Preseason football in South Florida: The constant threat of rain -- it's already showed. The humidity. The baseball infield.
Awesome!
Let's hang! There will be a live blog of the Dolphins' 2011 preseason home debut right here starting at 7:30. I'll come back in a little while and tell you which players -- other than Jake Long -- will not play tonight. I'll be interested to see whether/how long Will Allen plays tonight after missing most of the past 21 months with various injuries.
[Update: The Dolphins are announcing Jared Odrick replaces Randy Starks in the starting lineup tonight. Allen will not play. LB Austin Spitler, G Garrett Chisolm, T Ray Willis, OL Joe Berger, T Jake Long and TE Mickey Shuler are also scratched.]
Things to look for tonight -- other than Chad Henne's performance of course?
Dolphins linebackers versus Greg Olsen and Jeremy Shockey. The Dolphins are going to face very good tight end play in the regular season opener against New England. They have a history of struggling against tight ends in the past. Let's see how Karlos Dansby, Kevin Burnett, and to some degree strong safety Yeremiah Bell fare tonight.
I want to see if Phillip Livas, who opened eyes last week with a 75-yard punt return, can show some consistency or if that was one-time luck. I'm not saying Livas needs to take another one to the house. I am saying he needs to show wiggle, ability to make the first guy miss consistently, and then acceleration past the second tackler. Blocking is supposed to take care of the rest.
I want to see if Matt Moore can show the spark again this week that he showed against Atlanta.
I want to see progress from center Mike Pouncey individually and then some clue that the offensive line is coming together as a group.
I want to see Anthony Fasano catch the ball rather than have the ball boink off his hands.
I want to see the front seven on defense stop the run, something they struggled to do last week at Atlanta.
And, obviously, I want to see a win. There is no substitute for victory.
There are very few Fu-kers like me who are right 50% of the time; most Fu-kers are wrong most of the Time.
Posted by: oscar canosa | August 20, 2011 at 08:15 AM
Last time I checked Carolina, had the worst record in the NFL in 2010. When Henne plays like that against the Pats or Indy, I'll believe he's a better QB. Glad with the improvement, but 1 game a QB doesn't make! Hope this train keeps chugging!
Posted by: d-dense | August 20, 2011 at 08:29 AM
The fins get a W against the worst team in the NFL and in Pre Season... and all of you are getting your hopes up???
I watched many wrinkles which WILL reflect lossess when they face reg season foes and they get thier butts handed to them.
20 points people... 20 points?? Out of those 20 two FG's and fist pumps.
6 -10 season if they get lucky.
Posted by: NY "G" | August 20, 2011 at 08:30 AM
You are dense. The panthers were in the top 10 defenses in the NFL last year, I think 5th. And we scored 20 on them. If we had scored 20 every game last year what would have been our record.
And by the way, Carolina did not sit out 16 starters last night. They only sat out 2 from the defense
Posted by: ltcdolphin | August 20, 2011 at 08:51 AM
ITC, bottom line is it was a win against what should be an inferior opponent. The Panthers terrible QB play trickled down to the rest of the team with the bad field position and all. While any win is encouraging, I'd wait til next weeks game to gush. As someone else said, playing Carolina in an exhibition and the pats or Jets in reg season, are two different things. I would like nothing more than for them to succeed but have seen too many times where Henne can't handle top defenses. Here's hoping for the best though.
Posted by: jrljr2 | August 20, 2011 at 09:07 AM
Jrljr2. It was a win against a team that last year would have been a loss. QB play greatly improved.
Posted by: ltcdolphin | August 20, 2011 at 09:09 AM
Great show of progress by the entire team including TS, Henne, Bush, Thomas, OL, etc.
Sad day for naysayers.
Posted by: just saying... | August 20, 2011 at 09:10 AM
Very happy for Henne and company. Very sad for Armando. This means that he has lost all credibility with his readers, since he has been Henne bashing all offseason. Dude, Mando, you are nowhere near the expert you pretend to be.
Posted by: YESIDID | August 20, 2011 at 09:27 AM
Itc, how was carolinas d last year?
Posted by: jrljr2 | August 20, 2011 at 10:55 AM
Well said YESIDID, well said
Posted by: dishpan | August 20, 2011 at 10:57 AM
Carolina d in top ten of NFL think around fifth
Posted by: ltcdolphin | August 20, 2011 at 11:29 AM