Preseason: Game Two

Tonight the Dolphins take on the Panthers here in rainy Miami for their second of four preseason games. Last game, I said I wouldn't update much via Twitter. Well, I ended up posting ten times (not including @ replies) and it was mostly failed humor attempts. But as @Tomas_Verde pointed out, the great thing about failed humor is that it's humorous in its failure. And he should know, as he is the author of 4th and Fail (surprisingly not a Dave Wannstedt blog). So tonight you can expect more awkward exclamations and bad humor attempts courtesy of @tedhill. If you don't want to leave this page, I placed a widget on the side of this page that should pick up all of my messages tonight.

But, I will at least try to expand upon it. Last game, partly because I was busy, but mainly because I was lazy, I didn't have any sort of game recap or thoughts. After this game, for the recap, I will revisit some of my posts and expand upon them. For now, here is a short little preview.

Three Main Things I Am Watching Tonight

First, the focus always seems to be on the quarterbacks in preseason games and though none of Miami's signal callers had bad performances on Monday, they didn't offer definitive answers to questions surrounding them. Fans want to know if Chad Pennington can duplicate his 2008 success and perhaps improve. Will Chad Henne stamp his name as the surefire 2010 starter? Can Pat White offer an immediate impact as spread/wildcat quarterback? Hopefully we will see more tonight from each of those three and make an already great QB situation even better.

Also, the cornerbacks should be an interesting watch tonight. Supposed starter Sean Smith and Jason Allen will absent due to illness. After the cutting of Eric Green, that only leaves five corners. Three of them figure to be battling for the last spot on our roster, so they should get a long look and will have a great opportunity to showcase themselves, good or bad.

Finally, I will pay a lot of attention to special teams, for several reasons. First, it was a sore spot for the team last year, and much improvement is needed on the coverage teams. Also, there has been a lot of hype about Chris Williams this week, and I think it is mainly unwarranted. Yes, he did have a couple nice returns, but he still committed three cardinal sins last week (muff, field one inside the 10-yard line, get tackled by a kicker). I have nothing against him, I would like to see him do well, but let's see how he does in game two. Lastly, there seems to still be a kicking battle between Dan Carpenter and Connor Barth. Apparently in practice neither has flinched and it has been neck and neck. Any miss in a game could prove very costly.