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Dolphins vs Falcons Game Summary |  | ||||||||
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WEATHER AND FIELD CONDITIONS: At gametime, the temperature was in the lows 80s and since the game was played in the Georgia Dome, the field was in fine shape. DOLPHINS STARTING LINEUP: Offense: Defense: QB - 10 Chad Pennington LE - 70 Kendall Langford RB - 23 Ronnie Brown NT - 95 Jason Ferguson FB - 36 Lousaka Polite RE - 94 Randy Starks WR - 19 Ted Ginn,Jr SLB - 99 Jason Taylor WR - 83 Greg Camarillo 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 - 38 Patrick CobbsNOTES: Pat White was the second quarterback on the depth chart and Chad Henne was the third "emergency" quartberback. FALCONS STARTING LINEUP: Offense: Defense: QB - 2 Matt Ryan LE - 87 Jamaal Anderson RB - 33 Michael Turner DT - 94 Peria Jerry FB - 34 Ovie Mughelli DT - 95 Jonathan Babineaux WR - 84 Roddy White RE - 55 John Abraham WR - 12 Michael Jenkins LLB - 54 Stephen Nicholas TE - 88 Tony Gonzalez MLB - 50 Curtis Lofton LT - 72 Sam Baker RLB - 53 Mike Peterson LG - 63 Justin Blalock LCB - 29 Brian Williams C - 62 Todd McClure RCB - 23 Chris Houston RG - 73 Harvey Dahl SS - 26 Erik Coleman RT - 77 Tyson Clabo FS - 28 Thomas DeCoud K - 1 Jason Elam P - 9 Michael Koenen PR - 14 Eric Weems KR - 32 Jerious NorwoodGAME SUMMARY: The Dolphins had a very poor start to the season today when they were dominated by the Atlanta Falcons, 19-7, in Atlanta. In the first half, the Dolphins could not run, could not pass and could not defense the pass. It was only by virtue of Matt Ryan's mistakes that the score was only 10-0 at the half. Ryan missed two open receivers who got behind Miami's pass coverage and would probably have scored if Ryan had put the ball on target. The Dolphins' 5 drives in the first half ended in two punts, two fumbles and the end of the half. The only decent drive they had ended when Tony Fasano was plastered by Falcons' linebacker Mike Peterson at the Atlanta 16 and fumbled the ball. That fumble was picked up and returned to the Dolphins' 31. Neither the Dolphins' running game or passing game did much in the first half. The only good play out of the running game in the first half was a 14 yard pickup by Ricky Williams. The defense played better than the offense, but still had its share of problems, especially in the first half. The defense held Michael Turner in check and stifled the Falcons' running game throughout the first half, but the secondary had a lot of trouble keeping up with the Falcons' receivers. If it wasn't for Matt Ryans' poor throws and some decent pressure from the Dolphins' front seven on defense, the score could have been much worse. In the second half, the story was much the same as the first. The Dolphins' offense had 6 drives, which ended in 3 punts, a fumble, an interception and finally - on their last drive - a touchdown pass to Ricky Williams. But on the final drive, the Falcons were playing in a prevent defense and the pressure came off Chad Pennington, which allowed the Dolphins to drive the length of the field. The Dolphins' defense actually improved their pass coverage in the second half, but was put in two very poor positions as the offense turned the ball over deep in Miami territory - twice. They also held Michael Turner in check for most of the second half until the very end of the game, when Turner rushed for two first downs to run out the clock. The Wildcat made four appearances in this game - 3 in the first half - and resulted in 5 yards. Ronnie Brown ran from one formation and picked up 4 yards, while Pat White was the quarterback on the other three attempts. One ended with White getting tackled at the line of scrimmage, one ended when White overthrew an open Ted Ginn down the middle of the field and the third ended when Ted Ginn - who was trying to pass after a handoff - couldn't find anyone open and ended up scrambling for a yard. The Dolphins' offense had a miserable day. Their running game was ineffective, despite the stats which say the Dolphins had 4.4 yards per carry. Unfortunately, the passing game was even worse, with Pennington getting sacked 4 times and throwing one interception. The team ended the day with 96 yards rushing and 163 yards passing. The principal problem with the offense was the offensive line. The mostly young defensive line of the Falcons schooled Miami's offensive line, closing the holes and putting consistent pressure on Pennington. Miami's tackles were especially poor today, giving up all four of Miami's sacks and letting John Abraham run wild. The receivers did not fare much better, consistently having trouble getting open against a young, inexperienced Falcons' secondary. Davone Bess caught 7 passes for 57 yards, but no other receiver caught more than 3 passes and Ted Ginn caught just two. The defense had a better day that the offense, with the front seven shutting down the Falcons' running game and getting some decent pressure on Matt Ryan. Unfortunately, the Dolphins' secondary had trouble matching up with the Falcons' receivers, especially in the first half. And Falcons' tight end Tony Gonzalez gave the Dolphins' defenders headaches all day long. Miami's special teams did a fair job in kick and punt coverage, not allowing any big returns. However, their own returns were very poor. Only once (out of five times) did the Dolphins return a kickoff past the 20. And Davone Bess' longest punt return was 7 yards. It is difficult to blame the returners, however, because the blocking on returns was non-existant. In the stats department, the Dolphins gave up three fumbles and one interception, which was the most important stat of the game. Miami had 259 yards total offense with 96 rushing and 163 passing. They did average 4.4 yards per carry, but that is deceptive, because the Dolphins were largely ineffective running the ball. The Dolphins' offense converted 36% of their third downs, which is ok, but not where they want to be. They were 50% in the redzone and had 4 penalties. On defense, Miami had 2 sacks, held the second best rushing attack in