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The best thing about the win over Detroit on Saturday night is that Cecil Collins' injury is not as serious as previously feared. According to the latest word out of Miami, it appears that Cecil aggravated an old injury he suffered 2 years ago at LSU. At the very worst, Cecil will miss the opening game against the Broncos, but he may also be able to play against Denver. More on that later. Now that the important stuff is out of the way, let's talk about the fact that the Dolphins beat the Lions 31-10 on Saturday night. The game was a lot like one of the better Dolphins' games last year. The defense completely dominated the Lions, shutting down their running game, putting pressure on their passers and intercepting 4 passes, returning 2 for touchdowns. Like a couple of games last year, the defense alone would have been enough to win the game without the offense scoring a point. Also like last year, it took the offense a while to get started. Once they got going, they moved the ball well, but still had trouble on 3rd or 4th and short yardage. The worst example was the 4th and goal on the 1 inch line of Detroit, where Karim Abdul-Jabbar couldn't get the touchdown, despite running behind Kevin Gogan. In addition to the problems with short yardage, the offense in particular was sloppy again, getting penalized regularly. The running game ended up netting just over 100 yards, but the average gain was only 3.3 yards per carry. Some of that was due to the fact that Cecil Collins went out early, along with Stanley Pritchett. So far, it sounds like the offense was awful, doesn't it? Well, it did get off to a slow start, but after the first quarter, Marino got in sync and the offense moved up and down the field pretty well. Especially encouraging was the passing game. At one point, Marino had completed 9 passes in a row to players like Tony Martin, Yatil Green, Rob Konrad and Derrick Steagall. Marino ended the night having complete 19 of 29 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown. He didn't throw an interception and wasn't sacked. As his backup, Damon Huard completed 7 of 8 for 93 yards with a touchdown. And they accomplished this without the top 3 receivers from last year - OJ McDuffie, Lamar Thomas and Oronde Gadsden. The best thing about the passing game, though, was that the best combination of the night was Marino to Martin. Now that Tony Martin is a free man, he began showing that he can do what the Dolphins hired him to do - catch footballs. He led all receivers by catching 5 passes for 67 yards and a touchdown. You can't be too disappointed with an offense that ends up getting 395 total yards. The Dolphins' first 2 offensive series were 3 and out, but after that, each series drove a little deeper into the Lions end of the field, until the final two series of the first half, when the Dolphins drove all the way down to the Lions' goal line. Unfortunately, the first drive to the Lions' goal line ended on 4th down when the Dolphins couldn't punch it over from the 1 inch line, but the last drive of the first half ended in a touchdown pass from Marino to Martin. There were a few decent running plays, but most of the real movement in the first half came on passes to Tony Martin, a couple to Yatil Green, and a dump pass to Avery that he turned into a 31 yard gain. Cecil Collins and Karim Abdul-Jabbar alternated offensive series until Collins was injured, but that meant that Collins only got 5 carries. The offensive game plan sounded pretty good over the radio, but it's hard to tell without having been able to see the game. Most of the problems with the offense seemed to be about execution, not about play calling. Moving over to the defense, it appears that they're going to be even better this year than last year. Against the Lions, they picked off 4 passes, held the Lions to 68 rushing yards and scored 2 touchdowns. Bromell got 2 sacks, Rich Owens got a sack and so did Zach Thomas, but the entire defensive line got pressure on the Lions' quarterbacks consistently. The secondary was all over the field, with Sam Madison and Patrick Surtain each returning interceptions for touchdowns. But the most telling performance was put in by Jerry Wilson, who probably secured his roster spot by picking off a pass at the end of the first half. And Shawn Wooden picked off a pass at the end of the game. The Lions' offense only had one decent drive in the first half and that was on their first series. They got one decent run, one medium-long pass and that was about it for the rest of the first half. The rest of the half, the Dolphins defense stuffed the run, abused Charlie Batch mercilessly and blanketed the Lions' receivers. On special teams, the Dolphins ran red hot and ice cold, sometimes on the same play. In the second quarter, the Dolphins blocked a punt, but were