Thoughts on Seahawks Game

Could they have made that game any more tense in the fourth quarter?

Nevertheless, I think Ethan Skolnick, from the Sun-Sentinel, summed up this win perfectly:

When does your team matter again?

Not when it starts winning a few games.

Rather, when people start whining about the way it wins them.

So true.

And yes, that means that the Miami Dolphins truly matter again. I held off talking about Miami and the playoffs until now, because it doesn't feel right to me to talk about a .500 team going to the playoffs. But now this team has gone over the .500 mark and their late season schedule is setting up as well as one could hope for if this team is to make a push for the playoffs.

There's no reason to hold back any more. This team has a legitimate shot to play in the postseason this season. Even so, I'll wait until after this week's Oakland game before getting too gung-ho about it.

The Dolphins proved as much as to the viewers as to themselves that they can beat teams they are expected to beat. That will be put on display once again against the Raiders. If they can take care of business, they will head into a crucial game at home against the Patriots. The remaining three AFC East games will have the biggest effect on Miami's playoff chances so let's wait until we face those games before taking stock of our chances.

Just like the players should not think past the next game on the schedule, in this case, neither should we, the fans.

Here are some thoughts I have about the Seattle game:

• The special teams coverage units continue to play as poorly as can be. This shouldn't completely surprise anyone since special teams are predicated on roster depth, something which Miami sorely lacks. Many of the special teams players brought in over the offseason were also cut before the season began, so this shouldn't be a complete shock. Even so, coach Bonamego better figure out a way to mask the deficencies of his schemes or the special teams phase will ultimately cost this team a win or two down the stretch.
• Lousaka Polite = clutch. Seriously, this guy has four carries since joining the team - all for first downs, and in some pretty tight situations. Perhaps Polite could be a longer-term answer at fullback than any of us originally believed.
• How did Ted Ginn make that catch at the back of the endzone with two defenders draped all over him? Simply amazing catch. (Pennington has to see the wide-open Camarillo on that play, though.)
• Don't worry about Will Allen being targeted slightly more than usual this game. The guys at FootballOutsiders brought up a good point. Seneca Wallace routinely ignores a complete half of the field, regardless of who is matched up on whom.
• The Wildcat found its second wind. I'll have a little more info on that later this week, when I compile its weekly statistical performance.
  

Condren released; Bryan brought back

There's no other way to say this, but Miami's special teams play this season, particularly its coverage units, have been horrible, among the very worst in the league.

In an effort to find some sort of solutions to the problem, the team released S Brannon Condren and signed S Courtney Bryan.

Bryan was with Miami all of last season as an undrafted rookie. He played in 12 games, collecting ten tackles and a fumble recovery. He also added one special teams tackle. And that is the area that Bryan will be asked to immediately contribute to.

Bryan was with the Dolphins throughout the entire offseason before being released in August, so he is familiar with the coaching staff.

There has been some talk about using starters on special teams to try to improve the units' effectiveness, but that option should be thrown out in my opinion. The Dolphins are doing so well this year in large part because of their relatively impeccable health. Putting starters, who are already on the field for upwards of 60 plays a game, on the special teams units is unnecessarily jeopardizing them. This team has very little depth at most positions, so it can ill afford that risk.

Wildcat By The Numbers Week 9

Here's my latest tables for tracking the success of the Wildcat formation.

This past week was easily the Wildcat's worst performance of the season. Ronnie Brown ran three times from the formation and gained only 1 yard each time. The coaches tried to set up a pass play from the formation, but Ronnie was sacked for an 8 yard loss. This was all coming against Denver's defense which is one of the worst in the league.

The Wildcat has now been in play for six weeks, and the difference between the first three weeks of its use and the last three are stark. The Wildcat is on life-support at this point, and it may be circling the drain.

I don't think the team should give up on it yet, especially since running from the base formation has been so impotent, but something clearly needs to happen to breathe new life into it. Hopefully, it can get back on track against Seattle; if not, it may be time to shelve it for a while.

