Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Moore isn’t firing wildly, coaches say
DAVIE — The perception of Matt Moore as a quarterback who likes to throw the ball deep is accurate.
But any notion that Moore carelessly flings the ball all over the field and tempts danger by mindlessly throwing into double coverage is incorrect, his coaches say.
“That definition of ‘gunslinger’ would be unemployed to me,” Dolphins offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen said. “They’re dead. They got shot.”
Now, has there has been a time or two when Moore throws a ball and coaches wonder what he saw?
“Maybe,” head coach Adam Gase said with a smile. “No, he sees the field well. [But] he does see some things every once in a while where it is off of what we talked about.”
It turns out Moore, who had touchdown passes of 52 and 66 yards last week — the latter more of a catch-andrun by Jarvis Landry — doesn’t always go through his reads the way coaches design.
Christensen, always quick with verbal jabs, said he’s joked with Moore about that.
“We have teased him a little bit about street balling out there a little bit,” Christensen said. “I questioned him when Coach Gase started the read meeting this week.
“I said, do we really want to waste a meeting on reads? We throw them out the window. I did say that, why are we wasting time going through reads? This guy is going to throw it to the open guy.”
Still, Moore, the last Dolphins quarterback to win at Buffalo, having defeated the Bills 20-23 in December 2011, rates highly when it comes to taking care of the ball and making wise decisions, especially on the deep throws.
“He hung in there, he made the throws, and then guys made plays,” Gase said of Moore’s performance last week against the New York Jets. “That’s why we had so many explosive plays in that game in the limited amount of attempts we had.”
Bills remember devastating hit
Buffalo players remember Dolphins wide receiver
Jarvis Landry’s hit on safety Aaron Williams that ended Williams’ season. Landry hit Williams on a crackback block in their game in October.
Buffalo players said where Landry delivered the hit, the head and neck area, was too high. Landry wasn’t penalized on the play, but he was fined by the league.
“We know it was a dirty hit,” cornerback Stephon
Gilmore said Wednesday. Gilmore isn’t the only Buffalo player to keep that play fresh in his memory.
“He’s just one guy that made a move that real professionals wouldn’t make,” cornerback Nickell RobeyColeman said of Landry. The Bills didn’t speak of revenge, however.
“We go out there and get the win, that takes care of everything,” Gilmore said.
Injury updates
Dolphins cornerback Byron Maxwell (ankle) and linebacker Jelani Jenkins (knee) missed practice Thursday for the third day this week. Maxwell, injured in the first quarter of last week’s game, seems more likely to play than Jenkins. Defensive coordinator
Vance Joseph said Wednesday he thought Maxwell was “50-50” to play Saturday.
Safety Bobby McCain (knee/hand), linebacker
Kiko Alonso (hamstring/ thumb) and safety Isa Abdul-Quddus (ankle) all had full participation after being limited Wednesday.