Due to my obsession with the Miami Dolphins and sports in general, I get selected player interviews sent to my phone. This morning I was a little taken aback by the Brandon Marshall interview. In this interview Brandon had some interesting remarks regarding his quarterback Chad Henne. Although nothing was very damming ala Terrell Owens with just about every QB T.O. has ever played with, I wouldn't necessarily say his review of Chad was all that sparkling. In Fact it kind of came across as a little bit of blame for Brandon's sub par play this year.
When questioned about his ability to do great things with Henne he said "We had some opportunities this year to do that and we didn't get it done," Marshall said, "so I guess we have to evaluate what we did this year and see what we can improve on. See if we can become good before we can become great." and then later remarked "You just have to let it go, Don't worry about the consequences, just throw it up and see what happens. Let's live and die by it."
I agree somewhat with what Brandon has to say although I think his timing is a little off on it. I agree offensive coordinator Dan Henning needed to do a better job of play calling which would have gotten Brandon open more. I also agree that they should have taken the handcuffs off of Chad Henne and let him sling the ball down the field because you can't gain deep ball chemistry when you only attempt the deep ball 10 times a season. But is that entirely Chad's fault?
By no means am I defending Henne. I did quite a bit in the beginning of the year, and especially when he was benched mid season. I did this because I felt like he was being unfairly blamed for the offenses troubles when the majority of the blame should have been put on Dan Henning for calling plays that were clearly designed for weaker armed Chad Pennington and for a receiving corps that lacked talent (Ted Ginn anyone?). Dan's refusal to admit his mistakes and to not design plays to exploit the much stronger arm of Henne or the play making ability of Brandon Marshall proves that Henning may have let the game pass him by. The undying insistence of forcing the Wildcat formation down our throats long after it was no longer effective is also proof of that. Although revered as a genius in 2008 with the creation of the Wildcat he refused to do in 2010 what made the Wildcat work in the first place, design plays to exploit the talent you have not force the talent to fit your plays.
But Chad Henne does deserve some blame. I think after his benching he began to play tight like he was just waiting to be benched again. Like he was always thinking in the back of his head this throw could be my last throw. He began to play scared but not like the scared he was playing in the first half of the season. There were times in the first 8 games when you questioned his ability but you could also see that head coach Tony Sporano was more about not losing the game then attacking and winning the game. The last 8 games Henne played more like a he was afraid of making mistakes then the guy in the first 8 who accepted that the mistakes were part of the game. Also Chad where is the fire in the belly? Do you think Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Phillip Rivers, Tom Brady or any of the other top notch QBs in the game would have accepted the role as a game manager? Especially Dan Marino, whose shoes your trying to fill, would have chucked the ball down the field, if intercepted, when berated by Shula on the sidelines would've stood his ground saying that was the right play then went out there and did it again the next drive. Very few people are Dan Marino and even fewer are Don Shula which brings me to Tony Sporano.
Tony, when oh when are you going to realize that Great coaches recognize their talents and change to exploit them (Don Shula , Mike Holmgren, Bill Walsh) Good coaches devise a system and get the proper talent to play in that system (Bill Parcels) and Bad coaches take talented players and force them into a system that the may not be comfortable with. Tony you're very close to falling into that final category. At some point you need to realize that the prevent defense usually prevents you from winning. When are you going to take a page from the Belichek school of coaching and go for the jugular. Enough with taking a running back who just ran 6 times for 45 yards and a touchdown out of the game because it's your system to alternate running backs. Have you ever heard of riding the hot hand. The saddest part of this season is the constant berating of the running game when neither Ronnie Brown or Ricky Williams were allowed to get into any sort of groove, and the second they do they're taken out because of your system.
To be totally honest I think Chad Henne has made some glaring mistakes. He locks into receivers to early, he miss times throws, and fire is not on display. I don't think he will ever be mentioned in the same breath as Dan Marino, but I do think he deserves to have a season where he's not being made into the scapegoat. A season where the handcuffs can be taken off and he's allowed to chuck the ball before we start clamoring for his head. I think Dan Henning needs to go and I'm leaning towards Tony Sporano to go as well mainly because I think we've seen what he can offer and it doesn't fit our team. I'd also like to see Jeff Ireland have one more crack at it since he is finally is the man in charge. I think sometimes sweeping change isn't necessarily the right move especially when not all the pieces have been able to showcase what they are capable of.
As far as the rest of the team there were a few bright spots. Brandon you weren't one of them. We got Brandon Marshall because of his ability to make yards after the catch and I don't think I've seen a wide receiver go down to so many arm tackles since Yatil Green and his short 2 year preseason stint in the mid 90's. Now granted a lot of that is on Dan Henning for not designing plays to get the big man more space but much like my criticism of Henne there needs to be a time when the space is made by the receiver and I saw a few to many alligator arms from Brandon this year.
Karlos Dansby was everything he was billed as and more. Devon Bess, Cameron Wake, and Richie Incognito all performed much better than expected. Yeramiah Bell and Jake Long continue to be stellar. I also believe Koa Misi had a very good rookie season, he wasn't jaw dropping but he has proven he can be a solid player in the NFL. Ronnie and Ricky were disappointing but I don't think it's all on them. Vontae Davis has a tremendous future and I like what I saw out of Chris Clemons and Nolan Carrol. Sean Smith needs to be upgraded to someone who can catch the ball and as good as Dan Carpenter was when he was setting team records with 60 yard kicks he was also equally disappointing with 5 misses in one game.
No comments:
Post a Comment