penalized for being offsides on the same play. On another punt, Terrell Buckley had a terrific punt return deep into Lions' territory, only to fumble at the end. However, they did manage to pull off the perfect onsides kickoff in the third quarter. It took JJ using a successful instant replay challenge to overturn a penalty on the play, but it was perfectly kicked and recovered by Patrick Surtain. Overall, the goal of the game on Saturday night was to see if the team was ready for the regular season. Based on what I heard, I would say that the team isn't quite ready to face Denver, but if you take into account that they were playing without the 3 top receivers from last year, the passing game does seem to be coming along. Once the Dolphins get to the point where they can put OJ McDuffie and Tony Martin on the field at the same time, the passing game should be fine. The ultimate success of the running game will depend on the availability of Cecil Collins and JJ Johnson. It's pretty clear that Karim won't be able to do any better than he's done in the past. The short yardage game will suffer until Collins and Johnson get healthy. Unfortunately, the Dolphins weren't able to work on that much on Saturday night against the Lions. The defense is obviously ready to play and needs nothing else to get ready. It looks like Jerry Wilson has matured enough to handle his job without being the weak link this year. The only question is what to do with Dimitrius Underwood. Clearly the special teams need some work, but that's not a question of talent, but more of just working together. That will come with work, which JJ says that the Dolphins are going to get this week. Ultimately, this game was mostly a success for the team. I would have been a lot happier with a couple of deep bombs and 100 yards rushing by Cecil Collins, but overall I'm pretty happy with the game on Saturday. Dan Marino finally got on track against the Lions, commanding the team and hooking up regularly with Tony Martin. He ended up with 19 completions out of 29 attempts for 195 yards and a 5 yard TD pass to Tony Martin. He was not intercepted and was not sacked and ended up playing well into the 3rd quarter. His backup, Damon Huard, also had a great night. He completed 7 of 8 passes for 93 yards, with a 32 yard TD pass to Kio Sanford and didn't throw an interception. He was also not sacked. Karim Abdul-Jabbar ran 12 times for just 31 yards and got stuffed three times for negative yardage in short yardage situations. He also dropped a pass. I like Karim as a person, but he did nothing to keep Cecil Collins or even perhaps JJ Johnson from taking his job. Cecil Collins ran 5 times for 17 yards, but continued to show his ability. Unfortunately, he had a 10 yard run called back on a holding penalty and then got injured and didn't return after a large defensive player fell on his ankle. John Avery continued to alternately play terrificly and terribly. On one play, he took a short dump pass and turned it into a 31 yard gain. On another, he fumbled a handoff. He ended the game with 13 carries for 48 yards and caught 3 passes for 34 yards. Avery is still - well, he's still John Avery. He drives you crazy every time he touches the ball. Stanley Pritchett was playing well until he injured his knee. He had one carry for 11 yards and was blocking well. Right now, he is questionable for the opener against Denver. Rob Konrad took Pritchett's place and ended the night with 3 catches for 21 yards. His blocking was inconsistent, as you would expect of a rookie, but he did get some good blocks. The leading receiver in the game was Tony Martin, who caught 5 passes for 67 yards, including a 5 yard touchdown. His longest catch was 24 yards. Most important, however, was that he was in sync with Marino - even with OJ McDuffie on the other side to take pressure off of him. Right after Martin was Troy Drayton, who caught 5 passes. However, he only averaged 5.6 yards per catch, which is pretty low. His longest catch was 20 yards. Yatil Green caught 2 passes for 27 yards. He started opposite Tony Martin, which was surprising in itself. His two catches were impressive, but not exactly game breaking. He has a way to go, but it looks like he'll be playing this year. Kio Sanford turned in the play of the game on a 32 yard touchdown reception from Damon Huard. Sanford was signed as a free agent a couple of weeks ago and has been playing well ever since. He spent last season on the Colts' practice squad (like Nate Jacquet before him) and has come on strong ever since. On defense, Brock Marion found himself leading the team in tackles with 5 solo shots. He didn't get an interception, but he was not beaten deep and seems to have improved his game over last year. CB Ray Hill started the second half in place of Terrell Buckley and ended the night with 5 tackles, also. He is on the bubble