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Quarter Season Review: 10 Things You Ought to Know About the Miami Dolphins
Last season’s worst team, the Miami Dolphins are looking for better luck this season. The team acquired Bill Parcells as the VP of Football Operations and Chad Pennington to spearhead the offense. So far the results have been mixed. Check out the ten things you ought to know about the team this season.
1. 32-year old quarterback Chad Pennington has a 87.9 quarterback rating this season, with two touchdowns and an interception. Unfortunately, he hasn’t found the endzone with one of his passes since week one. On the same token, he hasn’t thrown an interception since then, either.
2. Is Miami’s offensive line getting better? After allowing Pennington to get sacked four times week one, the line protected him well enough week two that he was sacked just twice. And in week three’s win over the Patriots, New England’s pass rush failed to tackle him.
3. Look at the numbers Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams have put up this season and you might be fooled into thinking they’ve been among the best in the league. Both have yard per carry averages above 4.0 (Brown has a 4.7) and Brown has rushed for five touchdowns. In three games? That’s impressive. Unfortunately, two-thirds of the players’ yards came week three in the rout over New England. Between the first two weeks of the season, the two combined for exactly 100 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown on 38 carries - that’s a 2.5 yard per carry average.
4. Of course, I should point out that Brown was absolutely unstoppable against the Patriots. He finished with 113 yards and four rushing touchdowns on 17 carries. That’s an average of one touchdown per 4.25 carries and 6.6 yards per carry. He also threw a touchdown pass, just for good measure, effectively making himself a crucial part of Miami’s five touchdowns.
5. Talk about trying to spread the ball around; Chad Pennington has thrown 53 completions this season and no one on the team has caught more than 11. In other words, no one player has caught more than 20 percent of his passes. Four wide receivers have at least eight receptions, as well.
6. Ted Ginn Jr., who has started all three games for the Dolphins, is tied for third on the team in receptions and is fourth in yards. Among wide receivers with more than four receptions, he is the only one to have a yard per catch average below 13. He averages 9.4 yards per reception and has yet to catch a touchdown pass this season.
7. No team has kicked fewer field goals than the Miami Dolphins. Kicker Dan Carpenter is 2-for-2 this season, his longest being a 39-yarder that came in the win over New England. He is also 8-for-8 in extra points and is tied for 14th in that category.
8. The Dolphins defense is middle-of-the-pack in most categories, but it has been especially vulnerable against the pass. In the first two weeks of the season - against Brett Favre and Kurt Warner - the defense allowed a combined 554 passing yards and 5 touchdowns, while forcing zero interceptions in the two losses.
9. The Dolphins also have just eight passes defensed in the first three weeks of the season. Consider the Buffalo Bills and Carolina Panthers the median in this case (they rank 15th): they have 21 passes defensed, or 13 more. The Dolphins rank last in the NFL in this category (though it does include teams with four games played). Even if the team would continue this pace and break up three passes in its next game, it would still rank 27th.
10. The Dolphins are on pace to finish with four times as many wins as they had last season … and a point differential that is 168 points closer to the positive.
Tags: Chad Pennington, Data, Fantasy Football, Miami Dolphins, Review, Statistics, Trends