	Plays	Run	Pass	Yards	Yds/Play	FDs	TDs
Week 3, @NE	6	5	1	119	19.8	1	4
Week 5, SD	10	9	1	48	4.8	3	1
Week 6, @HOU	7	6	1	77	11.0	0	1
Week 7, BAL	5	5	0	4	0.8	0	0
Week 8, BUF	7	7	0	34	4.9	3	0
Week 9, @ DEN	4	3	1	-5	-1.3	0	0
Total	39	35	4	277	7.1	7	6
Avg./Game	6.5	5.8	0.7	46.2	-	1.2	1

	Plays	FDs (non-penalty)	FD%	TDs	TD%	Run Avg
Non-WC Plays	441	141	32%	12	3%	3.4 yds
WC Plays	39	7	18%	6	15%	6.1 yds

	Runs	Yards	Avg	FDs	TDs
Ronnie Brown	23	144	6.3	5	4
Ricky Williams	11	66	6.0	2	0
Patrick Cobbs	1	3	3.0	0	0

Special Teams Coverage Review (2008 Midseason)

Continuing on with my series of periodic looks at the most active members of Miami's special teams coverage units, I have assembled this table compiling special teams tackles and forced fumbles:

	Tkl	Ast	Comb	FF
Jason Allen	10	1	11
Charlie Anderson	6		6
Akin Ayodele		1	1
Davone Bess	1		1
Dan Carpenter	1		1
Patrick Cobbs	6	1	7
Brannon Condren	2	1	3
Casey Cramer	3	2	5
Chris Crocker	1		1
Tyrone Culver	2	4	6
John Denney	1		1
Boomer Grigsby	1		1
Nathan Jones	3	1	4
Michael Lehan	2	1	3
Brandon London	2		2
David Martin	3	1	4	1
Quentin Moses	1		1
Lousaka Polite	1		1
Reggie Torbor	5	3	8

As I wrote after the first quarter,

I wanted to do this because special teams stats are generally under-discussed and not kept track of all that thoroughly. And yet, several players carve out their spots on this team precisely because of what they bring to these units.

This year, I thought I'd update you all on how the coverage units are playing out after each quarter of the season. Obviously, stats like these don't always tell you who exactly has been the most effective stoppers on special teams, but they do show who has been the most active and who is in position to make the most stops.

I've also included the forced fumbles category because that is an identifiable skill that can be the turning point in any given game. I don't include fumble recoveries because those are random and statistically insignificant.

Again, Jason Allen leads the team with 11 tackles, pulling away from Patrick Cobbs who still has a respectable 7 tackles. It will be interesting to see if Jason Allen's special teams activity lessens as his role in the base defense grows. I'm not expecting his activity to drop off all that much, but it's something to keep an eye on.

Mathis waived; McChesney gets called up

There's no question that the right guard spot has been the biggest weakness on Miami's offensive line this year, due in no small part to Donald Thomas' season-ending injury in week one.

It's hurting the running game, and it may very well be affecting Vernon Carey and Samson Satele's performances, as they can't get any continuity next to them. Thus far, the team had been rotating Ikechuku Ndukwe and Evan Mathis at right guard with little success from either player.

Well this week, the coaches looked to shake things up. Mathis was waived and G Matt McChesney was promoted from the practice squad to take his place. Tony Sparano also hinted that Andy Alleman could get his chance at RG this week against Seattle.

I'm certainly in favor of seeing Alleman get his chance in the starting lineup, as he is a young player with a lot of potential. His ceiling is higher than Ndukwe's, but the most important thing is probably settling on one man to play the position full time. Constantly switching out linemen like that destroys the line continuity, and makes it harder for the unit as a whole to progress.

On another note, I haven't seen it officially reported yet, but I believe Omar Kelly wrote in one of his Sun-Sentinel blogs that the team had released TE Matthew Mulligan from the practice squad and re-signed CB Will Billingsley to it. McChesney's call-up creates an empty spot on the practice squad so perhaps Mulligan will be brought back. We shall see.

Here is what the team's practice squad looks like now:

1. RB Lex Hilliard
2. WR Anthony Armstrong
3. LB Rob Ninkovich
4. RB Jalen Parmele
5. LB Will Kershaw
6. DT Anthony Toribio
7. CB Will Billingsley
   

Hagan released, Frye signed; Crowder sticks up for Camarillo

The Dolphins released WR Derek Hagan today.

This ends the 2005 third-round pick's very disappointing career in Miami. After last season, Hagan was harshly criticized by his position coach for being too immature and unfocused. This offseason, it appeared as if he was finally turning a corner, as he was playing as a starter for much of training camp. Then, things just kind of fell apart, and Hagan disappeared down the depth chart. He was declared inactive for four of the team's games this season and only caught three passes.

