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When listening to the remarks of Jimmy Johnson after the
scrimmage today, you would have thought that the Dolphins were
mistake-prone and inept. JJ looked angry and apparently upset by the
scrimmage as he said that the team made a lot of mistakes in their
execution against Tampa Bay.
However, when looking at the scoreboard, the Dolphins "won" the
scrimmage against the Bucs by the score of 15-6. And if it had been a
regular game, the Dolphins would have won by a lot more than just 9
points. The Dolphins' first team offense dominated the Bucs defense and
the Dolphins' first team defense shut out the Bucs first team offense -
and got two interceptions as well.
If this had been a real game, the Dolphins would have gone
ahead 14-0 by the end of the first quarter.
Of course, it's just a scrimmage and a lot of starters weren't
playing. The Dolphins were without Zach Thomas, Troy Drayton, Karim
Abdul-Jabbar, Mark Dixon, Richmond Webb, Shawn Wooden and Yatil Green.
The Bucs were without Mike Alstott, Warrick Dunn, and one of their
starting linebackers (who's name escapes me).
Nevertheless, the Dolphins' first string completely dominated
the Bucs' starters. Marino was poised and sharp and Cecil Collins,
while only getting 4 carries, was easily the most impressive running
back on the field. He ended the scrimmage with only 4 carries, but they
went for 22 yards (a 5.5 ypc average) and he had a 7 yard touchdown run
- right up the middle. He also caught a pass across the middle for
another 7 yards.
But Collins' most impressive play came on an off-tackle run to
the right. As he got to the line of scrimmage, his blocking broke down
and three Bucs defenders were right in front of him. Collins, however,
was able to stutter-step to the right and outrace the defense for about
6 yards around the corner.
This was not the kind of dancing that Avery did last year (and,
unfortunately, still does) - it was one step inside, followed by
blistering speed to the outside. Collins did something that very few
Dolphins backs have done recently - he made something out of nothing.
His second most impressive run was when he picked up just 2
yards, right up the middle - on third and 1. He showed good strength,
running into his blocking at the line of scrimmage, but spinning and
diving for 2 yards.
When Collins got the nod as the starting tailback, the Dolphins
would line him up in a single back set, with the fullback out in an
H-back or slotback position. The Dolphins didn't use the I-formation
much with Collins.
Marino also completed passes to Tony Martin and Lamar Thomas
and the Dolphins' offensive line kept the Bucs' pass rush in check.
The only thing disappointing about the Dolphins' starting offense was
Marino's overthrown deep passes to both Tony Martin and Oronde Gadsden.
On the defensive side of the ball, without Zach Thomas, the
Dolphins were smothering. Against the Bucs' first string offense, the
Dolphins' defense picked off two passes in the first 12 plays, one by
Sam Madison and another by Brock Marion that he returned for a
touchdown.
Brock Marion, by the way, had two interceptions on the day and
looked vastly improved.
Also improved was Derrick Rodgers, who looks like he has put on
some weight and was shedding blocks and getting in the backfield on a
regular basis.
The scrimmage started with 4 kickoffs by each team. Then each
team ran 2 series of 12 plays each, followed by one 2 minute drill for
each team. Then each team ran 2 more series of 12 plays each,
followed by one more 2 minute drill for each team.
On the kickoffs, neither team looked particularly impressive.
The best Dolphins' runback in 4 kicks was by Robert Baker and that only
covered about 25 yards. Avery is still dancing at the point of attack
and got taken down deep on one kickoff.
When the Dolphins kicked off, Olindo Mare' put 2 kicks out of
the back of the endzone and the other two went deep into the endzone.
Unfortunately, the Bucs returned one kick about 40 yards and Mare' had
to make the tackle.
After each team had it's first offensive series, the backups
came on and things started to get a little sloppy on both sides. The
Bucs were able to drive down and get a touchdown against the Dolphins'
second string defense on a pass by Eric Zeier.
Oh, by the way, if Zeier doesn't take the Bucs' starting QB job
away from Trent Dilfer by mid-season, I'll be astonished. Dilfer looked
like dirt, while Zeier looked excellent.
