Thigpen ERA Begins in Prime Time Thursday Night!!

Well lets not get ahead of ourselves, but yes Tyler Thigpen will be starting for the Miami Dolphins this Thursday against the Chicago Bears.  For an Early look at this weeks match up here is a link to Dolphins Digest. 

We have some news to deal with following the Dolphins hard fought victory over the Titans this past Sunday.  As we all know Chad Pennington started the game and was quickly forced out of the game due to another shoulder injury.  His season is done, the Dolphins have placed him on the IR.  Chad Henne took over for Pennington and was pretty solid.  He too eventually went down with a knee injury and will miss sometime.  The good news is the Dolphins are expecting Chad to be back this year.  That brings us to Tyler Thigpen, Thigpen came into the game when Henne left and looked very impressive.  He drove the Dolphins down the field using his arm and his legs and eventually threw a touchdown pass to Anthony Fasano to cap off the drive.  Thigpen will get the start this Thursday against the Bears and from everything I have seen and heard people around the Dolphins are excited about Tyler getting a shot.  He will bring a new look to this conservative offense, because he plays anything but conservative.  If nothing else Thigpen will make it exciting!  Here are Thigpen's career stats from NFL.com.

Now for some bad news.  Jake Long suffered a dislocated shoulder against the Titans.  Word has come out that Long will have to have surgery on the shoulder eventually.  Jake has said that he is going to try to play the rest of the year with it, we will see how that goes.  The potential loss of Jake Long is far bigger news than the injuries to both the Chad's.  Long is having another Pro Bowl type season and to lose him would be devastating to this offence.  Long did practice today but was limited.

In other news the Dolphins re-signed Anthony Fasano today to a 2 year extension, locking him up through the 2012 season.  This is coming off of Fasano's career game having 107 receiving yards with a touchdown.  Lets hope this is a sign of things to come for Fasano.

Finally to fill the hole that placing Chad Henne on the IR has created the Dolphins signed Patrick Ramsey to be their 3rd quarterback.  Lets hope he stays as the third quarterback!!

I will leave you with a quote from Tyler Thigpen today from Armando Salguero's Twitter feed.
Miami Dolphins QB Tyler Thigpen: "For all the people out there doubting me, I want to prove I can be a starter."

Here's to hoping you prove it Tyler!!

Go Phins!
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Must Win For The Dolphins V.S Tennesee

I know I said this in an earlier post but this game has become huge for the Miami Dolphins.  With the Jets and Patriots now 6 - 2 the Dolphins have to win this game to stay in the chase!

As if there wasn't enough pressure on the Phins already Brandon Marshall guaranteed a playoff spot this season...uggghhh.  I  hope he knows something we don't

With the quarterback change taking place yesterday, the Dolphins surprisingly will not have to alter their offence much.  They Dolphins have not really even tried to stretch the field very much this year and have played an ultra conservative offense.  I believe this type of offense actually suits Pennington much better than Henne.  Pennington relies on his accuracy and game management skills to run an offense, I am expecting the Dolphins to be improved in this area.

Team Matchups!

Offense
The Dolphins surprising rank better in total offense this season over Tennessee with the Fins ranking 17th overall and the Titans ranking 24th.  That number may be skewed because the Dolphins have been able to move the ball all year but not score!  Tennessee has scored 224 total points so far this season where the Dolphins have 143 total points.  If you look at it that way advantage Tennessee.

Defensively

Once again the Dolphins are ahead in the overall rankings in total defense, they rank 13th overall, the Titans rank 19th.  The Defense has been the Dolphins strength this year, but they have been inconsistent all year.  In Pass Defense the Dolphins rank 13th and the Titans rank 23rd overall, this may be the game for Marshall and now Pennington to have a big outing!!  As for rush defense the Dolphins rank 16th, where as the Titans rank 14th.  I would say that is pretty much a wash, except for the fact that the Dolphins have to stop Chris Johnson, who now has Randy Moss to stretch the field for him.  Tennessee has to stop the struggling duo of Ronnie and Ricky, advantage Tennessee.

Overall

I am very excited for this game and I think it is a winnable game for the Dolphins.  I am hoping the Pennington still has some life in that throwing shoulder after his third surgery, which he had last year.  If nothing else I am hoping Pennington brings a calming/confidence to this struggling offence.  If the offence gets that spark and the defense can slow down Johnson and not let him dominate, I think the Dolphins can come out of this game 5-4.

