The curse of living in Central Florida is not having consistently getting live feed of Miami Dolphins football each week. I was excited to see that the local ABC affiliate was going to show the Miami-Atlanta game this past Saturday, which I automatically set the DVR for I could go back and watch parts of the game.
Like last week, I will start with the hottest talking point on the offense throughout the league, Tua. This week’s performance was better than last week’s for one, and secondly, he did not throw a pick. Tua completed 16 of his 23 passes and threw for one touchdown to Myles Gaskin. Gaskin looked good as the number one back this week with the first squad rushing for 27 yards on 6 carries; his longest was 16 yards. The receiving corps looked good, too, and it was nice to see Tua connect with Waddle, which I feel is going to be a recurring sight to see this season. Gesicki got a couple more targets as well, which looked pretty. Â I cannot wait until the starting wide receivers are on the football field with Tua.
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The offensive line, which struggled against Chicago last week, played better. Tua did get sacked, which came late in the first quarter on an Atlanta blitz, but overall, Miami’s offensive line looked tight. I called out Robert Hunt for being the best offensive linemen last week; he gets his name called again. Hunt played like a beast, and I hope he inspires the rest of his teammates on the line.
The defense looked good, carrying over their dominance from the Chicago game. The defense kept Atlanta to 3 points in the first half, forcing two punts and a turnover on downs after their first drive ending in a field goal. The special team’s unit played respectfully, with Sanders and Palardy looking particularly solid and Malcolm Perry running back most punt returns.
A shout out to the Dolphins coaches to manage the clock at the end of the first half, allowing them to work a 30-second drill. Sanders came close to hitting the 58-yard field goal, had the distance. Again, the progress we got to see makes us going into this season an exciting prospect.
The second half of both games saw many Phin back ups give up chunks of yards and points. What depth can come from these units remains to be seen. What has been seen is a dominant defense the first half of each game. I expect more of that into the regular season. The offense ? We have not seen the best of it yet. How could we with the starting WR’s out ? No Parker, no Fuller, no Wilson. I am starting to believe that the coaching staff has this trio with phantom hurts to keep them healthy for the opener (exception of Fuller suspended for first game). After seeing Waddle get hurt, does anyone want to see our 1ST Rounder return kicks ?? I surely don’t. Phins have Grant to do that and don’t say he makes too much money and he needs to be traded. He is making like $4m and that is nothing for Ross. To get Waddle hurt and lose out on working with Tua, that will cost the Phins more than what they are paying Grant. They also have Perry to help with ST. My prediction for the WR squad is: Parker, Fuller, Wilson, Waddle, Grant, Hollins, Foster. Williams on Pup, get into shape once and for all and return like mid season. Ford cut, Merrit onto PSquad.