Miami Dolphins 10 @ New Orleans Saints 7: The View from Section 312

The announcers I was hearing online said they called it because they didn’t have enough men on the field, not to ice Carney. Still, he missed the second attempt and that blows. He’ll get more accurate when it really counts. I just can’t believe he’ll be as bad as Mare, Mehlhaff, and Frodo. I hope Billy isn’t lost for the season. His injury was the worst thing about last night.

I don’t know what their source is, but Rotoworld is saying his achilles tendon is believed to be torn, which means lost for season:

Saints TE Billy Miller has been diagnosed as an Achilles tendon injury.
It’s believed that the tendon is torn and that Miller will be lost for the season, but the Saints won’t know for sure until Friday. The Saints will likely have to pick up a free agent tight end for depth after next week’s cuts.

The one good thing about this at this time is, after the other teams make their cuts this weekend, there should be a decent TE option out there to sign for depth. I don’t think that would be the case if it were in season. Maybe they can work out a trade with someone. Maybe deal a WR for a TE. Wish we could get Jermichael Finley from Green Bay.

but i don’t think last night was cause for too much despair—this game was a throw-away, and like satch said on the other thread—our 3rd string defense only gave up 10 points. last year, allowing only 10 points would have been a cause for celebration. besides, we know our offense isn’t going to be very good with our biggest playmakers (drew, reggie, PT, colston, lance moore, shockey—none of those guys played a snap), and we weren’t playing like we will during the season (we only ATTEMPTED 24 passes—that’s like one quarter’s worth for drew brees). our o-line depth is a bit concerning, and now the miller injury sheds some doubt on our TE situation, but i wouldn’t be bummed out about last night’s performance. the worst part was having to listen to it on miami tv… ugh i miss new orleans.

Bummer. Saints will be scanning the waiver wire for tight ends the next couple of days (Sean Ryan, a fill-in last year). I like Shockey of course and I think Buck Ortega does good things when given a chance, but do you want Ortega to be your starter when Shockey goes down with an injury of some kind (inevitably)? Still, if you are wearing Black-and-Gold, Drew will get you the ball. I think he could even get me the ball a couple of times out there.

Jenkins sucked last night. Never defensed a pass, bot flat out beaten a few times, his only tackles came after a catch and run, or a run support(which was also unimpressive all around). I hope he’s still working out the jitters, or catching up, or whatever, because goldenboy was five or ten yards away from the action quite a lot last night. Of course, nobody else looked any better back there either. Looks to me like that DB depth is a mirage. Luckily, our starters have looked pretty good. Just have to hope they stay healthy. On the upside, it seems we were running a base 4-3 man about the entire time, but into the second half, the Fins were looking pretty vanilla on offense and still moving a bit. Of course the score indicates it wasn’t an exciting game for anybody.

I am now convinced they should keep Harper before ANY other “on the bubble” WR’s, even Roby. Roby got some calls at WR last night, to no avail. His kick returns were absolutely standard. Harper should be trying out kick returns. Bell should, too. Arrington should stay if they keep 6 WR’s, and that’s it.

I voted for Harper on the poll, because he’s the only guy who could get points for us, but the “most improvement” poll would have gone to Morstead. Finally, more than one draft spot for a punter looks okay for a team plagued with kicking problems. He even handled the kickoff after Harper’s TD, which was as good as most of Hartley’s. Thank you, Snarf, for actually developing your game the way rookie prospects are supposed to.

i’m still very concerned about the middle… i’ve seen receivers get wide open in the middle of the field… like on EVERY PLAY… i’m not sure if that’s due to the aggressive blitzing schemes that are being employed or just missed assignments but every time there’s a play in the middle, the receivers has a 10 yard radius of freedom. i really hope this is going to be addressed.

our kicking…. ugh WTF is going on there?!?!

Or am I the only person glad the team is not opening the season with 4 wins in a row? I know it’s only pre-season, right, but a game is a game and I believe a 4-0 team is due for a loss. I’m glad they got the loss out of their system before the regular season. Now it’s time to kick some arse.

