QB For three quarters Culpepper had a very good night. Then the fourth quarter came. He failed to throw a TD (altough he had Chambers open twice) and had a comlete melt down at the ens throwing two INTs in back to back plays, one resulting in the 4th Steeler TD. He finished under 50% with 18 of 36 for 262 yards and the 2 INTs. He looked tentative and at times threw early. He does have a strong arm and it showed. D+
RB A poor performance for the running game despite Brown's 2 TDs. He could not get anything going making the Dolphins heavily one dimensional. He had 30 only yards on 15 carries. Not the opener he liked to have. D-
WR The Dolphins leading WR did not touch the ball until the second half. Chambers played bad. He should have had one TD pass at the begining and was invisible most of the time. He added a few catches at the end in garbage time. McMichael had 1 reception, one. Booker got hurt but returned to the game. He had 64 yards on 3 recptions, one nice catch and run for 52 yards. Welker was hot in the first half with 4 receptions for 67 yards but didn't touch the ball on offense in the second half. D+
OL The run-blocking was terrible. It wasn't all Brown's fault. The pass blocking was better than expected, at least better than Culpepper expected, so it seemed. D+
LB The LBs like the entire defensive unit did not play well. Parker ran at will for 115 yards. A TE scored an 87 yard TD. Even if it was a missed assignment by the secindary... D+
DL The D-line did not pressure Batch. The few sacks they did have were coverage sacks. Parker ran through them like crazy, Traylor had a few nice moves but that's all. Carter's and Holiday's name was not called all day long. Taylor, despite what Madden said, didn't have a solid game. Madden often complements star players to much that's my opinion (even the ones not name Favre). It was just bad game. Maybe next time Saban would not make the 3 reserve DTs inactive. D
Secondary 209 yards and 3 TD on 60% completion by Charlie Batch (!) Are you kidding me ? An 87 yard TD by a TE. On all 3 TDs the secondary was late. They couldn't even catch a TE running for 87 yards from behind, that's how far behind the defense he got. Hill was OK at times and so was Allen (especially in the run support) but other than that, we are talking about Charlie Batch for crying out loud. F
Special teams A decent game for the special teams. Mare had one short kickoff and Jones had one bad punt to start the season but they did show they are ready for the season. The coverage team could have been better but that's expected from a first game. Welker did have a huge 47 yard return to set up the first Brown TD. B+
Coaching Sure, Saban is right the the officials should look for the challenge flag when it is so clear he's going to challenge a call, but then again he could have thrown the flag earlier or tried yelling at the closest official. The team did not look good. The defense didn't play well all around despite facing a backup QB, the running game was non existent and the passing game melted down at the end. D-
