Mid-season MVP

We had a little ceremony to give Ronnie his mid-season MVP award.  But Kanye West found out about it and decided that he thought it belonged to someone else....

Funny

A friend of mine - Tony - told me that he has it from a reliable source that the guy who was running the scoreboard on Sunday at Foxborough was none other than the snowplow driver who cleared the field in 1982!

 

Great research, and that explains it all!

Option play

I'd like to share with you the Wishbone offense.   So, the first picture would depict the offense.  You have the QB generally under center (like my drawing of the guy there?) - three backs line up in a triangle (or a "wishbone" if you will).

 

The object is to confound the defense with a guy running into the line, and having three guys run to the side; the QB will either run it himself or pitch it to one of the other guys, another blocks.  Its a wild formation that works against smaller, slower defenses.  In the NFL it doesn't really work, and you haven't seen it in years.

 

For pat White, he ran something similar.  He stood in the shotgun, and he ran right, pitching the ball to Ricky.  It was about as close to the wishbone as I've seen in 20 years.  It was a great playcall that worked in that situation.

 

Kudos to Henning for calling.

 

....now the wildcat play that had the pitch back to Henne was not so good.  I'm fairly ceraitn that Henne had been off the field for every previous wildcat play.  He was on the field here, and my first thought was "its going to be a pitch back to Henne and a pass."  Apparently the Pats thought the same thing; and it was.  It was stopped for a loss.

The Patriots rules

There was a play in the first quarter where Paul Soliai was laying on the ground after a play.  I ran it back and watched it a couple of times.  It was clear that he was taken out by a clip.  The lineman engaged with him at the line, then the play moved past them.  Soliai moved to chase, and the lineman - who had released him - followed, then laid his body out while partially behind (and mostly beside) Soliai.

Naturally there was no flag.

 

But then (uh oh here comes the soap box) that''s where I'm generally peeeved about this effusive praise for the Patriots.  CBS has some sort of promotional arrangement, and has the CBS Zone outside of the stadium.  And therefore they *are* biased toward the Pats no matter what.  The NFL loves them as the darlings because they have the pretty boy QB, the homeless man (and cheater) as the head coach, and they score points - and sell tickets.

 

But back to CBS, Dierdorf and Gumbell were going on about how good it is to have Brady back because he's good for the game, and yada, yada, yada.  They jabbered on and on so much, I wound up turning down the sound.  I would have switched over to the radio broadcast, but because there's a 4 second delay on TV, but a 7 second delay on radio, you hear the outcome before you see it.  And that's not conducive to listening to a game while watching it. 

 

It was dreadful, I guess unless you're a Pats fan (but then why would you be?).

 

I gotta tell you, though, that while they get all the breaks right now, and they still have Brady, Moss, and Welker, they aren't *that* good.  They're nowhere close to where they were.  Yes, I suppose there are some sour grapes in there, but they are lacking in some areas.  Sure, they made up for shortcomings through decent coaching (they used two young guys to block Porter; they moved Vince Wilfork over so he couldn't be taken up by the center and guard), but they still have shortcomings.

 

But the football gods don't like smug.  And the Patriots are still that, and not at all humble.  I know its hard when you're good to be humble.  I said a few weeks ago they ran up the score against the hapless Titans.  This week, in stadium they showed Joey Porter on the sidelines near the end of the game and put a graphic under it that said "no tackles, no sacks" which shows a distinct lack of class. 

 

Yeah, he was bad, but he was beaten.  Humiliating your opponent will come back to bite you at some point.

great stiff arm?

The rules on touching the opponent's face mask are quite clear, and this off-season they went so far as to clarify it as follows:

 

The N.F.L. has decided that stiff arms are going too far.

Charean Williams of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the league will emphasize to officials this season that stiff arms to the face should result in a 15-yard penalty. N.F.L. rules already say that "hands cannot be thrust forward above the frame to contact an opponent on the neck, face or head," so the instruction to officials to call such penalties is not a rules change, just a point of emphasis. The league's Competition Committee believes that the rule has not been adequately enforced in the past.