OUCH!
Anyone know why the offense decided to take the night off? I understand that it is pre-season and our starters were better suited on the sidelines but come on, I know we have better dept talent wise on the offense. The defense was hit and miss there for a short while but ultimately was the reason the score was the way it turned out. Miami was actually trying to put points on the board so holding them to 10 says something about our talent on defense. Offensively, I think Joey pissed off the O-line before the game. Now grant you a lot of the blame well, most in fact, goes on Harrington’s shoulders but I think there was a few times that Miami’s pass rush should have been contained at least a little better. As far as Joey goes, man he may have some good qualities that the coaching staff likes, but I saw none of that last night. He was so gun shy; I don’t think that he ever looked down field for an open receiver. I guaranty you that he could tell you ever little detail about ever player on Miami’s defensive line cause he kept his eyes on them from the moment he took the snap until the moment he was picking himself up off the turf. You can’t tell me that every time he stepped back to pass, at least one receiver hadn’t gotten open. Hamilton was his primary target there for a while and I know that not every play was designed for the RB to be the primary receiver. Did yall notice that he would take the snap and almost immediately throw to Hamilton? That tells me that he was too nervous with the ball in his hands and wanted to get rid of it immediately. I think every time he was sacked (what was it like 20 times) he couldn’t locate the running back or the back was blocking. And yes, he surely doesn’t have a clock in his head (at least one that is not running slow) because he held onto the ball way too long. He surely didn’t go through his receiver progression. Rod Harper; he did an outstanding job and was the sole reason we were not shut out. He’s a keeper. Skyler Green, well on the one good pass that Joey through, he couldn’t make the catch in the end zone. I liked Skyler, but I think he is gone for sure. Brunell had the offense moving some and I gotta say that was a great defensive play on the interception in the end zone. I don’t take all the blame away from Brunell for the interception cause maybe he shouldn’t have thrown that pass with a defender in the receivers hip, but credit Miami more for that take away. One thing is for sure, if Brees is not in any game this year on every offensive play for whatever reason (God forbid), I am going to watch with my eyes closed while saying multiple prayers. Payton seemed to be taking it easy on the play calling. He sure was committed to the run which was good at times, but hurt the movement of the offense a lot. I know the main thing about this game was to get out of it with no injuries (poor Billy) but as a fan, it was really painful to watch. Defensively, I was real excited about the play of Dunbar and Hargroves. Those two turned it on and never let up. Jenkins concerns me. I realize that he is a rookie, but Miami seemed to be picking on him a lot (Jason David style) and it seemed to work in their favor. He seems to be a talented guy so I sure hope he catches on quick. Hamilton should lock up the number 4 spot and did impress me a lot. Carney had a brain fart. I know he wants that one back even though it is pre-season, I am sure it hurt his confidence just as much as it did ours. Morestead in my opinion was worth the draft choice if he can keep up that kinda excellent punting on a consistent level. I still have high hopes this year, but I think that is what made this game so disappointing. Oh well, it is over now (pre-season) and time to forget and start the season with a bang. Detroit needs to leave the dome with their feelings hurt next weekend.

