The starting offensive line is horrible right now
The Dolphins offensive line has a long way to go before it can be mediocre.
I wish I could tell you things will work out for the line because last night's horrible performance was only the first preseason game. Or maybe I could say things aren't that bad because the offense hadn't put together a game plan for Jacksonville.
I wish I could tell you the problems were a mirage that will go away soon in the reality of a regular season.
They're not.
The Dolphins offensive line is looking worse now than it did last year. Yes, worse. The unit has no cohesiveness, no chemistry and no depth.
Ronnie Brown ran the ball eight times against Jacksonville. He was tackled behind the line of scrimmage three times. So nearly half the times he got the football, the blocking had broken down before he even got back to the line of scrimmage.
Trent Green had to run for his life. He was sacked twice but there were at least two other times he got out of the grasp of a sack or ducked under a defender that came at him unblocked.
Rookie guard Drew Mormino, who I believe will be a good pro once he gains some muscle and experience, looked overmatched at times. Rookie center Samson Satele didn't really move the pile forward with any consistency. And that stuff about the Dolphins didn't look good because they didn't game-plan?
Well, the Jags didn't game plan, either. They didn't run stunts or blitzes. It was straight man on man stuff and the Miami men generally lost.
And when Vernon Carey went out of the game with a not-serious knee injury, the next guy in the game at left tackle was undrafted rookie free agent Julius Somebodyorother. What is that all about?
The bottom line is this: It is impossible to win an NFL game without blocking defenders. The Dolphins first-team OL hardly blocked anyone Saturday night.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are some changes before the team plays again Thursday. And I know general manager Randy Mueller is looking (really hard, I hope) for a veteran guard to put alongside Satele so Mormino can go to the bench and have the redshirt learning year he needs.
Your thoughts?
I wish I could tell you things will work out for the line because last night's horrible performance was only the first preseason game. Or maybe I could say things aren't that bad because the offense hadn't put together a game plan for Jacksonville.
I wish I could tell you the problems were a mirage that will go away soon in the reality of a regular season.
They're not.
The Dolphins offensive line is looking worse now than it did last year. Yes, worse. The unit has no cohesiveness, no chemistry and no depth.
Ronnie Brown ran the ball eight times against Jacksonville. He was tackled behind the line of scrimmage three times. So nearly half the times he got the football, the blocking had broken down before he even got back to the line of scrimmage.
Trent Green had to run for his life. He was sacked twice but there were at least two other times he got out of the grasp of a sack or ducked under a defender that came at him unblocked.
Rookie guard Drew Mormino, who I believe will be a good pro once he gains some muscle and experience, looked overmatched at times. Rookie center Samson Satele didn't really move the pile forward with any consistency. And that stuff about the Dolphins didn't look good because they didn't game-plan?
Well, the Jags didn't game plan, either. They didn't run stunts or blitzes. It was straight man on man stuff and the Miami men generally lost.
And when Vernon Carey went out of the game with a not-serious knee injury, the next guy in the game at left tackle was undrafted rookie free agent Julius Somebodyorother. What is that all about?
The bottom line is this: It is impossible to win an NFL game without blocking defenders. The Dolphins first-team OL hardly blocked anyone Saturday night.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are some changes before the team plays again Thursday. And I know general manager Randy Mueller is looking (really hard, I hope) for a veteran guard to put alongside Satele so Mormino can go to the bench and have the redshirt learning year he needs.
Your thoughts?
posted by Armando Salguero at 1:53 AM
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41 Comments:
I thought Rex Hadnot looked like a bum. I'm o.k. with the rookies cuz...they're rookies. If the coaches think they can play.. Rex is not a rookie, but he was getting beat like a drum. We need help fast.
Start looking for another coach NOW, Cameron is not going to get it done
You're kidding, right? Mormino was overmatched and Satele didn't push the pile? And this has you worried because they didn't show well against what might be the best tackle pair in the league in their first games ever as a pro? Armando, spend a little less time in Instant Gratification School and a little more time letting them grow up a bit.
You forgot to mention the best thing. They won. So who looks worse now Miami or Jax? Plus J.T. Zack Booker Porter and Trailer did not play at all. I think that was a damn good showing from the Defense with the major stars not even suiting up. So instead of looking at the negatives how about some positives?