Said Titans coach Jeff Fisher, co-chairman of the Competition Committee, "We try to give the benefit of the doubt to the defense. When (offensive players) do stiff arm, they've got to be careful about going to the face."

In other words, the refs blew this call as well, and Dierdorf and Gumbell extolled it as being a "great play."

 

It was illegal, and should have resulted in a 15 yard penalty.

 

Cna you imagine if Vontae had done something similar to Moss?  Heck, he probably would have been ejected!

Ted Ginn is (still) a Miami Dolphin

Game on the line.  4th and 15.  Henne looks for Ginn.

 

And - you knew this before the pass got to him didn't you? - Ginn doesn't come down with it.

 

Dude, you have to make a play once in a while!

 

Yes, your kick returns were nice, but if you're getting to get a ball in a critical situation, come down with the ball!

Another oddity

Miami got jobbed again this week by the refs.  Though this time, it didn't lead to a TD.  But it did lead to a FG, and it was at the end of the half.

 

Brady had been sacked on the previous play; no timeouts left and about 13 seconds on the clock.  He gets the team rallied and back up to the line.

 

At :05, the snap is forthcoming

At :04, he gets the ball and drops back

At :03, he's releasing the ball

At :02, the ball has reached Moss

At :01 (the legitmate one, not shown) the ball is in the air

At :00, the ball has come to the ground, and the official is signaling incomplete.

 

But the clock still shows :01.  In other words, the Pats got a free play to get the field goal.

 

Now you could argue that the ruling was correct, and I'll grant you its up for debate. 

 

What I'm seeing here are plays that happened over the last few weeks, where essentially the refs made poor judgement calls that ultimately changed the game in some way.

 

That's not a statement intended to bash the refs.  Rather, its a statement that underscores that sometimes you have the football gods on your side, and sometimes you don't.  Miami right now does NOT...

 

...Imagine if those calls had been different.  Miami might be 5-3.

It's mid-season

Time for the old report card.

Overall, they get a c. They've had their moments and appear stronger than last year. But they are 3-5 and have no receivers.

Offensively. The run game is strong. The passing game not so much.

Defensively. I like what I'm seeing from the rookies. The linebackers have been up and down. The line generally has been average.

Special teams. The kicking and punting is strong. The return game has been steadily improving.

Best game: Monday night. The jets. Nicely done.

Worst game: I'd still same game 1 against the falcons. Miami was not ready to play

MVP thus far - Ronnie Brown.

Rookie of the mid-year: Sean Smith. Though vontae is pushing him

Now here's to hoping they can do 5-3 the rest of the way.

And when you say Miami....

....you're talking superbowl.

I was thinking about that line in the song. It was written in 1971 and was in the midst of miami's 3 consecutive appearances in the game.

But it turned out to be prophetic because Miami has hosted 10 games while the dolphins haven't been back in 25 years. And won't be back this year.

So when you say Miami you are talking about hosting the superbowl.

What I'd like to ask Sparano (but won't)

Did you really think this team was set at receiver?

Cause it doesn't look that way now.

This game was over when....

Miami had a nice 10 minute drive to start the second half.

I said aloud that they had to hold new England on their next possession.

They didn't and that was it

But miami wasn't quite done and punted from the NE 43. A dumb move if ever there was one. The pats got back to that spot in 3 plays.

An option run?

Well, well, well.

Miami ran a true option play with White in at qb. It was the closest thing to a wishbone I've seen in years in the NFL.

I'll have to diagram it later.

Too bad

Channing Crowder didn't make the trip. The POS Matt Light is inactive.

So their rematch will have to wait for the game in Miami.

Cry me a river

Rex Ryan was going on about how he thought his team outplayed Miami and deserved to win.

 

To quote Bitchin, Sr, "if you don't score more points than the other team, you don't deserve to win!"

And then there were two...

Indy and New Orleans both remain undefeated....wouldn't it be something if an 18-0 Saints team met up with an 18-0 Colts team here in Miami for the Superbowl?

