Mike Wallace Needs To Be A Factor In Dolphins Offense vs Colts

Mike Wallace was the big money signing for the Dolphins in the off season. He was the reason that many Dolphins fans were excited to see what Ryan Tannehill could do with a legitimate #1 reciever. In his Dolphins debut he was a non factor catching 1 pass for just 15 yards and looking completely out of sync with his quarterback. Later today the Dolphins take on a very good Colts team with offensive weapons like Reggie Wayne and T.Y Hilton so its paramount the Wallace plays at a high level tomorrow.

Not all of what happened to Wallace on Sunday can be attributed to him like Wallace the Dolphins run game was a non factor averaging less then 1 yard per carry. This surely took away from play action passing situations which certainly would help the Tannehill/Wallace connection early on. Lamar Miller and Daniel Thomas rushed for 18 yards on 17 Carries. In order for Wallace to max out his success tomorrow and movig forward the Dolphins run game must improve and be a threat to the opposition.

The Dolphins have a chance to go 2-0 to start the season tomorrow despite many flaws in the offense but they need Wallace to play like himself.

AFC East Recap: Week 1

The AFC East has for the better part of this millennium always been ran by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots but this year the Miami Dolphins seem to be the only team with the talent and sustainability to dethrone the Pats from recapturing the Division crown. The Bills and Jets are in the rebuilding phase so don't expect much out of them this season. Week 1 gave us our 1^st look at all 4 teams in the AFC East so lets recap at everything that transpired on the first of many NFL sundays in 2013.

Game #1-New England Patriots:23 @ Buffalo Bills:21

This one was a lot closer than expected but the Patriots still managed to pick up the win at a rowdy Ralph Wilson Stadium. The game showcased 2 quarterbacks at 2 completely different ends of the spectrum. Tom Brady has multiple super bowl rings and is a sure fire hall of famer, EJ Manuel is fresh out of Florida State making his rookie debut for the Bills.

The game started like anybody would expect by the Patriots jumping out to a 10-0 lead due in large part to a touchdown reception from Julian Edleman. Then the Bills gathered some momentum as Da Norris Searcy recovered a Stevan Ridley fumble and returned it 74 yards for a Bills Touchdown that cut the lead to 10-7. Later on in the 2nd quarter Brady puts the Patriots back up by 10 points on another touchdown pass to Julian Edleman, the Pats were now up 17-7. Just before the quarter ended EJ Manuel found Robert Woods for an 18 yard touchdown pass to cut the deficit to 17-14 at halftime.

Early on to open up the 3^rd quarter EJ Manuel leads his team 80 yards down the field and finds Stevie Johnson for an 18 yard Touch down pass to give the Bills a 21-17 lead. In the 4^th quarter the Pats played from behind and needed 2 field goals to take the lead. Stephen Gostowski hit a 33 and 35 yard field goals to give the Patriots their 1^st win of 2013 and the give the Bills their 19^th loss in their last 20 ames vs the Patriots.

Moving On Up

Bill Belichek moves up he all-time coaching wins list passing Marty Schottenheimer with his 206^th career victory today.

Manuel Finds Rhythm

Usually against a team like the New England Patriots some rookie quarterbacks would put pressure on themselves to do to much but EJ Manuel looked poised from the start. The Former Seminole went 18-27 for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Game #2- Miami Dolphins:23 @ Cleveland Browns:10

This off season the Dolphins focused on surrounding quarterback Ryan Tannehill with more weapons by signing guys like Brandon Gibson and Mike Wallace. So far it seems to have payed off with Tannehill throwing for 272 yards really spreading the ball around. While he still threw to Brian Hartline a lot he still managed to complete 7 passes to Brandon Gibson and 5 to Charles Clay. It was great to see him spreading the ball around and taking a few shots down the field. While there were many things to critique as far as offensive fluidity the Dolphins looked decent on offense.

Brian Hartline had a huge day today with his 9 receptions, 114 yards and 1 touchdown. He is Tannehill's favorite receiver and the Dolphins could use more games like this from him as the season moves along. 2 major concerns I have for the Dolphins though is 1. pass protection and 2. running game. Before Tannhill established his rhythm in the 2^nd half he had a hard time hitting his receivers due to pressure from the Browns defense who collected 4 sacks and tons of pressure on him. It goes without saying that the o-line must improve once they start playing better teams. In addition to that the run game was non existent with Lamar Miller and Daniel Thomas combining for 17 yards on 18 carries. In the NFL you need a respectable run game in order to win at a high level and 18 rushing yards from your 2 starting running backs is not the production Miami is looking for.

