First-half Dolphins observations from Kansas City

By Adam Best  |   Friday, August 17, 2007  |  Comments( 16 )

Miami Dolphins
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Because I cover both the Kansas City and Miami, Thursday's preseason matchup between the two teams was a perfect opportunity to thoroughly break down how the Dolphins' first and second units played during the opening half.

First off, neither team appeared ready to knock down the Super Bowl's door at all, so it's hard to say how good the Dolphins are at this point.

The game was built around the quarterbacks, but the hype exceeded the on-field play of the Dolphins' signal-callers.

New Dolphins quarterback Trent Green was coming home to Kansas City for the first time since being traded by his former team. Miami's No. 2 man, Cleo Lemon, had a chance to make some ground up in the QB race after Green struggled last week. Neither QB looked too good, but Green was more successful and looked more comfortable in the pocket. Lemon looked OK, except for one terrible pass that could have easily been picked off by Chiefs safety Jarrad Page.

At this point, it's safe to assume that Green is still atop head coach Cam Cameron's depth chart.

Speaking of Cameron, he made a few poor decisions. His first bad move was to go for it offensively on fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line, especially when you consider that he chose to run the ball. His other questionable decision, which took place on the same play, was to expect receiving tight end David Martin to block Chiefs defensive end Jared Allen by himself. Allen is a Pro Bowl-caliber talent who simply can't be blocked by a tight end. Evidently, this is what happens when you go without actually game-planning.

Still, the offense looked as if it was progressing under Cameron's direction, specifically the running game.

Running back Ronnie Brown appeared he could run all the way to the Pro Bowl, and the offensive line wasn't really hurting his cause. Brown hit the hole hard when he needed to, and he used great patience at times, too. Obviously, Cameron is going to improve Brown's all-around game significantly. Backup RB Jesse Chatman also was impressive.

As a whole, the O-line was decent. The unit outplayed the Chiefs' offensive line, for the most part, which is saying something when considering that Kansas City's includes Pro Bowler Brian Waters. Rookie center Samson Satele was the main standout. He has a real mean streak to go with his great strength and technique; Satele thoroughly dominated Chiefs defensive tackles James Reed and Ron Edwards. Vernon Carey looked pretty good against Allen, which is encouraging. The right side of the O-line struggled blocking Chiefs defensive end Tamba Hali a bit, but Hali is a very good player.

Meanwhile, David Martin had a bad drop early, but he really came on and had a couple of nice grabs. Just don't ask him to block anybody -- well, anybody good. The other receivers basically didn't even show up, although Chris Chambers made a nice play.

Defensively, there's less to brag about. Sure, the unit looked good early, but Chiefs QB Damon Huard was awful. The Chiefs' offensive play-calling was also atrocious early on.

Still, Channing Crowder was all over the place. He should easily have his best season as a pro in '07. On one play, meanwhile, Matt Roth blew by Chiefs tackle Chris Terry and dropped RB Michael Bennett in the backfield. He and Jason Taylor will be a formidable DE combo when the latter returns, and Akbar Gbaja-Biamila will serve as a solid reserve.

The secondary looked pretty horrid, honestly. When Brodie Croyle came in during the second quarter, he hit 5 of 6 passes and carved up the Dolphins' defensive backs en route to an easy touchdown. Sure, Michael Lehan had a pick, but any of the stadium ball boys could have came away with that interception. That was more of just a horribly telegraphed lollipop pass from Croyle than it was a great play by Lehan.

Regardless, look for the defense to be the strength of this team when all of the regular starters return.

In terms of special teams, the Dolphins were mediocre at best.

Kicker Jay Feely hit an easy field goal, not proving or disproving much.

Rookie return specialist Ted Ginn ran backward on a punt return, perhaps forgetting that he's not an Ohio State Buckeye any longer.

First-year punter Brandon Fields was perhaps the most disappointing special teamer. When he wasn't grossly outkicking his coverage, he was double clutching and shanking kicks off teammates.

Really, there wasn't a whole lot to feel good about after the first half of play in Kansas City. At the same time, there wasn't much to feel bad about either.
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CommentsComments: 16  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
Aqua&Orange		08:53 AM
08/17/2007
I like that Cameron is going for it on 4th down in the *PRE* season. Lets see what the guys are made of, and how they will step...
No.2
TJ		09:31 AM
08/17/2007
Hi - just a couple of thoughts to add here. First, I disagree that the 4th and goal decision was a bad one - given that it's...
No.3
dave		10:24 AM
08/17/2007
What horrible commentary. Look, I wouldn't call Cameron's 4th and goal decision bad. He wanted to see how his O-line would do in...
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