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Game Summary: Dolphins at Jaguars |  | ||||||||
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This week, the starters were: Offense Defense QB 11 G.Frerotte RE 99 J.Taylor RB 31 S.Morris RT 91 V.Holliday WR 86 M.Booker LT 94 K.Traylor WR 84 C.Chambers LE 93 K.Carter TE 81 R.McMichael OLB 59 D.Spragan TE 85 D.Lee MLB 54 Z.Thomas LT 72 V.Carey OLB 52 C.Crowder LG 78 J.James LCB 21 T.Daniels C 68 S.McKinney RCB 29 S.Madison RG 66 R.Hadnot SS 24 T.Jones RT 73 S.McDougle FS 37 Y.BellSUMMARY: The Dolphins lost their second game of the season on Saturday night, dropping a 27-17 decision to the Jacksonville Jaguars. While the score was a lot worse than the first game against the Bears, there was a lot more to be positive about in this game, especially on defense. The game started as a defensive struggle for about the first 20 minutes of play. With the exception of the punt return for a touchdown by the Jaguars, neither team moved the ball very well and the first string defense of each team dominated the opponent's offense. The Dolphins did manage to put together one 48 yard drive in the 2nd quarter that resulted in a Dolphins' field goal, but otherwise, both first string offenses were basically shut down. Once the first string left the field, however, the Jaguars took over and engineered 4 scoring drives from mid-way through the 2nd quarter to mid-way through the 4th quarter. The Dolphins, in response, could do nothing and it wasn't until Sage Rosenfels took over the offense in the 4th that the Dolphins managed to score their first touchdown. Rosenfels sparked a mini-comeback that saw the Dolphins score 2 touchdowns in the final 8 minutes of play, but that was not enough to prevent the team from losing their second game. The starting defense did a much better job in coverage and in rushing the passer this week. The starters sacked Jaguars' QB Byron Leftwich 4 times in the first quarter and a half of play and limited the Jags' offense to 29 passing yards during the same interval. The offense improved the running game, especially when Ricky Williams was playing. Ricky had 6 carries for 39 yards, which is a 6.5 ypc average. The pass protection was also improved, although not as much as the run blocking. Gus Frerotte was sacked only once and none of the other Dolphins' quarterbacks were sacked at all. The second team defense did a poor job of containing the Jaguars' offense. Once the Dolphins' backups entered the game, the Jaguars ran and passed the ball effectively and scored 20 points on the Dolphins. Right now, the Dolphins are lacking depth on defense, especially in the secondary. The passing game was anemic through most of the game and both Feeley and Frerotte had a hard time hitting their receivers. Whether that was unfamiliarity with the receivers or just poor QB play, the two QBs competing to start for Miami combined to complete only 12 of 27 passes for 111 yards and 1 interception. Special teams coverage seems to have taken a step back from last year and Jacksonville's 75 yard punt return was highlighted by poor tackling from the Dolphins. Gus Frerotte completed 6 of 14 for 51 yards and no touchdowns. He was also lucky to not have thrown an interception, because at least one of his passes bounced off a Jacksonville defender and he tried to force another between three defenders. Having said that, he looked better than AJ Feeley, who just looked frustrated and confused. Feeley completed 6 of 13 for 60 yards with one pick and didn't look in command of the offense at all. Sage Rosenfels, on the other hand, ignited the offense and drove them down the field 60 yards for Miami first touchdown. He was only in the game for one series, but completed 7 of 12 for 56 yards and a touchdown. He ran the hurry-up offense for that series. Brock Berlin came in after Rosenfels' series and one-upped him, driving the Dolphins 68 yards in 8 plays that ended in a 12 yard touchdown pass to Maurice Mann. He completed 4 of 7 passes for 74 yards and 1 touchdown. Sammy Morris started at running back and gained just 10 yards on 3 carries, but also caught 2 passes for 19 yards. One of those receptions showed good field awareness and determination as he vaulted over a defender to gain a first down. Ricky Williams averaged 6.5 ypc, carrying the ball 6 times for 39 yards. Two of his runs were particularly impressive as he faked out or ran away from defenders and turned nothing into good gains. He looked like the old Ricky at his best. Travis Minor carried two times for 10 yards and caught 3 passes for 13 yards. Lamar Gordon