Bad, bad game. There is no other way to put it. Miami's defense held the Minnesota Moss-Carter-Smith Vikings to 6 points for 58 minutes, and Miami's outcome
against a mediocre defense, z-e-r-o !
Fielder was awful. I don't care how good your defense is you are not going to win if you don't score and that's just basic math.
The Vikings
don't have a good defense, they play a 35 year old corner and a converted WR, Miami is not going to get better matchups than that.
Bad throws and dropped passes (Emanuel had a long TD if Fielder throws the ball well).
It was just a patheic appearence by the offense, really 27 yards out of your QB in the half. Don't count the garbage yards at the end they are missleading.
The running game wasn't there, I think they abandoned it too early because it wasn't that bad.
It looked like they couldn't score even if they were playing 6 quarters. Anybody thought Fielder would play better than Marino...(I just had to write that sometime so let's get it over with).
QB Fielder was 12 of 31, 175 yards TD, INT. Even those poor numbers are missleading because take away the TD and the 50 yard completion at the end when it was all over and his 50s rating go even lower (and there is not much
to go from there).
He just couldn't throw 2 consecutive good throws, heck he couldn't even throw one.
He was sometimes way off. Sometimes he threw badly and low to Konrad for 3 or 4 yards. He had Emanuel beating his man on his way to the endzone but he threw behind him. He was 2 of 9 at halftime and he should have had 1 or 2 INTs.
If he continues like that...does anyone remember Huard, really I don't think it's unthinkable. And finally, is Sam Wyche dreaming ? Fielder played good ? he was 12 of 31 for crying out loud ? well, he's used to those Tampa QBs...D-
RB Thurman Thomas got his first TD as a Dolphin. Lamar Smith started pretty good. I don't understand why they abandoned the run so fast, Minnesota had only a 3 or 6 point lead, and it's not like Marino was back there orchestrating another comeback ? D
WR They had a few drops (Martin) but really some passes were so off they couldn't even try, they somtimes turned defenders. Shepeard doesn't remind anyone of Mark Duper and Emanuel is no Nat Moore.D+
OL The running game didn't have a lot of holes and the pass blocking was nothing to write home about. Are they going back to the unit I always thought they were ? Let's hope not D-
DL I was dissappointed, they didn't generate enough pass rush and Culpepper had all day to throw way too many times, the sacks/pressures were mostly coverage sacks/pressures.
The run stopping was pretty good. It was a nice Owens/Bowens play on the last INT (What was Dennis Green thinking instead of running ?) B+
LB Hey, they held Minnesota to 13 points in Minneapolis, 6 in the first 58 minutes. Zach had a few hits, wow, he can hit. Gaylon also contributed B+
Secondary I knew that Carter and Moss will catch the ball, Carter had over 100 yards and Moss had the TD, but really they played good against the best duo in the league and 2 of the best 5 or 6 recievers in the league. A-
Special teams P Turk was very good. He hit a 60+ punt from Miami's endzone, he was a bright spot. The coverage was also OK. The return game was bad. C+
CoachingThere were some decisions I didn't understand, and that Emanuel thing isn't working. They also gave up a sack that took them out of FG range. In a dome a 50 yarder is a high percentage kick for Mare, they should have though of that. In short it was a dissappointing game and that face, Wannstedt had looks too familiar form the Bears years.F
