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Dolphins Game Summary: Titans at Dolphins |  | ||||||||
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The Tennessee Titans beat the Miami Dolphins 17-7 in the season opener on Saturday, Sep 11th. The game had been moved up a day to allow both teams to avoid getting clobbered or stranded by Hurricane Ivan, although that would later turn out to be unnecessary as Ivan decided to take his anger out on Jamaica and Cuba and spare South Florida. The weather at gametime was partly cloudy, with a temperature of 87F (30.8C), humidity at 72% and a mild wind from the east at 7 mph. The Dolphins were without starting fullback Rob Konrad and starting defensive tackle Tim Bowens due to injuries. In their places, the Dolphins had rookie Doug Easlick starting at fullback and veteran Jeff Zgonina at defensive tackle. Otherwise, the roster was intact. The game was not a display of offensive fireworks by any means. The Titans did most of their work on offense on the ground, rushing for 182 yards on 36 carries while passing for just 73 yards. The Dolphins had trouble stopping the Titans' running game in the middle of the field, but were much tougher down at the goal line, repeatedly stopping the Titans in redzone and goal-to-go situations. The Dolphins' offense was more pass oriented than run oriented, but the chief problem for the Dolphins was the interceptions. Jay Fiedler threw two in the first half and if Samari Rolle had held on to a ball that was in his stomach, it would have been three. AJ Feeley looked better than Fiedler when he took over in the 2nd half, but still threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown. The Titans' blitz was much more effective against the Dolphins in the 2nd half than it was in the first. The bottom line of this game for the Dolphins, however, was mistakes. Between the three interceptions, a couple of crucial penalties and some sloppy play by some key players, they were not in a position to beat a good team like the Titans. Talnet-wise, the Dolphins stacked up fairly well against the Titans, but with the repeated bonehead errors, a number of good plays were negated and that killed the game. The Dolphins' offense actually gained more yards than the Titans' offense, which is hard to imagine given the final results. However, the mistakes made by the offense more than negated any amount of yardage they could put up. The running game was hampered by some injuries during the game. Both Travis Minor and Sammy Morris were injured during the course of the game and that put Lamar Gordon in the lineup with only two days of practice with the team. Gordon did a good job considering the circumstances, but was ultimately ineffective. The passing game started off very poorly with Jay Fiedler make several bad judgements on passes in the 1st half. He had 2 interceptions and would have had 3 if Sammari Rolle hadn't dropped one. This is particularly bad when you realize that Jay had plenty of time to throw for most of the first half. He was only sacked once and rarely pressured. The passing attack picked up when AJ Feeley entered the game in the 2nd half, but the Titans made some defensive adjustments and blitzed a lot more, putting a lot more pressure on him than they managed to put on Jay Fiedler. The run blocking was not terribly good, but did appear to be improved over the pre-season and against last year's number one run defense in the league, they did about as well as can be expected. The pass blocking was pretty good for most of the afternoon, allowing Jay and AJ time to throw. They had some trouble with the Tennessee blitz in the 2nd half, but not enough to stop them. Overall, the offense's biggest problem was not so much being overmatched as making mistakes. The team as a whole had 14 penalties on Saturday, which is about 10 more then they should have. They had a couple of 3rd down conversions missed because receivers were cutting their routes off 1 yard short of the first down markers. And there were the interceptions, none of which were especially great plays on the part of the Titans. On defense, the run stoppers had a rough afternoon. If you take away the 52 yard run from Chris Brown and the 26 yard carry from Antuwan Smith, the Dolphins allowed 104 yards on 34 carries, which is about 3 yards per carry. And that would be very good - if you really could take those away. Unfortunately, those two big plays were instrumental in sinking the Dolphins. The pass defense was very good, limiting the Titans to 61 net yards passing. They got 2 sacks on McNair and forced him to scramble two other times, while the longest completion the Titans managed was less than 20 yards. That's not too bad against a Titans' offense that was 5th in the NFL in passing last year. On special teams, the Dolphins did a pretty good job, with the