OVERALL SUMMARY:
The Dolphins lost to the Seattle Seahawks 22-15 in Miami this afternoon in a game that was about mistakes and big plays. The game was played in an afternoon-long storm that drenched the field and caused problems for both team, but Miami seemed to get the worst of it.
The entire Seahawk scoring effort consisted of 3 big passes for TDs of 51, 65 and 80 yards. In contrast, most of the Dolphins offensive effort consisted of 7 fumbles - 5 of which were between Erickson and Ruddy on snaps. Erickson did show some good things today, but overall he clearly doesn't have a good grasp of the offense and with the rushing offense not doing a good job today, he was in a bad spot.
The game started well for the Dolphins, with Irving Spikes taking the opening kickoff 60 yards to the Seattle 40. From that point, the Dolphins were able to run and pass the ball effectively all the way down to a second and goal at the Seattle 1. However, after a fumble on the snap was recovered by Erickson and Spikes slipped on the backfield on the next play, the Dolphins were forced to settle for a field goal and a 3-0 early lead.
The first Seattle drive went from their 22 to their 39, but they were halted there and forced to punt. On the next Dolphins series, two runs by Abdul-Jabbar and Pritchett moved the ball 13 yards, but a sack on first down was too much for the Dolphins and they were forced to punt on 4th down after they couldn't get all the yards back.
The punt went for a touchback and Seattle started at their own 20 and after two plays moved them to their 35, John Friesz hit Joey Galloway down the left sideline for a 65 yard TD. Calvin Jackson had good position on the play, but he didn't jump with Galloway for the ball and he couldn't get a grip on Galloway as he slipped and fell. He almost took Galloway down with him, but Galloway was off to the races for the TD and a 7-3 lead that ended the 1st quarter.
The second quarter started with a comedy of errors as Jerris McPhail couldn't get a handle on the kickoff and was taken down at the 9 yard line after finally picking it up. On the first play from the 9, Erickson fumbled the handoff from Ruddy and Seattle recovered. However, on the very next play, Chris Warren fumbled at the 7 and Louis Oliver recovered for the Dolphins.
The Dolphins managed 1 first down on 2 plays to Spikes on this series, but on 3rd and 8, Cortez Kennedy came untouched up the middle and sacked Erickson and the Dolphins were forced to punt from their 10. The Seahawks returned the punt to their 49 and on the very next play, Friesz hit Joey Galloway again on a deep slant across the middle. Galloway was wide open and outraced Louis Oliver and Calvin Jackson to the endzone.
On this play, the Dolphins were playing deep zone, but it appeared as if Gene Atkins came up and was caught out of position. Buckley had the outside coverage and was in good position if Galloway had cut out, but he cut in and there was no one there.
With the Seahawks leading 14-3, The Dolphins started the next series on their 23 and managed to move to the Seattle 48, mostly on a nice little dump pass to Jerris McPhail, who turned it into a 23 yard gain. But, facing a 3rd and 7, Erickson fumbled Ruddy's snap and the Dolphins were forced to punt again.
The punt was downed at the Seattle 8 and a penalty on Seattle pushed it back to the 4 and they could only get to their 12 before they were stuffed and forced to punt. The Dolphins went 3 and out on their next series after a sack by Seattle and punted again. Seattle took over at their own 19 and after two short gains, Calvin Jackson stripped Joey Galloway of the ball on third down which Zach Thomas recovered to the give the Dolphins a first down at the Seattle 22.
However, after a very short run by Spikes, Erickson fumbled the handoff on 2nd down and Seattle got the ball back at their 23. Fortunately for the Dolphins, a 50 yard run by Chris Warren was negated by a holding call and the Dolphins got the ball back at the Seahawk 49 after stuffing the Seahawks and partially blocking a punt.
From their it took just three passes for Erickson to hit Randal Hill on a 33 yard deep slant that Hill took in for a touchdown. The PAT failed and the Dolphins ended the first half down by the score of 14-9.
The second half opened with Seattle taking the ball from their 20 down the field to the Dolphins 36, mostly on the running of Lamar Smith, but after Louis Oliver made a saving tackle in the backfield on 3rd and 2, the Seahawks were forced to punt.
The Dolphins started at their 20 and, using a combination of some nice runs by Spikes and passes to Pritchett, Hill, McDuffie and McPhail, moved down to a first and goal at the Seattle 2. From there Irving Spikes went around left tackle and took it in for the score and a 15-14 Dolphin lead.
The Seahawks started the next series on their 20 after a touchback on the kickoff, but went 3 and out to end the 3rd quarter. They punted to the Dolphins' 28 to open the 4th.
On the next series, the Dolphins had one decent play of 21 yards to Brett Carolan, but after that they stalled and had to punt from their 49. On the punt, Kirby Dar Dar made a spectacular play to bat the ball out of the endzone in the air and so Seattle started at their own 4 and were able to move out to their 28, but the defense stiffened and Seattle was forced to punt.
The punt was partially blocked by Robert Bailey and the Dolphins started at the Seattle 44, but stalled after Erickson overthrew McDuffie on 3rd and 4 at the Seattle 38. The Dolphins' punt was a touchback and Seattle moved from their 20 out to their 45, but facing a 4th and 3 with less than 4 minutes left to go in the game, Friesz threw a perfect pass to Dwight Hollier, who has positioned himself in the perfect place.
