Archive for September, 2012

Upset for Upstart Cardinals?

Saturday, September 29th, 2012
Dolphins Vs. CardinalsThis Sunday, Miami travels to Phoenix to take on the upstart Cardinals, who currently are one of only three teams undefeated this season. An impressive record for a team that was floundering horribly in preseason and are unsettled at quarterback, but for all that, this team has an undeniably strong defense and Larry Fitzgerald is always going to make the job of whoever is under center that much easier.
The Dolphins, however, boast a team with arguably an equally impressive defense, especially when it comes to stopping the run – an area where the Cards have been struggling. But if the Phins want to win this one they are going to have to get more pressure on the QB, Wake is yet to even record a sack. Kolb or Skelton will need to throw to move the chains against us, so look for whoever they have starting this week to air it out. Sean Smith has been good this season so far, but he will have his hands full with Fitzgerald. Marshall has struggled and could prove to be the difference in what I foresee as a very closely contested game, defense-dominated and low-scoring.
The Cards’ pass rush has been brutal – just ask Michael Vick – they will be bringing the heat on Ryan Tannehill. Thus, a much more disciplined offensive line needs to show up for this game. Tannehill has only been sacked four times so far this season, but much of the credit should go to him and his quick feet. His ability to evade the pressure coming down on him and to buy his receivers more time has been excellent, sadly, his receivers’ ability to make use of that time, not so much. Bess is as reliable as ever and is a great Number 3 guy. Hartline is decent, but following a great outing against the Raiders, was unable to play as well against a better Jets secondary. He was targeted nine times and came away with one reception, albeit a huge one that almost kept us within striking distance of a victory. He makes a nice Number 2 guy. The game was marred by horrible drops once again, and Tannehill lacks a solid Number 1 receiver. The depleted wide out core will be contending with a solid secondary, which includes the very talented Patrick Peterson. Hartline will likely be removed from the game for most of the night with this match up. Don’t expect Fasano to get open much as I anticipate him being required to try and stave off a mean pass rush for much of this game.
Should we get Bush back this would provide a much needed boost for the team, Reggie has been nothing short of brilliant and would have probably won us the game last week were he not injured. I still cannot believe that the NFL did not make more of the “Hot Sauce” comment from Bart Scott. Either way, Reggie will return in the near future and in the meantime Lamar Miller looks to be a more than capable back up in a similar style to Bush, averaging 5.9 yards a carry. Thomas will continue to feature as the bruising inside runner and capable pass protection, but serious questions about his ability to hold on to the ball are being asked as he has now lost 2 fumbles in just 22 carries.
It could be a chance for Dan Carpenter to exorcise his demons from last week. This will be a tough battle, and I believe that, once again, it will be a game decided by 3 points or less.

We Want Bush!

Friday, September 21st, 2012

With our legitimate reporter Alex moving to California I recently reached out to Dolfans NYC member Ross Barnes who often posts mini opinion pieces on our Facebook group to see if he wanted to start writing for DolfansNYC.com. He was excited for the opportunity so enjoy the first article by Dolfans NYC’s own British ex-patriot Ross Barnes. 

Reggie BushTo echo the sentiments that followed Reggie Bush’s exploits in last Sunday’s game, I want Bush! As I look down the Dolphins schedule I can see many winnable games, and for a team that many pundits had written off at the start of the season (I myself was/am reticent to get too excited just yet) there is a lot of promise on the horizon for this team. However, I do not believe that promise will translate into success without the continued play of Reggie Bush as he is currently performing. The Dolphins in 2012 are a far outside bet right now, but don’t write them off just yet. This team is a dark horse in the race and, if nothing else, we could play spoiler to a few other teams. The worst thing an opponent could do right now is underestimate what this unit is capable of, and to some extent the pressure will be on them, not us. But Bush will be key to our success.

