Volume 1, Number 6

A Big Day For Secondary, Carpenter

• The Rams became a much tougher opponent once it was determined that Steven Jackson would be playing. With him, they're marginal on offense; without him, they are as bad as it gets.
  
  
• More bad news: Cornerback Jason Allen is inactive because of a hand injury sustained in the loss to New England. It won't take long to find out why this matters.
  
  
• On the very series of the game, Allen's replacement, Joey Thomas, gets flagged twice for pass interference. The second penalty, where Thomas practically tackled receiver Donnie Avery before the ball got to him, was particularly alarming. It looked like a guy who had no business being on the field, really.
  
  
• Thomas redeems himself a couple of plays later when he closely checks Torry Holt in the back of the end zone on a third-down pass that falls incomplete. Maybe the two penalties were the result of jitters for a guy who hasn't seen much action all season.
  
  
• The Dolphins take over on offense and we get to check out the matchup between the first two picks in the draft, Jake Long and Chris Long. It's too bad that Jake Long is playing this one on a bum ankle.
  
  
• It's not a great start for the Dolphins' Long, who commits a false start on the first play and later gets beat one-on-one by Chris Long, who goes on to force an incompletion with a hit on Chad Pennington.
  
  
• That's pretty much all we heard of Chris Long, though, which tells you the kind of job Jake Long did on him.
  
  
• More bad news on the offensive line, as Justin Smiley goes down with a leg injury. Looks like the Dolphins' run of good luck with injuries is over. With the exception of Jake Long - maybe - Smiley is the one guy this offensive line can't afford to lose.
  
  
• The Dolphins' special teams get off to another bad start. It starts with a 15-yard kickoff return by Ted Ginn Jr., a pooch punt by Brandon Fields that's fair-caught at the 20-yard line, and a holding penalty on the second kickoff return. It's not as dramatic as giving up a 95-yard return for a touchdown, but these are the types of plays that can hurt in the long run.
  
  
• That holding penalty forces Miami to start its second drive at its own 9, but that only sets the stage for a masterful drive that begins with three runs of 10 yards or more - by three different players.
  
  
• A facemask penalty on Vernon Carey puts the Dolphins in a first-and-22 hole. No problem. Pennington completes two passes downfield thanks to great pass protection, and it's first-and-goal. This is the NEW Dolphins offense.
  
  
• The Dolphins defense didn't turn in a great performance in the first half, particularly against the run, but it did do a good job in the red zone.
  
  
• Why does it seem like almost every Ginn kickoff return ends with him running out of bounds? It's always as though his first instinct is to cut the runback outside.
  
  
• Not to pick on Ginn, but he's got to catch that pass near the sideline on third-and-long.
  
  
• Hard to argue with that holding call on guard Ikechuku Ndukwe that nullified Ricky Williams' touchdown run and forced the Dolphins to settle for a field goal at the end of the first half, but it's not like La'Roi Glover would have made the tackle on that play anyway.
  
  
• That field goal to end the first half was rookie Dan Carpenter's ninth consecutive successful attempt. More importantly, his kicks are going more and more down the middle.
  
  
• Carpenter's 47-yarder in the third quarter is another example. So is the 42-yarder in the fourth quarter.
  
  
• With Greg Camarillo out, wide receiver Ernest Wilford finally is active. But he's still a non-factor on offense. In fact, his biggest play comes when he runs a pick to free up Davone Bess down the sideline for a 37-yard completion. Hey, it's not a penalty if they don't call it.
  
  
• Great awareness by Ronnie Brown on a play where he took a pitch from Pennington and was supposed to pass it back to him. Brown saw a Rams defender getting too much penetration, started running forward, then threw a pass to a wide open David Martin downfield. It would have been a huge play had it not been for Martin failing to protect the ball sufficiently and fumbling when Rams safety O.J. Atogwe punched the ball out of his hands.
  
  
• That was the only turnover of the game for the Dolphins, who got another clean game from Pennington. The Dolphins, meanwhile, picked off Marc Bulger three times. And that's the difference between a winning quarterback and one who is struggling.
  
  
• Safety Yeremiah Bell came up with a big tackle against tight end Anthony Becht to keep him a yard short of a first down in the fourth quarter. It was part of a pretty solid effort by the secondary, Thomas' penalties notwithstanding. Andre' Goodman put the exclamation point with a game-clinching interception.
  
  
• That came after Tony Sparano made the decision to trust his defense, pitching the ball to Ronnie Brown on third-and-13 just before the two-minute warning. We would have preferred the Dolphins aggressively go for a door-slamming first down, but you can't argue with the results.
  
  
• No, it wasn't an overly impressive victory over a team that was 2-9, but the league doesn't give out style points. Just look at the Colts' struggle at Cleveland; that wasn't pretty, either. Doesn't matter. A win is a win is a win.
  
  
• This, incidentally, was the type of game the Dolphins would have lost last season. So just like we said after the games against Seattle and Oakland, let's not worry about how it gets done. This was a good Sunday. Except for the Justin Smiley injury.