O-Line Miles Behind Dolphins Offense

All of a sudden Chad Henne is the least worrisome Dolphin on offense

Saturday night's preseason game against the Tampa Bay Bucs was enough to make Dolfans forget that the strength of the Dolphins offense used to be its offensive line. Indeed, perhaps the biggest takeaway from the 17-13 loss was that Chad Henne is no longer the weakest link on offense.

What kind of bizarro world is this where Henne is one of the few Dolphins that can be trusted on offense?

Henne and receiver Brandon Marshall were in sync once again Saturday night, hooking up twice for 90 yards, including a 60-yard catch-and-run touchdown which saw Marshall juke one defender and savagely stiff-arm another en route to the end-zone. Marshall also drew two pass interference penalties, giving the Dolphins an additional 32 penalty yards.

Unfortunately, Marshall was stripped at the end of his second catch, negating a 30-yard play which would have moved the Dolphins offense into Bucs territory.

Add it all up, however, and the Dolphins completed 4 passes of 20 yards or more (and another to Daniel Thomas for 19), showing real improvement in the passing game.

But that could mean little if the offensive line plays all season as poorly as it did Saturday night. The Dolphins could only muster 22 yards rushing on 17 carries, and the line also gave up 5 sacks.

LT Jake Long sat out Saturday as he continues to recover from a knee injury, but the starting unit still trotted out three former first-round draft choices. They played like undrafted free agents at times, though, and for once the offense seemed to hold Henne back, instead of vice-versa.

Long's stand-in, Lydon Murtha, was not the problem Saturday. Newly-signed RT Marc Colombo and RG Vernon Carey looked lost at times, at one point allowing blitzing LB Dakota Watson to rush straight past them en route to a sack of Henne.

Then there were the O-line penalties, including two false starts and three holding calls, though most of those were committed by second teamers.

Nonetheless, the play of the line did not sit well with head coach Tony Sparano, a former offensive line coach himself. He lamented after the game that the Dolphins self-destructed offensively after Marshall's early touchdown.

"Not a little bit, a lot," the coach said. "There were penalties, minus plays, and a couple of rushing attempts that put us behind the sticks."

The good thing, Sparano said he told his team: "It's fixable."

The Dolphins have one more dress rehearsal Thursday night against the Dallas Cowboys. Time for fixing mistakes is running short.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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