GO PHINS

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Miami Minute: Henne and Pennington react to QB switch

The Newest Miami Minute from Jeff Darlington of the Miami Herald. All I can say is I hope they both do what they are saying! The Dolphins need Pennington to step up and prove that he still has something left. They also need Chad Henne to not give up and know that this could be his team again in the blink of an eye!


GO PHINS!!

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Big Moves For The Miami Dolphins Pennington and Al Harris In!

Today the Miami Dolphins, have made what they believe to be two improvements to their football team.  The move the Dolphins made was to cut starting corner back Jason Allen and  sign veteran Al Harris who was cut by the Green Bay Packers earlier this week.   In Al Harris the Dolphins are getting a veteran(36 years old) corner who hasn't played since week 11 of last year.  What they are losing in Jason Allen is a player that led the team in interceptions, but also a player who it seemed was victimized by  the opposing wide receivers weekly.  I think that this is a last gasp for something positive to happen to the Dolphins secondary.  Al Harris will most likely be included in nickel packages and as a backup, so expect Sean Smith to start opposite Vontae Davis.  Here are Al Harris's career stats:

Defensive
			Tackles					Interceptions
Year	Team	G	Comb	Total	Ast	Sck	SFTY	PDef	Int	TDs	Yds	Avg	Lng
2009	Green Bay Packers	10	34	29	5	1.0	--	5	2	0	29	14.5	29
2008	Green Bay Packers	12	24	23	1	0.0	--	9	--	--	--	0.0	--
2007	Green Bay Packers	16	37	33	4	0.0	--	9	2	0	17	8.5	17
2006	Green Bay Packers	16	41	35	6	0.0	--	14	3	0	39	13.0	34
2005	Green Bay Packers	16	53	46	7	3.0	0	10	3	1	30	10.0	22T
2004	Green Bay Packers	16	62	56	6	0.0	--	19	1	0	29	29.0	29
2003	Green Bay Packers	16	47	45	2	0.0	0	11	3	1	89	29.7	56T
2002	Philadelphia Eagles	16	24	22	2	0.0	--	17	1	0	0	0.0	0
2001	Philadelphia Eagles	16	22	20	2	0.0	--	10	2	0	22	11.0	14
2000	Philadelphia Eagles	16	--	--	--	0.0	--	0	0	0	1	0.0	1
1999	Philadelphia Eagles	16	--	--	--	0.0	0	0	4	1	151	37.8	84
1998	Philadelphia Eagles	16	--	--	--	0.0	--	0	--	--	--	0.0	--
TOTAL		182	344	309	35	4.0	0	104	21	3	407	--	84

The second move and the move that will have the biggest impact on the team is that they have benched starting quarterback Chad Henne in favour of Chad Pennington.  Chad Pennington was the one leading the Dolphins to their 2008 AFC division title a year in which he won the Come Back Player of the Year Award, for the second time in his career.  Last season Pennington started at quarterback but was injured early in the season and replaced with Chad Henne.

Henne has really struggled the last few weeks for the Dolphins, last game against Baltimore being his worst.  Is Henne's time with the Dolphins done?  I really hope not, I still think that he will one day be a good starting quarterback in this league, but in the situation that the Dolphins are in they need to win now.  That means for right now Chad Pennington is once again the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins.

Here was a quote from Chad Pennington during today's press conference courtesy of the Miami Herald and Armando Salguero.

"I just think as an offense, we've got to make sure we create a spark," he said. "Offensive football is about energy, it's about momentum. It's about synergy. It's about a feeling you have. And none of that happens with stats, it's not a statistic you can throw at it. So we have to find a way to create sparks during games. And when there's a chance to stick a dagger in a team and take their heart out, we got to do it. And when there's a chance to make a big play and get our crowd involved, we've got to do that. It's really important our crowd comes and supports us and so our we. So we have to create sparks and create energy and feed off that."

Go Get Em Chad!!  We Need Ya!!

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Will Ferrell Goodbye Dan Marino

Just thought I would throw this beautiful song on the Blog to remember the Greatest Quarterback that ever lived!!

Go PHINS!