Highlights and lowlights from Dolphins preseason loss to Falcons on Friday night

I agree on all your points, especially concerning Henne, I know he didn’t play so well, but you have to include the terrible play by the O-line. Give him the 4 drop passes and he doesn’t look so bad, now give him some time to make his reads and not have to rush? I bet he puts up even better numbers.

The worse part from the game has to be the O-line, I can’t believe how terrible it looks with one meaningless game left between “oh it’s only preseason”, and ‘OMG we are in a hole again". I was really hoping TS would have had this unit fixed and done with by now. Like everyone always says the O-line players need time to play together so they can ’gel’ or whatever…but that’s over, I doubt they’ll play more then 2 series on Thursday, the next time the starting O-line get’s together, it’s go time. I really hope TS can get this group playing well together before then.

As for defense, outside of the secondary I wouldn’t see much need to worry, except for the fact that when Nolan starts blitzing…the secondary is going to play a huge roll in making sure we don’t get burned time and again. I guess there isn’t much we’ll be able to go on since the starters won’t really play till Game 1 vs the bills. All we can do now is hope TS has this group prepared because right now they don’t seem anywhere near it.

Also, Matty…how do you re-watch the games? Do you DVR them?

He has been up and down during the preseason so far. I think if he showed us enough to make us think that he was a solid backup we keep him and Pat White and we cut Pennington. I think the #3 QB is a developmental QB. If you are keeping a QB to develop, do you keep a guy that is 26 and has proven to be inconsistent and is probably as good as he is going to get, or do you keep a 2nd year player? Keep in mind last year as a rookie, the Dolphins threw Pat White in on critical game winning drives and given the situation he did not self destruct. Did he have some bad passes? Yes… But given the situation it makes sense that his arm would be a little bit live. Also keep in mind they changed his throwing motion and had him stop wearing gloves. Pat White gets another year and we either find a trade partner for Thigpen or we cut him…. Simple. We used a 2nd round pick on Pat White last year so we obviously feel like he is a developmental guy. We used a 2nd round pick on Henne and the plan for him was 3 years until he started. Stop worrying that Pat White didn’t look good being thrown in there as a rookie. He also didn’t look awful. He was 0-5, and there are many elite QBs who might do that poorly in one game if they had been thrown in there as a rookie and told to throw one pass, then sit for 10 games, then throw another pass.

Again, in theory with the safety on, they held a very good offence to 10 points in the half and created a turnover which put us in position to tie the game at the end of the second quarter.
We can bust on Henne all we want, but really I think he had a better overall half than Ryan. Henne’s INT came on a tipped ball after a LB made a great play. Ryan’s INT came on a “what were you thinking?” throw in the general direction of Roddy White.
That throw and several others where he flat out missed receivers – White had a sure TD on one – have to be credited to the D. The coverage was good, we were jamming routes well and while we didn’t get any sacks there was constant pressure in his face.

It seemed to me that Sparano and Nolan were actually going with two three man units on the D-line in the first half. That might have been situational but Grant, McDaniel and Soliai were rotating in a couple of series.

It’s worth noting that we played without Crowder and without Dansby for most of the second quarter.

As much as I want Henning to open up this offense and have 3-4 receivers on the field all the time, I know that we are a running team first. Sparano needs to lock his O-Line down right now. Give this unit what they need right now, and that’s a chance to be a cohesive unit. He’s moved players around, given people shots to earn a position. Now it’s down to the wire. We need to be able to cram the ball down any type of defense. For some reason we really struggle against 4-3’s and this stems from last year too. I think we will be a top 5 rushing team again this year, but the ball has to start rolling now, not 3 weeks into the season.

Our O-line. Not so much our pass protection, because that seems decent, but their run-blocking. Holy cow, did these guys forget how to play or what? I’ve seen basically no lanes open up throughout three whole games, and this is a line that’s featuring three of the same starters as a year ago when we had a top-5 rushing offense.

We’ve taken it for granted this offseason that our running game will be dominant as usual, but we didn’t take into account that they may not live up to the expectations we’ve set for them over the past two years. Brandon Marshall was brought in to help our running game, but even with that extra defender out of the box, our O-line is doing nothing to help our backs. We need to fix this.