notable exception of Olindo Mare's missed 46 yard field goal. Matt Turk averaged about 43 yards per punt and the Titans didn't have any big returns. The return game, while not generating any big plays, did show some promise with the addition of Lamont Brightful. The coaching performance was less than stellar, although it could have been worse. While it's difficult to tell for certain, it appeared that the gameplan did not include Chris Chambers enough until late in the game and even then, the attempts were all short passes. Chambers' longest catch was 10 yards. As the Dolphins' most dangerous offensive weapon, he should have been featured much more. Also, the defensive gameplan appeared to be designed to counter a passing game and wasn't adjusted until the second half. On Chris Brown's 52 yard run, it appeared that the Dolphins' linebackers were at least 5 yards off the ball, creating a huge cushion for the Titans to attack. And the decision to punt on 4th and 1 at the Titans' 49 in the 4th quarter now appears to have been a mistake. Jay Fiedler had an unusually bad day, completing just 5 of 13 passes for 42 yards, with 2 picks before being benched at halftime. At least one (and possibly more) other passes could have been interceptions, going through the hands of Titans' defenders. Considering the fact that the pass rush was not very heavy - Fiedler was sacked once and forced to scramble once - it was as bad a performance as he's ever had. AJ Feeley took over for Jay Fiedler in the 2nd half and completed 21 of 31 for 168 yards and 1 TD, plus 1 interception. Unfortunately, the interception was returned for a touchdown by the Titans and turned the game from a close contest to a more desperate situation. That pick was caused by an unblocked blitzing linebacker, however, and was the result of inexperience more than lack of arm strength. Travis Minor carried 5 times for 25 yards and caught 1 pass for 20 yards. He was having a good game until he injured his ankle in the first half and had to be replaced. Sammy Morris carried 1 time for 2 yards and caught 1 pass for 6 yards before he, too, was injured. Lamar Gordon was forced into service by the injuries to Travis Minor and Sammy Morris before he was really ready. The original plan was to use Gordon only in limited situations, but he ended up playing well over half the offensive snaps. He ended the day with 12 carries for 32 yards and caught 5 passes for 30 yards. He showed bursts of speed and power and did an excellent job for someone who had been to just 2 practices before playing. Unfortunately, his biggest mistake was costly - he missed the block on the blitzing linebacker that caused AJ Feeley to throw the interception. He later said that on that play, he had intinctively done what they told him to do in St. Louis in that situation - which is different that what the Dolphins do. Doug Easlick was the number 1 fullback and caught 1 pass for 4 yards, while doing his best to block for the tailbacks. He was pretty good, but is obviously a rookie. Randy McMichael was the offensive star of the day, catching 8 passes for 79 yards and the Dolphins' only touchdown. 7 of those passes were from AJ Feeley in the 2nd half. Chris Chambers caught 6 passes for just 35 yards, mostly in the 2nd half and carried the ball once on a reverse for 6 yards. How much of that due to game planning and how much was due to the Titans' defense is unclear, but it sure seemed like the Dolphins' gameplan didn't include throwing deep to Chambers except in pretty obvious situations. Marty Booker had a miserable day, catching 4 passes for 36 yards and committing 2 penalties. Two of his catches were on third down where Booker ran a yard short of the first down marker and was tackled for no gain. He was a disappointment. The offensive line did a decent job, considering the level of the competition, the rotating backfield and their own injuries. They gave up 3 sacks, but at least one of those sacks was caused by AJ Feeley holding the ball too long. The only really bad breakdown I saw was when Seth McKinney wiffed on a block against the Titans' nose tackle that resulted in a sack. But by then the game was out of reach anyway. Vernon Carey got into the game late after John St.Clair had an ankle injury. Carey did a good job subbing at right tackle. On defense, Zach Thomas lead the team in tackles with 13, of which 6 were for no gain or minus yards. Unfortunately, Zach can't play every position. Larry Chester was second on the team with 6 tackles, including 1 forced fumble and 3 of those tackles were for 1 yard or less. Losing weight has really helped Chester. He's going to be a real force in the middle this year. Junior Seau had 6 tackles, a sack and recovered a fumble. Junior is blitzing a lot more this year. Antuan Edwards started at free safety and had 5 tackles while forcing 1 