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The Colts had no business winning Monday night’s game.
Neither did the Dolphins.
The Dolphins held the ball for over three quarters of the game, decimated the Colts’ defense with their Wildcat formation and reminded everyone why Ronnie Brown has been so hyped. None of that could result in a victory.
There was so much that the Dolphins did right that they should have won this game. It shouldn’t have even been close. Instead, a team that showed a lot of promise last season is 0-2 in an unforgiving division with the Patriots and Jets.
The positives were evident in Tony Sparano’s coaching creativity. The Dolphins are a well-managed bunch with a mastery of one of the NFL’s most diverse playbooks, and it showed.
The Wildcat saw more use in this game than in any last season, in large part due to the need to counteract the Colts’ defensive philosophy. Ever since the now-replaced Tony Dungy took over the team, the Colts have focused on the pass rush, not least because of their bookends in Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis. As the Dolphins learned, putting not-so-mobile Chad Pennington in the backfield wasn’t sufficient, even behind the nine-figure offensive line. Ronnie Brown, conversely, is fast (and fast-thinking) enough to get around the blitz with either a quick handoff to Ricky Williams or a burst between the tackles. Brown’s first touchdown was the most striking example of what worked very well.
Unfortunately for Miami, the running game, accentuated in the Wildcat, was all they had. The passing game was lackluster and the defense was wretched. Where coaching looked great, such as in the defense’s constant motion and the end zone strikes, the execution faltered; at other times, the play calls were atrocious.
It’s easiest to look back on Miami’s final drive because of its immediacy and the fact that the Dolphins were still in position to win the game. It was also the most blatantly botched event of the night. That said, such a frantic possession should never have had to take place.
Even in the first half, when the Dolphins were looking great, their problems in the passing game were evident. Within a span of three plays near the start of the second quarter, Anthony Fasano and Ted Ginn dropped catchable balls in the endzone that would’ve given the Dolphins an extra four points over what they got. While neither throw was perfect, each was close enough that a NFL receiver should be able to reel it in.
Later in the second quarter, it was Pennington’s arm that disappointed. Again, twice within the span of three plays (this time on pass attempts to Ginn and Greg Camarillo), Pennington threw two lethargic balls that were nearly intercepted. He managed to follow these with an embarrassing ten-yard sack that forced a punt. The normally with-it Pennington, known for his intelligence and decision-making, seriously endangered his team.
It wasn’t an individual play, but rather a play call, that was the Dolphins’ low point of the first half. On a 4th and 1 play with 47 seconds left in the half, the Dolphins kicked a field goal. The announcing team called the move “prudent”. What isn’t prudent is giving Peyton Manning the ball. The Dolphins’ rushing was so unstoppable at that point that a direct snap to Brown should have yielded at least a yard.
Regarding my thoughts on 4th and 1 situations, Ronnie Brown is two yards tall. (So are most quarterbacks, in the event that a team other than Miami is playing.) Falling forward shouldn’t be that difficult, especially with the bulk of that Miami offensive line to shoulder the oncoming blows. Miami had already converted six third-down situations at that point, proving that they could advance the chains on late downs, and Indianapolis had no solution to Brown. The way that Miami was stopping Manning, if it could be called that, was by keeping him off the field, which is exactly what kicking the ball away failed to do. 13-10 or 17-10 at the half is a lot more appealing than a tie.
Out of the half came a third quarter that, on paper, was dominated by the Dolphins. The Colts only had three plays. The results looked drastically different, though; the quarter ended in a tie. Just as the Dolphins had outplayed the Colts in the first half only to be tied, the exact same scenario occurred in the third quarter. Sometimes, a game’s not so much about the score as it is about what the score is compared to what it should be. If a team can withstand an opponent’s best and still be alive, that team has every reason to celebrate. Last night, that team was the Colts.
(As an aside, the Lions’ defense preaches that points are important, not yardage. That defense worked pretty well for almost a half on Sunday. The Dolphins’ offense demonstrated why yardage without points doesn’t do much.)
The reason the game was tied was Miami’s defense. As many three-and-outs as it forced, it looked summarily awful on other drives. The Dolphins knew going in that Manning would get a big play off on them if he could, and while their gameplanning appeared adequate, they didn’t play with the kind of ferocity they needed. The Colts pulled off four big plays: Manning’s opening touchdown pass to Dallas Clark; Manning’s 49-yard pass to Clark during the fourth quarter; Donald Brown’s rushing touchdown on the same drive; and Manning’s 48-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon to win the game. All of those plays were the direct consequences of horrendous tackling.
On the first play of the game, Clark was well past Akin Ayodele but was well within reach of Gibril Wilson. Wilson’s natural response while coming at Clark from the left should have been to take out Clark’s knees, or ideally, to strip him. Clark had the ball away from Wilson, though, so the strip was impractical; Clark’s size advantage also rendered any top-down method ludicrous. Instead of going for the big man’s knees and saving the early seven, Wilson attempted to tackle Clark at the shoulders, which was unsurprisingly ineffectual.
Later defensive blunders included Ayodele getting beaten again by Clark on the aforementioned fourth-quarter play, a tackle attempt on Donald Brown that succeeded in touching his foot, and Garcon getting through the entire Miami defense unscathed. There would be more to say, but Wilson’s initial faux-pas looks good compared to the apathy shown during the fourth quarter.
The Colts’ capitalizing on the Dolphins’ weak play allowed them to score 27 points in under fifteen minutes, unaided by kick-return or punt-return scores, or even fumble-recovery or interception scores. It was all offense and it didn’t take very long. Had the Dolphins not managed to control the clock so well, one can only extrapolate as to how many points the Colts could have scored. (The Colts’ points per minute, at 1.8, were roughly on par with many NBA teams.)
Unimaginably given the final score, the Colts’ defense weathered eighty-four plays while the Dolphins’ defense was as rested as it could have possibly been. Despite Miami’s ball dominance, it’s not as though Pennington had any reason to be tired. Brown and Williams looked energetic all game, and the offensive line was certainly better than it was against Atlanta, but the rest of the team was uninspiring at best. Even when up three to one in the possession battle and with an enormous night on the ground, uninspiring won’t beat a seasoned, poised team like the Colts.
This game was a nice test for the Dolphins, to see if they could recuperate from Week 1’s tough loss and remind everyone why they went 11-5 last season. Consider the test failed. For the Colts, this game belongs in the “wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take it” photo album. For the Dolphins, it’s a dismal outing that hopefully won’t reflect on the rest of their season.
Note 1: In last week’s column, “10 Things I Hate About the NFL”, I should have brought up the ubiquitous bad refereeing. It’s been discussed endlessly, although that still doesn’t excuse the late hit on Donovan McNabb in the end zone. When a man’s already down with two defenders on top of him, tacklers three and four really aren’t necessary. There are other examples, but an uncalled personal foul resulting in the injury of a star player is a good place to start.
Note 2: If I were to award some sort of fictional, meaningless Player of the Week award this week, it would have to go to Antwan Odom. I’m in shock at his performance against Green Bay.
