Week Seven Recap: Ravens at Dolphins

(sun-sentinel.com)

That was a stinker. Miami just never got in sync in this game and Baltimore took advantage. A pick-six in the second quarter gave the Ravens the lead and the Dolphins were playing catchup the rest of the afternoon. Here is a little three up, three down on Miami's performance.

Three Up

1. Ted Ginn, Jr. was inserted on kickoff returns and did a nice job. He had a couple nice ones early in the game and then the Ravnes started doing shorter pooch kicks, to limit his TD potential. He is clearly a better option than Davone Bess. He also caught four passes for 48 yards as a receiver.
2. Yeremiah Bell is the only good thing in the Dolphins secondary these days. He led the team with eight tackles (which probably isn't a good thing when your safety is a leading tackler) and also had a crucial forced fumble that temporarily kept us in the game. He is looking like the playmaker we came to know in 2006. Too bad he doesn't have much help back there.
3. Joey Porter turned in another good pass rushing performance. He recorded two more sacks, giving him eight and a half on the season thus far. We needed a big year from him to help our young defense and he is delivering.
   

Three Down

1. The Red Zone Offense and Defense was poor yesterday. Coming into the game, the Dolphins had scored 15 touchdowns and only attempted 4 field goals. In the first half, twice they had the ball inside the 15 yard line and settled for two short field goals. On defense, Miami allowed a huge red zone touchdown on third and nine from the eleven yard line right before the half. Also in the fourth quarter they allowed a rushing touchdown allowing the lead to get to 14 instead of 10, effectively ending the game. In our four trips, we scored 13 points. In their three trips, they scored 17 points. Unacceptable.
2. The Wildcat Formation was stopped for this first time. I'll give credit to the Ravens defense, who said they would not allow that to beat them, but I must say I don't think the formation was used properly. Early in the game, Ronnie Brown kept it most of the time and the Ravens were selling out for the inside runs. They maintained their gap responsibility and tackled well to shut it down. Last week in Houston we used the trick plays before the normal Ronnie runs to keep the defense honest. This week it just seemed like they expected Ronnie to bail them out. It didn't work.
3. The Pass Defense continues to struggle. I know the defense didn't stop the run well, which makes it tougher to defend the pass, but this group doesn't make plays and allows big third down conversion for opposng offenses. When you get down to it, the pass defense only seems to do well when we stop the run and get a good pass rush. When that happens, anybody can play good pass defense. Yeremiah Bell and Will Allen are the only solid players and even they can improve. The front office did nothing to improve this area in the offseason and we are paying for it now. It will need to be a high priority this spring.

Random Thoughts

• Was it really necessary to give Cam Cameron a gatorade bath. First of all, you just beat a now 2-4 team. Also, it's not like offensive ingenuity was needed. They ran the ball well and that set up everything else.
• Ricky Williams received a lot of local hype coming into this year but he hasn't found his stride. He had a good game in New England (who didn't?) but since has struggled to make big runs and fit with the offense. He is getting less carries, and I wouldn't be surprised if the wildcat formation had a new wing back this week.
• The nose tackle situation really hurt Miami yesterday. Backup Paul Soliai was suspended and starter Jason Ferguson was injured early and didn't return. He is the key man for our run defense and his absence was notable. Randy Starks has been playing well but he is not a 3-4 NT and that showed on Sunday.
• I can't get mad at Chad Pennington's pick-six. We were in the sixth game and that was his first real bad game changing decision. It put us in a bad spot and we didn't recover. He is still the right man for this team though.
• I don't know what's in the water down here but opposing punters have killed the Dolphins. This time it was Sam Koch who averaged 59 yards for three punts. It is very deflating when you get field position that is 20 or so yards worse than you thought it'd be.
  

That's about it for now. Up this week is a tough matchup with the Buffalo Bills at home.