Yeah I get it, the metrics that you believe are the best predictor of winning were good...but the numbers were fool's gold. Those numbers weren't a result of Tua, they were a result of the offense. Tua was the result/beneficiary of a novel new offense with one of the fastest receiving corps in the league. Tua was just a cog, he didn't drive it. That's what I've been trying to explain to you for years.
This is a problem: Mike McDaniel - "I won't spend a moment worrying about my job security." Well you ****ING SHOULD BE.
Can't just replace Tua with most other QBs and get that kind of performance. That's why it does have a lot to do with Tua. Now Tua may be limited to a smaller range of offensive systems than a true "elite" QB, but he's not just a cog in a machine if he's hard to replace.
Please don't make me defend Tua, not with us having such a sh!tty season but there is more than enough of a sample pool to indicate that it's not JUST the offense. Tua has been injured enough times that no other quarterback could come in and run the offense with the same results. It's a symbiotic relationship. Did Tua benefit from this system of offense? Yes. Can ANY quarterback come in and run this offense with the same results? No, because if they could, we wouldn't have lost as many games without Tua as we did
On a cooler note, how sweet was that move Achane put on the defender after he caught that pass in the 4th where his TD was called back? I love this kid!
Its sad the position we are in.. where we may very well be 0-3 after Thursday night… but we may follow it up with 2 wins against the jets and panthers (bad teams) and now we are 2-3.. that middle side of not being good enough team to make the playoffs and actually be good in the playoffs but not bad enough to demand a rebuild.. that part is brutal as a fan. mcdaniels is way below .500 against winning teams. But he has a positive record against bad teams
Here's the thing though, the "machine" was built around this particular cog (Tua). Just like Tua may not be viable in any offense, this offense doesn't operate without Tua. I think McD called a decent game and got Tua going with screens and dump off passes; it slowed the rush and opened up the middle of the field. