Finsmob Unleashed

There’s hope. While there are many things compromised by the deep roster purge, there are glimmers of hope. The first half of this game it wasn’t that obvious which team had just emptied its roster and which team was probably a contender to be the best team in their conference. The Miami Dolphins actually had an edge in T.O.P. in the first half, 16:11 to 13:49. The first drive looked nice yet K Jason Sanders failed to convert the FG to give the Dolphins their first lead of the season. Despite the fact that we didn’t score, it was evident this team had a different feel with QB Josh Rosen at the helm instead of Ryan Fitzpatrick. There was confidence, aggressiveness, and in general there was life in this offense.

The defense wasn’t especially strong, but in the first half they were in the game. There’s still no pass rush, and we don’t look great against the run, but the Cowboys high powered offense was held in check in the first half. You want depressing? This kills me by the way. I know it’s early in the season, but here are the 3 sack leaders on our team. All newcomers, John Jenkins, Vince Biegel and now Taco Charlton who has played only one game are all tied with a grand total of 1 sack! Not one Dolphins defender who was here last year or longer has a sack. That’s ugly. I guess I was wrong about Taco, he’s better than what we got (Ugh!).

DeVante Parker still remains the enigma he’s always been. He’ll make the wonderful contested catch with a very low chance of success, and then run an easy crossing route with no defender within 5 yards and allow an easy floater to go right through his hands. That could have been a TD. Preston Williams seems to have passed him on the reliability chart and it seems that Rosen and Williams have good rhythm between them. Jakeem Grant was extremely amped up to play in front of his home crowd in Texas and his hands were even more amped up, dropping not only another punt but a couple of passes too. How much longer does Grant get to field punts? That should be a legitimate question.

It’s only 3 games, but I can’t think of one guy on our defense who has been impressive. What happened to our LB’s Jerome Baker and Raekwon McMillan? They have been quieted to the point you forget they’re there. Sam Eguavoen who made lots of noise in preseason has come back down to earth. Yesterday was different, the Cowboys made our best defender Xavien Howard look like Eric Rowe for a game. They picked on X all game and were successful doing so. This is one X would like to forget, but I’m sure Rowe was thankful to have the pressure off him for 1 week. To be fair, Eguavoen led the team in tackles yesterday, but there hasn’t been an impact play all season. I’m wondering if Christian Wilkins blew his load trying to body bump Roger Goodell at the draft because he hasn’t been seen nor heard from since. It’s still early though so I’m far from panicking about him. Charles Harris though, oh boy . . .

I laugh to think how many discussions we’ve had here about which RB is better suited to be the feature back here in MIA. I’m pretty sure after 3 games that we haven’t seen him get regular playing time, because it’s clearly not either Kenyan Drake or Kalen Ballage. While Drake has the runaway speed he’s too much of a finesse runner. While Ballage has the size he’s too much Sta Puft for me. He goes down as soon as he sees the graham crackers coming. Also, both are supposed to be good receivers out of the backfield and this season they just keep dropping the ball. I think it’s just a matter of time before we see more of Mark Walton and Myles Gaskin. We’ve also been economical with our use of FB Chandler Cox and I’d like to see that change too.

Rosen is the reason. If you’re tuning in this year, you’re probably watching to see how the young QB fares, or you’re a masochist, either one. I think he brings lots of promise. I’m not sure if he can be an elite QB but he looks like he belongs on the playing field and his arm talent might be the best since good ole Danny boy. Granted, that isn’t saying all that much, you’ve seen the list of QB’s that have been here since ’99, it’s fugly! I said I wanted improvement every week, and although on the scoreboard it was just a tiny increment better, I know we were competitive, we could have been ahead. The 2nd half things unraveled, but when you’re looking for positives, you have to take them where you can find them. Maybe by season’s end we can put 2 halves together and play a solid game the whole way.

GO DOLPHINS!!

#staythecourse