Shaken up

The Miami Dolphins will play their second exhibition game of the season tonight. Last Saturday the team defeated Jacksonville 18-17.

I was thoroughly underwhelmed by last week's game. Admittedly I watch little exhibition football, and also am aware team's take this time to evaluate players. So the games are not necessarily a reliable barometer of how a team will perform in the regular season.

Still Miami looked pretty pathetic, especially in the first half when the first team was on the field. Particularly the much ballyhooed and newly acquired Quarterback Trent Green. Green looked very much like he is still recovering from last year's concussion. His five for sixteen, 60 yards statistics don't tell the whole story. The QB was sacked twice and under pressure most of the time he dropped back to throw. Half of Green's yardage came on one pass completion to WR Derek Hagan.

Dave Hyde at the Sun-Sentinel even compared Green to the Daunte Culpepper fiasco.

Quarterback Trent Green looked old, not experienced.

*****

But, as introductions go, Green's could have been better. He could have thrown straighter. He could have thrown stronger.

No, he couldn't have withstood the Jacksonville defenders rising around him like floodwater. But was it too much to ask to buy some time and make a first impression on this first night?

After all, that's why he's here, isn't it?

To buy some time?

He is the bridge to John Beck, a solid pro as well as the guy who knows Cameron's offensive system. Yet there he was, completing 6 of 15 passes for 60 yards and with a quarterback rating below freezing.

If this last, lost season around the Dolphins has taught you anything about the quarterback position, it should be this: You need to see more from Green than Saturday.

A year ago, when Daunte Culpepper trotted on the field for the first exhibition game, the Dolphins became the trendy Super Bowl pick. The bar was set that low for Culpepper. Just showing up meant he was healthy and ready. If he looked wobbly through preseason, so what?

Problem was, we soon found out what. Let's not make that mistake again.

I'm afraid Miami has made another QB blunder and said so all along. The difference between Culpepper and Green, being the draft pick Miami gave away to get these two players.

Also I do fear Miami is liable to ride Green down the toilet early in the year, just like Nick Saban did with Culpepper in 2006. Except no one is excpecting a Super Bowl season, or even a playoff appearance out of Miami this year. The Green days are in all probability just a warmup for when John Beck will take over the team. Tonight Dolphin Coach Cam Cameron will again start Trent Green, before going to Cleo Lemon and Beck.

I will admit its still early. Bob Norman at The Daily Pulp thinks Hyde was being too harsh.(or being an idiot) Maybe so. There were some highlights last week, the winning drive orchestrated by Beck and the running game when Jesse Chatman and Patrick Cobb were on the field. The defense played good also. Maybe Dolphin fans should look at the positives. I'll try doing that tonight.

Linked to- Amboy Times, Bright & Early, The World According to Carl,