Hollier returned the ball to the Seattle 43 and it appeared that, with about 3:45 remaing, the Dolphins were going to win this game. But Irving Spikes lost a yard on 1st down and Erickon couldn't find the open receiver on two successive plays, so the Seahawks got it back after a punt at their 20 with about 2:28 remaining.
Friesz's first pass on this series was almost picked off by JB Brown, but Gene Atkins was also going for the ball and knocked Brown away. After the second pass fell incomplete, Friesz was facing a 3rd and 10 from his own 20, but hit Brian Blades on a crossing route at about 20 yards down the field. Calvin Jackson was a step behind Blades and stumbled reaching for the ball. Blades then just outran Gene Atkins and Louis Oliver for an 80 yard TD reception.
After the Seahawks went for 2, they lead 22-15. The kickoff was taken out to the 22, and with less than 2 minutes remaing, Erickson moved the Dolphins to the Seattle 44. However, after a sack, a drop and an incompletion, Erickson faced 4th and 11. With 25 seconds remaining, he then threw his only interception of the game when the receiver he was throwing to cut out instead of in and the game was essentially over.
Overall, this was a disappointing outing for the Dolphins. The Seahawks were a team that they should have beaten and that they could have beaten, except for a whole lot of mistakes. It was big plays and mistakes that beat the Dolphins today and that can't continue to happen, or else the season will be over before week 17.
GOOD STUFF:
Believe it or not, there was some good stuff today to be happy about. First of all, the special teams were very good. 2 Kickoffs were touchbacks and the longest one they allowed was 23 yards. Kidd averaged 48.3 yards per punt and put 3 inside the 20. And Irving Spikes returned the opening kickoff 59 yards.
And if that wasn't enough, the Dolphins partially blocked 2 punts. All in all, field position was not the Dolphins problem today.
Also, the run defense played well, for the most part. Chris Warren was limited to 18 yards on 12 carries and the Dolphins managed to hold the Seahawks to 59 yards on 27 attempts, for a 2.2 yard/carry average.
Unfortunately, that's about all that went well.
THINGS TO WORK ON:
The pass defense stunk, mostly because the Dolphins couldn't put any pressure on Friesz, but also partly because of the 3 big mistakes in coverage against Joey Galloway and Brian Blades. Seattle's three scores were all on big plays and were inexcusable. With Seattle giving up an average of 4 sacks per game, the Dolphins couldn't get one today.
Also, the rushing game was poor for the second week in a row against a team that ranks last in rushing defense in the league. For some reason, the Dolphins offensive line wasn't consistent enough today. They managed to open holes sometimes, but mostly were swamped and knocked back. Somebody needs to kick their butts good.
The pass offense was better and it was good to see Jerris McPhail play well, but other that his one TD reception, Hill was practically invisible and none of the other receivers had particularly good days.
And one other stat of note - the Dolphins didn't convert a single 3rd down in the 4th quarter. Obviously, this needs to change.
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES:
Craig Erickson made his first start under less than optimal conditions, but still shouldn't have fumbled 4 snaps. Also, it's clear that he doesn't yet know the offense and even though he's a lot more mobile than Kosar, he made some bad reads today and was forced to throw the ball away a number of times.
Irving Spikes started at running back, but only managed to get 48 yards in 19 carries. He did have one TD, however, on a nice run over the left side and ran back the opening kickoff 59 yards.
Randal Hill had the Dolphins' other TD on a nice 33 yard slant over the middle, but only caught one other pass for 18 yards.
Brett Carolan, in his first and probably last start, caught 1 pass for 21 yards.
Jerris McPhail had a big day, catching 6 passes for 86 yards and rushing once for 10 yards. However, he bobbled a kickoff and nearly lost the ball.
Karim Abdul-Jabbar was not used much, rushing 6 times for 19 yards.
On defense, Zach Thomas was back today, getting 13 solo tackles, 1 forced fumble, 1 pass defensed and 1 fumble recovery. But he probably won't be the player of the week again, because the Dolphins lost.
After Thomas, Gene Atkins had 5 tackles, but lost coverage on the second touchdown pass to Joey Galloway and may have lost coverage on the last TD pass to Blades.
Louis Oliver had 3 tackles, including a nice stop behind the line of scrimmage.
Dwight Hollier had only 1 tackle, but did have 1 interception.
None of the defensive linemen had more than 2 tackles and no sacks were recorded for the Dolphins today.
Calvin Jackson had 2 tackles, 1 assist and 1 forced fumble on Joey Galloway. However, he was also burned by Galloway on one play and by Brian Blades on another - both for TDs.
On special teams, John Kidd appears to be very special, averaging 48.3 yards per punt and putting 3 of his 6 punts inside the 20.
Nedney hit a field goal and put three of his 4 kickoffs deep in the endzone.
And Kirby Dar Dar had a fine day on special teams as well, batting one ball out of the endzone and almost getting two more on punt coverage.
INJURIES:
There were no severe Dolphins injuries today.
My Comments:
I have little to say about this game. It was a piss-poor performance by the Dolphins. There were way too many mistakes and poor execution that resulted in TDs and fumbles. Last week's game against the Colts was much better. This week, the only real positives by the Dolphins were the special teams and Zach Thomas.
It was readily apparent that Erickson wasn't comfortable running the Dolphins offense. To his credit, he made some smart plays and didn't seem to get rattled. However, he'll need a lot of work before he becomes an adequate starter.
If the Dolphins screw up this badly next week, it's going to be a very ugly game against the Bills.
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