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Each week throughout the 2006 season, Miami Dolphins Head Coach Nick Saban will share his thoughts through an exclusive column on MiamiDolphins.com as told to Andy Cohen of Dolphin Digest.
In addition, Coach Saban will occasionally answer questions from Dolphins fans in his column on Miamidolphins.com. Please click "Ask the Coach" to submit your questions.
December 29, 2006
I made the decision this week to start Cleo Lemon at quarterback against the Indianapolis Colts because we've been impressed with him every time he has had the opportunity to play. He did a nice job in preseason for us. He does a good job every day in practice. But you have to give a guy a chance under fire at some point in time to really get a body of work so you can make some kind of evaluation. Does this guy have the right stuff to play quarterback in this league?
Well, it's important we find that out about Cleo Lemon.
Even though he played some at quarterback in the preseason when we was with San Diego before coming here and he played well here when he's had the opportunity in preseason games as well, we just felt like we were looking for an opportunity, if it presented itself, to give him extended time in a regular season game.
Cleo got to play a little bit in the Buffalo game, but then in the Jets game we had struggled some in the first half and we were looking for a spark in the second half so we turned to Cleo to give him that extended look.
This is not a slight to Joey Harrington, who has done some really good things for us and, in the Jets game, did a job in some tough circumstances with the rain and all that in the first half. It came down to this: We just thought it was the right time to make a change. It took a little while for Cleo to get his sea legs under him but, once he did, he did a good job of helping us get 10 points on the board in the fourth quarter and at least gave us a chance to win the game. That was important and it was nice to see.
What we're trying to do is get Cleo Lemon some experience right now. With quarterbacks, such a big part of what they do is their decision-making under fire. They have the ball in their hands every play. There are a lot of pre-snap decisions they have to make. They have to make decisions with the ball in their hands. It is critical that a quarterback makes decisive decisions on time, especially in the passing game, and the best way to get used to that is by playing with the first team offense in a game that counts.
The speed of the game is what usually separates the men from the boys at that position and you never really get the speed of the game unless you're playing in the game. With that in mind, we thought it was time to give Cleo his first start.
What we're trying to do now is see how Cleo responds under those kind of pressure circumstances. We really don't have any specific expectations for how he's going to play against the Colts. Expectations is a bad word for me because we are more process oriented in terms of his development. We just want to see what his potential might be as a quarterback in this league.
It's going to be a good test against an excellent team on the road. But at least this way we'll go into the off season knowing a lot more about Cleo and his ability to perform.
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This game against the Colts will serve as the ultimate challenge for our defense. I don't use the term ultimate challenge very often, but this is by far the best offense we have played all year, and I don't think there's any question about that.
Peyton Manning is a coach on the field. He checks. He audibles. He calls the whole game and makes sure that he gets his offense into situations to make good plays.
Indy's efficiency and execution with its quarterback and receivers is about as well-oiled as you're ever going to see. It's certainly going to be a challenge for us. You have to have a tremendous amount of patience when you play against them, which is going to be a little bit of a change for our defense in that we've been able to stop most people and create positive down and distances for ourselves, and that doesn't happen a lot against those guys.
These guys have fewer first downs, when you look at the third down reel, than anyone we play because they are making plays on every down so they don't get in a lot of third down situations. But when they do get in third down, their efficiency is excellent so it's a real challenge for our team in every regard.
It's a team effort to get the pressure on Peyton Manning. He handles the blitz well, which is evident by the fact that he's only been sacked 14 times. We'll have to try to disguise our coverages and try to make him move in the pocket and bat some balls away and do anything we can to get him out of sync, which is so hard to do. Their two receivers are as good as it gets. It is a real challenge. I can't say that enough times.
The bottom line is this: We're going to have to play as well as we've played all year to give ourselves an opportunity to win this game.
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We asked our players before the Jets game to play with a purpose. To prove who they are and how they compete and I think they did a good job of that. The effort against the Jets was outstanding. The competitive character was outstanding. We just didn't make enough game-defining plays.
We gave up four big plays on defense in the last three drives against the Jets. We missed an interception, we didn't stop them on third down, we gave them a big play on a screen pass because of three missed tackles, so we just didn't make the type of plays you need to win a close game like that.
There were many plays throughout the game that could have made a difference, and that's something we have to learn from.
The fact that you feel bad, feel terrible, is a tribute to your professionalism and your competitive character. I mean we put a lot into it and we didn't get positive re-enforcement for it because we didn't win.
It's kind of unique and positive that the guys would go out and compete that way and play physical in the game and deserve to win based on that part of it. But we didn't quite execute well enough in the critical times of the game to win.
That's the thing that makes you feel bad for your players as a coach because they didn't get a pay day for as hard as they worked. Everybody should recognize that they put it on the line. I think it's important that you establish that mindset as a team and that's what makes you a winner.
It's like that old saying: What comes first, the cart or the horse? You become a winner then you win. I think there was a positive step in that direction in terms of the standard the guys competed with in the Jets game.
That's what we want to do to finish this season with a purpose. This game is the next game. We have to show this is our standard and try to take that same character and attitude to Indianapolis and compete in the game the same way. If we do that, we'll have a chance to win, even against a team as talented as the Colts.
COACH SABAN COLUMN ARCHIVES:
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