had a poor outing, picking up just 1 yard on 2 carries and fumbling once. In the last 2 games, Gordon has 5 carries for a total of 0 yards. Chris Chambers had 2 catches for 24 yards, including his highlight catch where he was drilled while crossing the middle and had the ball pop out of his hands, but maintained enough concentration to grab the ball out of the air. He also ran a reverse for 12 yards. Marty Booker didn't catch any passes and David Boston, in his new role as the #3 receiver, caught only one for 9 yards, but it was good for a first down near the goal line. Derrius Thompson also didn't catch any passes. The star receiver of the night was Maurice Mann, who caught 5 passes for 89 yards, including the final touchdown. Four of his receptions were on the final drive, including a very nice 49 yard reception down the sideline. TE Lorenzo Diamond did not shine this week like he did against the Bears, but he did catch one pass for 11 yards, which is one more pass than Donald Lee caught. Wes Welker did catch one pass for 19 yards, but it was nullified by a penalty and was open in the endzone another time, but was overthrown by Gus Frerotte. Welker also returned punts and kickoffs, but didn't have any returns that stood out for being either especially good or bad. Stockar McDougle, Seth McKinney and Rex Hadnot were embarrassed early when Marcus Stroud and Paul Spicer blew through them for a sack, but otherwise the offensive line played pretty well. The Jaguars only had one sack for the whole game. On defense, David Bowens, Kevin Carter, Jason Glenn and Jeff Zgonina each had 1 sack apiece, while Zach Thomas and Keith Traylor split a sack between them. 4 of the sacks came against the Jags' first team offense in the first 20 minutes of play. Donnie Spragan only had 2 tackles and no sacks, but he did cause at least 2 sacks on blitzes by forcing Byron Leftwich up in the pocket to dodge him. Zach Thomas lead the team in tackles with 6 and seems to have answered the critics who said he wouldn't be as effective in Nick Saban's defensive scheme as he was in the previous defense. Reggie Howard improved on his performance against the Bears with 5 tackles and some strong coverage of Jags' receivers. Channing Crowder also had 5 tackles as he started for Junior Seau at weakside linebacker. Jason Glenn, Derrick Pope, David Bowens and Josh Shaw all had 4 tackles apiece, and Glenn also had a special teams tackle. Glenn is looking like a good backup at linebacker. Jason Taylor only had 1 tackle, but his pressure on the quarterback helped others get to the passer. Travis Daniels only had one tackle, but was impressive on pass coverage, especially on one play where he ran down the sidelines step-for-step with WR Jimmy Smith and knocked the ball away. Travis Daniels tweaked his hamstring, but otherwise there were no injuries reported for the Dolphins. The score doesn't reflect it, but I think that the Dolphins actually improved their play this week, especially on the first string. The Dolphins' first string defense dominated at the line of scrimmage and completely controlled the Jaguars. The offense, while not especially impressive, showed good signs of developing a running game and the offensive line played better than it did against the Bears. Individually, Gus Frerotte did not impress anyone, but did outplay AJ Feeley, which is really all he needs to do to secure the starting job. What was more disappointing for Feeley is that he was outplayed by both Sage Rosenfels and Brock Berlin. On the offensive line, no one player stood out as especially good or bad, but overall the line did a better job this week in protecting the passer. It's hard to tell much about the receivers without knowing what plays were called, because it didn't look as though Marty Booker was thrown to at all, but right now it appears as if the trio of Chambers, Booker and Boston will be the top three receivers on the depth chart. Derrius Thompson has done nothing to move back to the number 3 position and even Wes Welker is getting more attention than he is when the plays are called. On defense, the pass rush was vastly improved and the blitz packages seem to be working, although the Jags offense is not exactly the strongest offense in the league. But Donnie Spragan was impressive while blitzing, even though he didn't collect any sacks himself. Also, the pass coverage was much better this week. Overall, despite the score, I really feel that the game was a decided improvement over the Bears game, at least as far as the first string was concerned.
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