the NFL last year to just 68 yards rushing, but gave up 229 passing yards and two touchdown passes - which could have been more. They also allowed the Falcons to convert 40% of their third downs. Chad Pennington did not play very well, but he had a lot of pressure and his receivers were not getting open. He completed 21 of 29 for 176 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT, was sacked 4 times and fumbled once. Pennington was responsible for both the interception and, at least partially for the fumble, because he wasn't protecting the football when he was sacked. Pat White played all four Wildcat plays, taking the snap on three of them. Once he tried to go around the left end and was tackled at the line of scrimmage. On another Wildcat play, he overthrew an open Ted Ginn down the middle of the field by about 10 yards. Ronnie Brown ran 10 times for 43 yards and caught 3 passes for 10 yards. He was mostly ineffective. Ricky Williams ran better than Ronnie Brown, but didn't get as many opportunities, carrying 7 times for 39 yards. He also caught the only touchdown on a nice play-fake by Chad Pennington. Lousaka Polite picked up 9 yards on one run and lost 4 on another. Davone Bess lead the receivers with 7 catches for 57 yards. He did a better job at getting open than any of the others. He also returned 2 punts for 11 yards. Ted Ginn,Jr caught two passes for 26 yards and was behind coverage when White overthrew him. He returned 3 kickoffs but didn't get past the 20. Greg Camarillo started and caught two passes for 20 yards. He also had the highlight catch of the day when he lost control of a ball as he hit the ground, but managed to keep the ball off the turf as it rolled over this legs and ankles. He eventually gained control of the ball for a reception. Brian Hartline got on the field and, just like his first game, was flagged for offensive pass interference. He did end up catching two passes for 13 yards. Anthony Fasano did not have a good game. He fumbled both times he caught the ball and the one touchdown he made was called back on a holding penalty on Vernon Carey. Fasano was also beaten on pass rush for a sack. Joey Haynos caught one pass for 21 yards. Jake Long was beaten twice by John Abraham for sacks. One of those times, Long was knocked back on his butt by Abraham on a straight bull rush. On defense, the most surprising performance was put in by Phillip Merling. From the defensive end position, be put a lot of pressure on Matt Ryan, knocking him down several times and getting in his face consistently. He had 4 tackles, usually right at the line of scrimmage, except for one exceptional stop where he chased down Michael Turner for a 5 yard loss in the backfield. Gibril Wilson lead the team in tackles with 9, although most of them were down the field. He was not beaten deep, but he also did not knock down any passes. He did stop Michael Turner at the line of scrimmage on one play. Yeremiah Bell had 8 tackles and knocked one pass out of Tony Gonzalez' hands. However, he missed the tackle on Tony Gonzalez' touchdown pass. Will Allen had 5 tackles and knocked down one pass. Akin Ayodele also had 5 tackles, but missed one tackle down the sideline that allowed the runner to pick up another 10 yards. Channing Crowder had 4 tackles, but did not appear to be a big force on the field. Joey Porter had 3 tackles, including one for a loss, but no sacks. Jason Taylor had 2 tackles, one at the line of scrimmage and one sack of Matt Ryan on a nice inside move. Jason Ferguson was credited with one sack and two tackles, but he got an assist from Phillip Merling on that sack. Sean Smith had 2 passes defensed, one of which was an interception that was knocked out of his hands by Roddy White. He had a tough time in the first half and would have been roasted for a touchdown by Roddy White if Ryan hadn't overthrown White. In other words, Smith had some good plays and also made some rookie mistakes. Vontae Davis also had a tackle for a loss on a great charge from the line of scrimmage. And Safety Tyrone Culver knocked the ball out of Tony Gonzalez' hands. Teams almost never loose games for just one reason and the Dolphins' loss today was caused by a lot of different things. Ultimately, however, there were two main reasons for this loss - the turnovers and the offensive line play. This year, the offensive line was supposed to be much improved from last year. So far, however, that hasn't happened. Today the entire offensive line played poorly, but the tackle play was especially disappointing. Jake Long, in particular, seems to have taken a step backward. At 6'7" and 315 pounds, there isn't a defensive end in the NFL who should be able to knock him backwards on his butt on a bull rush, but Abraham - at 6'4" and 266 pounds - did it today. The offensive line is the foundation for everything the offense does. If Miami's offensive line doesn't find a way to get it together pretty soon, the Dolphins are in for a very long season. On the other hand, it was nice to see Phillip Merling play so well. It has been said of Merling that he is a "gamer", meaning he plays much better on game day than he practices. Today, that certainly seemed to be true. He did not have a very good training camp, but today he certainly looked like he should be starting at right defensive end. In the "WTF?" department, I have to ask why Pat White was in the game today. White has not shown that he is ready to take the field and today he contributed nothing to the offense. The two plays he took the field on were wasted and the team can afford to waste nothing these days. Overall, this was a very disappointing opening game for the team and it doesn't get any easier from here. About the only positive thing I can take away from this game is that the Dolphins did manage to stop the Falcons' rushing attack - an attack that was second in the NFL last season. Stopping opponents from running is always the first goal of any defense. Unfortunately, it won't matter how good the Dolphins' run defense is if the offense doesn't improve.
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