The Dolphins got another touchdown later on in the scrimmage,
but by then, the second, third and fourth string players were in and
the scoring didn't mean much.
Ultimately, though, the purpose of the scrimmage was to take a
look at a lot of individual players and see how they performed in a more
game-like situation than a regular practice. With that in mind,
several players improved their chances of making the team, while one or
two may have worked themselves completely off the team.
On the positive side, Damon Huard and Craig Erickson both
played pretty well. Huard, however, was clearly better than Erickson
and will likely keep that backup position behind Marino. Erickson
looked much better than last year, but is not as good as Huard.
I don't have any stats of the game, but I believe that Huard
completed over 70% of his passes and didn't throw an interception.
Erickson had the longest completion of the day to Robert Baker, but
didn't look as sure or confident in the pocket.
Of the rookies, Cecil Collins was the star of the day and
worked with the starting offense. James Johnson had a couple of decent
runs before he pulled a hamstring and had to sit out the rest of the
game. Unfortunately for him, he didn't get enough work to really
challenge Collins as a potential starter.
Rob Konrad had a couple of nice catches out of the backfield,
but missed a big opportunity when he got open down the middle, but
didn't turn his head around fast enough to see the ball coming and
missed the pass.
Bryan Jones got a lot of playing time and seemed to be doing a
good job, although he didn't have any big plays. One rookie linebacker
who did have a big play was Derik Stevenson. On one Bucs' running
play, Stevenson knifed through the middle of the Bucs line like Zach
Thomas does and hit the running back 7 yards deep in the backfield.
Although he didn't make the tackle, he blew up the play and the running
back ended up losing about 5 yards.
WR Robert Baker had a couple of nice catches and may have moved
himself up on the depth chart. He had the longest catch of the day,
which was about 50 yards from Craig Erickson. What was most impressive
about that play was that Erickson was flushed from the pocket and Baker
had to work back to the seam of the zone to get open - which he did.
That shows good poise for a rookie.
WR Derrick Steagal had one very nice catch, but didn't do much
else and probably didn't change his situation much.
Unfortunately, not everyone had a good day. WR Larry Shannon may
have killed his Dolphins career today. He dropped two catchable passes
from Craig Erickson when he was open and he got both hands on each
ball. RB John Avery had a couple of decent runs, but he is still
dancing too much in the hole and didn't do much after he caught a
couple of short passes.
FB Stanley Pritchett caught a couple of nice passes, but also
dropped at least one that he should have had. I didn't see the
Dolphins run Pritchett today at all.
I didn't pay much attention to the offensive line, but the
first string consisted of James Brown, Kevin Donnalley, Tim Ruddy, John
Bock and Brent Smith today. They did a good job opening holes and
protecting Marino, who was not sacked.
I don't know why Kevin Gogan was not starting with the first
team offensive line, but he did work later with the second string.
I didn't see much of WR Nate Jacquet, whom I expected to see
more of. At most he had 2 passes thrown his way and didn't make any
big plays.
Grey Reugamer did get a lot of work at center, but the second
and third string offensive lines had a lot more trouble giving up sacks
and opening holes than the starters. Reugamer also had a high snap to
Damon Huard at one point, but Huard was able to grab it.
The only other player who caught my eye was CB Jerry Wilson.
He had a couple of blitzs from the cornerback position that were
terrific, but he was also beaten several times in the open field. Last
year, at the end of the year, teams would pick on Wilson and I'm afraid
he hasn't improved.
The bottom line, however, was that the first string dominated
the Bucs on both sides of the ball. If anything, the defense looks
like it will be at least as good this year as it was last year. The
offense looks much better, especially on the ground, but the deep
passing game didn't accomplish anything today.
As far as the rest of the team is concerned, Damon Huard
cemented his backup role and Robert Baker and Derik Stevenson got
themselves noticed in a positive way. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that
Larry Shannon and Jerry Wilson may have gotten themselves noticed in a
negative way.
For the immediate future, the team just needs to keep going in
the same direction it's been going. The pre-season game against the
Saints that is coming up will be the last chance that guys like Larry
Shannon have to prove that they can make the team.
Curt Fennell
curt@phins.com
DOLFAN in New Rochelle
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