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WEATHER AND FIELD CONDITIONS: At gametime, it was raining, 86 F
(30.0C). Humidity: 100%, Wind: NNE 13 mph. There was light rain to
begin the game, but a heavy storm with lightning caused the game to be
halted for about 45 minutes in the 2nd quarter.
Offense: Defense: QB - 10 Chad Pennington LE - 70 Kendall Langford RB - 23 Ronnie Brown NT - 95 Jason Ferguson FB - 39 Lousaka Polite RE - 94 Randy Starks WR - 19 Ted Ginn,Jr SLB - 99 Jason Taylor WR - 82 Brian Hartline ILB - 51 Akin Ayodele TE - 80 Anthony Fasano ILB - 52 Channing Crowder LT - 77 Jake Long WLB - 55 Joey Porter LG - 65 Justin Smiley LCB - 25 Will Allen C - 64 Jake Grove RCB - 31 Sean Smith RG - 66 Donald Thomas SS - 37 Yeremiah Bell RT - 72 Vernon Carey FS - 28 Gibril Wilson K - 5 Dan Carpenter P - 2 Brandon Fields PR - 15 Davone Bess KR - 19 Ted Ginn,JrNOTES: The Dolphins started WR Brian Hartline opposite Ted Ginn,Jr for the 2nd week in a row. Sean Smith came back to start opposite Will Allen. Offense: Defense: QB - 7 Byron Leftwich LDE - 97 Jimmy Wilkerson RB - 24 Cadillac Williams LDT - 98 Ryan Sims FB - 35 B.J. Askew RDT - 95 Chris Hovan WR - 85 Maurice Stovall RDE - 90 Gaines Adams WR - 87 Brian Clark SLB - 58 Quincy Black TE - 82 Kellen Winslow MLB - 51 Barrett Ruud LT - 70 Donald Penn WLB - 54 Geno Hayes LG - 76 Jeremy Zuttah LCB - 25 Aqib Talib C - 52 Jeff Faine RCB - 20 Ronde Barber RG - 75 Davin Joseph SS - 21 Sabby Piscitelli RT - 65 Jeremy Trueblood FS - 23 Jermaine Phillips K - 4 Mike Nugent P - 9 Dirk Johnson PR - 22 Clifton Smith KR - 18 Sammie StroughterNOTES: Brian Clark started in place of WR Michael Clayton and Jermaine Phillips moved back to starting safety. According to the scoreboard, the Dolphins beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last night 10-6 in Tampa after a very poor performance in the rain. The Dolphins' offense took a couple of steps backwards in this game and if it hadn't been for some heroics by Chad Pennington, they might not have scored at all. The defense was not much better, although at least the Bucs did not manage a touchdown. But they did average 5.4 yards per carry and 171 yards of offense in the first half without one of their starting receivers and with Byron Leftwich at quarterback. The Dolphins' starters played through the third quarter on both sides of the ball. The starting offense, with Chad Pennington at the helm, had 5 drives in the first half - 4 of which went for 3 plays and ended in a punt. The final drive actually went for 10 plays, 53 yards and a field goal. On defense, the Dolphins allowed the Bucs to put together 6 drives, 4 of which went for 8 or more plays and gained 30 or more yards each, but ended in only 2 field goals. The Bucs' running game was inconsistent and the Dolphins would stop it cold for a couple of plays only to have them break one for 8-10 yards. Ultimately, the Bucs picked up 92 yards rushing the first half at 5.2 ypc. As they did against the Panthers, the Dolphins' defense gave up several first downs on 3rd and long in the game, allowing Leftwich to complete long passes without much pressure and poor coverage. With about 10 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, the game was delayed because of lightning in the local area. After a 45 minute delay, the game was resumed and the Dolphins played better, presumably because Tony Sparano let them know that what they were doing was not acceptable, but still did not play well. At the half, the Dolphins were behind 6-3, although considering that they had held the ball just 9:42 of the first half and were almost completely dominated by the Bucs, they were lucky it wasn't far worse. The Dolphins opened the second half with their only good drive of the night - a 72 yard drive lead by Chad Pennington that ended in a 2 yard touchdown pass to Anthony Fasano. It started with two good runs (7 and 5 yards) by Ricky Williams, followed by a 54 yard pass down the sideline to Brian Hartline on a beautifully executed play fake by Pennington to the Bucs' 6. Two plays later, Pennington escaped a pass rush and found a wide open Fasano in the endzone. Following this series, the Dolphins started playing their second string offense, but left the starting defense on the field. Chad Henne took over at quarterback for the Dolphins at this point and finished the game, but there was no scoring by either team for the rest of the game. Each team's defense pretty much stymied the others offense and when an offense did get into their opponent's territory, a turnover or mistake would end the drive. Overall, this was the kind of game that you would expect in the first game of the pre-season, not the third. The Dolphins and Bucs both played poorly and did not impress the fans or the coaches. The Dolphins' starting offense gave their worst showing of the pre-season last night, going 3 and out in their first 4 series. The Dolphins were unable to run on the Bucs in the first half, averaging just 2.8 ypc. They improved a little in the second half, but still wound up with just 79 yards running at 3.2 ypc. The passing game appeared more effective, picking up 173 yards and producing the only touchdown. That, however, is