Training camp report: Offense struggles early
DAVIE - The offense got a workout Monday at Miami Dolphins training camp in Davie and the early returns weren't great. The defensive line was in the backfield pretty quickly, and had this been a game, it would have turned ugly.
# Lots of interceptions: Quarterback Trent Green threw a bad pass that bounced off of Chris Chambers' hand and into the hands of cornerback Travis Daniels. A John Beck pass was tipped and turned into a Renaldo Hill interception. Another deflected pass from Gibran Hamdan found linebacker Channing Crowder. Another Beck pass intended for wide receiver Az-Zahir Hakim was broken up with a nice leap from Michael Lehan. Coach Cam Cameron said after practice that ball-control was a concern.
# There was very little space for the running game, and the offensive line seemed to struggle all day. Most of the runs up the gut ended very quickly.
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Ronnie Brown complained of cramps and missed a few runs. After practice he said he was fine, and it was just heat getting to him.
# Wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. beat cornerback Cameron Worrell pretty badly on a long route. Sadly for Ted Ginn Jr., quarterback Cleo Lemon sent the ball sailing over both of their heads.
# Reagan Mauia had a great block on Derrick Pope on a Jesse Chatman run. Chatman was getting a lot of runs and was showing some good cutbacks.
# Defensive end Jason Taylor looked like he jumped offside. Taylor initially pointed to tackle Vernon Carey as if he jumped, but it was pretty clearly Taylor jumped.
# Jay Feely had mixed results in his full-squad kicking drills. He was wide right twice, both from about 30 yards out and had a block from about 40. There was a bad snap from long snapper Dan Stevenson, as well.
# Players will be signing autographs for fans prior to Tuesday night's practice, beginning at 6:15 p.m.
Quotable
Cameron on if having his offense go against a great defense everyday in practice makes the offensive player evaluation process more difficult: "Not at all. No, it doesn't because you know the level you want to be at offensively, and good offenses have to be able to compete at a high level against the best defenses in the league or you're just kidding yourself. Where you get fooled is the other way. If you're going against a defense that winds up not being a great defense, you can get a false sense of what you are offensively. I don't have any doubts in my mind of where we'll eventually be offensively. I don't have any doubts there, so when you go against a solid defense, it tells you. You can see right now, 'Okay, when you're playing those top-10 defenses, you kind of know where you stack up.' What a blessing it is to be able to go against these guys, and you've got to get your offensive players to understand that this is a great opportunity for us."
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