RE-CAP: Dolphins vs. Saints

That was the great play made by Sean Smith, which, coupled with the other great INT he made in the pre-season, will make him a known commodity come opening day of the regular season.  However, it does not make him the clear-cut starter.  In all likelihood, he probably will start because of the fact he has played mostly mistake-free football (had a couple of bad plays vs Tampa Bay, but no penalties, and two INTs in the red zone is massive), but Vontae Davis also has been sure-footed in practice.  For the record, Vontae Davis suffered a mild knee injury during the game last night and did not return to the game afterwards.  He did seem to be in good spirits though and I suspect it's probably a sprained MCL at worse and he could be back in time for game 1.  If it's a slight tear, he could be out for a couple of weeks.  In any event, I suspect Smith and Davis to continue to battle it out throughout the season.  This position battle may not be decided in full until 2010.

Ok, with that said, I think the wide receiver battle is about to come to a close with Greg Camarillo being named the starter opposite Tedd Ginn, Jr.  The reason I say this is because of two things.  Prec-cursor to these 3 things is that I consider Camarillo, Hartline and Bess were completely even heading into last night's game.  First, the catch.  The rope-a-dope catch by Camarillo in the first quarter was textbook football artistry.  I don't think any other receiver would've made that catch last night.  And while Hartline has made big catches of his own in the pre-season, the rapport between Pennington and Camarillo means Chad would be more confident throwing a ball like that with Greg in there.  Secondly, just think of the story.  Camarillo has sort of taken a backseat in the media lately, but if named the starter, he would instantly become 'the guy who battled back from serious injury to regain the starting role'.  He would be in contention for the NFL award given to the Comeback Player of the Year.  And this would make him a cult-hero for Dolfans, and put more fans in the seats.  

It would also allow Brian Hartline and Bess to focus more on special teams, which, let's face it, was our weakest unit last night.

There were times that our offense looked brilliant.  Pennington stretched out a drive that barely covered any ground, resulting in a long field goal from Dan Carpenter, but there were some good moments.  Davone Bess working the sidelines and moving the ball 5 yards at a time.  The use of Ronnie Brown as a receiver also moved the ball 5 yards at a time. A couple of longer strikes to Camarillo (one was dropped due to being under-thrown).  I also liked the way they handed off to Polite on longer downs, in order to get more run-reps for the o-line without risking injury to Brown.  The Dolphins seem intent on being able to run the ball behind Jake Long and Justin Smiley, as their inside runs have been predominantly to the left this pre-season.

Things picked up even more when Chad Henne came in.  His first drive he went 6 for 6 for 47 yards, and get this, all six passes were to different receivers (Camarillo, Bess, Polite, Ricky Williams, Patrick Cobbs, and Ginn) and the drive was capped off by a Cobbs 6 yd run for TD.  Patrick Cobbs got a lot more work running the ball this week and was impressive thanks to his speed and initial blocking..

Things got a little dull once the reserves came in, with Pat White throwing some of the worst passes I've seen in a long time.  I joked about them hitting Parcells' golf cart, but the truth is, those passes DID remind me of what so many beat-writers wrote during OTAs.  There was one particularly impressive overthrow of a wide open receiver - White scrambled to the left, was immediately wrapped up, and falling to the ground, heaved one well past the receiver who was 15 yards downfield.  Had the Saints safety been in position, it would've been an INT gift-wrapped for presentation.  So White showed some arm-strength, but his decision-making is not there yet.  As for accuracy, he had another throw that was a good ten yards overthrown.  It might've been the wind...oh wait...nevermind.  

Lex Hilliard had another average game.  On one play he got the ball on an end-around and did his best Ernest Wilford impression, taking about an hour to get outside the tackles and was immediately wrapped up for no gain.  On the very next play, Patrick Cobbs showed Chris Williams'esque speed, bursting up the sidelines for a 25 yd gain.

Overall, I didn't notice a lot of the 'bubble' players.  

• William Kershaw made a couple of loud popping tackles, but seemed out of position for much of his playing time. 
• Quentin Moses was in position, but often a step behind another player, not being aggressive enough at the point of attack.  
• Andrew Gardner was really bad, but got loads of reps at left tackle.  I did not see any of the 'quick feet' everyone praises him for.  He just looked stiff out there.  He also had a false start penalty.
  
• Charlie Anderson made some plays on defense, but his umpteenth penalty on a kickoff return HAS to be the end of the road for him.  If you total up his penalty yardage and subtract it from his sack yardage, I think you'll agree with me.  
• Both Joey Haynos and John Nalbone were targeted only once and both failed to reel in the catch.  But Haynos made some big blocks, helping the running game to rack up 139 yards.
• Nate Jones was AWFUL and he knows it.  He lost position, then slipped and fell (a re-occuring issue if you watch tape from 2008) and THEN missed the tackle (all on the same play), allowing a big gain by the Saints.  On New Orleans only score of the game, it was Jones who let Roman Harper slide by for a 55-yd punt return for a touchdown.
• On the other hand, Jason Allen had a good game, with three tackles, 2 passes defensed, and he was in position for several other tackles if the first tackler had missed.  In fact, it was he who saved a touchdown on the first whiffed tackle by Nate Jones.  The punt coverage tackle, where he pushed back his blocker into a collision with the returner was the biggest highlight.

Okay, now for the 5 things I was looking for heading into the game:

1. William Kershaw probably did manage to steal the 53rd roster spot with his 7 tackle, 1 sack performance, but the numbers could be a bit deceiving.  For starters, Joey Harrington looked like a deer caught in the headlights all game, and a couple of his sacks were due to him holding onto the ball for far too long.  At least half of Kershaw's tackles were 10 or more yards downfield.  Still, he did not play as long as I thought he would, so the production is still impressive.
2. Staying upright.  The Dolphins only took 2 sacks in this game, one with Pennington in there and one with Henne in there.  Sure, Pat White should've taken the sack on the play I mentioned above, but for the most part the QBs were far more patient.  Henne especially made a huge improvement over his prior outing.
3. Brandon London vs Patrick Turner.  Well, both were targeted 3 times and both caught one pass each for about 6 yards.  Turner was noticeable on run blocking and London's catch was big move-the-chains moment.  But neither one showed up on special teams.
4. Of the players mentioned, none had a noticeable presence in the game. 
5. Pennington seemed cool and collective.  He does have one of the smoother play-action moves in the NFL and showed it off a couple of times.  On his one sack there was a collapse of the pocket, Pennington stepped up and the New Orleans d-line made a great play.  There was no panic there.

Finally, cornerback Will Billingsley was dressed but didn't play.  This could be just because the coaches wanted more tape on Jason Allen who wasn't exactly racking up the play counts in the prior games.  In any event, the poor play of Nate Jones (loose coverage, missed tackles), and Joey Thomas (missed tackles, penalties) means that Billingsley may not be all lost.  However, if I were a gambling man, I'd put some money on Miami waiving all three and picking up a cheap veteran CB off of waivers.