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The secondary had a shaky game, Let us look at what the heck is going on. Dan puts the deep patrol under the microscope . . . just $7.95 per month.
True Darrelle Revis was out, but that is no excuse for some of the stuff that went on in Miami. There are some major communication issues and some guys are still struggling with the playbook
There were a number of blown coverages, with a perfect example being on a Brian Hartline gain of 19 late in the third quarter, He was uncovered. He motioned to the left, and nobody followed him. Two players went to Marshall, and nobody covered Hartline.
Perhaps the Miami Dolphins first offensive play was a harbinger of things to come. Wide receiver Brian Hartline beat Kyle Wilson soundly on a post way down field, but Chad Henne overthrew the Ohio State-product.
There were a couple of disturbing aspects of this play. First off, obviously, how bad Wilson was beat on this play. Secondly, how badly Hartline outran him. Hartline was an average speed guy coming out of college. We were told that Wilson has 4.4 speed, but it didn’t look that way on this play.
On the Dolphins second possession, on a third-and-eight, Devon Bess beat Wilson for a gain of 12 on the left side. Wilson had his back to the quarterback and didn’t turn around.
Early in the second quarter, on the Dolphins third possession, Wilson had a rough series. Bess beat Wilson on a fade route down the left sideline for a gain of 17. This was another case of Wilson not turning around. It happened again two plays later. Bess beat Wilson down the left sideline for 17 yards, and the cornerback failed to turn around. Three plays later, he interfered with Hartline on a pass down the deep right side. This was a 27-yard penalty.
On the Dolphins last possession of the game, Bess beat Wilson on the short right side for a gain of 16. The Jets should be using Marquice Cole (who had four special team’s tackles) more during Revis absence, but refuse to. Very short-sighted.
Let’s turn to Antonio Cromartie. While Brandon Marshall did finish the game with 10 catches for 166 yards, Cro actually did a lot of good things as well. And keep in mind he was targeted 17 times, so there were seven incompletions to Marshall. Also, 40 and 30 of those yards came on two plays, so for the rest of his catches, he was 8-96, which is manageable.
In the middle of the fourth quarter, Marshall caught that aforementioned 40-yard pass down the deep left side. It was a post route, and he caught the ball between Cromartie and Jim Leonhard. The safety did a poor job of tracking the ball in the air, but what on earth was he doing on Marshall? That is an awful match-up for the jets. There was a major communication problem on this play. Cro seemed to let him go, expecting help, but we doubt that was the game plan for this kind of play. Cro looked confused on this play regarding his assignment.
In the middle of the third quarter, Cro did a nice job of positioning himself on Marshall, on a fade down the left sideline, forcing the receiver to catch the ball out of bounds. Perhaps Cro’s best play of the game was a PD in the end zone on Marshall, in the middle of the third, forcing the Dolphins to kick a field goal to make it 21-20. Cro did a great job of night biting on any of Marshall’s studdersteps on this play, He held his ground and knocked the ball away on the left side of the end zone.
In defense of the cornerbacks on some of their rough plays, the field was awful, and there was a lot of slipping. The Dolphins did a lot of re-sodding, to cover the baseball dirt patches, but the plan didn’t work out that well. On a comeback route to Marshall, on the right side, early in the fourth, Cro slipped, coming back to the ball, and the wide receiver gained 14.
Drew Coleman had two very important plays on the Dolphins last drive.
On a third-and-nine, running back Ronnie Brown, caught a pass on the short right side, and was attempting to get out of bounds, but Coleman used outside leverage, and forced the runner back towards the inside, and the Dolphins had to burn their final timeout. On the next play, he picked off a pass intended for Fasano that was tipped by Pool, to end the game.
Pool also saved a potential touchdown on the Dolphins last possession, after Cro missed a tackle early in the reception, Marshall was off to the races, and Pool stopped him on the Jets 41 after a gain of 30. Without the Pool tackle, this might have been a touchdown (and with a two point conversion, the game would have headed to overtime).
Eric Smith was beat for a three-yard touchdown, in the front center of the end zone, by Fasano in the middle of the second. Fasano did a good job of boxing out Smith, and the safety couldn’t get around him. Smith was beat by Hartline for a gain of 15 yards in the middle of the third quarter, but rebounded on the next play to push Hartline out of the back of end zone, making the caught pass into an incompletion.
One of the best pass defense plays of the game was by David Harris. Around the two-minute warning in the second quarter, the Dolphins attempted a screen to Brown, and Harris beat center Joe Berger out to the left flat, and stopped the runner for a loss of six.
Not helping the secondary was a lack of consistent pressure, though there was some.
Shaun Ellis had a sack on the first series, when Henne, sensing pressure, ran up a yard or two, in the middle of the line, into the defensive end’s arms. Ellis also had a QB pressure, beating guard Paul McQuiston, to end the drive. Ellis forced the quarterback to throw the ball out of bounds. Ellis torched McQuiston leading to incompletion that ended the second possession with incompletion to the right side.
Jason Taylor beat left tackle Jake Long for a pressure, and Wilson had a PD on Fasano to end a late third quarter drive. Howard Green got by Long for a quarterback pressure, forcing an incompletion, to end an early fourth quarter possession.
With both Taylor and Ellis hovering over him on a play on the last series, right tackle Vernon Carey jumped off-sides.
One last note – James Ihedigbo had two nice stops on Brown, on the line, on Wildcat runs, one in the third and other in the fourth.