The Packers handed the Dolphins their first loss on Sunday and while a loss is never a good thing for a team, the Dolphins played well enough that they were always in the game against the incumbent SuperBowl champions. It was a game where the Dolphins were leading midway into the third quarter and had a chance to pull it out at the end. It was nothing like the blowout that the bettors had in mind when they made the Dolphins a 12 point underdog.
Especially in the first half, the Dolphins controlled the tempo of the game, keeping the ball for 19 minutes and moving down the field at will. They got inside the Packer 20 on 3 occasions, but could only come away with 9 points. The Dolphins defense, meanwhile, played pretty well, but made a few key mistakes that allowed the Packers to go up by the score of 10 to 9 at halftime.
The Packers were more in control in the 2nd half and that, plus a few failed gambles sunk the team to their 23-18 loss. Overall, the Dolphins played just about the same kind of game that they played last week against the Oilers. The offense got lots of yards, but couldn't seem to score a touchdown.
They played tough, but the offense couldn't seem to get it's act together enough to score the touchdowns that they needed to have a chance in this game.
RUSHING: The Dolphins did run the ball somewhat successfully in the first half, getting 54 yards on 16 carries. Abdul-Jabbar accounted for most of that with 48 yards on 12 carries and a nice 21 yard run. However, in the second half, the Dolphins running game disappeared again, gaining only 5 net yards in the entire second half. The reason for this disappearance is a mystery, but team must solve this problem if the running game is ever to be effective.
The running backs were fairly effective and the offensive line was opening a number of holes in the first half. However, once the Packers' Gilbert Brown went down with a knee injury, the Packers became better at stuffing the Dolphins' running game. Why they did this remains a mystery, because Brown was one of their better run stuffers. The only thing that makes sense to me is that the Packers began to play more of a run-oriented defense because they were concerned about the absence of Brown and this shut down the Dolphins runners. GRADE: C-
PASSING: The pass offense gave a particularly inept showing on Sunday, with dropped balls, incorrect pass routes and bad passes being the order of the day. However, despite the problems, the Dolphins were able to move up and down the field quite well, especially in the first half.
After the game, the entire coaching staff went over the game on tape in an effort to find the cause of the passing problems. They dissected the game play by play and assigned a cause to each of the 26 incompletions that the Dolphins had on Sunday, and here is how it graded out:
The causes of the incompletions were as follows: 10 poor receiver routes, four receiver drops, two receivers falling down, one quality pass break-up, two pressures yielded by the offensive line and eight poor throws. That seems to indicate that the problems must be shared between the receivers and Dan Marino, although Marino only gets about half the blame the receivers do.
The offensive line doesn't get any of this blame because they yielded no sacks and few pressures on Sunday to one of the best defensive lines in the NFL.
If it wasn't for the touchdown to Charles Jordan and the mass of yardage, this performance wouldn't be worth grading, but because the Dolphins did get 240 yards and because Jordan started to come around, the Dolphins pass - barely. GRADE: D+
RUN DEFENSE: The run defense was very good in the beginning of the game, yielding only 37 yards rushing in the first half, but as the Packers began to control the ball more towards the end of the game, the Dolphins' defense slowed down and Dorsey Levens was able to pick up more yardage. By the end of the game, the Dolphins' defense had exhausted itself enough to give up 121 yards to Levens, with over 90 coming in the 2nd half. GRADE: C
PASS DEFENSE: The pass defense was again the best part of the main team structure. While the Dolphins did give up 250 yards passing, they constantly put pressure on Favre and covered his wide receivers well enough to keep them relatively in check. The biggest problem that the defense had was covering the fullback and tight end. On a number of plays, these players got wide open and were able to make yardage. This was much more damaging to the Dolphins than the wide receivers were. GRADE: B-
KICKING GAME: Olindo Mare' made all four of his field goals and while none of them were long, it kept the Dolphins in the game. Also, the kickoffs were generally deep and the coverage on the kicking game was excellent, including forcing the fumble on Bill Schroeder in the first quarter.
Schroeder is one of the better young return men in football, but the Dolphins were able to restrict him to 18 total yards on 3 punt returns.
Also, the fake field goal by John Kidd in the first half allowed the Dolphins to keep a drive alive. Unfortunately, the fake punt in the second half was a miserable failure and keeps this grade from being higher. GRADE: A
KICK RETURN GAME: The kick return game suffered from a penalty, but otherwise did fairly well. The kickoff returners averaged about 20 yards a kickoff and Ismail showed that he has some speed and will be dangerous. Jordan had one nice punt return for 24 yards also. GRADE: A
Special teams continues to be a high point, with the players doing as well as any group in the league. The kicking and kick return games are as good as any I've seen in the time I've been following the Dolphins.
Also, the pass blocking was amazing. Right tackle James Brown deserves special credit for going up against Reggie White all day and only really allowing White to get in Marino's face once. When the game was over, the Packers had not sacked Marino once.
And the pass rush and pass coverage were pretty good. The pass rush, while only recording one sack, repeatedly flushed Favre out of the pocket and caused him to scramble. Unfortunately for the Dolphins, Favre is not intimidated by this kind of play, but it was still a decent performance by the pass rushers.
