Went to the game and stayed for the first half. Here are the highlights:
Miami:
Culpepper: 1/2 for 2 yards. Daunte was in to hand the ball off and get a feel for things. No deep drops, both passes should have been caught (CHambers stopped running the route, but Daunte may have led him too much). The pass to the TE was a five step drop and the protection was good.
Harrington: Ah, the tale of two Joeys. It is amazing to see two QBs who can put zip on their passes after Fiedler/Feeley/freotte for the past 6 years. Joey's pass to McMichael was a laser. After that there was some back and forth with the Dolphins O line and JOey started getting happy feet. His numbers look a little better than they should becasue of some 5 and 6 yard completions underneath on 3rd and 8+. Harrington reminded me of a stronger armed Jay Fiedler, one good pass one bad one....
Cleo Lemmon: Didn't see him play, but word out of the Herald is he played good enough to cement the #3 role, but not enough to challenge Harrington for the #2 as yet.
Ronnie Brown: Got more work than I thought he needed tonight and looked good. Hit the hole well and was never in trouble behind the line of scrimmage. Good job by the O line.
Sammy Morris: Is the backup and since it is the first preseason game, it is hard to know what the mix will be. Sammy looked good as well and looks to be the backup/spell back for the dolphins at this time.
FB: Of no consequence.
Passing Game:
Chambers short armed or stopped on the Culpepper pass, and Booker was inactive. Wes Welker got the other side start but Hagan was in there pretty quickly. Hagan had some trouble adjusting, and was a few steps away from making a great play on a tipped ball that would have been a TD. THe TEs got a lot of work tonight as Harrington seemed to be throwing more into the middle of the field and Randy McM was the beneficiary there.
Defense: The first string unit was in midseason form, pressuring Leftwich, swallowing up the running game, and Having strong coverage. Once they started pulling some guys and giving Jason Allen some reps did the Jags start going deep.
ST: Mare booted a 52 yarder and had two Touchbacks on kickoffs. his miss (from 48) was off the infield dirt. Mare looks solid and may be a nice sleeper Kicker this year if Saban lets him kick the llong ones with regularity.
Jax (not going to be as good as I dont know the player numbers as well):
Leftwich: Played almost the entire first half and looked like crap against the dolphin first unit. he was pressured pretty good and had a few penalties called against the O that set them back in terms of down and distance. He looked to Matt Jones when he was in the slot (which was a bunch) and the Long pass was a thing of beauty (there was no safety help for will allen on that one, but that is the usual blame MO when any CB gets beat deep)
Runners: Fred taylor was the #1 and looked okay. The O line in Jax wasn't doing any of the RBs any favors in teh first half, and the only run that did anything was a sweep (and I think it wastaylor on that as well)
WR/TE -- Again, nothing real spectacular in the first half until matt jones' TD. Leftwich looked his way in the slot, and I guess it was Wilfork that Leftwich was going for on the tipped INT.
Defense: I was surprised at what little pressure they put on Culpepper, but all that handing off may have made things a little soft.
ST. Nothing special of note here.
Hope this helps.
