Dolphins’ Brown, improved o-line, give a glimpse of greatness against Panthers

By Hugo Guzman  |   Monday, August 24, 2009  |  Comments( 6 )

Miami Dolphins
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It was a meaningless preseason game in one sense. But in another sense, it was a glimpse of what the immediate future holds for Ronnie Brown and the Miami Dolphins offense. On Saturday night, Brown and his offensive line mates bullied the Carolina Panthers' front seven from the get go, gaining significant chunks of yardage on the first three plays from scrimmage. Then, a few plays later, Pennington capped off the drive by hitting Brown on a swing pass in the right flat and he did the rest, evading a tackler and jaunting into the endzone for a 28-yard score.

Free-agent pickup Jake Grove helped provide push in the middle - something former center Samson Satele failed to do for the most part in season's past - and second-year guard Donald Thomas flashed the ability that helped him earn starting honors as a rookie last year. Hopefully, his bouts with serious injury (foot and pectoral) are behind him.

If this revamped offensive line can continue to provide gaping holes for Ronnie, and if Ronnie can continue to provide a double threat via ground and air, Miami's offense is poised to take significant step forward. And considering the dominant nature that Miami's starting defense has flashed in the first two preseason contests (sans the sloppy tackling on DeAngelo Williams' TD run) Miami could be in a position to assert themselves as legitimate AFC contenders.

Of course, there's that third unit - special teams - which will also need to step up its game (no more kick coverage debacles like the Saturday's long return late in the first quarter and no more muffed punts) in order to get Miami into the postseason Promised Land.

P.S. Nice to see the Wildcat back in action. I even liked the new wrinkle on the second attempt (Brown's double-fake) even though it netted nothing on the stat sheet.
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About Hugo Guzman

Co-founder of RealFootball365.com. Born in Argentina, of Dominican descent, living in Hoboken, but from Miami through and ...
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CommentsComments: 6  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
JimmyD		02:37 PM
08/24/2009
yes, i do agree with you. There was a huge push in the middle by the O-line. The phish haven't seen that strong a performance by ...
No.2
lilman1023		10:23 AM
08/25/2009
As excited as i was to see the Dolphins offense get going Saturday Night, I am reminded that the Giants did the same exact thing ...
No.3
JimmyD		03:42 PM
08/25/2009
Dolphins D needs to tackle better and the special teams need to tighten up their play ore those first three games of the season ...
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