fumble. He dragged down Chris Brown from behind after Brown's 52 yard run, preventing a touchdown. However, he might have been out of position on that play. DE Jay Williams had a good day in the defensive line rotation, making 3 tackles, getting a sack, knocking down a pass and forcing a fumble. He didn't officially start, but he did get a lot of playing time. Sammy Knight also had 3 solo tackles, including a stop of Robert Holcombe on 3rd down for a 2 yard loss. Otherwise, Sammy was pretty quiet. Morlon Greenwood was in on 3 tackles, but seemed to have problems dealing with the Titans' blockers. Jeff Zgonina was in on 3 tackles, while David Bowens had just one. I list these two guys together, because they formed the left side of the defensive line that was ineffective at stopping the Titans' running game. Both big gains by Titans' RBs came over Bowens and Zgonina. The Dolphins missed Tim Bowens at that spot. Sam Madison had 2 solo tackles, knocked down a pass and forced a fumble. He had a good day. Patrick Surtain had 2 solo tackles also, but was injured late in the game. Brian Robinson had 1 tackle as the new guy on the defensive line, but we'll see more of him in future games. Jason Taylor had only 1 solo tackle, but the Titans went out of their way to block and disrupt him on every play with 2 or 3 players. Will Poole had 1 tackle and did a decent job in coverage, but had 2 offside penalties during onsides kickoffs late in the game. To be fair to Poole, he was subbing for Pat Surtain in a position he hadn't played before, but any player in the NFL should know better than to be offsides on a kickoff. Poole also returned one kickoff for 22 yards. Reggie Howard did play as the main nickel back, but is not credited with anything except a pass interference penalty in the endzone that negated a 3rd down stop and gave the Titans a 1st and goal at the Miami 1. To be fair to Howard, the pass was completely uncatchable and the penalty should not have been called. Brendan Ayanbadejo and Bryan Gilmore each had a special teams tackle. Lamont Brightful returned 2 punts for 11 yards and 3 kickoffs for an average of 25.7 yards, which is pretty good. He showed some good speed and moves and could provide some excitement this year. Matt Turk punted 6 times for an average of 43 yards, putting 2 inside the 20 and 1 in the endzone. The longest runback was 6 yards. Olindo Mare' missed a 46 yard field goal, but put one kickoff through the endzone and hit a perfect bouncing onsides kick - that was unfortunately called back because of an offsides on Will Poole. Travis Minor, Sammy Morris, John St.Clair, Patrick Surtain and AJ Feeley all had minor ankle or leg injuries during the game, but the nature of those injuries was not released by the team. As much as losing hurts, there is a lot of good things to take away from this game. First and foremost, there is nothing about this loss that indicates a weakness on the team that can't be fixed. Almost everything the Dolphins did that caused the team to lose was due to inexperience and a lack of concentration. Those things are a lot easier to fix than a lack of talent. Take AJ Feeley and Lamar Gordon, for example. Both players have very limited experience, albeit of a different kind. AJ Feeley has started just 13 games at QB in both college and the NFL. Lamar Gordon had had just 2 practices to get used to the Dolphins' system. The result of this combination lead to the touchdown on the interception. But as both players gain experience in the system, those kind of mistakes will gradually be eliminated. We may all have our patience tested, but I think both players are smart enough to learn from those mistakes and improve. The decision to replace Jay Fiedler with AJ Feeley was clearly the right one, although you have to wonder what would have happened had Dave Wannstedt made this decision before the game, instead of during it. I hope that Feeley remains the starting quarterback for the rest of the year. The offensive line played better than I was afraid they might, although they clearly have a lot of room for improvement. But again, I think the mistakes were due to inexperience and not to lack of talent. This will be a good group by the end of the year. The thing that bothered me the most was Jeff Zgonina and David Bowens getting pushed around in the running game. The Dolphins' defensive system is predicated on having the defensive linemen stuff the line of scrimmage to allow the linebackers to roam and make the plays. If Jeff Zgonina and David Bowens can't do a better job closing down that left side of the defense, the Dolphins will have trouble stopping the run all year. Overall, it was a disappointing game, but I believe that it was not one that is indicative of where the Dolphins will be in 10 weeks. At least, I hope not.
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