Hagan's development in Miami had clearly come to an end, so it makes sense to get rid of him and get a player on the team who has a chance of progressing.

To that end, the team signed T Brandon Frye from the Texans practice squad.

The 6-foot-4, 305-pound Virginia Tech grad was Houston's fifth-round draft choice in 2007 and began his college career as a defensive lineman before being moved to the offensive line as a sophomore. . . Sparano pointed to Frye's position flexibility and being able to play guard or tackle as one of his selling points.

*****

Just to take another shot at the idiot that is Karl Paymah, I'd like to point out Channing Crowder's assessment of him:

Who is he? He plays because Champ Bailey got hurt. I don't know Patin, Paytin, Poptil," Crowder said, purposely messing up Paymah's name. "Camarillo ate him up all day. He should be quiet and go work on his cover skills.

Nicely done, Channing, and way to stick up for your teammate.

Broncos Game Notes; Reader Mailbag

I've been following the election proceedings pretty closely over the past few days, so I haven't had time to write a full post-game commentary, but I got a reader email about the game and wanted to use it to talk a little about the Broncos game.

Here are the questions:

The Dolphins secondary played a great game for the second time in a row. Do you think they will continue this trend? Overall, the Dolphins defense played an excellent game. The offense seemed to struggle a bit. They did come up at the end with a touchdown when they needed to. The running game for the dolphins is a bit weak the past couple of games. Why? Do you think Ricky Williams has "lost a step"?

I'll touch on each of these issues briefly.

1. You're absolutely right; the secondary played tremendously against Denver after coming up big against Buffalo. It's no coincidence that this upturn in performance has come with Jason Allen's significant increase in playing time. I've always lobbied for Jason to get playing time, if for no other reason than to put to rest the guessing games over whether he can be a legitimate asset to this team or not. Right now we are in the process of finding that out, and so far so good. Andre' Goodman also played out of his mind against Brandon Marshall. However, that's not the type of performance that I am counting on too heavily as the season progresses.

In the short term, this trend of strong secondary play probably should continue, seeing as how Miami's next three games are at home against Seattle (Senece Wallace at QB), Oakland (JaMarcus Russell) and New England (Matt Cassell). Those are all inexperienced and average-at-best passers. Over the long term, I think it may be a bit too optimistic to expect the level of performance put forth over the last two weeks to be sustained for the next eight games, especially with the pass rush essentially being relegated to one man (Joey Porter). On the other hand, I wouldn't expect Miami's secondary to get burned like it did against the Cardinals again either. That's the low point and the Denver game is the high point. Expect some level of play varying in between those two poles as the season wears on.

2. As for the offense, aside from the game-clinching 8-minute drive in the fourth quarter, that unit was awful. The defense truly won this game, and really bailed out the offense. Miami is still producing far too many three and outs, and that's largely a function of the running game being so inefficent. I can't really explain the problems in the running game, as the personnel would seem to indicate running the ball to be a strength. Samson Satele is not a strong run-blocker, but we all knew that coming out Hawaii's offense in college. And we are having to make due with a patchwork RG position between Ndukwe and Mathis. Still, Vernon Carey, Jake Long, and Justin Smiley are maulers who should be owning the running game. In the end, I just don't think this line has developed into a cohesive unit yet, and the season-ending injury to Donald Thomas may have something to do with that, I'm not sure. Regardles, if Miami can't figure out a way to consistently run the ball out of its base formations, they are going to be in trouble.

As to Ricky Williams, yes, I think he has lost a step, which seems odd to say following his electric preseason. But, he is 31 and RBs tend to decrease in productivity after the age of 30 (or even 28). Still, he's a solid backup to have and he's not hurting the team when he's on the field. Even without some of the burst that we've come to expect from Ricky, he still provides great field vision to hit the holes when they are there, and he catches the ball well. Ricky's definitely not done yet, just slowed a bit.

A few other observations:

• Kendall Langford had an excellent game, as did the entire defensive front seven. It seemed like Langford had been hitting the "rookie wall" lately, but this game was a great bounce back.
• Karl Paymah is an absolute fool. It's one thing to get absolutely toatsed time after time during a game Jason David-style. It's entirely another thing to then say this about the opponent (Greg Camarillo) who just beat your ass all over the field all game long: "He's really nobody...What was his longest catch, like 10 yards?" Actually, Karl his longest was for 23 yards, and if Camarillo is a nobody, what the hell does that make you?