The Dolphins defense was brilliant as a unit today collecting 6 sacks and 3 interceptions. Cameron Wake as usual led the charge for the defense collecting 2.5 sacks and being that dominant player he has proven himself to be over the last few seasons. There was pressure and everybody executed pretty well for most of the game but the Dolphins Defense is usually the strong suit of the team, lets see how consistent they can stay.

Consistent Cameron

Cameron Wake with his 2.5 sacks today notched the 10^th multi sack game of his career. Wake has collected more Sacks then any Dolphins player over the last 4 seasons.

Out Of Sync

Mike Wallace was the big money signing for the Dolphins in the off season and Sunday vs Cleveland looked out of sync with Quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Its early in the year so this can still be fixed but Mike Wallace must be more of a factor in the Miami offense 15 yards on 1 catch just won't cut it. Personally I think inability to establish the run game prevented any kind of play action passing situations for Wallace & Tannehill, once that gets straightened out then we will see Wallace doing what he usually does.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers:17 @ New York Jets:18

In the return of Darrelle Revis back to New York the Buccaneers were stunned by Geno Smith and the Jets. With little to no time left on the clock Jets Rookie QB told his teammates down by 2 with a bunch yards to gain that the game was not over. It turns out he was right on a scramble outside the pocket Lavonte David of the Buccaneers was flagged for unnecessary roughness which happen to move the Jets 15 yards up the field and led to a Nick Folk 48 yard game winning field goal.

The Bucaneers had than 10 penalties throughout the course of this game but that still doesn’t take away from what Geno Smith did on the field today. He did a good job of spreading the ball around the field as 4 receivers had 3 receptions or more. It wasn't pretty but its still what you would want to start the season if your the New York jets.

AFC EAST Standings

Miami 1-0

New England 1-0

New York Jets 1-0

Buffalo 0-1

Week 2 matchups

Jets @ Patriots

Dolphins @ Colts

Panthers @Bills

Tru School Of Kicks: Reebok Scrimmages (New Orleans Saints)

Earlier in the year Reebok re released the retro “Scrimmage” sneaker from 1992 in several color ways of NFL teams such as the Falcons,Cowboys and Dolphins. They had a good response from those so they decided to release these one in the New Orleans Saints colorway. Being a huge Carolina Panther fan its hard to say that I like these but I do black and gold are solid colors to pair up regular shirts with and not to hard to match.

Reebok did another excellent job with these NOLA edition of the scrim’s.

I like how the brown gum bottom towards the bottom of the shoe really completes that classic look. I wonder if any Saints players will rock these on field this season. They are now available now online

Football Is Back

Football is back today and let me be the 1^st to say that although it is pre season I can’t wait to see my Dolphins take on the Cowboys tonight in the hall of fame game. One thing I am not excited about though is the prolonged preseason for my Dolphins with 5 games instead of the traditional 4. Football is football though and can’t wait to see them play later on.

Tru School Of Kicks: Reebok Scrimmage's

It’s been a bit of the delay when it comes to this post but It’s time for the Monthly segment of  “Tru School Of Kicks”.  This month features another pair in the long line of Retro Reebok's being re released. For the Month of April the sneaker I am featuring today are the Retro Reebok Scrimmages.

Made Famous by Dallas Cowboy Star running back Emmit Smith in 1992  The Reebok Scrimmage’s  were a training shoe which he used to dominate on the field in his prime playing for the Cowboys. The Classic Kicks were just released several days ago April 12^th. They were distributed in 3 team color ways  (Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins. The shoes are on sale for 100$.

All in all I think it’s a pretty dope shoe and a must buy if you are a sneaker head and are into Retro shoes. Reebok Retro’s aren’t like Nike’s or Jordan’s its actually special when they release them, you aren’t going to see them 4 or 5 times like you do with the J’s. So if you the type of person that just likes to be different and have a change of pace as far as what you’re wearing then theses are a must buy, not to mention they are really  nice looking sneakers.