for cuts and could make the team. Sam Madison had an outstanding night, picking off a Charlie Batch pass and returning it 46 yards for a touchdown. He also blanketed opposing receivers and was in on 4 tackles. Officially, Daryl Gardener had 3 solo tackles and knocked down a pass, but I swear I heard his name called on almost every running play Detroit had. He is really coming on strong and no one is going to be able to run over him this year. Shawn Wooden had 3 tackles and an interception late in the game. He probably didn't do enough to move himself into the starting job, but we'll be seeing a lot of him this year. Zach Thomas had 3 tackles and a sack and played like - well, like Zach. Lorenzo Bromell had 2 tackles, but both were sacks and he also forced a fumble. Robert Jones and Bryan Jones both had 2 tackles and played pretty well. Bryan Jones is on the line for a backup job, but it looks like he might have made the team at this point. Patrick Surtain had 2 tackles and an interception, which he returned 40 yards for a touchdown. He also knocked down another pass. Rich Owens had 2 tackles, one of which was a sack. As a pass rusher and a backup for Jason Taylor, Owens is looking terrific. Jason Taylor only had one official tackle, but was all over the field, knocked down Charlie Batch a couple of times and was terrific. Jerry Wilson didn't get a sack this week, but did intercept a pass late in the first half that was turned into a touchdown by the offense. Wilson was in danger of losing his job back at the beginning of training camp, but has come on strong this summer and it looks like he'll stay as the Dolphins' dime back this year. Brent Bartholemew punted well, overall, although his second punt could have been longer. He did hit a perfect short punt to pin the Lions at their 15 in the 2nd quarter and had a 50+ yarder. He needs experience, but I think he'll be ok. Olindo Mare' had a fine night, hitting his onsides kickoff perfectly, allowing Patrick Surtain to recover it. His other kickoffs were OK and he hit his only field goal attempt. There were a number of minor injuries on Saturday night, but the two big injuries were to Cecil Collins and Stanley Pritchett. Collins was injured when he leaped over a pile and had his ankle pinned under a rather large Detroit defensive lineman. Initially it looked mild as Collins walked off the field and then had the ankle taped. However, after walking around for a few minutes, he couldn't stop limping and was taken to the locker room and had his ankle X-rayed. The X-ray revealed a crack in the leg and indicated Collins might be out for 6-8 weeks. On Sunday, an MRI reversed the initial diagnosis, showing that the crack was not a new injury, but was the result of the broken leg Collins got two years ago at LSU. The injury Collins got on Saturday night was an irritation of that old injury. The current prognosis is that Collins might be ready for the opener against Denver and will certainly be available against Arizona in week 2. Stanley Pritchett has a class 2 knee sprain. This means that he also is questionable for the game against Denver, but should also be back for sure against the Cardinals in week 2. When this game ended on Saturday night, I felt that it was a dismal failure because the Dolphins had lost Cecil Collins for a month or so. Now, I feel better because Collins will be back quickly, although I'd feel even better if Collins were 100% healthy going into the Denver game. At this point, I think that the game was a qualified success. The Dolphins' passing game accomplished most of it's goals and it was especially encouraging to see Marino and Tony Martin hook up repeatedly. Also encouraging was the work that Yatil Green, Rob Konrad and (shudder) John Avery got. Avery, for the first time this year, showed what he's capable of and why JJ keeps him. He also showed why he drives everyone (including JJ, I'm sure) crazy. Hopefully, he will drive opposing teams more crazy than us Dolphins fans. The most disappointing part of the game was the short yardage failures. Would Cecil have made a difference in those cases? We'll never know, but my guess would be that he would have made 2 of the 3 that Karim failed on. On defense - what more could you ask? About the only thing the defense didn't do right was to celebrate properly. Sam Madison started strutting too soon on his touchdown return. Other than that, the Dolphins' defense couldn't have played any better. Obviously, the special teams still need work, but they'll get that this week. And they don't lack talent - just time working together. This game was the most important pre-season game for the Dolphins and I think that they did a good job getting ready for the regular season.
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curt@phins.com DOLFAN in New England |
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