| Dan Henning: Hot Seat? |
If the Dolphins want to go in to Baltimore and win this game against a top-ranked team, they will have to start finishing off drives in the end zone instead of through the uprights. We need to stop making Dan Carpenter look like the MVP of the team. The man has put up 30 points for the Dolphins in the last two games.
That is a staggering number, and normally a player putting up 30 points would be an exciting statistic for a team, but this statistic is anything but exciting. It exposes the flaw of Miami's red zone offense, and it exposes their inability to finish off drives strong.
Instead of the 30 points Miami got from Carpenter, the Dolphins could have had 70 points from touchdowns instead. I know that it is not realistic to expect any team in the NFL to score a touchdown on every scoring drive, but I just wanted to show you how many possible points Miami could have gotten. That is 40 wasted points.
Even if Miami converted half of those field goals into touchdowns instead, then they would have 50 total points, which is still 20 more points than what they originally had. 20 points is a huge difference, and I am positive that the extra points would have led the Dolphins to a win over Pittsburgh a week ago.
Much of the terrible efficiency in enemy territory can be attributed to poor play calling. If the Dolphins want to win this game, then they will have to call the right plays at the right time and not dig themselves in a hole on 3rd down.
If Miami is able to convert drives into touchdowns instead of field goals by good execution and play calling, then they will be a lot better off against Baltimore. This game will probably have a lot of influence on whether Dan Henning keeps his job after this season.
24 hours from when this article is posted, the game will be over and we will know if Miami was able to convert long drives into touchdowns instead of field goals, and Dan Henning better hope for his own sake that they do.
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