Chad Henne connected with Brandon Marshall on a perfectly placed deep ball along the sideline. Marshall fought off the corner, juked the safety, and stiff armed his way for a 60-yard touchdown.
It was a thing of beauty. The same can’t be said for the rest of the night.
The Dolphins ran for a whopping 22 yards on the ground, averaging a pitiful 1.7 yards-per-carry. They also committed 11 penalties, making tonight difficult on the eyes at times.
The defense was stout against a Buccaneers’ rushing attack that ranked in the top 10 a year ago, but they were unable to contain Tampa’s backs as receiving threats.
Cameron Wake was the face of some fairly consistent pressure on Josh Freeman and the Dolphins did an adequate job keeping the likes of Mike Williams, Kellen Winslow, and Arrelious Been in check. But Buccaneer running backs LaGarrette Blount and Earnest Graham combined for 89 receiving yards.
At the end of the night, though, fans can hang their hats on two things: Chad Henne’s play and a clean injury report.
Henne’s 10 for 13, 175-yard, one touchdown performance gives him back-to-back solid showings. He looks like a completely different quarterback, taking command of the offense, making adjustments at the line of scrimmage, and actually going through his progressions instead of staring down his intended target.
And now that the starters are through the “dress rehearsal” phase of the preseason and likely won’t see much time Thursday night against the Cowboys, all signs are pointing to the Dolphins entering the regular season with no major injuries.
That makes tonight successful to some degree despite the loss and embarrassing play from the offensive line.
Look forward to much more on tonight’s game on Monday morning. For now, tells us how you think the Dolphins looked tonight in the comments.
Game ball: Chad Henne- 10/13, 175 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions
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