Pierson Prioleau was all over the field last night. How did he not make the poll? Pawpaw Carney shanked a chip shot? Say it isn’t so, Joe. The only real surprise there is that it wasn’t a PAT. Morstead was impressive on the deep pins. Even on a couple of his shorter ones, he was getting phenomenal hangtime. Jo-Lonn Dunbar should be starting at WLB, imo. Outside containment sucked, as usual. Any RB with a lick of speed can beat our OLBs to the corner. Third stringer Patrick Cobbs looked like a starting RB, not a journeyman player struggling to make his third NFL team. I also agree with FuSoYa that Malcolm Jenkins looked horrific. Devone Bess — who’s not even a starting lock himself — was schooling him like Lionel Richie. And by that, I mean all … night … long (all night). Hamilton looked good. I think he’s got the fourth RB slot locked up, assuming they keep four. Both QBs failed to impress. Harrington looked like jittery hot garbage in the so-called pocket. The only positive I can take out of his performance was the fact that he was willing to take sacks in lieu of throwing interceptions, which at least kept us in the game until the very end. Truth is, I’m not comfortable with either he or Brunell and would very much like to see Luke McCown, Bruce Gradkowski or someone of the sort brought in, once cuts have been finalized. The OL looked good on screens, but not much else. Two big play nullifying penalties on Nick Lechey likely sealed his roster fate. They seem to be lacking in quality depth across the board there, which is scary. I know Brees will make his reads faster than the Piano Man, but I saw little to make me believe he wouldn’t be relentlessly harrassed and often times leveled, should his protection digress to even a mish mash of first and second stringers. Which, given Jammal Brown’s hernia and sub-par play at center, seems to already be the case. Hargrove and Casillas seemed to pick it up late in the game, as did the sparse crowd in attendance, particularly when Pat White was in there. All in all, a forgettable night, outside of one brilliantly executed screen pass, one electrifying jaunt by our new fifth string WR and a whole lot of exceptional punting from a curious young bloke with a feline fetish.

was the questionable play calling. Particularly the FG attempt just before half time. It’s 2nd down and you’re in the red zone with one time out and 8 seconds on the clock. Forget the fact that Carney missed the kick. That’s hindsight. Why do you even attempt a FG in that situation, in the first place? A pass to the end zone (or through the back of it) is NOT going to take 8 seconds. Even if you’re sacked, you’re still within FG range (presumably, I guess you never know with Carney). Just call time out. I saw nothing to lose, by taking another crack there. Also, on the play following the holding call on Leckey that wiped out Arrington’s big catch and run, 3rd and 20 or so and they call a draw play to Donaldson. Why? The game is still winnable at that point. I can see if you’re playing for field position, but that evidently wasn’t the thinking, as they went for it on FOURTH down on the next series, from practically the same spot on the field, with over 2 1/2 minutes remaining in the game, two time outs and the defense playing at least somewhat up to par. Why would those two situations be approached so differently? Because of 10 extra yards? Same third string secondary, same PRESEASON game. To Sean Payton’s credit, at least he didn’t stick Reginald and Devery in there for a double end around.

Also, looks like Ian and Chad now have a non-Johnson to contend with in the “Propose to a Cheerleader” contest. Precious moments like that are tailor made for half empty stadiums. How many strikes is that, for a story you’ll be retelling the rest of your lives? “Well, it was an exhibition game … and grandpa was holding a microphone … and he wasn’t down on one knee … and we lost … but is was sooooo romantic -sigh.”

First, I’d like to say that I didn’t watch the game and am commenting from stats/other’s comments about the game. Harrington’s 8 sacks doesn’t sound good. The fact that he was wanting to check down so quickly doesn’t bode well for a passing offense. Brunell’s pick was an underthrown pass but cmon, Roby didn’t even really fight for that ball. If it was Colston out there, that’s probably not an interception and at least a chance for a catch. Same with Meachem. Plus, it was really just a great interception. Another of his 3 preseason interceptions came on a time expiring hail mary to the endzone where the WRs had a chance of catching it too. Also, he had a TD pass come back on a penalty. I still like Brunell over Harrington period. I like him as our backup compared to other people too. Who else are they going to bring in? I’ve heard some ppl say McCown or Gradkowski(SP?) or AJ Feely. I don’t like any of them. Brunell helped them drive the ball down the field to get into position to make plays for points. When I watched Brunell, he looked pretty good. Harrington getting sacked doesn’t help him at all. He hasn’t looked very good at all. Sure, no interceptions compared to Brunell’s 3 which I explained earlier that the one last night probably would have been broken up by our starting WRs and that one was a hail mary with time expiring in the 2nd half. If we take away the hail mary pass, that’s 2 interceptions. He had 1 pass TD but also had one called back because of a penalty. That’s 2 TDs to 2 Int imo. I’m ok with Brunell as our backup unless we could get Garcia or someone better than Brunell.