In Week 1, Tannehill made some costly mistakes. He turned the ball over three times, twice of which came off of tipped balls at the line of scrimmage where Houston’s big defensive linemen were able to read and anticipate Tannehill’s throws as he stared down his receivers. In Week 2, Tannehill did not make these same mistakes. Sure, the Oakland Raiders are not on the same level as opponents like the Texans, but this is the kind of progression that is encouraging to see nonetheless – now we look to consistency. Tannehill was able to score on a run, this is something that we need to see more of him doing. One of the key factors of his game that did draw praise was his athleticism, his ability to get out of the pocket, extend the play and to bust open huge gains scrambling.
It is also important to note how many touches Reggie Bush got against the Raiders – in fact, the entire running game for that matter was more involved and, in doing so, Tannehill was not asked to do too much. Bush saw 14 carries against the Texans; the number almost doubled last week as he was handed the ball 26 times. Lamar Millar got 10 carries and, between he and Bush, they tore chunks out of the Raiders as they combined for 237 yards rushing.
Reggie Bush drew some attention during the offseason when he set himself the goal to be the NFL’s rushing leader, a goal that many people didn’t take seriously. Well, they may want to start taking him seriously now. After Week 2 Bush had amassed 241 rushing yards and currently sits at second on the Rushing Leader Board. The man in front of him is C.J. Spiller (292 yards), who just so happened to have ripped 169 yards off his total when playing against the Jets in Week 1.
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Dolphins Vs. Texans – Photos And Thoughts

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

Week one was a huge success for Dolfans NYC but not so much a success for the Miami Dolphins. We had a packed house at Third and Long(sadly we had to send a few fans next door until we could sneak more people in) and we raised some money for the Miami Dolphins Foundation with another raffle. A lot of the regulars won the prizes so I was happy about that. If you didn’t win you will have more chances. We plan on doing a bunch of raffles this year. We won’t be doing one this Sunday but we will have a new batch of t-shirts for sale.

The Dolphins on the other hand did not play so well. They teased us with great defense and better than expected offense for about 25 minutes. They couldn’t get in the endzone but they looked good against a VERY good team. And then they fell apart. They had four turnovers in four possessions and got scored on three times in the last three minutes of the half making a 3-3 game a 24-3 game by the time they went into the locker room. Aside from a special teams touchdown they couldn’t get in the endzone in the second half and lost 30-10.

It took me two days to get over the game but in the end I came out feeling pretty okay about it. Yes, it was painful to watch but if you think about it there were a lot of positive signs. The Dolphins run defense was dominant and the secondary did okay. Andre Johnson is one of the best players in the NFL and the Texans have a very good offense. They scored 24 points off of turn overs and ended up scoring only 30 points. That’s impressive.

The offense couldn’t score in the red zone and gave up four turnovers which you don’t want to see. But it’s not very often that a team gives up four turnovers in four drives. Tannehill looked pretty good aside from throwing passes into the defensive line and I think that stuff is correctable. Some of the missed passes that looked like over throws or under throws were mostly to Armstrong and Hartline, two players that have only been practicing with Tannehill for a week. Their timing will get better and Hartline looked very healthy. The right side of the o-line struggled and we clearly need better receivers, but the run game looks awesome, the o-line should get better as the year goes on and when Hartline and Armstrong play with Tannehill for a bit longer the passing game could improve significantly.

The Dolphins are not going to be a good team this year and we know it. But there were a lot of good signs against the Texans that were over shadowed by a few minutes in the second quarter. If Tannehill turns out to be a pretty good QB in this league this year won’t even matter. But that being said I think the Dolphins are going to be a lot better at the end of the year than they are now. And for the record I think they beat the Raiders on Sunday. Go Dolphins.

Check out the slideshow of pictures from Third & Long below. If you want to save a photo double click on it and it will take you to Flickr.

[tylr-slidr userID=”” groupID=””]http://www.flickr.com/photos/dolfansnyc/sets/72157631522370553/[/tylr-slidr]

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