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WEATHER AND FIELD CONDITIONS: At gametime, it was sunny with the temperature at 80 F (26.7 C), with 58% Humidity and winds from the west-southwest at 11 mph. The grass surface at Qualcomm Stadium was in good shape. 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" quarterback. When Chad Pennington went down, Chad Henne stepped in for him. Offense: Defense: QB - 17 Phillip Rivers DE - 74 Jacques Cesaire RB - 43 Darren Sproles DT - 91 Ogemdi Nwagnbuo FB - 22 Jacob Hester DE - 93 Luis Castillo WR - 83 Vincent Jackson OLB - 95 Shaun Phillips WR - 89 Chris Chambers ILB - 54 Stephen Cooper TE - 85 Antonio Gates ILB - 99 Kevin Burnett LT - 73 Marcus McNeill OLB - 56 Shawne Merriman LG - 68 Kris Dielman LCB - 23 Quentin Jammer C - 63 Scott Mruczkowski RCB - 31 Antonio Cromartie RG - 62 B Dombrowski SS - 42 Clinton Hart RT - 66 Jeromey Clary FS - 32 Eric Weddle K - 10 Nate Kaeding P - 5 Mike Scifres PR - 43 Darren Sproles KR - 43 Darren SprolesGAME SUMMARY: For the third week in a row, the Dolphins lost a game on mistakes and missed opportunities - something that did not happen a year ago. The now-familiar problems of the defense being unable to stop the big play and the offense having trouble scoring touchdowns instead of field goals, along with some critical mistakes in key situations, dropped passes and turnovers lead to the Dolphins loss. The game started with San Diego receiving the ball and making a short drive before being forced to punt. The Dolphins' defense did a good job all game long of stuffing the run and collapsing the pocket on Phillip Rivers and that held the Chargers to just 29 yards on their first drive. The Chargers did not try any deep passes in the first half until the very last drive, which was a 2 minute drive and the Dolphins were able to stop the Chargers' running game cold and contain their short passing game. The Chargers only got inside the Miami Redzone on one occasion in the first half and had to settle for a field goal. Overall, Miami's defense basically shut down the Chargers offense in the first half. Miami's offense started the game with an outstanding first drive, starting at their own 5 and driving all the way to the San Diego 1 yard line, mostly on the running of Ronnie and Ricky. The drive took up 9:29 and 17 plays. However, on a first and goal from the San Diego one yard line, Pennington and Ronnie Brown fumbled the hand-off and it bounced to the back of the endzone where Justin Smiley recovered it out of bounds. That counts as a touchback and turned the ball over the Chargers. Whether that demoralized the Dolphins or the Chargers just adjusted, that fumble ended the best drive the Dolphins had all day. The Dolphins' offense sputtered for the rest of the first half, even after a sack of Phillip Rivers forced a fumble that the Dolphins recovered at the San Diego 17. On that drive, the Dolphins got down to the San Diego 5, but two missed blocks by Vernon Carey on one play and Donald Thomas on another resulted in two tackles for losses and the Dolphins had to settle for a field goal. The first half ended with a long drive by the Chargers, ending in a field goal. In the second half, Chad Pennington went down with a shoulder injury at the end of the first series and was replaced by Chad Henne. Henne actually drove the team for two scores, but the offense faltered in the redzone on the first drive, forcing a field goal and then Henne's interception was returned for a touchdown that sealed the game for the Chargers. The offense managed one more decent drive in the game, but it came with only 5 minutes left on the clock and it was after the Chargers had scored on the interception and the game was basically out of reach. The defense did a good job defending the run in the second half, but their pass rush slowed down a little bit and the Chargers victimized them repeatedly with deep passes to their big wide receivers and, to a lesser extent, Antonio Gates. A 47 yard pass to Floyd down the middle and a 55 yard pass to Vincent Jackson set up two of the Chargers' scores, while a 15 yard connection to Bates set up their other offensive score. The Dolphins' defense did to a good job keeping the Chargers out of the endzone in the redzone, allowing just 1 touchdown in 6 trips there, but they couldn't stop the big play for the third week in a row. So, once again, the Dolphins' mistakes and problems with defending the big play doomed the team. Last season, the Dolphins did not make mistakes at nearly the rate they are making them this year and they need to correct that. The offense started red hot with their opening 94 yard drive, but cooled off considerably after that. The running game was good, picking up 148 yards at 4.8 ypc and the Wildcat worked well when it was used. Run blocking was generally good, although it did fail in the redzone in the 2nd quarter. The Dolphins are currently ranked 3rd in the NFL in rushing, with 161 yards per game. The passing game, however, was pretty poor until the end of the game. The Dolphins only had 140 yards passing - just 46 in the first half - at 4.4 yards per attempt, which