The defensive backs played well also. The Packers two wide receivers are two of the best in the game and they were well covered for most of the day. Terrell Buckley, in particular, did not succumb to the pressure of playing back in Green Bay and had a good game.
Obviously, offensive production is still seriously lacking. The Dolphins have to find a way to put some spark in that offense. The Marino-to-receivers connection must be fixed or the Dolphins will not be winning nearly enough games this year.
The Dolphins' linebackers had a poor day also. Levens gained too many yards bouncing outside, especially late in the game. And Chmura and Henderson were wide open too many times. Now, it may not be the linebackers' fault, but they are normally responsible for controlling those areas of the field. I suspect that it was not a lack of talent, but rather a lack of experience that caused the problems and that will be fixed with time, but they didn't have a very good game.
Marino did not have a very good day. He did complete 21 of 47 for 240 yards and a touchdown. He also drew an intentional grounding call when he almost went down in the 4th quarter. Overall, however, he had plenty of time to throw and while much of the blame must go to poor route running and drops on the part of his receivers, Dan had his share of miscues, also.
Karim Abdul-Jabbar had a good 1st half on the ground, gaining 48 yards on 12 carries for a 4 yard-per-carry average, but vanished again in the second half, actually getting a minus 3 yards on 3 runs in the second half. He also caught 2 passes for only 2 yards.
Irving Spikes was practicully invisible on Sunday, gaining just 4 yards on 3 carries, not catching a pass and returning one kickoff for just 18 yards.
Bernie Parmalee caught 1 pass for 11 yards and was the unforunate player chosen to try and run the ball on the fake punt where he could only gain 2 yards.
Charles Jordan rebounded against the Packers, catching 4 passes for 100 yards, including a 44 yard reception and the Dolphins only touchdown pass, where he adjusted nicely to the ball. Jordan also had 28 yards on two punt returns with one of them going for 24 yards.
OJ McDuffie received double and triple-teaming from the Packers all day and as a result, caught only 4 passes for 36 yards.
Fred Barnett had a particularly bad day, catching just 3 passes for 22 yards and dropping at least 3 and perhaps 4 passes that I counted, although JJ only blames him for one drop. According to JJ, he also ran 4 routes incorrectly during the game. This is a shockingly bad performance from the receiver who was second on the team in receptions last year even after missing half the season.
Jerris McPhail returned to the game this week, but didn't make a particularly big splash as he caught 4 passes for just 24 yards and dropped at least one and perhaps two passes.
Brian Manning made his first catch in a regular season game on Sunday, but it was just one for 14 yards. Also, Troy Drayton started strong, catching 2 passes for 31 yards on the Dolphins first drive, but not even getting near the ball for the rest of the game.
On defense, Zach Thomas lead the tacklers with 11 total tackles, but too many of those were downfield, especially late in the game. Derrick Rodgers was right behind Zach with 9 tackles and he also got the only sack of the day.
Terrell Buckley had 7 tackles and while he didn't get any interceptions or passes defensed, he played close coverage and wasn't beaten all day.
Jason Taylor had just 4 tackles, but managed to get his hands in the air and knock down a Brett Favre pass.
Gardener and Bowens combined for 5 tackles between them and got no sacks, although Bowens made a nice stop and both players got to chase Favre around the field a lot while they were successful in bringing some pressure on him.
Trace Armstrong also managed to get some pressure on Favre, but only got 1 tackle and when Dorsey Levens was breaking those long runs in the 4th quarter, most of them came over Armstrong's area.
Dunstan Anderson played sparingly and only had one tackle, but did have what might have been a critical fumble recovery late in the game. Bracey Walker recovered the other Green Bay fumble on the punt in the first quarter.
Olindo Mare' hit all 4 field goals that he was asked to make and while John Kidd didn't punt all that well - he had a 40 yards average - he did successfully complete the field goal attempt sneak for a 1st down early in the game.
The Dolphins had no serious injuries in this game. Corey Harris did have to sit out a play after being banged up in the 3rd quarter, he did return in the 4th.
I don't know how I should feel about this game. While I'm sad about the loss and mad about certain things that happened during the game, I think that the Dolphins played well and had a chance to win the game against the defending world champions.
On thing that has impressed me about this team this year has been it's consistency. In 3 games so far, we have seen the exact same team pretty much for all 3 games.
Now, while I would certainly agree that there are some aspects of the game that they would be better off if they weren't consistent in (such as dropped passes), it is refreshing to see a Dolphins team that is playing consistent football, because that is the start of a very good team.
Also, I think that the Dolphins will improve as the season goes on. Last year, they backpedaled some in the middle of the season after Marino went down and JJ kept firing people. I don't see that happening this year.
But I think that it is fair to say that I expected the Dolphins to be 2-1 at this point in the season, so I'm not too disappointed. At least, I'm not any more disappointed than I would be with any other loss.
A more important test will happen Sunday night against the Buccaneers. The Bucs are a vastly improved team and if the Dolphins are going to be serious team this year, they must beat the Bucs.
So now the most intimidating game on the schedule is over and while the Dolphins didn't win, they did play well and gave the Packers a real game. And that, to me, says that this year's Dolphins, despite all their problems, can play competitively with any team in the league.