Armando, you're such a loser. You had already made your comments before the game was over last night. HOw can you even make a judgement on the first pre-season game...LOL you're a dumb joke. I am going back to the Sun Sentinel, hahahaha
This just goes to show you, how much growing this offense has to do. What I heard last night, was pretty much what I expected. You can't expect a completely cohsive offensive line, with five new starters to come out and light the world on fire in it's first preseason game. I think a lot of you expected WAY too much from this line, when what you saw last night is what you should've expected all along.
The line is a work in progress, and I have faith that when the season starts, Coach Cameron will have the five best lineman on the field against the Deadskins.
Thats all you got after watching the game?
I thought for the first pre-season game Gin, Lemon, Beck, Chattman, Hagan and Cobb looked great along with the D-line during pass rush situations.
I also noticed how the Dolphins were making extra effort to hold on to the ball when they had it and strip it when the Jaguars had it.
Oh and Vonnie Holiday shouldn't have been flagged for that hit.
I liked the fact that even though the first string Offense looked flat and confused the second and third string refused to loose.
Come on Armando. The Jags DL is one of the best in the NFL. What did you expect for the first pre-season game?
Naturally, there's room for improvement, no doubt about that. But the sky is not falling and that's the worse you'll see out of this OL. They'll get better. How much better is the question. Not a statement out of you about how terrible they are.
This is the FIRST pre-season
game. From what I have seen most teams have looked sloppy. Everyone chooses to
look at the negative instead of the positive. The only negative is if mistakes
aren't learned from. That's what pre-season games are for. I do hope that Cleo
Lemon is given an opportunity here because he certainly looked sharper than
Trent Green.
STOP THIS HORRIBLE BLOG.....
Due to the fact that the OL of Jax had the same issues in stopping our DL. How many sacks did we have. 4? Isn't the explanation of how well Jax did explained "When their QB could stay off the ground, they played pretty well"??????????
All OL's suck at beginning. Lets see Thurs. If they improve a little.
I read Armando's post and the post from all you losers. What I read from Armando is EXACTLY what I saw on TV.
What I read from you losers is the same excuses and lame hopes I've been hearing for 10 years.
Our OL sucks right now. They need to improve. Lemon? Chatman? Cobb? None of those guys plays OL and none will be getting bigtime minutes when the season starts. So we have issues.
Armando, It was pretty clear from your strength and weakness survey, that most fans thought the OL was the greastest area of concern. I am disapointed, but not surprised by this outcome. It certainly doesn't bode well for the immediate future, one would come away with the impression that we are accumulating experience for a day when it all falls together. Unfortunately that day may come next year.
Two things stood out for me while watching the offense. Cameron was placing Green in some tough spots, there were very few 3 step drops and this meant Cameron was trying to open up some deep passes. As proof of this, how many times did you see Lorenzo Booker? Very few quick slants and short outs. Even the short stuff was mostly slow devoloping screen passes.
The running game consisted mostly between the tackles... So it looked to me like Cameron even expected to see what we saw and intentionally put the OL in difficult situations against a very fine Jags front 7.
The question we have to ask is how do you take a bunch of pups and get them ready to play the regular season? I guess you have to put them in the worst possible scenarios early, give them lots of film to see what they did wrong and how they need to improve. It would be interesting to go back and see how Cameron and Houck handled the 1st preseson game when they started the 2 rookies in SD. If you breast feed them they will never be ready for the real food when it appears on the plate.
I won't make excusses though, it was painful to watch... They got their butts handed to them and I felt embarrassed. I told a friend of mine to pick up Ronnie Brown for his fantasy RB and now I'm thinking the guy is going to kill me!
The only thing we can clearly say is, it will get better, cause brothers it can't get much worse then that. Hopefully it was by design.
They won? WGAF that they won? A bunch of losing teams win the preseason and a bunch of Super Bowl teams go winless in the preseason.
What I saw was our offense getting their assess handed to them for an entire half -- even when Jax had its second-team defense in the game.
They won? Are you kidding me? The OL sucks right now.
This Blog kicks butt and takes names. I enjoy how Armando tells it like it is and you punks who don't even go to the game tell him he's wrong. I LOVE IT!
