Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Mmm....Cat Meat - or - The Dolphins Get Their Carolina BBQ On!




For General information on this match-up, I suggest heading back to the pre-season articles. The Pregame is here and the Re-cap is here.

Here's some of what's current.  We know that Joey Porter will be back.  We know that Sparano says he wants to rotate the LBs, and with Charlie Anderson's performance on Sunday, that task likely got tougher.  We know that Ronnie Brown will be out with a 'foot' injury.  I'm no doctor, but I do like to speculate and hereby speculate that Ronnie has ligament damage in his foot, possibly the Interosseus Talocalcaneal Ligament or the Dorsal Talonavicular Ligament or both.  Obviously this isn't the sort of injury that you hear about often, but it's not often you see a player's foot do what Ronnie's did on Sunday.

There's the possibility that Carolina will be without their top running back also, in DeAngelo Williams.  In fact, the Dolphins and Panthers are so similar offensively, that it wouldn't surprise me to see both teams deal with these missing players in the same way, which is to promote their 3rd RB into heavy rotation, still maintaining their 'Two-Headed Monster' systems.

Ultimately, I believe this will come down to whichever team's defense plays the best.  Whoever forces the most 3 and outs, turnovers, and puts the most pressure on the opposing quarterback should win out.  Delhomme is known for making mistakes when he's under duress. 

It will be fun to see Vontae Davis match up physically with Steve Smith.  I'm actually more interested in seeing how that unfolds than anything else in this game.

I'm not too worried about Ronnie being out for this game, because Ricky has shown bursts of his old self lately, and I'm also excited to see Lex Hilliard in his first real game action.  The Dolphins and the Panthers are in a virtual tie for 3rd best running game in the league, so this game could give on of these teams a bump in the rankings.

The one thing I'd really like to see in this game is for Miami to go over the top of the defense.  Their secondary is terrible and needs to be exploited.  I know some of the stats suggest otherwise, but the Panthers are giving up a 63 percent completion rate to their opponents, which ranks them 25th in the league.  By comparison, Miami is 8th.  Both teams are tied with 11 receiving touchdowns given up by their defenses.  Hopefully, Miami jumps above Carolina on Thursday in that ranking as well.

But ultimately, the running game is where the stats suggest we should go.  Currently the Dolphins are ranked #7 vs the run while Carolina is ranked #25.  Even if our running attacks are virtually equal, our defense trumps theirs, and the running game keeps time of possession and control of the ball in our hands.

That all suggests a 'safe' playbook, but these two teams share a lot of their playbooks, and I would expect both teams to try some trickery against each other.  Perhaps a first play Ted Ginn reverse?

Let me know what you expect and what you would like to see on Thursday night.





25 comments:

  1. I will change a win for that Carolina A@@

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  2. What I hope NOT to see is either end of the above comment,a loss and that arse are both disgusting!!

    Seeing that RONNIE's out,(HORRIBLE TIMING)!!
    I'm thinkin we'll see a few PW bombs from the WhiteFIN,IFF he overthrows it NO BIGGIE..
    I don't see PW throwing anything that might be intercepted,I do see him scampering for some healthy yrdg!!
    RUN RICKY RUN,and I agree w'going over the top a few times w'both QBs..  Make or break, GOFINS!!

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  3. The dolphins defense will give up as many points as the offense will produce. I only hope our offense has the ball at the end of the game so they can pull out a win.

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  4. The Knight who says Ni!November 18, 2009 at 6:56 AM

    I know you mentioned it but the Panthers secondary can't be that terrible ranked 4th in pass defense. They've also faced a bunch of good passing teams PHI, ATL (twice), ARZ, NOR. I hope we establish the running game out of the gate and then set up some play-action and take some shots down the field.

    I do believe Pat White is going to play more than he has in any game this year. Probably some stuff we haven't seen yet.

    Ricky 20-25 touches
    Henne 20-25 pass atempts
    White 12-15 snaps

    I'd like to see us win the field position game early. We've started slow in that area a bunch of times this year.

    Dolphins 34 Panthers 23

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  5. The Knight who says Ni!November 18, 2009 at 7:42 AM

    Panther cubs are so cute when they're little. Within a year that cute little cub will rip your face off.  >:o

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  6. Knight, don't know if you've been watching but Atlanta's passing game has
    stunk it up for most of the season.
    But back to Carolina, in week one versus Philadephia, Donovan McNabb only
    passed for 79 yards! The Eagles won the game 38-10 and had only 267 yards
    total offense.
    The following week Matt Ryan was 21 of 27 for 220 yards. (77.8%)
    week 3 - Romo 22/33, 255 yards (66.7%)
    week 4 - BYE
    week 5 - Jason Campbell 17/23, 145 yards (73.9%)
    week 6 - Josh Johnson 11/17, 147 yards (64.7%)
    week 7 - Ryan Fitzpatrick 11/22, 123 yards (50%)
    week 8 - Kurt Warner 27/46, 242 yards (58.7%)
    week 9 - Drew Brees 24/35, 330 yds (68.6%)
    week 10 - Matt Ryan 22/41, 224 yds (53.7%)
    with the exception of the Buffalo game, and this last week vs Atlanta, the
    completion percentages are ridiculous. And most of them the passing yardage
    total is down because the games were out of reach and their opponent just
    ran the ball the rest of the way. Anyway, my point is that the total
    yardage stat is not an accurate measure of how good they are.
    Look at their starters, Chris Gamble, Richard Marshall, Chris Harris,
    Charles Godfrey. The only one of them I've ever even heard of is Chris
    Gamble and he's really lost his step this year. They have rookies Captain
    Munnerlyn and Sherrod Martin in reserve. Martin is their best corner by a
    mile and he's not even starting.
    Let's not forget this Carolina team got slaughtered by Buffalo, and their
    most quality win came against Arizona in a game in Kurt Warner's worst game
    of his career (6 interceptions).

