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Another ugly win, although as with the Skins game, I'd rather have the ugly W than a nice looking L anyday. Most of the game sucked, but with the game on the line the defense finally got somebody off the field (really should have been the last two possessions, see below) and the offense had a great finishing drive to win. Got to hand to Miami, they came to play again and they definitely should be better than 3-8. They are gonna give a few of the teams they play the rest of the year major fits.
1) For the 2nd straight week I thought Romo was awful in the first half, but for the 2nd straight game he came up pretty big in the 2nd half. Miami's D did a great job dialing up blitzes that were well disguised and executed and for most of the game held our run game in check. Some of those completions in the 2nd half were ridiculous, he got hit alot.
2) Demarco Murray is going to be an elite player in this league for a long time. I have said this several times this yr, but I cannot believe that all those scouting reports were so off on him. He is absolutely a complete back. He runs with tremendous power, has great speed and can make excellent cuts when he needs too. At least they got the great receiving skills right on him, because he is exceptional out of the backfield. Those final 5 carries wer a thing of beauty yesterday.
3) Hey Jerry, do not let Laurent Robinson get to free agency. Just sign the guy to a 4 or 5 yr deal or something before the end of the season. A mega steal.
4) I thought John Phillips had by far his best game of the year yesterday. He also looked more fluid to me, so maybe the knee injury is getting closer to 100%. I also need to see the replay, but on the ball Romo flipped to him and he took off, it didnt appear Miami touched him down. Looks like he knew it because after going down, he immediately got back up and ran again but officials blew the play dead. It would have easily been a first down conversion, instead we had to punt. He also had some nice blocks.
5) The defense didnt play well, again. They arnt getting better as the season wears on, although a healthy Mike Jenkins will definitely help some of the coverage problems. That said for the 2nd straight game they did a pretty good job vs the run (89 yds, 3.6 yd avg) and a week after awful defense in the redone, they held the Dolphins to FG's on all 4 redzone drives. They did get 4 sacks. (and Ware's sack should have been 5, and a drive stopper but the refs bailed the Fish out with an awful illegal contact call. I can see the need to call it if it impacts the play, but almost from the snap of the ball Moore had no chance to get the pass off anyway. They constantly let other more obvious stuff go, there was no need to flag that. And the flag came late too)
6) Really poor game for the secondary again. Ball was awful. Newman got abused by Marshall, although on the TD it looks as though Elam was painfully late getting there, as usual. There was another play where Moore threw into apparent double coverage, but Elam was so late to arrive it didnt matter. Scandrick couldnt cover anyone either. Getting Jenkins back healthy will definitely be a boost, because he can take his guy by himself. Elam is absolutely useless in coverage, and in 11 games as a starter he doesnt have a single pass defensed, which is a joke. Its easy to see why nobody else wanted this guy.
7) Free's getting crucifed for his 3 false starts (rightfully) but Houck noted after the game the Fins were barking out fake offensive calls again, like the Skins did in week 3. This is supposed to be a penalty on the defense, but the refs ignored it again. I thought the call on Elam was awful, and I dont understand why Witten's play out of bounds didnt draw a flag. Free wasnt the only one who had a problem though. Former #1 overall pick Jake Long had 4 or 5 penalties in the game, including 3 false starts himself. He got nailed for holding call, and there easily could have been 3 or 4 others.
8) I was really impressed with the Dolphins defense yesterday. They had alot of well timed, well executed and designed blitzes that worked over and over again. They constantly got blitzers free for clean shots on Romo or at least close enough to hurry throws.
9) While most of the defense was bad, I thought Spencer and Sean Lee had very good games. Butler had a couple nice plays as well. I also saw something I dont think I've ever seen on one long completion downfield (not the TD play) but the play out of Miami's endzone. I think they had 4 guys dedicated to Demarucs Ware. Looked like there was 3 for sure, and a 4th guy kinda hung out behind the 3.
10) Another disturbing trend on defnese, they are giving up way too many conversions when the other team has very long yardage to go. Three times in the last two games the opponent has had 1st or 2nd down and 20+ (one was 2nd and 25) and all three times, they've converted for a first down.
11) Every week we all say how good Dan Bailey is. Amazing rookie year for him.
12) It might be time for them to shut down Matt McBriar, who appears to be really hurting with this nerve thing in his foot. The ball isnt going anywhere and he is hurting us with field position. Love the guy, but the other kid who kicked for a game or two did a nice job. Might be time to IR McBriar.
13) While on special teams, if not for Dan Bailey and a couple of blocked FG's Joe DeCamillis would be coaching an 0-fer season. The coverage teams are abyssmal, and other than the one return here or there our guys never get anything. You could see yesterday before the game winning FG attempt on 3rd down that they (he and Garrett) were discussing kicking it then, but because the coverage teams were so bad decided to wait till 4th down. Most coaches always want to kick on 3rd down in that situation, but we couldnt because we cant trust our kick coverage. And how do you kick the ball 8 or 9 yards into the endzone, watch the returner hesitate on whether to come out and then STILL allow the guy to get to the 30 or 35?
14) Josh Brent suffered a knee injury and didnt return to the game, but says he should be fine. Sounds like Kitna and Fiametta are done for the year though. This mini bye is coming at a good time for us with so many guys beat up, out or playing through stuff.