One other thing: Rex Hadnot and LJ Shelton suck.
Armando, you usually wait at least until the first regular season game to write off the Fins and say how horrible they are going to be. I guess it now starts with the first half of the first preseason game. So Jason, Zach, and Joey just sit out this year because Salguero says the offense is horrible and will not improve. We don't want you getting hurt since we are already playing for next year. Hey Cam, go ahead and sit Trent, Chris, and Ronnie and let the youngsters have a go since they did not perform so well in the 30 minutes they had last night. I guess the only good thing about this year will be that our reserves are better than Jacksonville's.
Nice article Armando. Not sure if fans remember but we are RETOOLING and not REBUILDING. So what we're seeing is the product of retooling. Which means it got retooled very very wrong.
By the time this O-line gets it act together its to late. A fifteen year or so veteran like GREEN shouldn't come out and play the way he played. Give Lemon the start right now. Green is done.
i agree with you pretty much armando,although as others stated it looked like cameron was giving his o-line an acid-trial by fire test,trying to get the young players to improve as quick as possible.mormino is miles away from being an nfl guard right now,but he looked no worse than hadnot!he looks like a total stiff and i can see why he's sliping in the eyes of cameron,i can't believe more wasn't done to improve this group in the off-season!the secondary also looks pretty bad as well,and i think maybe cleo lemon might be the better qb for this team right now because of his mobility,green probably will be lucky to survive the pre-season sked behind this o-line!
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Hadnot looked fine, he held his own againest stroud in run block and dominated him in pass rush I don't know if he blocked henderson it was usually stroud on his side. Hadnot is our best lineman that's the fact of the matter. Satele and Mormino struggled but they were blocking the best tandem in the league.
I'd love to trade for Kendall, but I'm afraid that the little weasels I mean Jets will try to hold our chestnuts to the fire to get the deal done. He's a little too long in the tooth to give up high draft picks or multi-million/ multi-year contracts. But there's no denying that we do need help there. Secondary too.
Yes,they were horrendous.
BTW, props on the scoop how how long we were going to get punished by watching the first team offense play. Everybody else was saying one or two series.
Lloyd Heilbrunn
I came back to read the blog and see how many of your family members blogged to defend your crummy post. Sems like only your mommy and daddy had the guts to do it... hahaha. Your columns stink Armando.
Hey Ace: Blow it out your ass. If you have a problem with me, I'm at Dolphins camp every day. Come by whenever you want to talk.
Guys, Armando isn't saying the Dolphins will suck this year. He actually wrote early this camp that Miami has the makings of a playoff team.
But they did stink last nite. I was there. I booed. The year isn't lost but last nite was pretty bad. What do you want to hear, that they were really good when they weren't?
Whatever.
Wow, Ace you got called out homeboy.
I read Armando's post about how much guys were going to play and it was right on the money. Good job Mando. The other guys covering the beat were dead-ass wrong.
Do you know if there are any lineup changes on the OL planned?
Fire Cam Cameron!
Anonymous said "Fire Cam Cameron"! Could you have an opinion that isn't so ridiculously stupid? Fire Cameron because the first pre season game,that they won, didn't live up to your ridiculous expectations for a first year coach with a bunch of new players and rookies trying to learn a new offensive system? You are either kidding or just plain insane. Did you notice that Camerons first draft ever may produce at least 7 starters in the next two years? That's one of the best drafts the Miami Dolphins have ever had! If you don't want to give him the same slack we cut Johnson,Wanny,and Saban (two ego maniacs and one clueless dolt) PLEASE go root for another team. Most of us are sick of this Cam bashing,it makes no sense and makes Dolphins fans look like idiots.
Yeah ace buddy, NEVER go after a Cuban's family members. Dios mio!
And yes we were gawdawful last night. But come on, whether you were at the game or not, you cannot tell me that teams ever look the way they did in the first half of their first preseason game by the time opening day rolls around.
Relax clowns....jeez.
To the person who said they booed at the game last night; could you please explain to us why you would do that,at a meaningless preseason game that they didn't even game plan for. Who even cares about the planning, how about all of the rookies just trying to learn their assignments for the season opener that I will remind you is 4 weeks away. Please explain this so the rest of us may understand. Why would you boo your own team?
