Are we there yet? I think we are officially in the 'contender' city limits. We're not downtown yet....but we're there.

We lost a close winnable game to the 5-0 Colts, We were in it against a 3-1 Falcons team, and we should have been able to beat the Chargers.

We dominated a bad team last week, and we won a high scoring game against a team that has been playing very well.

IMO, we can go into any game with a reasonable expectation of being able to win.

Once Vontae Davis and Sean Smith get seasoned...our secondary becomes better...even our ineffective Safeties will improve as a result of have two top notch corners on the field.

Even Channing Crowder played better yesterday. If he can look at film and realize he has that ability, maybe he will bring it more consistently?

This is definitely the growing year. We have a lot of young players who will only get better. And...the old guys have a young guy waiting to take their place. If Soliai can improve, if Wake develops in the other phases of the game, then JT, Porter, and Ferguson can be replaced.

Next year we just might be able to draft BPA.

1. I think we're right there on offense, and not quite belongining in the discussion on defense.

Defense wins championships, and as much as I want to I can't see the defense stopping the elite teams

on the upside ... this offense has ball control written all over it and thus we'll be able to keep the ball away from some talented offenses.

- As we saw at INDY with a spectacular offensive ball control game execution, it wasn't enough.

2. As to you points on the corners coming together

- That still leaves safeties and LBs trying to vover WRs and TEs.

- I need to see us getting better there before the defense enters the city limits.

How does the coaching staff deal with that ... you're a coach ... what would you do mid-season?

Not just Wilson this week, will allen got toasted a couple times pretty good.

ON defense We need to get another safety that can play as good as bell and we need a couple of LBs.

On offense we need to get henne another speedster at WR.

Then we will be contenders.

_______________________________________________________________________



NOTE. For those that though jake grove was a bust.......???????

Think Again!

This miami OL is starting to beat up on people and i love it...


NOTE 2.......Where were the jets great defenders and great defensive backs??? Ginn Burned them for a 50 yard score.......You cannot teach speed sorry. Tedd Ginn might be the fastest player in the NFL straight up. He was open by 5 yards on that TD.

Here's my opinion on the LB's and Safeties.

Coaches have to figure out what the OC's for the other teams are keying on. They didn't just 'luckily' find that we can't cover the TE. they found a coverage/personnel match-up that they look for.

Once they have that they have to give the players very specific cheats.

There is no way around it. Superior athletes require the opponent to cheat on responsibilities. Inferior athletes need to be replaced, or must cheat on responsibilities.

Our safeties are not playing at a high enough level. So we either give Chris Clemons some playing time and see if he is better....or...we start disguising our coverage on a regular play by play basis so we can slide into a package that sits on the middle.


As for ILB....We have no-one who can 'dominate' an area. Each guy can make plays...and yesterday crowder played possessed...but neither can be counted on every down. Because of this..we need safety help in our run defence...which limits our pass protection's ability to cheat.


OUr safeties are keying on the run game more than they are keying on the TE. I think coaches made some adjustments there.....as is evidenced by the fact that we shut down Dustin Keller ....but....gave up way more yards in the run game.


1 piece solves both. A great ILB is probrably the more important investment since we have two highly drafted young corners who will come into their own very soon. If they can handle press man coverage ( like Madison and Surtain did) the safeties can play both run support and the middle.

Both vontae and sean might come into their own sooner than we think.

Madison and surtain all over again.

Good response thanks.

Makes sense ... but an expansion point would be that:

- Despite our current ills ... last year we couldn't run support nor pass support. So we are better today in run support.

The million dollar question is ... where do we get the missing piece, and secondly how do we figure out the right mix "pick your poison" in the interim

Phinsfan2 Wrote:
>
> If we win two of our next three to get to .500 at
> 4-4 and 3-1 or 4-0 in the division then I'd say we
> are back in the hunt.
>
> These next 3 games are enourmous. After that our
> schedule gets much easier and its possible to get
> on a run.

I agree if we can get to 4-4, the road the playoffs is attainable. Their are a lot of 0 and 1 win team in the 2nd half of the schedule that many people expected to be really tough.

I honestly think that there are better options on our roster.

Gibril Wilson is a hard hitter...but hitting after the completion isn't as valuable as preventing it.

I think we need to get Clemons some game time at Safety.

