Dolphins struggle to find handle on the ball

By Matthew Hocking  |   Tuesday, September 11, 2007  |  Comments( 5 )

Miami Dolphins
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It's a little early in the season to start talking about "what-if" scenarios, but the Dolphins put a little "what if" into their 16-13 overtime loss against the Washington Redskins on Sunday.

There were plenty of problems for Cam Cameron's offense in Week 1. Washington's defense wasn't particularly stout, but Miami's 'O' could not overcome its own errors. The running game was being abandoned early in the game. There were too many mental mistakes, including false starts by the offensive line. But maybe the most haunting mistakes on the field were made by Miami's veteran wide receivers.

Few on the Dolphins know more about dropping passes than Chris Chambers, who has struggled with holding onto the ball during his career (including eight drops in both 2005 and '06). He missed another short pass Sunday, and the Dolphins will continue to struggle if Chambers cannot find consistency.

"You're going to drop some passes, there's no one in this league that's not going to drop passes," said Chambers.

That, of course, is true, but the Dolphins are going to need Chambers to be more of a clutch player this season if they hope to ignite their offense.

In the interest of fairness, Chambers wasn't the only Dolphins receiver with a case of the dropsies Sunday. Marty Booker added a drop to his three-catch, 20-yard performance. Tight End David Martin added to Miami's offensive lethargy with two drops of his own.

Martin is a particularly frustrating case. Brought in from the Green Bay Packers to provide a consistent safety valve for Trent Green, Martin was anything but. Beyond his issues with dropped passes, Martin managed to provide only a single catch for 7 yards, making some wonder how much the team will miss the man he replaced, Randy McMichael.

In five seasons with the Dolphins, McMichael only produced one game with worse stats than Martin (a one-catch, 5-yard effort against Baltimore in 2005). The latter, however, has often been in the top 10 in passes dropped during an individual season throughout his career, so perhaps the change is a wash at this point.

It's only one game, but Miami's receivers are going to have to shake off the dropped passes and focus on taking care of the football. The next game might be just the medicine the Dolphins need as they take on a Dallas defense that gave up 312 yards and four TDs to Eli Manning and the Giants on Sunday night.

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CommentsComments: 5  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
Jay		07:36 PM
09/11/2007
McMichael was the king of dropped passes. For every nice play he made, he seemed to drop two passes in the clutch that we...
No.2
Walker		01:32 AM
09/12/2007
As I have mentioned on every website, Chambers had one dropped pass and on the same drive, redeemed himself with a catch for a...
No.3
Dave		10:10 AM
09/12/2007
The problem isn't with the receivers...yet anyway. We didn't abandon the run either. We just couldn't frickin' block anybody. We...
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