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  7. Much like a relationship with a woman....they're so cute for the first
    week...

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  8. LOL,so I'm not the only one!!   That panther cub looks like "" RICKY FOOD"" ...

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  9. Tin - where do you go to meet the ones who stay cute for a week? =-O ;)

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  10. I could get into a lot of trouble for answering that question so I'll simply
    say 'no comment'.

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  11. Probably a wise answer!

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  12. <span>Fasano, Soliai and Walden out again. Probably means another crack at special teams for Patrick Turner. Also means more Kory Sperry - tweet from Berardino</span>

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  13. The Knight who says Ni!November 18, 2009 at 12:34 PM

    My point with the Falcons is that that they have good personnel with White, Jenkins and Gonzalez. But well done! LOL

    Okay let's tear them fookers to shreds god damn it!! 

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  14. The Knight who says Ni!November 18, 2009 at 12:35 PM

    Mrs. Tin may not like that.

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  15. This just in, Panthers starting safety Charles Godfrey is listed as doubtful
    to play tomorrow so it's likely that Sherrod Martin will start. You may
    remember his name, the rookie from Troy who was a cornerback but has been
    used at both corner and safety by Carolina. He stepped in for Godfrey last
    week and picked off two passes in his first NFL start.
    More injury stuff: one source says Ronnie Brown is done for the season. One
    says its too early to tell. I was hoping he'd only miss 2 or 3 games. If
    he is that seriously injured it would hurt his free agency value if he
    becomes a free agent in 2010.
    Justin Smiley will be back in the starting line-up.
    And both Johnathan Stewart and DeAngelo Williams are expected to play.

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  16. Mrs. Tin doesn't like anything I say!

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  17. The Knight who says Ni!November 18, 2009 at 12:58 PM

    LMFAO!

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  18. The Knight who says Ni!November 18, 2009 at 12:58 PM

    I liked Martin for us in the draft. It's not looking good for Ronnie.

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  19. I want a win on Thursday.  I have quite a few friends who live in Charlotte and therefore are Panther fans.  This is actually a game I was going to attend until other factors made it not so appealing to me.   I'd rather not hear a year of bragging from them.

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  20. LOL I like that one Herdfan! :-D

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  21. Ronnei on IR, That could be the season!!!!

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  22. Ronnie on IR, that could be our season!

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  23. TIN on RB,NOT NOW,but (in the end),thats a good thing don't you think??? I do!!

    RB's FA value going down make's it more likely for him to stay for many reasons,
    the main one being,he'd of been out of BPs price range had he finished the yr on pace!!

    I BELIEVE he'd stay hear for less money anyway's,(even pre-injury),
    NO WHERE-ELSE in the league can he have the fun he was having and will have in the future here in MIAMI!!

    MANNNNN BRO,WTF??? CP,RB,WA,PC(ST),JF,JG ALL the #1 GYZ/LEADERS @ their positions!!
    (FERGIES looked serious)!! Opening kick DCarpenter slipped,Turf the likely reason for some of the many injs!
    The only position we haven't lost the #1 guy is @ WR,(that's supposed to be funny)...

    ANYWAYS just wanted to know if you thought as I on RB being more likely to stay due to the INJ ,among many other reasons???    YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAA     DOLPHINS !!!

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  24. I think ultimately it depends on how the management wants to proceed, not
    really on Brown's production being cut short. Considering the nature of the
    injury, they may want to move on. They may also feel Ricky is still spry
    enough to keep us out of need of a #1 back until 2011.
    Ultimately, we need to remember that these injuries never take as long to
    heal as the media says they do. What difference does it make if Ronnie
    misses OTAs? They never make him work that hard in OTAs anyway, or in
    training camp for that matter. He is one of a small handful of players who
    get a lighter load in practices anyway due to their stature on the team.
    And ultimately it doesn't look like the CBA will be agreed upon (the
    player's union is too busy suing the league and investigating Cleveland,
    etc) so it's more than likely that Ronnie will be back next year anyway.
    Even if they do get an agreement in place, the Dolphins will probably offer
    Brown an extension that is performance bonus heavy rather than a big up
    front package.

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  25. Soooooooooo,""ULTIMATELY"" you agree !!!��� ;)���� JUSKIDN,THANX for your response!!
    WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!

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