Amusing

EPSN's top 10 plays of the weekend included, at #3, Braylon Edwards supposed TD reception.  Yes, it was ruled that way, but the play by Smith was better.  So, if you see it, remember that its in there because Smith stripped the ball.

 

At least ESPN made up for it by making Ginn's second TD their #1 play.

NYTimes: Dolphins Leave Jets at a Loss

>

> From The New York Times:
>
> DOLPHINS 30, JETS 25: Dolphins Leave Jets at a Loss
>
> Despite three touchdowns from Mark Sanchez and six sacks by the
> defense, the Jets still lost to Miami for the second time in 20 days.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/sports/football/02jets.html
>
> Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes
>
>
> .

Ted Ginn

I'll give him props for making a record-setting two TDs of 100+ yards in the same quarter.  And I'll ask why the Phins even bother to use him as a wide receiver?  He had 6 touches of the ball and nearly 300 yards.  That beats two catches any day.  I say leave him as the kick returner and just give him a play now and again on offense to stretch the field.

 

Anyway, Richie Winnebago (okay Bonemago, but I like this name better) had been setting up the long return all day by having Ginn hesitate and fake left before running right.  And the Jets were being overly agressive by having Jay Feeley come down and collapse in for the tackle.  I think Westhoff assumed that Ginn was no threat as long as they pressured him.

So, in the first shot, Feeley has the arrow pointed to him.  He made two tackles and was a dancing fool.

 

In the second, we see the mistake.  Normally the kicker stays closer to midfield, which will allow for him to be the last man when the returner gets free.  Ginn did, and that left no one back to help.

 

Westhoff says "Aw that's bull crap" and you have to love the expression after the second return.  Normally, he has the upper hand.  But not on this day...

 

Now we have it from a good source that Bob Griese told Ted Ginn they have really good tacos in Giants Stadium, available in section 114.  And if Ginn were to get a TD on that end, Griese was buying.  "Now go get a taco!" he shouted to him....

TD?

For the second week in a row, Miami got jobbed on a play down near the goal line.

 

In this case, it was Braylon Edwards who caught the ball at his hip and tried to push into the endzone.  The Umpire is right there.  Again it was called TD.  And again, I claim they were wrong.  This time it was up to Sparano to challenge it; he didn't and I suspect he wouldn't have won anyway.

 

* Shot 1: Edwards makes the catch

* Shot 2: He's driving to the goal line with Clemons and Smith on him

* Shot 3: He leans further back, still not in

* Shot 4: Smith has jarred the ball loose.  Edwards no longer has possession; he's also not across the goal line

* Shot 5: the ball is between them, but because of the loss of possession a moment earlier it can not be a TD at this moment

* Shot 6: Smith has the ball.  And note the umpire has still not signaled TD.

 

It should have been a touchback, on the forced fumble (though I suppose they could have ruled it an interception, since Edwards hadn't really made a move at that point).

 

I think they were having trouble following the ball because on the "naked bootleg" that Sanchez ran, they ruled fumble and that Miami had recovered.  But clearly, that was not correct either.  When they saw Sanchez with the ball, they changed the call....

 

Mark Sanchez reacts...

....to the bad hot dog he ate right after kickoff.

recently found photo

I had forgotten that one off-season granny wanted to lift the spirits of the boys playing in the USFL.  Becuase of her NFL contract, she couldn't play for them.  But her contract said nothing of her being a cheerleader for them.  She spent the season urging on the Tampa Bay Bandits during 1984.  Why the Bandits?  Because that had that "hunk" Burt Reynolds as a limited partner.

Rule

The ranter pointed out that there is a rule change that was made thus offseason that made this type of play reviewable.

He's generally right, but I think that in this case it still may not have made a difference. The whistle blew and some players made no effort to get to the ball.

Therefore with no clear recovery it likely still woulda been miami ball.

But in any case sparano was smart in running a quick play.

Rules #2

At one point sanchez had a snap bounce off his hands. The ball got kicked and wound up being recovered downfield by the jets.

