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Dolphins Game Summary: Pre-Season vs Redskins |  | ||||||||
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With a few notable exceptions, the Dolphins played a very sloppy, lackluster and apparently unmotivated game on Saturday night as they dragged their collective feet on the way to a 17-0 defeat at the hands of the Washington Redskins . Neither the offense nor the defense had good showings and allowed the Redskins to control nearly every aspect of the game from beginning to end. The game began at 7:30 under partly cloudy skies with temperature around 85 degrees. On offense, the Dolphins started AJ Feeley at quarterback and went with a two tight end set because Rob Konrad was out, which gave Donald Lee the start opposite Randy McMichael. At right guard, Taylor Whitley started, otherwise the offense was the same as last week's. On defense, with Sam Madison, Pat Surtain and Will Poole sidelined, the starting cornerbacks were Reggie Howard and Jimmy Wyrick, who just re-signed with the team last week. Antuan Edwards got the nod as starting free safety, while Jeff Zgonina filled in for Tim Bowens. The offense actually started better than last week by picking up some yardage running the ball on the first series. Unfortunately, that ended when Chambers fumbled and after that, the offense was basically shut down by the Redskins. The run blocking was poor again this week. Dolphins' running backs ended the night with 15 carries for 20 yards. The pass protection was also poor and the offense as a whole never did learn how to deal with the Redskins' blitzes. As a result, the 4 Dolphins' quarterbacks combined to throw 10 completions in 26 attempts for 78 yards and a combined passer rating of 46.6. The result, of course, was no points for Miami. On defense, the players looked pretty lethargic, getting moved out of the way on running plays and not generating much in the way of a pass rush. There were actually some highlights on defense, with Antuan Edwards, Derrick Pope, Tony Bua and Corey Jenkins supplying most of them. But overall, the defense was not terribly impressive. The Redskins' quarterbacks completed 10 of 17 for 120 yards against Miami, with Mark Brunell doing most of the damage. That doesn't sound like much and it's not, but the Redskins didn't want or need to throw much. Instead, they ran the ball 54 times for 181 yards at 3.4 yards per carry. 3.4 yards per carry is not that great a rushing average, but it's enough to get you a first down every 3 plays, which is really what the Redskins did, controlling the clock and the time of possession. The biggest failure by the defense, however, was not being able to stop the Redskins on 3rd down. Washington converted 53% of their 3rd downs, which is exceptionally high. The biggest play of the night for the Dolphins was Fred Russell's 49 yard kickoff return, that may have cemented his place on the team. Unfortunately, the offense was unable to take advantage of that return. Overall, it was just a sloppy, unmotivated performance. It's hard to know why the team was so lethargic, but the silver lining was that the problems with their performance were not about a lack of talent, but rather about a lack of energy or motivation. The best thing about this game was that it was only a pre-season game. Otherwise there was very little to cheer about as a team. Everything. AJ Feeley started this game, but was not sharp. For most of the time he was in the game, he took a long time to decide where to throw and his throws tended to be off-target, either behind or ahead of the receivers. It is amazing he wasn't sacked more than the single time he went down, because he was holding the ball too long and the offensive line was not doing a particularly good job picking up the blitz. Feeley ended up completing 4 of 8 for 36 yards. Jay Fiedler came in and didn't do any better, completing 4 of 9 for 41 yards. He was also blitzed constantly and he was plagued by receivers running the wrong routes. Sage Rosenfels was only in the game for 1 series and completed 1 of 2 passes for 5 yards. Clint Stoerner actually got in the game, but was downright awful, completing just 1 of 7 passes for -4 yards. Travis Minor had a better week this week, but it would have been hard not to improve on his performance of a week ago. He carried 4 times for 12 yards in the first series, but was ineffectual after that, finishing the night with 8 carries for 15 yards and 1 reception for 4 yards. It wasn't all his fault, because the offensive line was not opening holes for him, but he didn't show any great ability, either. Fred Russell had 4 carries from the backfield for a net -2 yards while Renaldo Works actually lead the running backs with a 2.3 yard per carry average. Chris Chambers caught 3 passes for 30 yards, including a nice diving catch on