ESPN analyst Damien Woody on Miami Dolphins: 'They're soft mentally'

I can't say one way or another about at the present. But... two end of the season meltdowns does give credence to his point during those two seasons.

 

They were last season IMO. Hopefully they are more tough minded this season.

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I hope they are mush tougher this year..I think Suh might be able to help with toughening them up.

 

Woody says the team is soft. How poetic.

 

2 ex-rivals and an moron critquing this team, I'm not going to sleep over it

 

That was last year. We have Suhlieve™ now.

 

Regardless. Put this clip on the locker room screens on repeat.

 

He's absolutely right. The Philbin-era Dolphins have shown an ability to fold in the clutch with the kind of intensity and focus normally seen in winners.

 

probably has something to do with quesiness

 

I don't pay attention to the drivel Walker put's out. I bet he enjoys the stench of Omar's under-nuts too.

 

true story, during the season when we were playing relatively decent, Woody said and I quote, when you play the dolphins your gonna be in for a fight, obviously this was after we beat them in the opener and had some other successes, think it was right before the pats beat us at their house...

but, his point is geared towards when the pressure is on, we kinda quit...so I sure as hell would let our team know how the national audience feels about them..

 

Suh and Jennings will have a positive impact on this.

 

I mean yeah, I'd say they've been mentally weak. This is a big plus to adding Suh, not to mention Jarvis Landry in his second year. Those are the types of guys who can change this, imo.

 

Hard to believe grown men, starting at the highest level, are mentally weak. Especially 53 of them. I don't think we folded because of mental softness. There were legitiment reasons IMO (injuries).

 

It may of been that it may of been a lack of leadership, it may be adding players like Suh, Jennings, and Juice in his 2nd year.

 

Exactly !! Spot on !! We all know that we have been kinda finesse playing for a few years. Yes, put this clip everywhere in the Locker room, on the training field on video repeat just like PhinishLine suggested..I am tired of teams running us over but we have Suh now and hopefully everyone tries to bring his level of play within themselves each and every week, and stomp the JETS twice this year and run up the score while we are at it.

 

the game that needs to be analyzed, the game that relates to this topic is the raven game at home, that's when it all went to sh@&, before that game they knew what they needed to do, they knew they controlled their own destiny, and they literally said that that game was their benchmark, we need to figure out why the crapped the bed at home and got humiliated..

Was it the experience and the toughness of the Ravens, Suggs in particular that gives them their identity and made us wilt, or was it a lack of talent on our team..

If I recall the Ravens played without some key players in that game, and from matchup standpoint should not of put that style of whipping on our team at home, so either they were really underrated and we were posers talent wise, or the team got mentally whipped..

 

I won't tell you my theory as to why we always seem to collapse at home over the years.

 

We were mentally AND physically beat by the Ravens....teams had more stamina in the fourth quarter than we did !! On our home field no less. That never used to happen...are you kidding me? Get out of the dadblasted practice Bubble and practice in our weather and get used to the heat and humidity and get this advantage back to the team...there is no way that we should EVER get beaten by the other team because they had more stamina than we did..unacceptable. We were close in that game for a long time, and we should have won it imho.

 

Oooh, weak minded?

Look Woody, whatever the **** your name is, I don't know what passes for weak minded in Cheatriot-land, but Florida is my territory Jack. So either you make a quick apology or you can find out just how weak minded we really are when we play the Pats in December.

We're talking scorched deflated balls, mother ****er!

Suh will massacre you!!!

 

Find it pretty weak minded to have to rely on Ernie Adams' bag of tricks with pre-recorded practices, stolen gameplans, stolen signals, headset and play-clock shennanigans (both ways), and now deflating footballs to avoid fumbles, drops and poor throws... in order to win games consistently.

 

I really don't think it was a lack of leadership per say... But we did lose leaders, via injury. We lost Delmas and the communication fell apart. Coincidence that the defense was never the same? We lost Finnegan and the LCB position became a huge weakness. We lost Albert and the ensuing offensive line shuffle was disastrous, and our offense stopped functioning as it had prior.


The only "weakness" that became apparent was at DT. Odrick and Starks both faded at the end, for one reason or another. Besides those two, I think injuries to key players was more responsible than mental toughness or lack thereof. Certainly, it's nice to have added leaders in Suh and Jennings in addition to the growth of the younger guys (Juice, Tannehill, etc...). But I don't think that's going to be the difference maker that puts us over the top. Staying healthy, especially at the end, is always a variable. We got unlucky last year at the end, IMO. Combined with missed opportunities earlier in the year, and boom. 8-8.

 

Are these guys mentally stronger than ordinary schmoes? Hell yes. Are they mentally stronger than the consistent playoff teams like the Steelers, Ravens, Patriots and Packers. Nope.

In the last two years two areas that I consider to be good indicators of mental toughness [tackling and performing in the last 4 weeks of the season] the phins have been lacking. The reason why I equate those two areas as indicators for mental toughness is that they relate to performing in adverse physical circumstances. When tackling the tackler is usually receiving and absorbing the impact of the ball carrier, and late in the season it is fatigue and accumulation of niggling injuries. To play an impact sport like football you are facing the fear of physical injury, and the phins haven't consistently shown the toughness to disregard that risk [compared to high performing NFL teams] in the last few years.

The phins have had a look of a team that can dish it out when things go their way, but can't suck it up and go toe to toe when the other guy is slugging back just as hard.

 

That's what it was. It wasn't being soft. That's ridiculous. Our LT was out. Delmas got injured, etc. That was pretty clear to me. Shocking that wasn't clear for some. Stick to the agenda that it was Philbin. BS.

 

I think Suh adds some mental toughness to the D.

On O, we need to progress mentally, and I think we will.

It will help, imo, that Tannehill rules the roost now with more confidence, more experience, a big long term contract sending the signal he is the man, and with anyone who could challenge him shipped outta town so he has good young receivers under him and one vet who is a Joe Philbs guy likely to have Tanny's back.

Also, Landry seems to be growing in confidence and how he is viewed as a leader. having him as a second year guy will provide more leadership too.

Having Branden Albert on the field also helps.

That's the QB a WR and an OL guy. (One major leader in each of those units)

The one place we could use more nastiness, imo, is that RB spot. Someone with attitude and physicality to put the exclamation point on runs for the offense. Create a tone of toughness.

 

i believe they were down to the 4th and 5th corners, no haloti, etc

 

were the Dolphins the only team to suffer injuries last year?

No, by week 16 most teams will be down 2 or 3 starters on each side of the ball. When you look at the games lost to injuries stats the phins were bette than a lot of teams, and thats without taking into account the Dolphins played better when Ellerbe and Wheeler were out.

 

This is where a week of the Navy SEAL training would come in handy!

 

Uh DUH

 

Is it the supposed Indian burial ground underneath the stadium?

 

we were up 10-0 too, WTF happened to lose it 28-3 after that

 

I'm not sure I agree with this. I don't think mental ability/toughness is what separates someone like myself and a professional athelete. It's the talent, athleticism, size, speed, strength, etc.

Some people(atheletes included) handle pressure situations better than others. Some leaders and coaches prepare and lead their teams through pressure situations better than others IMO.

 

Preparedness, on an NFL level, accounts for a small handful of plays here and there going one way or another, IMO. I don't think it accounts for two whole games.

 

When the margins are so small, that a handful of plays can definitely make a big difference in a team's record. The GB game is a perfect example.

 

Those type of injuries aren't out of the ordinary?

Either way, there were clear instances of the team having a sequence of mental breakdowns.