deceptive, as 106 of those yards were on two catches of 54 and 52 yards. And the offensive line gave up 5 sacks in this game, although 4 of those were surrendered by the backup offensive line on Chad Henne. The Dolphins ended the game with 11 completions in 24 attempts for 179 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception for a team passer rating 67.9 and 7.5 yards per attempt. It did not look as though the coaches did much game planning for this game and the Dolphins did not use the Wildcat offense at all. The defense looked positively sluggish, allowing the Bucs 127 yards rushing at 4.9 ypc in the game and 5.4 ypc in the first half. It was either feast or famine for the run defense, stuffing the Bucs for a short gain or giving up long runs. In the first half, the Bucs had runs of 13, 19 and 27 yards. It looked to me like those runs were not so much about the Dolphins being overpowered as much as the linebackers being out of position. For example, on Cadillac Williams 19 yard run in the first quarter, Channing Crowder shifted inside right before the snap, right out of the hole that Williams eventually ran through. The best thing the defense did in the first part of the game was to get pressure on the Bucs' quarterbacks. Kendall Langford, Nathan Jones and Paul Soliai all had sacks in the first half and both Byron Leftwich and Luke McCown were hit regularly even when they weren't sacks. Unfortunately, the Dolphins' pass coverage was so poor that when the Bucs' QBs did get time to throw, they usually completed their passes. All of the Dolphins' defensive backs looked suspect in this game, with Will Allen, Sean Smith and Gibril Wilson each making several obvious coverage mistakes. Fortunately for Miami, Byron Leftwich over- or under-threw a number of wide open receivers, otherwise the score would have been much different than it was. Special teams were another mixed bag for this game. The Dolphins' coverage units allowed an average of 10.1 yards per punt return, which is better than against the Panthers, but is still not very good. And the Dolphins' punt returners averaged just 4 yards per return, which is very poor. The Dolphins did manage to partially block a punt, when Patrick Cobbs came untouched up the middle on a delayed rush, but that turned out to be a negative play. The ball traveled just past the line of scrimmage in the air and LB Charlie Anderson attempted to catch it. However, he muffed the catch and the Bucs recovered, giving themselves a first down. On kickoffs, however, the Dolphins did better. They averaged 30.3 yards per kickoff return on three kickoffs. When the Dolphins kicked off, they got one touchback and held the Bucs to 19.5 yards per return on the other two. Dan Carpenter hit his only field goal attempt of the game at 34 yards. In the stats department, the Dolphins converted only 21% of their 3rd downs, while allowing the Bucs to convert 33%. Miami held the ball less than 10 minutes of the first half and only 25:47 for the game. Miami also had 3 turnovers (2 fumbles and 1 interception) and was just 1 of 3 in the redzone. Chad Pennington was one of the few bright spots in this game, completing 9 of 16 for 128 yards and 1 TD. That's a very good QB rating of 103.1 at 8 yards per attempt. He also kept his head in some tough situations and escaped a tough pass rush to find Anthony Fasano for the only touchdown of the game. Chad Henne, on the other hand, looked very poor. He completed just 2 of 8 for 55 yards 0 TDs and 1 INT. His QB rating was 16.1 and it would have been much lower if Greg Camarillo hadn't turned a 5 yard pass into a 52 yard catch and run. However, it wasn't all Henne's fault, as he was rushed very effectively and was sacked 4 times in a quarter and a half of play. Pat White did not play. Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams both saw some action, but were largely ineffective, carrying the ball 4 and 5 times respectively for a disappointing 3.0 and 3.6 yards per carry. Brown also caught 2 passes for 15 yards. Patrick Cobbs ran 4 times for 15 (3.8 ypc) and caught 1 pass for just 2 yards out of the offense, but blocked a punt, had one tackle and ran a kickoff back for 30 yards on special teams. Lex Hilliard had been having a very good pre-season and got 11 carries against the Bucs, but averaged just 2.9 ypc, could not convert on 3rd and 1 and lost a fumble. Rookie Brian Hartline got his second start and was the star of the Dolphins' offense. He caught 3 passes for 79 yards, including the 54 yard reception that set up Miami's only touchdown. On that play, he did a nice go route down the sideline and got behind the defender, making a nice catch. Ted Ginn,Jr caught just one pass for 19 yards across the middle and was wide open in the back of the endzone on another play, but was overthrown by Pennington. Ginn also ran back two kickoffs for 30.5 yards per return. Greg Camarillo caught just one pass, but that went for 52 yards on a short pass that Camarillo turned into a big gain after he ducked the defensive back's tackle on the sideline. Davone Bess caught 1 pass for 11 yards and returned 4 punts for 24 yards at 6.0 yards per return. Anthony Fasano caught the only touchdown pass of the