Green played against the first string line, and those guys chased him mercilessly. Beck and Lemon played against second and third stringers. Do you think they would have played any better than Green against those first string gorillas? I don't think so. When the OL finally pulls it together, and does their job right, and Trent is allowed to play instead of escape, he will look a whole lot better. And, when our best four defensive linemen are in the lineup, it will look like we have a pretty decent pass defense.
Armando and most the rest of you need to chill. I can't believe how the first half of the first preseason rocks your boats so badly...but Armando prides himself on being a s hit disturber.
Armando, from your reaction to Ace, it's evident you harbor amorous feelings for him.
I recognize, as a Cuban from a culture predicated on Machismo, it must be very difficult for you to acknowledge your homosexual predilections.
Still, Armando, You're such a GOOD-LOOKING man. And we do, after all, live in the Gay Era. So Let go and be yourself. Let it all hang out; I do.
I'm also a better looking MAN than ACE, I bet.
So if you like me, I'm at TWIST in South Beach every night. Just come by. I'm usually in the Men's Room after 8:00pm.
Just look for me in the Men's Room.
OK, besides your posts, your mommy's, your daddy's, and my 3 posts, how much action DID you get in your blog? 5 posts, granted, I take responsibility for at least half of the blogging action fomr others, hahahahahaha loser.
Looking at this as an outsider, Ace, I think you backed the hell down to Mando. He invited you to come get your whuppin' and you said zero to that.
Punk.
The O-line stinks. They stunk last year. Was anyone delusional enough to believe that a Rookie center was all that was needed to improve the putrid play at 4 positions?
This team is rebuilding. They will not win this year with this O-line. I'm gonna throw up the next time I hear about how Houck can make chicken salad out of chicken shiit. He hasn't been able to do it the last few years and it wont happen this year either.
However, I do like Camerons draft class this year and if he can follow it up with a good FA O-lineman next year coupled with spending their 1st rounder along the O-line then the Phin's could be contenders in '08.
armando...i hope you're not surprised by this. If you couldn't see that our OL sucks and the team did next to nothing to improve it to the extent required, then football reporting isn't your calling. I get so tired of screaming about the shortcomings of our OL being our BIGGEST problem and begging for the team to do something about it only to have the team use their top draft pick on a special teams player...and relying on rookies and other team's castoffs. This team is going nowhere until it gets a couple studs on the OL. But hey....i've said that before and here we are....watching our OL get totally done in the preseason opener. It sure will be fun watching Ginn sprint down the sideline only to turn around to see our QB being picked up off the ground.
My thoughts on this is that you are right, the OL looked bad. But still, you are an idiot. Three rookies, two vets playing out of position, Cam setting them up to get their buts kicked so they can learn, and you're making conclusions from that? Do us a favor, no more comments on the O-line until the season starts. All these guys on the line are big and strong. The D-lines they face are big and strong. What makes an o-line effective? Blocking schemes and technique. Just ask Shannahan with his perpetually undersized line that always opens up holes in Denver year after year. Let these guys alone for the next month while they learn to play together and Houck figures out who should play where (unless of course you think you know more than Houck, which it seems you do). If they stink it up in the first two games then you can rag on them. The next article from you on the O-line I'm not even going to read. What a waste of time.
FOR SO LONG AS WAYNE HUIZENGA IS OWNER, THE DOLPHINS SHALL SUCK.
THE PROBLEM STARTS AT THE VERY TOP.
Tell how theyt develop cohesiveness when every single day the lineup changes? Liwienskis is at RG, LG no RT, Hadnot with the 1st team, no second team, the right side no the left side. Alabi, no Shelton, Holy Toledo what the hell is going on here?
For all of you that booed at a PRESEASON game, you should have your season tickets revoked!
Have some class, and patients for petes sake!!
So called Phin Fans who booed at the game are friggin idiots!! Why the hell are you at the stadium anyway...stay home MORONS!!!!! If I see someone booing at the stadium be sure I'm giving them middle finger!! ASSHOLES....They even had a report about it on ESPN no other fans do that. That just goes to show the MIA is full of...bottom of the barrel class type of people. Go back to where you crawled out of!
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