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Dolphins 2009 Training Camp: Day 7 - Sat, Aug 8th |  | ||||||||
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Injury Reports | Future Schedule | My Comments | Related Links TODAY'S SUMMARY: The Dolphins had two practices on Saturday, but the first one was a short (one hour) practice in anticipation of the afternoon scrimmage that took place in the bubble in shorts and shoulder pads. Most reports of the morning practice are not very complimentary. Tony McDaniel continued as the starter in the right defensive end spot and Donald Thomas and Shawn Murphy traded off as starters at the right guard spot, although Murphy reportedly got most of the snaps. Chad Henne and Pat White got most of the reps at quarterback in the morning session. The reports of the performance of most of the other players included dropped passes and dropped interceptions, fumbled snaps and blown coverages. Apparently, most of the players' attention was on the scrimmage later in the day. The afternoon practice was the "stand-up" scrimmage, consisting of approximately 92 plays in 10 series of 9 or 10 plays each. What made this a "stand-up" scrimmage was that there was contact, but no tackling to the ground. Obviously, some of the players wound up on the ground, but when we talk of sacks and tackles, we're not talking about actually knocking people down intentionally. QB Chad Pennington only ran two series of plays in the scrimmage, while Henne and White split the other eight. Unofficially, Pennington went about 5 of 14 for 32 yards and no scores, Henne was 11 of 18 for about 148 with a TD and White did well, going 11 of 19 for about 108 yards with 2 TDs. If you want a play-by-play rundown of the entire scrimmage, read the Palm Beach Post blog by Edgar Thompson entitled "Jason Taylor Dominates Miami Dolphins' Scrimmage". The link is below. Both offense and defense had their share of highlights, but the star of the day was Jason Taylor, who continues to start at strongside linebacker. Despite lining up on the strong side (normally the side of the line where the offense puts their tight end, so there are typically more blockers), Taylor collected two sacks and a QB hurry in 31 plays. Offensive highlights included Patrick Cobbs turning a screen pass into a 45 yard touchdown, Brian Hartline catching a 35 yard pass while beating Vontae Davis, White throwing a 47 yard pass to Anthony Armstrong, who beat Jason Allen and White hitting 5'9" receiver Chris Williams for a juggling touchdown. On defense, players who were noticed (beside Jason Taylor) included linebackers Quentin Moses, Charlie Anderson and Cameron Wake who all collected sacks, with Moses and Wake both impressing onlookers with their play. Sean Smith had the only interception of the day, while Vontae Davis was beaten badly by Brian Hartline. And nose tackle Paul Soliai ran 35 yards downfield in coverage on a zone blitz. That must have been impressive. On the downside, the team did have some trouble with penalties, especially in the red zone. Coach Sparano said that the team had 9 penalties, including 3 false starts. Pat White fumbled one snap and had to fall on the ball while Anthony Fasano dropped two passes. Overall, the coaches saw some spirited play and will evaluate what they saw today, which the players have off. On Monday, the coaches will most likely be making adjustments to the lineups based on the scrimmage. Coach Sparano seemed pleased with the scrimmage, saying "I thought there was great energy, both sides of the ball. I thought physically the guys did a pretty nice job of competing against each other and I thought at times flashed some pretty good things in the run game, a couple of good pass rushes. " Rookie TE John Nalbone, who has not had a great camp so far, came up big in the scrimmage, catching several passes - most reports say he came down with 3 - including one that was tipped and another that he had a touchdown. CB Sean Smith had the only interception of the day on a pass from Ted Ginn,Jr to Ronnie Brown. The most impressive thing about this interception was that Smith recognized that it was a wide receiver pass play after having seen it once in the off-season and put himself in the right position to make the play, where he out-jumped Ronnie Brown. Brian Hartline smoked Vontae Davis down the sideline on a long pass from Chad Henne. Pat White seems to be improving and had a decent showing in the scrimmage, throwing two touchdown passes. However, he also fumbled a snap and overthrew a couple of passes rather badly.
Donald Thomas got some work as the starting right guard in what Sparano called the "Donald Thomas" package, which were a series of pre-planned plays allowing Thomas to work back some more from his injury. When Thomas wasn't working at right guard, Shawn Murphy took his place with the starters. Tony McDaniel continued to work at right defensive end on the starting lineup, ahead of Phillip Merling, but did not contribute any big plays. Davone Bess started opposite Ted Ginn,Jr at wide receiver, leaving Greg Camarillo with the second string. Eric Green continues to start at cornerback opposite Will Allen, but Sean Smith and Vontae Davis got to work together with the starting defense in place of Will Allen and Green. All in all, it sounds as if Smith had the better day, showing off his intelligence in recognizing the receiver pass, while Davis was beaten by Hartline.
Matt Roth continues conditioning drills while Donald Thomas continues to get increasing amounts of work with the starters.
The players have Sunday off and resume practice on Monday with two sessions at 9 AM and 5 PM.
The purpose of the scrimmage was for the coaches to get the most competitive look yet at the players. With that in mind, here is how I think the players did on Saturday: Jason Taylor, who was already drawing rave reviews from Tony Sparano, put on a show and, in no uncertain terms, is making his case to be the starting strongside linebacker. If Matt Roth has a shot at keeping his starting job, he needs to get back on the field. John Nalbone, Brian Hartline, Quentin Moses, Cameron Wake and Sean Smith saw their stock rise on Saturday - especially Nalbone and Smith. Vontae Davis saw his stock fall a bit, despite Coach Sparano's comments saying that Davis did a good job against the run. Davis said he knew what Hartline was doing, but bit on the move anyway. In contrast, Smith showed exceptional memory retention, remembering a play he'd seen once about 3 months ago and reacted correctly to the play, getting the pick. Chad Henne is developing nicely, although Chad Pennington is still clearly the leader. Pat White still has a long way to go, but is making progress and should be able to contribute this year. Someone needs to step up and claim the right defensive spot. This has not happened yet. I think it's fair to say that this scrimmage was a success. It will be very interesting to see what changes (if any) the coaches make on Monday.
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