Odrick first – 2 years ago I was one of the first people to say that Randy Starks DESERVED to start over Merling… I was right then, and Merling has continued to slip in his performance (before the injury)… Now I have to say this – Jared Odrick does not deserve to start over Charles Grant (6’3 285) GRANT has outplayed Odrick in every game – watch the tape … I watched every play of the last 2 games – LOOKING to see anything… but Odrick didnt even post an assist. GRANT is a veteran and we would be better off starting him in week one. WE HAVE TO BEAT BUFFALO … and get off to a decent start – I do think Odrick will get there, and he dose NOT look over matched – but he is not shedding blocks well, and he is just NOT making plays like GRANT… this is just like the STARKS/Merling issue years ago.
HENNING – completely SUCKS as an O-Coordin… come on man…. show me something ! WHEN are you going to open it up ? I hope he is “saving” it for the regular season, but I fear the “old guy” syndrome…same ole crap different year.
Moore vs Turner – to me is a No-brainer – MOORE WINS EASILY he is a much better WR and has better potential with more speed and quickness – I also think I would keep WALLACE over Turner… sure Turner looks much better – but who has the most potential ? Looked the best … speed that we really need ?
this team is full of HUGE players – we need a few people with more quickness than size.
Lastly – KY standout Micah Johnson deserves to make this team – his football instincts are way better than Chrowder (bench) and Dobbins should start next to Dansby, as he is also the better player…
I welcome everyones thoughts on my perspective…
GO DOLPHINS !

right b4 our eyes, he is still raw and will make mistakes but he is a premiere corner in this league imo. Henne has been either too late or too early in some timing throws , so he is definately out of sync but at least were not seeing bone’headed throws for pick sixes. he’s finding the open man but the passes are either dropped or too early or late. The punt/kickoff coverage has been bad. And we aren’t sealing the edges against the run, this really worries me with CJ Spiller week 1

I really wanted to watch this game but it looks like I was better off not seeing it. I know it is only pre-season but I was really hoping for a little more out of the team for this game, though it looks like the D played pretty well. I hope Sparano gets the offense in line before going to Buffalo!

the game was very close and was a one score game for a long time, we had every oppurtunity to take the lead so i was pleases to see it wasn’t a blow out, shows we are still a tough out.

the game wasn’t as bad as the score made it seem.

i’m not worried yet.

not much else to say other than what’s been covered 1000 times. Not worried about Henne in the least.

I think the drops are more the WRs fault than Henne’s fault. I’m kinda tired of all the flack he takes about his throws being too hard to catch. Brett Favre has been a hard thrower all his career. Its said that he his throws have broken or dislocated fingers. He threw an absolute bullet to Camarillo in that game, across the middle between two defenders. Had that one been dropped, you think the Vikes fans would have been clamoring for Brett to throw easier? Because if that was Henne throwing it, we would have too many comments saying “Henne needs more touch” or “He doesn’t always have to throw so hard”.

Of course I’m not comparing their skills as QB, but both guys are known to have strong arms and throw the football hard. At some point, the WRs are going to have to start catching the ball regardless of how hard Henne throws it. Yeah, Henne doesn’t need to throw a 95 MPH fastball to a 5 yard checkdown. But from what I’ve seen, he’s been relatively good with those passes. Its time the WRs get used to it and start catching the ball.

Not worried at all. I have so much trust I have him as QB on 4 of my 5 fantasy teams. I believe Henne will be great. I see so much Marino/Favre in him it makes me giddy when I watch him play.

That he throws so hard is a blessing, not a curse. Very few guys can throw a ball between 2 defenders 40 yards downfield, and place it in there hard.

Despite all the CLS around here I fully expect this to be a huge season for our Dolphins.

He seems to have trouble getting off his primary receiver. It is not just this game against the Falcons, but kind of goes back to last season. How many times have you seen Henne look front side at his primary receiver, recognize that he is covered, progress to the back side to a secondary receiver and complete the pass? I don’t remember if he has or not. How many times does he scan the whole field in his drop? I don’t think he does.

I think the Falcons did a really nice job taking away his primary receiver while last week the Jaguars didn’t. But just because the primary receiver is covered doesn’t mean that the check down to the RB (hence all the catches by Ricky and Ronnie) is the only option. He is a 2nd year starter now. He needs to make his progressions better in the passing game.

I don’t know the offense or see the route combinations. But he has to be able to go from one side of the field to the other and complete passes to all his weapons on any given play. I don’t see him doing that now.

Anybody notice that it’s usually the ’’good’’ teams that have disappointing pre-seasons, and that it’s ’’bad’’ teams that have ’’great’’ pre-seasons?

Look at this year;

Good teams: Bengels 2 losses, Cowboys 2 losses, Saints loss to st louis, Colts 3 losses!

Bad teams : Bills 2 wins against Colts and Bengels, Brows win against Packers, Lions 2 wins, Raiders 2 wins, Rams 2 wins

but I am concerned about the D, they may take some time to gel, but we may have lost too many games by the time we fix it, hope I’m wrong but we have what looks to be a brutal first half of the season.

B.Marshall’s “incomplete pass” / fumble was not his fault. In watching the game, the replays showed that he had possesion with two feet down, and that it was KNOCKED out by the defender. Either way, it was an awesome DEFENSIVE play that warrants praise to the defender! This is after all, the same defense that caused how many fumbles last year, 4? 5? Watching this game, every tackle the Falcons made, they were trying to strip the ball!!