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Dolphins Game Summary: Steelers at Dolphins |  | ||||||||
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The Dolphins lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 13-3 on Sunday night after the game was postponed from 1:00 PM to 8:30 PM due to Hurricane Jeanne. The remnants of Jeanne made the game a wet and muddy affair that did not help the Dolphins' faltering offense any, which is a shame because the Dolphins' offense needs all the help they can get. I am not going to summarize the full game. If you know that the Dolphins' first 3 drives all ended in turnovers, you have all the information you need to know about how the offense played. You can read the game summaries from the previous two games - they are virtually identical to this one. The Dolphins lost this game because the offense could get nothing going, made repeated mistakes and turned the ball over. The defense played pretty well for most of the game but were obviously dispirited in the final quarter after AJ Feeley was hit in the backfield and fumbled away the Dolphins' last scoring opportunity at the Pittsburgh 39 yard line. 58 of the Steelers' 153 rushing yards came in the final 4 minutes of the game after that fumble. All in all, it was the third dismal performance in a row for the offense which seems to be getting worse with each game, not better. The offense committed 4 turnovers (2 interceptions and 2 fumbles), converted only 3 of 11 third downs, rushed for 52 yards at 1.8 yard per carry and had a total of 159 net yards. AJ Feeley was sacked 3 times and pressured many more times and the Dolphins were stopped for a loss 8 times. The defense played well until the final 4 minutes giving up one touchdown and holding the Steelers to 161 passing yards. However, they were only able to get one sack on the rookie quarterback and did not generate much of a pass rush. When the game was still on the line, the defense did a good job against the run, limiting the Steelers to less than 3 yards per carry. But after AJ Feeley's fumble in the 4th, the defense gave up runs of 38 and 11 yards on two successive carries by Duce Staley. The special teams were fair. Olindo Mare' hit his only field goal attempt from 34 yards and Matt Turk averaged 38.2 yards per punt, putting 2 inside the 20 yard line. Wes Welker did a good job for most of the game, averaging 10 yards per punt return and 22 yards per kickoff return, but fumbled a kickoff return late in the game. Dolphins' kick coverage was excellent on punts, shutting down Antwan Randle-El, but did allow him one long kickoff return of 41 yards. AJ Feeley had another miserable game, completing 13 of 27 for 137 yards with no touchdowns and 2 interceptions. He also had 3 fumbles, one of which was recovered by the Steelers late in the game to end the Dolphins' last scoring threat. Feeley did not look comfortable in the pocket and was staring down his receivers. Also, his strong arm was not in evidence as he underthrew several passes, resulting in at least one interception. Lamar Gordon was injured in the game and only managed 4 carries for 10 yards. Leonard Henry took over for Gordon and even though he had 21 carries for only 41 yards, he looked tough and determined every time he took the ball. Randy McMichael lead all receivers with 5 catches for 51 yards. Donald Lee was more involved in the game than he has been and caught 3 passes for 16 yards. But he also fumbled away his first catch for a turnover. The other receivers caught 2 or fewer passes each and were largely ineffective. Damion McIntosh started at left tackle and was flagged for 3 false starts in the game. He did a slightly better job blocking than Wade Smith, but not a lot better. The rest of the offensive line was still not working together well and did not do a good job picking up the blitz. On defense, Zach Thomas lead the tacklers again with 11 stops and a pass defensed. However, the Steelers did a better job containing Zach than other Dolphins' opponents as he had no tackles for a loss. Junior Seau was right behind Zach with 10 stops and was his usual intense self. The Dolphins are doing a lot more zone blitzing using Junior as the blitzer from the linebacking position. Morlon Greenwood was third in tackles with 7, while Jason Taylor had 6 and David Bowens collected 5 tackles. Jason Taylor had one stop for a loss on a 3rd down, but did not have a sack. The only sack of the night for Miami came from Jeff Zgonina up the middle. He also had 4 other tackles. Sammy Knight contributed 5 tackles of his own including one stop of Duce Staley for a 3 yard loss. Will Poole had 4 tackles and a pass defensed and stopped Hines Ward at the line of scrimmage on one play. Overall, he is coming along very well for a rookie. Sam Madison, on the other hand, also had 4 tackles but was otherwise abused by the Steelers. He gave up the longest pass of the night - a 42 yarder to Plaxico Burress and a couple of long passes to Hines Ward. In addition, he had a defensive holding penalty and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty deep in Miami's end of the field on the Steeler's touchdown drive that moved the ball from Miami's 19 to the 7. He also seemed to be way behind Hines Ward on a couple of other plays. Antuan Edwards had 3 tackles and knocked down a pass, but missed a chance at an interception that looked like it was coming right towards him. Edwards apparently didn't see the ball, though, because it dropped right next to him while he was watching the receiver. Pat Surtain had 2 tackles and the Dolphins only interception of the evening, but had some trouble keeping his footing on the wet turf later in the game. Jay Williams, Bryan Robinson and Jimmy Wyrick also had regular tackles. On special teams, Mare made his only field goal attempt and did a good job kicking deep. He also had a tackle on one of the kickoff returns, possibly saving a touchdown. Turk punted 6 times for an average of 38.2 yards per punt and put two inside the 20. Wes Welker averaged 10 yards per punt return and 22 yards per kickoff return, but fumbled once. Lamar Gordon was knocked out for the year with a dislocated shoulder after a Steeler's hit. Chris Chambers was also injured but stayed in the game. This was another miserable outing for the Dolphins and their fans. AJ Feeley is looking less and less like a savior and more and more like Ray Lucas. Feeley's inexperience is showing as he stares down receivers and trys to force the ball to well-covered receivers. He does have a better arm that Jay Fiedler, but until his decision making improves, he's not going to be as good a quarterback. The offensive line is also still having problems. It's difficult to tell if it's unfamiliarity with the system, the coaching, the players or some combination of the factors, but the offensive line is not performing anywhere near the level that you'd expect a successful pro team to perform. Personally, I have a hard time believing that the problem is the players. Jeno James, Damion McIntosh and John St.Clair have all started on other successful NFL offensive lines. Seth McKinney is at least as good as Tim Ruddy. And while Taylor Whitley may be the weak link at this point, it seems unlikely that he's so weak that his poor play would cause the entire line to stink. So that leaves the coaching and the system they're using and I'm inclined to believe that it's some combination of the two factors that is leading to the poor offensive line play. I don't believe that the wide receivers or the running backs are a problem. Sure, Leonard Henry is not as good as Ricky Williams, but it's difficult to imagine Ricky getting any decent yardage behind the current offensive line. Until the line is fixed, the running game will fail regardless of who is in the backfield. And until the line is fixed, the Dolphins don't really have a prayer of doing well this year.
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