The reasons Chad Henne must remain at QB

You folks really must stop e-mailing me. Post your comments below in the comments section instead because it's getting crazy and I cannot possibly reply to everyone, although I would love to do so. Normally, I just reply to the folks that call me a fat, moron, frick because, dang it, I'm not a frick so I feel the need to defend myself.

Anyway, most of your e-mails Monday were about one of two topics:

1. Fire everybody.

2. Bench Chad Henne.

I can assure you the Dolphins are not about to fire everybody. This post will attempt to explain why the Dolphins should not bench Henne.

I watched the 26-10 loss to Baltimore and I'm not about to do a coach Tony Sparano and give you an "all is well, there's nothing to worry about," speech. As this Miami Herald story points out, Henne threw 5 TDs and 4 interceptions the first four games and 3 TDs and 6 interceptions the past four games.

Bottom line is the Dolphins were beaten pretty soundly at Baltimore and there is a pattern they follow in that they cannot beat very good teams. So all is not well.

But in watching Henne's worst game of the season, it becomes evident there are glances that you must admit are present before you summarily dismiss him as your quarterback.

Did you notice that Henne completed 9 of his first 10 passes against the big, bad Baltimore defense? That is correct, he was 9 of 10 to start the game.

Nobody noticed that because the one incompletion was an interception by Baltimore's Ladarius Webb. And, true enough, an interception does overshadow nine other completions if those completions are TD passes. But this interception was more the wide receiver's fault than Henne's.

Fact is Brian Hartline stumbled and was on his knees when the ball came to him on the sideline. Webb simply stood where Hartline was down and caught the pass. If Hartline had been on his feet that pass is either an incompletion or a completion. Not an interception.

There were two other picks Henne threw. He had one that led Brandon Marshall a hair too far and the Miami receiver didn't necessarily go above and beyond to stretch for the catch because Ray Lewis had Marshall's ribs in the cross hairs. The tipped pass went directly to Ed Reed.

Interception No. 3 was Henne's biggest mistake, that in the fourth quarter when he threw inaccurately and the defensive back on Davone Bess simply caught the errant pass. I put that one on Henne. But Bess had zero separation. And Bess didn't exactly dig hard back toward the pass. Fact is the DB made a stronger break toward the ball and came away with it. Bess does better work, that interception also becomes an incompletion.

The point I'm making is Henne didn't exactly get a ton of support. And I didn't even mention the Anthony Fasano drop. The Brandon Marshall drop. The Ronnie Brown drop.

I do have to mention the terrible pass to a wide open Fasano in the end zone near the end of the first half. That was, in my humble, Henne's worst pass of the day and it cost Miami four points or the difference between a touchdown and the field goal the team kicked.

So did all that spell out a 26-10 loss? No.

The Ravens did not score after Webb's interception. They got a field goal after the second interception. And the final pick came with 42 seconds to play and Baltimore merely took a knee to end the game after that turnover.

So Henne's terrible day cost the Dolphins a touchdown -- the field goal plus the difference between what might have been a TD and FG to end the half.

The Dolphins lost this game by 16 points, folks. It wasn't all on the QB.

Now, maybe you think benching Henne is still the move because, well, you just want to stir things up. Or maybe it's because you don't like Henne's robotic approach to playing. Or maybe you just hate Michigan.

I would say the Dolphins must stay with Henne because if nothing else happens this year, they must, must, must, find out if he is the future or not. The Dolphins aren't a playoff team right now. They are not playing playoff-caliber football.

But if they finish the 2010 season with a conviction one way or the other about Chad Henne, at least the season was not in vain. If, on the other hand, the team replaces Henne with Chad Pennington and makes a playoff run only to find out that still isn't the answer, we're back to 2008 and we've wasted two seasons.

Coach Tony Sparano's contract runs out after 2011. He cannot afford to find himself back at the end of 2008 while the calendar says its 2011 and his contract says it expires in 2011. We need to know if Henne is the future at quarterback or not.

That means you might have to endure some growing pains and setbacks. But to back-track now to Chad Pennington in search of some short-term fix is taking one step forward but finding yourself two steps back. 

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