the first series to keep the drive alive. But he also fumbled when knocked down by Sean Taylor of the Redskins. Derrius Thompson started opposite Chambers, but caught only 1 pass for 6 yards. Antonio Freeman got in the game and caught one pass for 19 yards. However, he also had a little trouble knowing which route to run. He zigged when he should have zagged a couple of times and missed a couple of other balls thrown to where he was supposed to be. Ron Bellamy and Sam Simmons each caught one pass for 9 yards, while Doug Easlick caught 1 for 5 yards. Neither Randy McMichael or Donald Lee caught a pass. On the offensive line, there continues to be a little confusion about blocking assignments on the blitz. Otherwise, nothing in particular stood out, although I did see Taylor Whitley have some trouble with a blitzing Redskin on one play. Then again, most of the offensive line had trouble at one point or another. The defensive line was largely unimpressive against the Redskins, with Nate Bolling leading all defensive linemen with 4 tackles. Overall, the DL did a fair job of clogging the middle of the line against the run, but didn't get any pressure against the Redskins quarterbacks (0 sacks by Miami) and didn't contain runners who were swinging to the outside. The starting linebackers only played about a quarter and were merely OK. Junior Seau started off the night with an offsides penalty, but came back later on to make a stop for a 4 yard loss. He had 3 tackles on the night. Zach Thomas is not credited with a tackle, while Morlon Greenwood had 2 assists. Derrick Pope got extensive playing time as the backup middle linebacker and ended the night with 7 tackles, two of which were for losses. He also had a special teams tackle and knocked down a pass. Pope showed exceptional instincts and agressiveness and while he made a couple of rookie mistakes, he is clearly a very good player who could be starting someday. Tony Bua also had some nice plays, breaking up a running play by getting into the backfield on one play and making a stop for a loss on another. However, Tony is a little too aggressive sometimes and overran a couple of potential tackles. He was also one of the fliers on the punting team. Bua needs to stay in control on the field if he wants to be a full time player and not just a special teams expert. Brendan Ayanbadejo quietly had 6 tackles and a special teams stop. Corey Jenkins had 4 tackles and a pass defensed. Leading the team in tackles was backup safety Yeremiah Bell with 8, but he also had a couple of blown coverages. Getting his first start in the competition to play free safety, Antuan Edwards had 8 tackles also, including a couple of pretty impressive hits on Redskins' backs. Overall, I thought he looked good, but he also appeared to have a couple of coverage mistakes. However, I thought he looked better than Arturo Freeman. None of the other defensive players stood out for me. On special teams, Olindo only kicked off once and put it 3 yards deep in the endzone. On the other hand, Matt Turk got a lot of work, punting 8 times for a 45 yard average per punt. The special teams did a good job in coverage on the punts, allowing an average of just 2 yards per return. The only really good news about this game is that there were no injuries. Before we all go jumping off the bridge together in agony about our lost season, I think it's important to remember that the Dolphins did not do any game planning for this game, while this was the critical third pre-season game for the Redskins. The 'Skins obviously felt that they could blitz effectively and run on Miami and they were right. And Miami's cornerbacks were do depleted that Jimmy Wyrick started on one side opposite Reggie Howard. Still, it's not encouraging to see the team play as lethargically as they did on Saturday night. Overall, they just looked listless and tired and not interested in being on the field. There are exceptions to every rule, of course. Derrick Pope, in particular, looked like a tasmanian devil on the field and did an excellent job. He and Will Poole are going to be the stars of this draft and both will turn out to be late round steals. Watching this game from the "Hall of Champions" was a mixed blessing, to be sure. Those of you who get the chance to watch the game from there should do it - once. You can't see all that well from this endzone luxury box and if you stay inside, you can't hear the announcements on the field, although you can watch from air-conditioned comfort. Of course, it surely would have been better if the Dolphins had played better. The bottom line for me was that this was a disappointing game, but not something that will keep me awake at night, worrying about the rest of the season. Let's see what they do this weekend before we throw in the towel.
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