QB Trent Green did not play well throwing two awful INTs and throwing some really bad throws. He finished 14 of 25 for just 158 yards, 1 TD and 2 INTs. I'm saving the real bad grades for the Defense. D
RB Ronnie Brown is the best Dolphin player (is he the only good player ?). He ran for 134 yards on 15 carries and a TD. He also led the team with 6 catches for 73 yards, for another 200+ total yards game. Hard to give an A on a loss, but he deserves it. A
WR Chambers and Booker combined for 3 catches for 29 yards. Hagan dropped a crucial 3rd down pass that hit him between the numbers. Ginn is not involved in the passing game. The leading receivers were the RB and the backup BLOCKING TE. Ouch ! D
OL The run-blocking was OK. Ronnie had opportunities and the pass blocking was also solid. The WRs could not get any separation and the passes did not have Marino-type accuracy either. That's not the O-line's problem. The O-line was supposed to be the weak link on the team, it now looks way better than the D-line. B-
LB The Raiders had 299 yards rushing - 2-9-9. They deserved to score 35 points. Can't blame it on the offense anymore. Zach did not play but that's not an excuse. Enough said. F
DL The D-line is by far the worst unit on the team. With all the talk about depth they just look pathetic. Taylor (the former defensive player of the year) has one sack in 4 games. He had 3 penalties against the Raiders alone. Everybody knew the Raiders are going to run and they ran at will anyway. They eve ran the entire field when they tried to run out the clock. The Raiders couldn't NOT run all over the Dolphins at the end. I mean giving up 3 rushing TDs to Daunte "one knee" Culpepper ? One for each damaged ligament ? 299 rushing yards ? ZERO pass rush ? Taylor looks awful, Traylor looks 60 not ultra old 38 and is Roth even playing ? This grade is way better than it should F-!!!
Secondary Culpepper completed 5 passes all day, two of them for TDs. When a team runs like the Raiders did, you really don't need to pass. Culpepper threw his 2 TDs on 3rd and 6 and 3rd and 7. You get the feeling that if he had to throw he could have, but again, why bother throwing when you can run. D
Special teams They at least did not give up a TD this week. When your best player is the rarely used kicker... The return game can be better. poor Ginn, there are no holes for him, mabe he should try running against the Dolphins rush-defense anybody can run against them. C
Coaching Awful, an awful performance, one of the worst I've seen in a while by the Dolphins. The run-defense was just embarassing. Why in the world are the Dolphins paying so much money to defensive coordinator Dom Capers ? F