is a dismal number. Overall, pass blocking was good but the receivers were having trouble getting open. When the number one wide receiver on the team catches zero passes, the passing game is not clicking on all cylinders. Once Chad Henne was turned loose in the 4th quarter, things picked up. On the final drive, the Dolphins passed for 62 of their 140 total passing yards and ended with a touchdown. However, that was too little, too late. Offensive stats were mixed. Rushing stats were excellent, while passing stats were awful. The Dolphins did convert 42% of their third down attempts, but only made 1 touchdown in 4 trips to the redzone and didn't score a touchdown on 2 trips inside the 10 yardline. And the offense had 2 turnovers. The defense, once again, shut down the opposing team's running game, limiting the Chargers to 69 yards rushing at 2.5 ypc. Coincidentally, the Dolphins' defense is 3rd in the NFL in defending the run, allowing just 66 yards per game. That stat is primarily due to the outstanding play of the defensive line, which has been clogging the middle of the field and collapsing the pockets of every opposing team they've faced. Unfortunately, stopping an opponents' passing attack takes more than outstanding line play. It takes pass rushing from the corners and good coverage down the field. With some notable exceptions, the Dolphins pass coverage has been poor and it was poor this game. The safeties, in particular, are consistently letting receivers get behind them and seem unable to make a play on the ball. And the linebackers also seem to be having trouble with pass coverage. The defense came up with one turnover on a sack and strip by Joey Porter, but managed no interceptions for the third game in a row, despite constant pressure on Phillip Rivers in the pocket. Special teams play is improving, although the return game still needs a breakaway return man. However, coverage on kicks was excellent this game, limiting Darren Sproles to an average of 20 yards per kickoff return and 5 yards per punt return. Coming into this game, Sproles had been averaging 33 yards per kickoff return. In team stats, Dolphins had 7 penalties for 39 yards, although several of those were either rookie mistakes or false starts after Chad Henne came in, which his different snap cadences. Chad Pennington was asked to do very little before he was injured - and he did. In about 2 and a half quarters of play, he completed 8 of 12 for 54 yards, with no TDs and no INTs. He did what he normally does - he managed the game fairly well, but did not make any big plays. Chad Henne came in for Pennington with 11:12 left in the 3rd quarter and on his first drive, lead the Dolphins to the San Diego 5, where they stalled and had to settle for a field goal. On his second drive, two false start penalties pretty much ended the drive and he went three and out on his third. On the fourth drive, Henne made a mistake and held the ball too long before trying to throw the quick out to his left and the San Diego safety jumped the route, taking the interception for a touchdown. On his fifth drive, Henne took the team down the field and Ricky Williams scored on a 14 yard touchdown run. Overall, I thought that Henne played pretty well, considering the situation he found himself in. Unfortunately, his biggest mistake was the one that ended the Dolphins' opportunity for a comeback. Ronnie Brown ran 18 times for 75 yards at 4.2 ypc, punishing anyone who got in his way. He ran the Wildcat effectively and caught 3 passes for 40 yards, including a beautiful 27 yard sideline reception on the Dolphins' only touchdown drive, where the ball was thrown almost too long, but Brown went up and came down with it. Ricky Williams had 8 carries for 55 yards (6.9 ypc) and had Miami's only touchdown run behind Donald Thomas and Vernon Carey. He also caught 4 passes for 29 yards. Patrick Cobbs was unusually quiet, rushing 1 time for 3 yards and returned 5 kickoffs for a 21.4 yard-per-return average. Lousaka Polite picked up 10 yards on 2 receptions. He also did an excellent job blocking, especially in the Wildcat. Ted Ginn,Jr did not catch a pass, although 6 passes were thrown his way. He dropped several passes late in the game and while they would have been tough catches, he should have made them. Davone Bess lead all receivers with 7 catches for 54 yards and returned one punt for 9 yards. He showed a surprising amount of strength, breaking tackles on several of his receptions. Greg Camarillo caught 2 passes for 13 yards, but is still not fully back from his knee injury. Brian Hartline got on the field and would have had a touchdown if Chad Henne had not thrown the ball beyond the line of scrimmage. He was called for one false start penalty, however. Anthony Fasano caught nothing. The offensive line was pretty steady and opened a lot of holes for the running game, while providing good protection for the quarterbacks. However, they had trouble run blocking inside the 10 yard line. With a first and goal at the San Diego 5, Vernon Carey missed a block on the Chargers' defensive end that ended with a 3 yard loss. Two plays later, at the San Diego 