mess that was Sunday's MIA-ATL game, and, honestly, pretty much everything has been said.

Yes, the single biggest disappointment was the Offensive Line.... not even close.

Yes, the Defense played okay, but it was disappointing to not see more from Porter.  JT was a bit more active, but I think we were all envisioning creating a little more fear in Matt Ryan that what we saw.

Yes, our Special Teams was, once again, less than "Special".

And Yes, Yes, and Yes, the secondary was questionable; the play calling, at times, was questionable; and the turnovers and other mistakes were very uncharacteristic of the team we have come to expect to see on the football field after last season.

All of these things are just true, and for the most part (notwithstanding a few overly optimistic or overly pessimistic extremes), we all seem to pretty much agree.  I mean, what else can you say?

Well, rather than take a "pie-in-the-sky", Pollyanna view about how things are going to be fine - *OR* - take the other extreme of "doom and gloom", already falling back on excuses like "rebuilding" and essentially giving up on the season already, I prefer to look at where we are today - the day after the game, and talk about what needs to happen in order for the Dolphins to have some success this season.

Let's start with the Offensive Line, and Jake Long in particular

Jake is playing well for 2nd year LT.  He's young, and got beat by a savvy veteran.  Every has talked about Long struggling against speed rushers since last year's draft, and he has worked hard to get better in this area.  But on Sunday, Long got bull rushed!  He actually looked caught off guard; as surprised as  most of us probably were to see him get knocked on his butt.  I don't think Long was particularly a Pro Bowler last season, but I think he played extremely well as a rookie.  And likewise, I also don't think he is a bust because he got owned a couple of times in this game.

I was disappointed with the line play as a unit.  This is a group of guys that will each need to develop the familiarity with the guy next to him to the point that he *knows* where that guy is at, and what he is doing, on every play, without looking.  Kind of a "sixth sense".  It is clear that they do not have that right now, and the result is confusion on blocking assignments on stunts and blitzes.  It is understandable to a degree, that these guys have not developed this level of communication.  After all, as has been noted often enough, this is a very new O-line.  You can't overstate the impact of replacing just a single member on an O-line that might have been successfully playing together for years.  And we have, not only two new members, one of this is basically a rookie (Thomas).

I'm calling out Jake Grove!  No, not for a fist fight in front of the training facility... that would be silly.  One of us would probably end up hurt and I would not want to be responsible for the Fins O-line troubles getting any worse (since he would likely injure once of his snapping fingers pummeling me into next week).  Seriously though, the communication needed to quickly improve this line play HAS to come from him!  If he needs more work memorizing the line calls, he needs to step it up and get it done.  If he is shy about being the new guy, and doesn't want to be too vocal - GET OVER IT!  Whatever needs to be done, the communication has to improve quickly, and Grove has to take the lead.

But I am not putting it all on Grove.  As the other senior members of the line, I would expect Smiley and Carey to step up as well, and help make sure that everyone gets on the same page.

And the coaches can help as well.  I am not going to presume to discuss practice drills they should be running.  I am talking about giving Long some support during the game.  If they need to use two TE sets, or leave a back in to chip, the play calling should be tailored in the short term to helping cover the deficiencies in the line.

The Defense as a whole

I don't think we need to worry too much at this point about the Defense.  We stopped the run well, which was the first task, and there was generally adequate pressure on Ryan.  Merling stepped up, which was great to see, and our rookie Corners didn't get any big bulls eyes painted on there backs by single-handedly giving up an big scores.

But there were two issues, both with our secondary, that I'll take a moment to address:

First, the Safeties.  While I like the idea of "interchangeable parts", we need to have a solid Free Safety, one that can line up in center field, and has the speed to support either outside CB.  Now I am not saying that we will always line him up that way.  I'm just saying that our CBs are still raw, and Ryan missed some throws that could have made yesterday look much worse if he had connected.  I'm not sure either Wilson or Bell can adequately fill this role - I'm just not sure they are fast enough.

Second, the coaching.  I think rotating the rookie Corners in and out ever couple of series is innovative, but it seems like it would be difficult for anyone to get in a groove with that kind of lack of playing consistency.

Overall, no big changes.  I'd like to see them working Clemons into the mix at Safety a bit.  The kid looks like he has talent.  He is certainly fast, and looks like a big hitter.  The weird thing is the Fins list him as a SS.  Wilson is fast enough to play FS, so for now it would be good to see him committed to the position, rather than swapping back and forth to SS on the field.  And I would personally like to see Smith and Davis get more consistent chunks of game time - maybe a full half each - rather than this "series by series" rotation.

Special Teams play

Quite frankly, I'm stumped here.  With the exception of the return positions, you would think that the issues with blocking assignments, and lane assignments would be coach-able problems to correct.. wouldn't you?  I have heard calls for Bono's head, and am starting to think they might not be too far off base.

We need to get a decent return man.  Ginn was effective in college because of his pure speed and general lack of discipline by opposing coverage teams.  But he is just not effective in the NFL, unless something unusual happens (like the other team all trips at the same time and falls down, leaving a clear path to the end zone).  I know everyone focused on the gaff by the kid Chris Williams, when the ball bounced off his face mask, but aside from the rookie mistakes, he clearly showed the ability to find those creases and explode through them.  No one that we have put back there, so far, has shown that ability.

Quarterbacks and Coaching

Let's not get crazy here.  I didn't like some of the coaching decisions in this game, but nothing really stuck out as a "game losing" decision (like running a half back option on the goal line).  But even though nothing in particular caused the Fins to lose the game, I don't agree with the decisions to resort to gimmicks so quickly.  It felt a little like they were anxious to test out their new toys.  I am just a fan with an opinion, but I think the trick plays work much better when you can establish your team as being able to execute a conventional play script first.  We had just started to establish a running game, and were beginning to move the ball fairly well, when they broke out the WildPat!  You could see that CP was already frustrated, and I can't imagine that helped his mood, getting put in a bad down and distance situation after finally starting to have some success.

And I know there are people trying to point at Pennington as the reason for the loss, but that is really a very narrow view of things.  CP is not the kind of guy that can take the team on his shoulders and win the game by himself.  When he tries to do to much, we end up with what happened in the playoff loss to the Ravens.  He needs to play within his talents, which are smart decisions and short, accurate passes.  And he needs to rely on his teammates to do their parts; many of which just didn't get it done yesterday.

Nothing really.  This was a game in which the ball did not bounce our way.  We had a couple of penalties at inopportune times, but not a LOT of stupid penalties.  Not like some of those games we have all watched where is seems like there is a penalty every other snap.  This team is still a pretty disciplined football team.  Same with the turnovers.  Unless we see a trend developing here, I don't think there is much to worry about "correcting".

I would like to see the coaching staff focus on winning the offensive battle in the trenches, rather than spend a lot of practice time on "WildPat".  I also don't think subbing White in during the game at this point is helpful, although I consider the Ronnie Brown WC option a part of the base playbook, and fair game.

It was nice to see Pat White over thow a streaking Tedd Ginn.  It would have been nicer to see that pass on target, but is was still good to know he can make that throw.  I also know that it is going to get harder and harder to win over time, with CP at the helm, just because of some of his limitations.  But until the rest of these problems get fixed, he is the most stable QB we have and should probably continue to start.

After all DolFans, we are 0-1 this week, meaning there are only 16 teams in the league with a better record.