Dolphins hope defense can foil Pennington’s Jets

By Jason Kirk  |   Sunday, September 18, 2005  |  Comments( 0 )

Miami Dolphins
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The Miami Dolphins will travel to the Meadowlands to take on the hated New York Jets this Sunday. Last week the Dolphins dominated the Denver Broncos in a 34-10 victory in their opening game of the Saban-era. It was an impressive win by a team who most thought wouldn't be much better than last season's 4-12 record. The New York Jets, on the other hand, will look to regroup after an embarrassing loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Most critics picked the Jets to make the playoffs for their fourth time in five years this season, but their 2005 opening debut was a complete disaster.

The Miami Dolphins will need another dominating performance from their defense. Last week they kept the Broncos offensive attack in check, with Denver getting most of their 312 total yards in the fourth quarter. Defensive end Jason Taylor put an exclamation point to their defensive performance on the last play of the game when he sacked quarterback Jake Plummer causing Plummer to fumble and recovered the ball returning it 85 yards for the touchdown. Middle linebacker Zach Thomas, who some thought would struggle in the Dolphins' new defensive schemes, had an outstanding game finishing with 14 tackles, including three tackles on a second quarter goal line stand. Even with all the new faces on the defense, the players are getting a better grasp of the defensive philosophy and will look to attack Jets quarterback Chad Pennington, who had six fumbles last week against the Chiefs.

Rookies Channing Crowder and Travis Daniels have continued to impress the coaching staff with solid play. Crowder, who started the game at weak-side linebacker, had only two tackles but was all over field disrupting many plays and will get the start again this Sunday. Daniels, who spent most of last week's game covering speedy receiver Ashley Lelie, recorded his first career interception and held Lelie to only two receptions.

On offense, head coach Nick Saban couldn't have been much happier. Miami totaled 426 yards, its most since 2002. Journeyman quarterback Gus Frerotte had a very good showing, finishing the game 24-of-36 for 275 yards, including a 60-yard pass to receiver Marty Booker for one of Frerotte's two touchdowns, although he did throw one interception. Booker finished the game with 104 yards on five catches. Miami will need to establish the running game against a Jets' defense that allowed Kansas City to rush for 198 yards. Against the Broncos, Miami gained 151 yards on the ground, but 61 of those came on a reverse by receiver Chris Chambers. Rookie running back Ronnie Brown will need to improve on his performance from last week, in which he only gained 57 yards on 22 carries. Wide receiver Chris Chambers, who was covered last week by Champ Bailey, will have another hard match-up this Sunday when he goes against Jets corner Ty Law. Chambers, who had five catches last week, had a fumble in the Dolphins first drive of the game and will need to cut down on those mistakes against the Jets.

The offensive line had a fair showing. Although they provided Frerotte with enough pass protection to move the chains, they were unable to open up few running lanes for Brown. They will look to take advantage of a Jets' run defense on Sunday that allowed 198 yards rushing last week. Probably the most important area that Miami will look to improve upon will be penalties committed by the offense. The Dolphins had 11 penalties for 69 yards last week with several of them coming from false-start penalties.

For the Jets, quarterback Chad Pennington will have a lot of heat on him to show that last week's performance was a fluke. The veteran quarterback admitted late in the preseason that he wasn't comfortable with new offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger's scheme and against the Chiefs, it showed. Pennington fumbled the ball six times, losing two, and seemed uncomfortable in the shotgun formation. He finished the game 21-of-34 for 264 yards with an interception and no touchdowns. The Jets' only scoring drive came when former Miami Dolphins quarterback Jay Feidler threw a 23-yard touchdown pass with 29 seconds remaining in the game. Running back Curtis Martin, who led the league in rushing last year, will also need to bounce back from a poor performance. Last week, Martin could only muster 57 yards on 20 attempts.
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