At ILB? I wonder to what extent Matt Roth's ability to set the edge and shut down the outside helps the ILB's. I think we are missing him more than we realize. VERY STRANGE ABSENCE and silence about Roth.

Armando? Ethan? any leads?

We don't have a guy who has the speed/size mix to be a dominating ILB. They each either give up size or speed. Charlie Anderson comes the closest... but I think if he showed the right stuff they would have worked him in.


I can't think of anything that would solve our problem...other than an effective blitz package. Thta's why i created that Vanilla D thread. Get to the QB and your deep safety support isn't exposed.

Sit one safety in the middle, slide the other over the opponents top WR and blitz. Blitz the run and the pass, give the short safety the hot read pick-up and make sure the someone has the screen pass on their radar.

I agree give clemmons some playing time. I doubt he can do much worse than wilson.

Is Zach Thomas really done? I STILL wonder if he's even a little better than what we currently have at ILB.

I would love to see him play again in a Phins uniform......But, I think realistically, that is based on nostalgia.

I would love to think that Zach can still roam sideline to sideline and wrangle up running backs; but, to be honest, I recall in his last season or two with us....that he got dragged for an extra`yard here and there. he wasn't punishing anyone. He was taking the brunt of the tackle.

Yes he was still bringing them down, and wracking up the stats....but...he was no longer the FEATURE of our run stopping D.

If we had Tim Bowens and Darryl Gardner in their prime? maybe. We don't. We have Ferguson doing a great job of squeezing out what's left in the tank when it counts. We have young guys learning and establishing themselves. We have aging OLB's, inexperienced OLB's and ineffective ILB's. We have green corners, slow safeties, and a Vanilla scheme.

He would look really bad.

Thank you realist for mentioning Matt Roth, I was just thinking of him yesterday when I was watching Jason Taylor play that OLB spot, while thinking to myself that he just looks sort of out of place there. I think Taylor, at least at this point in his career, would be better in his usual role in the 4-3 on the D-line, not run stuffing and running around trying to cover receivers and what not.

I completely agree with you, I think we're missing Matt Roth a lot more than we realize, and this whole quiet business with him still on the sidelines (or sitting at home in Miami for all I know) is so strange to me. I don't understand what's going on with him. It's a shame, I think he makes us better.

We need more of a consistent pass rush. JT, Wake, and Porter all seem cut from the same cloth. They are capable of whipping their man and getting sacks. But, they can also be stonewalled at the line. We need some guys up front with more consistent pressure on the QB. On all the big pass plays, Sanchez was allowed to stand in a perfectly formed pocket for an eternity.

Also need some pressure up the middle. maybe Roth can bring that to the table.

Wilson had some calls thrown on him in the Jets game! HOW AWESOME!!! I see us as a contender. I think, in my opinion that we are getting stronger as we go, our run game is awesome, and our o-line is doing awesome. Our defense, is well... our defense. Henne LOOKS AWESOME!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2009 11:34AM by jpippiniii.

That's right jpippiniii our defense and awesome do not exactly fit in the same sentence just now.

There is a lot on the other side that does however. Thus if we can make similar improvements on defense as we have on offense ... it would be sweet.

- We however have far more talent on the offense than the defense.

- As Realist noted, the corners will get better and that will help ... LB & saftey is still an issue for now.

I agree phinjim. The phins d is far from awesome...We have a couple of rookes playing one starting we might even have a safety rookie playing soon if wilson doesnt straighen out.

Our run D is good out pass d will get better as the season progresses.

We have a couple of aging outside LBs and our INside LBs dont scare anybody...

Next year we go NT LB early...But lets not think next year. This year isnt over yet.

I hope we get either:

1. Eric Berry
2. Taylor Mays
3. Rolando McClain
4. Terrence Cody

---------------------

"When you suck long enough, you get a Hickey"

I kind of like the fact that we are playing the saints this week.

It willl truly be make or break time for the defensive guys. Might be what they need to pull together.

- I quite frankly am not sure if we have the talent, or if we just haven't played together in the secodnary yet.

- To me the vets need to show up and the rookies need to get come of age and soon. Win or lose, if they play well it will be a turning pooint for the defense for the rest of the year.

- If they get smoked, I think you'll see a lot of changes next season. Will allen and G. Wilson should be playing better.