Phil Simms made a comment about this being a muff and he was right. But the officials got it wrong. It was inside of 2 minutes so the "Dave Casper rule" was in place. That is only the player who fumbled can advance it.

It was ruled jets ball 5 yards up the field. It should have moved back to the spot of the fumble and it would be 1st and 10 from there.

Yes it's quirky and doesn't happen often.

What was up with that?

During the broadcast they were touting the superbowl by touting the days, hours, and minutes to kickoff.

And next up on CBS? Bull riding. Boy that's scintillating tv. I switched to the game on fox.

Rules

At one point in the game - on the lone Miami TD drive - Bess appeared
to fumble, but the ref ruled him down. Miami hurried to the line
before a challenge could be made.

Seems simple enough. But what really happened?

By ruling the play dead, and saying it was not a fumble, the ref "blew
the whistle" and play stopped. Anything that happened after that was
for naught.

So if the Jets had challenged it, the best they could hope for was
that it was indeed a fumble; but with no change of possession.

In other words, Miami hurrying to the line really only helped with
momentum because the jets were momentarily confused.

Very odd, indeed

A few games ago, Miami dominated in every statistical category, but lost the game to the Colts.

 

This week, they had 104 yards of TOTAL offense (yes, I said 104 yards; 52 rushing and 52 passing, that's pathetic) and lost the time of possession battle by nearly 10 minutes.  And the offense only mustered 9 points.

 

And yet, somehow, some way, the football gods smiled on the Dolphins on this day.  Two long kick returns from some guy named Ginn who decided to turn it on, and a fumble recovery/score by a guy who used to make a living at that named JT.

 

That added up to 21 additional points - enough to beat those Jets for the second time this season.

 

A strange day, to be sure, but a win's a win in the NFL and you take it where you can...

Hunh?

Miami scored late on a pass to Joey Haynos that made the score 30-19.  Sparano elected to go for 2.  Wait.  Hunh?

 

2?  Really?

 

At the point they scored there was around 8 minutes left.  Its an 11 point lead.  

 

Going for 1 means you're ahead by 12; the Jets would have to score 2 TDs to win, even with a two point conversion. 

 

Going for 2 means you're ahead by 13; the Jets would have to score 2 TDs to win

 

...but the downside in either case is that you miss and remain ahead by 11 meaning that a TD and 2 point conversion plus a field goal ties the game.

 

I don't see the logic in going for 2 here.  So I have to assume that Sparano got mixed up in all this "high math"....or...

 

Maybe Carpenter had to hit the lou, and couldn't kick?  Or maybe a bookie friend called to remind the Fins of the point spread?  I have no idea.  

 

It was just weird. 

A couple of quick notes

* Fasano was thrown to early and often.  Decidedly mixed results.  He was open but made only a couple of catches - but in good spots.

* Ted Ginn did not start; Hartline started in his place.  Neither did much in receiving, but Ginn acquitted himself well on kick returns. (more on that later)

* Gibril Wilson started, but schematically, Miami rotated in a bunch of guys at various times, including Chris Clemons.  Overall, Clemons did okay, though he was soft on some coverage.  Wilson had two big sacks in the game.

* Where was Cameron Wake?

 

love it

Its like I always say: the Fins can go 2-14....so long as the 2 are against the Jets!!!!

 

Sure beating the Patsies is nice, but there's a special place in every Dolphins fan's heart for beating the stinking, rotten Jets.

On the Ginn photo

SI's photo upholds my argument that the dolphins were robbed.  But, as the Dolphins Ranter points out, they didn't have SI's SLR at their disposal for the replay.

 

But they did have the official on the right side of the screen who appears to be looking right at the play.  I know it happens fast, but just what was he looking at?

 

And the NFL was having trouble with the replay equipment, as we were told.  They apologized for the fact that they missed the Bess catch in the first quarter when it wasn't working.  But didn't address the larger issues that (a) they didn't cover as many angles as they often do, and (b) that they blew this call in the game.

 

I think the NFL should fine itself for blowing this.