We could be in sole possession of first place by the end of Monday night, and considering the Giants next game is vs Green Bay next week (while we go to Arizona) we could be 2 up when they come to town. We could almost clinch the division that night by beating them, as they'd have 7 losses. Philly's next 3 games are home vs New England then at Seattle on Thursday, followed by at Miami. They could definitely lose 2, if not all 3 of those.
1) For the 2nd straight week I thought Romo was awful in the first half, but for the 2nd straight game he came up pretty big in the 2nd half. Miami's D did a great job dialing up blitzes that were well disguised and executed and for most of the game held our run game in check. Some of those completions in the 2nd half were ridiculous, he got hit alot.
2) Demarco Murray is going to be an elite player in this league for a long time. I have said this several times this yr, but I cannot believe that all those scouting reports were so off on him. He is absolutely a complete back. He runs with tremendous power, has great speed and can make excellent cuts when he needs too. At least they got the great receiving skills right on him, because he is exceptional out of the backfield. Those final 5 carries wer a thing of beauty yesterday.
3) Hey Jerry, do not let Laurent Robinson get to free agency. Just sign the guy to a 4 or 5 yr deal or something before the end of the season. A mega steal.
4) I thought John Phillips had by far his best game of the year yesterday. He also looked more fluid to me, so maybe the knee injury is getting closer to 100%. I also need to see the replay, but on the ball Romo flipped to him and he took off, it didnt appear Miami touched him down. Looks like he knew it because after going down, he immediately got back up and ran again but officials blew the play dead. It would have easily been a first down conversion, instead we had to punt. He also had some nice blocks.
5) The defense didnt play well, again. They arnt getting better as the season wears on, although a healthy Mike Jenkins will definitely help some of the coverage problems. That said for the 2nd straight game they did a pretty good job vs the run (89 yds, 3.6 yd avg) and a week after awful defense in the redone, they held the Dolphins to FG's on all 4 redzone drives. They did get 4 sacks. (and Ware's sack should have been 5, and a drive stopper but the refs bailed the Fish out with an awful illegal contact call. I can see the need to call it if it impacts the play, but almost from the snap of the ball Moore had no chance to get the pass off anyway. They constantly let other more obvious stuff go, there was no need to flag that. And the flag came late too)
6) Really poor game for the secondary again. Ball was awful. Newman got abused by Marshall, although on the TD it looks as though Elam was painfully late getting there, as usual. There was another play where Moore threw into apparent double coverage, but Elam was so late to arrive it didnt matter. Scandrick couldnt cover anyone either. Getting Jenkins back healthy will definitely be a boost, because he can take his guy by himself. Elam is absolutely useless in coverage, and in 11 games as a starter he doesnt have a single pass defensed, which is a joke. Its easy to see why nobody else wanted this guy.
7) Free's getting crucifed for his 3 false starts (rightfully) but Houck noted after the game the Fins were barking out fake offensive calls again, like the Skins did in week 3. This is supposed to be a penalty on the defense, but the refs ignored it again. I thought the call on Elam was awful, and I dont understand why Witten's play out of bounds didnt draw a flag. Free wasnt the only one who had a problem though. Former #1 overall pick Jake Long had 4 or 5 penalties in the game, including 3 false starts himself. He got nailed for holding call, and there easily could have been 3 or 4 others.
8) I was really impressed with the Dolphins defense yesterday. They had alot of well timed, well executed and designed blitzes that worked over and over again. They constantly got blitzers free for clean shots on Romo or at least close enough to hurry throws.
9) While most of the defense was bad, I thought Spencer and Sean Lee had very good games. Butler had a couple nice plays as well. I also saw something I dont think I've ever seen on one long completion downfield (not the TD play) but the play out of Miami's endzone. I think they had 4 guys dedicated to Demarucs Ware. Looked like there was 3 for sure, and a 4th guy kinda hung out behind the 3.
10) Another disturbing trend on defnese, they are giving up way too many conversions when the other team has very long yardage to go. Three times in the last two games the opponent has had 1st or 2nd down and 20+ (one was 2nd and 25) and all three times, they've converted for a first down.
11) Every week we all say how good Dan Bailey is. Amazing rookie year for him.
12) It might be time for them to shut down Matt McBriar, who appears to be really hurting with this nerve thing in his foot. The ball isnt going anywhere and he is hurting us with field position. Love the guy, but the other kid who kicked for a game or two did a nice job. Might be time to IR McBriar.
13) While on special teams, if not for Dan Bailey and a couple of blocked FG's Joe DeCamillis would be coaching an 0-fer season. The coverage teams are abyssmal, and other than the one return here or there our guys never get anything. You could see yesterday before the game winning FG attempt on 3rd down that they (he and Garrett) were discussing kicking it then, but because the coverage teams were so bad decided to wait till 4th down. Most coaches always want to kick on 3rd down in that situation, but we couldnt because we cant trust our kick coverage. And how do you kick the ball 8 or 9 yards into the endzone, watch the returner hesitate on whether to come out and then STILL allow the guy to get to the 30 or 35?
14) Josh Brent suffered a knee injury and didnt return to the game, but says he should be fine. Sounds like Kitna and Fiametta are done for the year though. This mini bye is coming at a good time for us with so many guys beat up, out or playing through stuff.
We could be in sole possession of first place by the end of Monday night, and considering the Giants next game is vs Green Bay next week (while we go to Arizona) we could be 2 up when they come to town. We could almost clinch the division that night by beating them, as they'd have 7 losses. Philly's next 3 games are home vs New England then at Seattle on Thursday, followed by at Miami. They could definitely lose 2, if not all 3 of those.
