Chad Henne and the Dolphins' offense were mediocre in a 16-6 loss to Atlanta on Friday.
The Dolphins stumbled through a “sloppy” 16-6 loss against Atlanta last night, as they were unable to parlay any of the offensive brilliance they demonstrated vs. Jacksonville last week.
“We weren’t efficient,” QB Chad Henne said in a post-game interview. “Overall it was sloppy. We really need to get better. Time is running out for us.” Henne, who was coming off a 2 TD performance in the previous game, finished with a dismal 44.3 QB rating and only completed 10 of 22 passes for 123 yards. He also had a throw picked off near the close of the first half that killed Miami’s first threatening drive of the game.
“They were better than we were up front physically,” said Dolphins coach Tony Sparano, who declared the game a “good challenge” for his team early yesterday. “We played sloppy, inconsistent — at times did some decent things, but couldn’t finish. There was something always unexecuted.”
Brandon Marshall was able to record his first strong game of the preseason, hauling in receptions of 26 and 20 yards on his way to a 3-catch, 51 yard display. “He calls the plays and he goes through his progressions and he throws it where it’s supposed to be and that’s the one thing that makes him great,” Marshall said. “He’s a very smart quarterback.”
The connection was particularly important considering the team’s running game could never quite get going, rushing for only 46 yards in the entire game. RB Ronnie Brown could only gain 9 yards on 8 carries and Ricky Williams added 5 yards on 4 carries.
“We do pride ourselves on being able to run the ball,” Sparano noted. “It’s not like they got eight or nine in there, and we didn’t run it well enough. That’s a shame on us; we didn’t do a good enough job.”
The Dolphins face their final preseason test before their opener on Thursday against Dallas.