Miami Dolphins In Depth

Philbin message to Carroll: Job's on the line

Dolphins coach Joe Philbin had a little chat with cornerback Nolan Carroll today.

Carroll, you will recall, had a tough night against Buffalo his last game. He had two pass interference penalties, a holding call and an illegal contact called against him. It was four first downs and 76 yards worth of penalties.

So the Dolphins coaches perhaps felt the need to remind the cornerback that a starting job is notgifted or inherited. It is earned. And Carroll has to earn better than he did last week or he's going to find himself replaced.

"I talked to Nolan today a little bit individually," Philbin said. "I know the coaches communicate with him on a consistent basis. I think Nolan is an aware player. These guys that have been in the league, they're professionals. They know their job's on the line. Told him today. We all get evaluated by our performance on Sunday. That's the most important thing for what we do -- what I do as a coach and what they do as players. He's aware of what he needs to do and things he needs to do better."

I was expecting the conversation with Carroll would be more along the lines of raising his spirits or perhaps serving as crutch to waning confidence. Nope. That apparently wasn't the approach.

 "I think the confidence to us, to me, is gained through your preparation and doing things in practice and doing things consistently. Doing them well," Philbin said. "And then the transfer of practice to the game. We're expecting him to play well Sunday."

Philbin said Carroll has practiced well and obviously you see the team expects him to play well. If he doesn't for the second consecutive game ...

Well, job's on the line.

 

Russell Wilson great but not as much on the road

Ryan Tannehill or Russell Wilson. Which of these two rookie quarterbacks is playing better right now?

Definitely Wilson. No doubt.

By every measurable statistical standard Wilson is the better player today. The former third round draft pick has been a pleasant surprise for the Seattle Seahawks and has been, arguably, one of the top two productive rookie quarterbacks in the league this season.

But before you become depressed about the quarterback matchup Sunday, you must understand there are two Russell Wilsons -- the home Russell and the away Russell.

And the home Russell is amazing while the away Russell is still playing like a rookie.

At home Wilson has completed 69 of 111 passes for 935 yards. That means he's completing an impressive 62.2 percent of his passes. But that is not his most impressive statistic at home.

Wilson, 23 years old, has thrown 11 TDs and zero interceptions at home.

His quarterback rating is 122.0 at home.

Impressive.

On the road, Wilson has been merely mortal. He's completed 88 of 142 passes, again for a 62 percent completion mark. He's thrown for 892 yards with four touchdowns and eight interceptions. His quarterback rating is 65.8.

So that should give you hope.

The problem is Tannehill hasn't been significantly better at home than Wilson has been on the road.

Tannehill is completing 58.2 percent of his passes of home and has thrown three touchdowns and four interceptions. His rating is 70.4 at home.

Indeed, away Tannehill has been almost more dynamic, throwing for nearly twice as many yards and averaging 7.60 yards per completion compared to 5.96 yards per completion at home. His QB rating on the road is higher at 71.1.

And so the question for Sunday will be can home Ryan be better than away Russell.