Well the events of that last game were certainly unexpected. I don't think anyone thought that John Beck would be pulled in the 1st quarter. And incase you've missed it, FOX Sports' Alex Marvez is reporting that Cam Cameron is expected to announce that Cleo Lemon will start on Sunday against the Ravens. Of course, you'll remember that it was this same kind of Tuesday night "report" a few weeks back in which it was said that Cam would stick with Cleo for the Philly game. But the next day, Cam announced that he was making the switch to Beck. So there is still hope for those of us hoping to see John play. I guess we'll officially find out in a few hours. And if it is Cleo starting, I'll be very interested in hearing how the fans at Dolphin Stadium react when things go bad for Lemon and the offense.
As for last game, when Cleo did come in, he actually showed that he might have changed and isn't "Captian Checkdown" any more. Of course, that could be due to the fact that the defense didn't blitz Cleo at all and just sat back in a soft, prevent defense. Either way, 60% of the passes were directed to a wide receiver, with Derek Hagan leading the way with 14 targets. That's the most times any Dolphin receiver has been targeted since Cleo's first start this year back in week 6, when he targeted Chris Chambers 18 times. And for the second week in a row, it was Lorenzo Booker being targeted the third most on the team, getting 8 looks on Sunday. He's been quite impressive catching out of the backfield and making tacklers miss when he gets the ball in his hands. That has to make you wonder what took so long for him to get on the field.
Anyways, one last thing before we go into the receiver numbers. Many of the Cleo defenders will tell you that he should start on Sunday simply because of his 241 yards passing last week. But 89 of those yards came on two plays. One was the bomb to Ginn which a) caught Buffalo by surprise; and b) wasn't exactly thrown perfectly because if it was, Ginn scores a touchdown. Any QB could have made that throw to Teddy. He was that wide open. The other play, the 35 yard pass play with Samkon Gado, was a 6 yard pass that Gado turned into 35 yards. If you take away those two plays, you got Cleo with a stat line of 20/40, 152 yds, 2 interceptions, and 4 fumbles (1 lost). Not too great anymore, huh? How about that 3.8 yards per attempt? Good numbers, right Cleo supporters? And even if you leave in those 2 plays, 5.7 yards per attempt is much better. That's the same figure John put up against a much, much better Pittsburgh defense...and he didn't have any turnovers. But I'm sure I'll be called racist because I'm not in favor of Cleo starting. Oh well.
Total Targets
Here's how the full season targeting breaks down through 13 games:
Marty Booker: 80 targets (19%)
Chris Chambers: 66 targets (16%)
Ted Ginn: 50 targets (12%)
Ronnie Brown: 46 targets (11%)
Derek Hagan: 45 targets (11%)
David Martin: 38 targets (9%)
Justin Peelle: 35 targets (8%)
Jesse Chatman: 33 targets (8%)
Lorenzo Booker: 15 targets (4%)
Patrick Cobbs: 5 targets (1%)
Reagan Mauia: 3 targets (1%)
Samkon Gado: 3 targets (1%)
Aaron Halterman: 3 targets (1%)
Creg Camarillo: 2 targets (<1%)
Lemon's Targets
And we're back to looking at Cleo's season targeting:
Marty Booker: 36 targets (18%)
Derek Hagan: 31 targets (15%)
Ted Ginn: 26 targets (13%)
Ronnie Brown: 22 targets (11%)
Chris Chambers: 22 targets (11%)
Justin Peelle: 21 targets (10%)
David Martin: 18 targets (9%)
Jesse Chatman: 12 targets (6%)
Lorenzo Booker: 8 targets (4%)
Patrick Cobbs: 3 targets (1%)
Samkon Gado: 2 targets (1%)
Camarillo, Halterman, Mauia: 1 target each (1%)
One interesting note about Cleo is how the catch percentages for the 3 top receivers are very strange when Cleo is throwing to them. Derek Hagan has a catch percentage of 61% with Cleo throwing to him, while Ginn's is just 38%, Marty Booker's is just 39%, and Chris Chambers' was 36%. On the other hand, with Beck throwing the ball, Ginn's success rate is 52% while Marty's is 59%. Hagan's is just 25%. What might be the cause of that?
Receiver Success
And here are the updated catch percentages for those receivers with at least 10 receptions for the entire 2007 season:
Lorenzo Booker: 80%
David Martin: 74%
Justin Peelle: 71%
Jesse Chatman: 70%
Derek Hagan: 53%
Marty Booker: 48%
Ted Ginn: 44%
Chambers SD Update
In last week's comeback victory, Chris Chambers had 4 catches for 90 yards, including 2 critical plays on their final drive in regulation. One of those was a crucial 4th down reception when he had to go down and dig a ball out to save the drive. Here are his updated SD figures:
Targeted: 22%
Catch percentage: 52%
Last Minute Gift Ideas
I rarely ever do this, but when a company is nice enough and is confident enough in their product to send you a sample, you take notice. And that's exactly what Reebok, the official outfitter of the NFL, did. In particular, I was sent a sample from their "Zero Degrees" cold weather line, and I was very impressed. So for any last minute holiday gift ideas, I'd highly recommend checking these products out. And after the jump, I've attached a photo of the product I was sent.
