The Miami Dolphins Chad Henne and New York Jets Mark Sanchez got their first dose of what fans alike hope to be a decade of classic duels to add to their already storied history. Bob Griese had Joe Namath, of course, who could forget the shootouts between Dan Marino and Ken O’Brien and even Jay Fiedler and Vinny Testaverde had a few gems including that jaw dropping 31-7 4th quarter deficit the Jets overcame on Monday night in 2000. God that one still stings! Oh yeah Jets fans, you like that one? How about a big bowl of fake spike. Huh? How’d that one feel?
There’s no doubt this matchup has grown into one of the most exciting rivalries in football, where the Jets hold a slight edge in the all-time series at 46-40-1, and they didn’t disappoint Monday night in yet another classic fireworks show that resulted in a 31-27 Dolphins victory on a gutsy direct snap play call to Ronnie Brown out of the Wildcat formation with :06 left where he took it in for the 2 yard game winning touchdown.
The rookie quarterbacks each played well but Henne was nearly perfect statistically and even more impressive in his demeanor, leadership, confidence and poise. The 4-year starter out of Michigan was stellar in only his 2nd career start going 20-26 for 241 yards with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions for a whopping 130.4 rating. He led three touchdown drives of 12 plays or more, which is impressive enough for anyone let alone in your 2nd career start against a first place team. Sanchez also played well going 12-24 for 172 yards and 1 touchdown for an 87.5 rating but in Henne-Sanchez I the night belonged to the Phins quarterback. Despite all the accolades towards Jets Head Coach and defensive guru, Rex Ryan, and their aggressive exotic blitzing scheme Henne thrived even going 7-7 for 140 yards and 2 touchdowns using the play action pass. Running the Wildcat effectively 16 times was obviously a huge reason why. As a team the Dolphins amassed 413 total yards with 151 coming on the ground with Brown collecting 74 yards on 21 caries and running mate Ricky Williams rushing 11 times for 68 yards and also snatched 3 passes for 70 yards including a 59 yard screen pass that he could have scored on had he not gassed. The Dolphins gouged the Jets run defense and Henne picked apart the blitzing scheme. The Dolphins top ranked defense against the run wasn’t exactly a brick wall themselves allowing Leon Washington to carve them for 4.4 yards per carry on only 10 carries thankfully, since each one had the feeling that he could take it to the house. He looked great and it didn’t look like the Dolphins figured out how to corral him. Note to self moving forward: Must work on defending explosive and elusive runners.
Heading into the game the Dolphins had other obvious areas that needed improvement and issues that needed to be addressed and they were successful in many areas but clearly left room for improvement in others such as penalties and pass coverage. Miami desperately needed Ted Ginn to step up and they needed to find ways to make big plays offensively. They were able to do both and they did them on the same play as Ginn blew past three Jets defenders and caught a perfectly thrown Henne bomb for a huge 53-yard touchdown. It was only one play but it was huge for the Dolphins, it was huge for Henne and it was huge for Ginn who has been thrown under the bus lately by fans and the media, and I am no exception, for not emerging as the star he was expected to be. That play alone may have done wonders for Ginn’s own confidence, Henne’s confidence in him, Tony Sporano’s confidence in them both and Dolfans confidence in the Miami Dolphins chances to defend their AFC East crown.
In all honesty, and Miami most definitely deserved and earned the victory but they shot themselves in the foot so many times that had they lost they could only blame themselves in a season already filled with too many of those losses. Two faked punts that resulted in first downs and eventual points, 8 penalties for 112 yards and 4 of which were huge pass interference calls and then there was that nauseating 3rd and 22 that was converted by a magnificent pitch and catch from Sanchez to newly acquired Jets WR Braylon Edwards. Not that it mattered but there was another defensive holding on that play had Edwards not hauled it in. These mistakes nearly cost Miami the game but the fact that they were able to overcome them and win a tight battle that went down to the wire speaks volumes to this teams resolve.
The win puts Henne 1-0 over Sanchez and the Dolphins 2-0 in the division and 2-3 overall and back in contention with the Patriots and Jets who are each one game up. All of the sudden the once 0-3 Dolphins are only one game back with 11 games to play including 4 division games and they have yet to play New England. The road won’t be easy starting with Drew Brees and company coming to town after next week’s bye.
In another “Just Saying” moment that has been a longtime signature of mine I would like to add that with his 37, the all time king of the 4th quarter come from behind victory, Dan Marino, is still firmly 36 ahead of Chad Henne.
No comments:
Post a Comment