4 yard line, Donald Thomas missed a block on that same defensive end which resulted in another loss and forced Miami to settle for a field goal. The biggest defensive play of the game was made by Joey Porter in the second quarter, when he hit Phillip Rivers and caused a fumble at the Chargers' 28. Unfortunately, Porter aggravated his hamstring problems and sat out the second half. He ended the game with 2 tackles and one sack. Will Allen lead the team with 7 tackles, but was roasted on several plays by the big San Diego receivers and drew a pass interference penalty. Yeremiah Bell also had 7 tackles and a quarterback hurry on a blitz, but had trouble staying behind the San Diego receivers. Akin Ayodele had 6 tackles, but got burned in coverage several times and many of his tackles were downfield. Channing Crowder had 6 tackles, and was instrumental in stopping the running game, as most of his tackles came at or close to the line of scrimmage. However, he also had trouble with pass coverage. Gibril Wilson had 5 tackles, but was left behind on several deep routes and seems to be having a lot of trouble with coverage. Kendall Langford had another very good game, abusing the Chargers' rookie right guard while getting 5 tackles and 1 sack. He was pushing his way into the backfield for most of the game. Randy Starks, Jason Ferguson and Paul Soliai each had 3 tackles while one of Starks' tackles was for a 1 yard loss on Darren Sproles. Jason Taylor had 2 tackles, 2 quarterback hurries and knocked down one pass. He was also about 6 inches from getting an interception that he could have returned for a touchdown, but couldn't quite reach the ball. Phillip Merling had 2 tackles and recovered the fumble that was caused by Joey Porter. It was Miami's first takeaway this year. Backup safety Tyrone Culver had 1 tackle and knocked down one pass intended for Antonio Gates. Sean Smith had 1 tackle and did a good enough job in coverage that Rivers almost never threw his way. He did have one rookie mistake, however. Smith had excellent position on Chargers' receiver Malcom Floyd on a deep post pattern, but tried to come down with an interception and while he could have knocked the ball away, he couldn't quite get both hands on the ball and Floyd caught it for a 47 yard gain. Vontae Davis was mostly invisible, although he did knock down one San Diego pass. On special teams, Jason Allen had two tackles, stopping Darren Sproles for no gain on one kick and after 3 yards on another. Dan Carpenter made both his field goals. The Dolphins' problems continued this week with exactly the same kind of performance they've had in the first two weeks. The offense can't pass effectively and the defense can't stop the pass - especially the big play. And while I really, REALLY hate to second guess Tony Sparano, Jeff Ireland or Bill Parcells, it is beginning to look like the Dolphins have built a team on older and possibly outmoded principals of football. They have done what has been successful for Bill Parcells in the past - they have built an offense based on the power running game and built a defense to stop the run. And they have been quite successful at both. The Dolphins drafted Vontae Davis, at least in part because of his ability to tackle. The Dolphins require their defensive backs to be good at run support - which is not a bad thing, but the first priority of defensive backs in today's NFL must be the ability to cover opposing receivers, not to support the run. The Dolphins are now third in the NFL in rushing and third at stopping the run, which is a past formula for success in the NFL. And yet, they are 0-3. I even read somewhere recently that Bill Parcells has said that the Dolphins do not need a dominant wide receiver. I do not know if this is true, but it would match the Giants' Superbowl teams of the 80s. But this is not the 1980s. It is two decades later and big wide receivers in passing attacks are dominating offenses. Big tight ends who can run and catch are becoming much more important than blocking tight ends. To be fair to the Dolphins, they have tried to add some big wide receivers to the roster. Ernest Wilford, Brandon London, Joey Haynos and Patrick Turner (and to a lesser extent, Brian Hartline) have been attempts to add really big receivers to the lineup. However, to really use those receivers, the team must actually create a gameplan based on their abilities and throw down the field to them. Why have we not seen the fade route to the corner of the endzone directed to 6'8" Joey Haynos? Is he really that poor a receiver? Seems to me a jump ball to him once in a while would be worth a try. Last Sunday, the only touchdown drive the Dolphins had was when Dan Henning let Henne throw down the field. The only interception and the defensive touchdown the Chargers got was when the Dolphins were throwing the little short passes, which the Chargers anticipated. So I have to ask - in the days when big receivers are dominating the league and new passing records are being set almost every year, why are the Dolphins trying to run an offense from the 1980s?
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