| Poor Chris Clemons |
Nolan really has done a superb job with the team, and thanks to him we don't have to rely on Chad Henne or Dan Henning's play calling as much. Miami's defense has kept games close and hasn't allowed teams to pull away when their offense wasn't scoring.
My only complaint about the Dolphins defense, though, has been their inability to catch the ball for interceptions. Miami's defense has probably had a minimum of 15 chances for interceptions that they just dropped. The ball has been in the hands of the Dolphins defense countless times, they just haven't been able to hold on to it.
I am grateful for the defense's ability to get in the way of the pass, don't get me wrong, it is just frustrating to see opportunities like that to go to waste. I can think of four different times where if one of the Miami defenders were able to catch the ball they would have had an easy touchdown.
Sean Smith (my favorite Dolphins defender) has probably been the worst about it. He has done a great job of getting in front of the pass, but he just can't hang on to the ball when it reaches him. In the Jets game alone, if I am not mistaken, Smith had at least seven different chances to intercept a pass that he didn't capitalize on. He batted the ball down every time, which is good, but he couldn't bring it in for a pick.
As frustrating as it is to me to watch the pass after pass dropped by a Dolphins defender, I still can't really complain. Miami's secondary is doing an excellent job of keeping the offense from catching the ball. There have been cases where inability to catch the ball on defense had a bad result. For example, Chris Clemons had a chance to intercept a Carson Palmer pass earlier this year, but instead he couldn't hold on to it and ended up hitting it into the air where Terrell Owens caught it for a touchdown. Those cases are rare, though, and until they start happening with any regularity I won't complain.
I'm just thinking that the Miami Dolphins are still feeling the effects of Ted Ginn Jr. He always dropped the ball, and it must have started to rub off on the defense.
Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think about the butterfinger defense.
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