Chad Pennington, Ricky Williams, Channing Crowder and Chad Henne stand out in first half of exciting Miami Dolphins football. Yes, that's right. I used "Miami Dolphins" and "exciting" in the same sentence.
First Half Offense
- Things start off a bit rough: After a Ricky 1 yard gain, the Fins commit a false start, a delay of game and run for another 1 yard gain. 3rd and 16, Pennington scrambles for 10 yards. Punt. Yay Dolphins!
- Second possession, on 3rd and 1, Ricky gets a big block from Boomer Grigsby and gets the first down.
- Chad Pennington then throws a 21 yard strike to Ted Ginn right over the middle.
- Ricky sees a lot of carries and is looking just as solid as he did last week. The run blocking is also strong.
- And look at this! First and motherfucking goal! Ricky uses his excellent field vision and patience and runs down the sideline.
- 2nd and goal -- Ricky up the gut and ... and.... AND... TOUCHDOWN!!! AHHHHH!!!
- Second possession: 8 plays, 54 yards, TD. Welcome to Miami, Chad Pennington.
- Throughout the rest of the first quarter, Pennington gets great protection from the offensive line.
- The Fins run a reverse with Derek Hagan for 14 yards
- Jake Long has been solid but makes a rookie mistake by wiffing on a block, allowing a Jacksonville linebacker to tackle Patrick Cobbs in the backfield. The Fins have to settle for a field goal.
- Chad Henne comes in at 11:02 in the second quarter.
- At one point, Henne calls an audible at the line. He then hits Ted Ginn on a beautifully placed 44 yard pass. Ginn bobbles it and never has possession. The refs call incomplete. Ginn has to bring that ball in. Henne is for real, John Beck fans. Sorry.
- Henne is making good decisions, but shows his rookie colors with poor clock management. Sparano lets him have it on the sidelines.
- Dan Carpenter nails a 47 yarder with the clock expiring.
First Half Defense
- Jacksonville's first possession: three and out.
- The defensive line looks much better this week.
- Phillip Merling and Kendall Langford are really getting great penetration.
- Joey Porter is making his presence felt tonight, more than he did all last season.
- Again, good pressure from the D-line forces David Garrard into a bad pass and the Jags are forced to kick a field goal which they miss. The Jags and Fins have reversed roles tonight.
- Channing Crowder is all over the damn place, kicking ass and taking names.
- Yeremiah Bell is all over the damn place, kicking ass and taking names.
- The Jags have a 1st and goal at the 3. Jones-Drew fumbles the ball out of the endzone. Haha you suck Jones-Drew. And so do hyphens.
Halftime score: Dolphins 13 - Jaguars 0 DYN-O-MITE!!!!
First half thoughts: What a difference having a competent QB makes. Pennington looks like he's still not used to the playbook, yet managed to lead the offense on a TD drive. And have I mentioned how awesome Ricky has been? The guy is looking GOOD. I can also see why Chad Henne is already a better QB than John Beck. The offense is simply more fluid with The Robot at the helm. He shows better awareness and field vision than Beck has, and his passes are accurate and tight. The first-team defense has been tremendous tonight. Crowder and Bell are leading the way and, once again, our secondary completely shut down a team's passing game for the second straight week. All in all, the best football the Dolphins have played in a long, long time. I know it's pre-season but you naysayers can suck my balls.
Second Half Highlights
- Failed to mention this in the first half, but Ronnie Brown saw some time in the game. Then walked into the locker room. During the second half, he was seen standing on the sidelines with a brace on his hand. It's apparently a thumb injury.
- Henne played the entire second half but failed to lead the team on a TD drive. Instead, Dan Carpenter came in and hit two field goals, including a 44 yarder. Still, Henne is looking very, very good.
- Once again, Ernest Wilford sucked culo. Henne looked his a way a few times, but Ernest failed to make a play. Looks to me like Devone Bess is going to win the job as the number 2 WR. Maybe Hagan, but I'm not sure I'm ready to accept that just yet.
- The second and third team defense does an alright job in the second half. Paul Soliai makes a nice play on the inside to stop the Jags running game. Travis Daniel also makes a nice play, breaking up a pass and forcing another Jacksonville punt.
- The lone mistake from the D comes on a Todd Bouman 53 yard pass to the 3 yard line. The next play is a TD. Bouman made the pass between a safety and cornerback who will be delivering pizzas two weeks from tonight.
- Other negatives: too many penalties tonight. Also, our special teams coverage unit looks pretty pedestrian. These are going to be the two things the coaching staff harps on this week, I'm sure of that.
- Henne has a decent second half. He gets helps from solid running by Jalen Parmele. The successful running game helps Henne sell play-action and he makes more accurate throws.
- Henne does tend to broadcast his passes a bit much, but he still manages to get the ball where he wants it to go. Still, on more than a few plays, he shows poise by checking off and throwing to the open man when the first option is covered.
- Henne also needs to learn how to lead his receivers a bit with his throws. He misses a sure-fire TD to Wilford when he fails to do this.
- Tony Sparano lets Henne know of this on the sideline. Sparano, for the second time on the night, lays into Henne with a spittle infused tirade. Tony is just in the rookie's face yelling and screaming like he walked in on him banging his daughter. Henne walks away as if he took the input and is processing it. No head nod, no shrug, not even a dejected look. Just walks away. He is The Robot.
Final Thoughts
I think we've seen all we're going to see from Henne this year (hopefully Pennington stays healthy all year). He played three quarters in what looked like something the coaches will use to help the rookie learn what he did right and wrong. He was 17 for 26, 133 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT. It's safe to say he's the #2 guy. It's also safe to say, he's for real. I said this last week, but apparently there were doubters. Never doubt the Dude.
As for Pennington, he's obviously going to get more playing time next week against the Chiefs. But all in all, he looked pretty darn good. He had a rough start that eventually turned into some solid play. If -- and with this guy, it's always a big IF -- Penningtson stays healthy this season, the Fins should be competitive all season through. Ricky Williams is already in mid-season form and that's a good thing because Ronnie is showing more and more how fragile he is. Also, this must be mentioned again, the first-team offensive line was kick-ass tonight. They gave the Chads great protection and blew up holes for the running backs.
The first-team defense was stellar tonight. Lots of energy and lots of big plays. The secondary continues to shut down receivers and the D-line was able to pressure the QB a lot more. The run defense continues to plug holes and Channing Crowder is really making the most of being the man at middle linebacker. Meanwhile, Langford and Merling keep making big plays. I'm really liking Langford. We'll have more on this game on Monday.
Final score: 19-14 Dolphins win. Best of all, Dolphins score a damn TD. Let's celebrate by consuming some alcoholic beverages, shall we?
-The DUDE