game, but that was his only catch. The offensive line, as a whole, played poorly. Their technique looked OK to me, in that they were in the proper position for their blocks, but they either didn't or couldn't drive forward and were constantly pushed back by the Bucs' defenders. Patrick Turner did get on the field, but has no stats at all. On defense, the standout was Kendall Langford, who consistently pushed back the right side of the Bucs' offensive line, closing running lanes and getting pressure on Leftwich and McCown. He sacked Leftwich deep in Miami territory, causing a fumble and stopping a Bucs drive. Paul Soliai had at least one standout play, pushing the Bucs' center back on a pure power rush and sacking Luke McCown. He is looking better this year. However, the rest of the defensive line was weak, getting pushed around and moved off the line of scrimmage by the Bucs' offensive line. The linebackers were also pretty weak, although Akin Ayodele does appear to have improved significantly in the off-season. Ayodele lead the team in solo tackles with 7, including one for a loss. Crowder had 3 tackles and one quarterback pressure, although he was out of position on the 19 yard Williams run in the first quarter. To be fair about that, it might have been a blitz and he stepped inside the defensive end to rush. Jason Taylor did play this week while he didn't get any sacks, he had consistent pressure on the Bucs' QBs and had another tackle for a loss. Quentin Moses also solidified his backup position, being credited with at least 2 quarterback pressures. And backup Erik Walden was noticed with 2 quarterback pressures and 1 tackle for a loss. CBs Sean Smith and Will Allen did not have good games. They were routinely beaten by the Bucs receivers and Smith, in particular, was out of position in several plays. Yeremiah Bell was solid, as usual, with 5 tackles, but while Gibril Wilson had 6 solo tackles, he was out of position or late in coverage several times. This was rumored to be his weakness before he was signed and it's beginning to appear as if the rumors were true. Vontae Davis actually looked better than most of the other defensive backs, getting 5 tackles and knocking down 1 pass. It is possible that he could overtake Sean Smith for the starting job if Smith doesn't start playing better and Davis continues to improve. K Dan Carpenter had a 34 yard field goal and an extra point. There are two reasons I wish the Dolphins had lost this game: The first is that they didn't deserve to win after that mostly miserable performance. The Bucs are not that good a team and the Dolphins' starters should have been able to, if not totally dominate, at least look good. But they didn't. And coming away with a win when they played so poorly does not send the right message. Fortunately for the Dolphins, Tony Sparano will ensure that they don't enjoy their win too much. The second reason is that I'm a little bit superstitious when it comes to the pre-season. I don't think it's a good omen for the team to win every pre-season game and I'd like them to lose at least one. It's silly, I know, but it's just my gut reaction. I know that the Perfect Season team was 3-3 in the 1972 pre-season and I also know that one of the Jets' teams in the 90s was 4-0 in the pre-season under Rich Kotite, before finishing at the bottom of the AFC East in the regular season. It's not rational, I know. But being a fan is also not rational, so I suppose it all goes together. Phins.com columnist Chris Shashaty has an excellent write-up about the game this week, so please see his column for some thoughts on the real lessons to take away from this game, but I see several concerns that have surfaced in the pre-season that are likely to plague the Dolphins this year. One is the secondary. It now appears that Gibril Wilson is not as good in coverage as Renaldo Hill and that will cause problems against the deep passes that the Dolphins will see from their opponents. And while Vontae Davis and Sean Smith may eventually be better than Andre' Goodman was last year, this year they are rookies and will make rookie mistakes against players like Randy Moss and Terrell Owens. So it looks like the secondary could well be worse than last year and that's not good at all. Hopefully, the Dolphins' improved pass rush (and I believe it will be improved this year) can compensate. The other unit I'm worried about is the offensive line. As of right now, it doesn't look like it has improved a lot from where it was at this time last year. Jake Long is stilling missing speed rushers and Jake Grove does not look like a big improvement over Samson Satele. Now, if Donald Thomas can stay healthy, his presence could elevate the offensive line significantly, but he can't do it all alone. And, of course, special teams is a concern. The coverage units are inconsistent and the return game is not particularly dangerous at this point. I hope that the game against the Bucs was an aberration, but I'm afraid that the bloom is off the pre-season rose and the Dolphins have a lot of work yet to do before the season starts if they are going to be as competitive as they were last year.
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