The Miami Dolphins better beware of the Jaguars defense tonight at EverBank field. Miami takes to the field on the road at 7:30p.m. to face Jacksonville in their second pre-season game. The Jaguars have a lot to prove on the defensive side and there are a lot of battles happening including between third year defensive end Derek Harvey and rookie Austen Lane.
Lane has looked good in practice and has the intangibles to be an amazing player for the Jags. His speed, youth, and the ability he has to maneuver on the field with ease to reach the quarterback are just a few of the qualities which have gotten him the attention of Jags coach, Jack Del Rio.
However, Harvey has done an acceptable job his first two seasons, leading his team in quarterback pressures with 49 total. The former Gator defensive end also racked up 104 career tackles and played in all 32 games with the Jags; so he's still young and with a good amount of experience under his belt, is expected to start all year.
Dolphins' lineman John Jerry and Vernon Carey are going to have their hands full with Harvey, who despite all he's accomplished, is still considered to be somewhat of a bust for the Jags because his play didn't elevate the defense as a whole.
Dolphins’ receiver Brandon Marshall may be under a little bit of pressure, considering he dropped some passes in Miami's pre-season opener last weekend and also in this past week's practices.
He showed some frustration on the field during practice this week. For instance, after he dropped a pass, he angrily punted a ball up in the air which led some to speculate that he was having some troubles.
But as some seem to forget, this is just the pre-season and Marshall has to get accustomed to the offense and comfortable with Dolphins QB Chad Henne, who has some development issues of his own. Henne, who had problems with ball control and accuracy last season, has got to get in the mindset that everyone is depending on him and he's the future.
The pressure seemed to be an issue for Henne last year after he went 7-6 when Chad Pennington went down; and although he played better than was expected, he threw some costly interceptions in close games and had 14 picks in total. Winning 7 games though is very good considering he didn't expect to start last season. But with a league which seems to have more quarterbacks who are coming out of the gate winning like Matt Ryan and Mark Sanchez did, much more seems to expected out of second year quarterbacks.
Chad Henne, Brandon Marshall, and the Dolphins offensive line will get a chance to work on their craft against a stingy defense tonight versus the Jags. The game can be seen on CBS affiliate WFOR-TV at 7:30p.m. eastern.
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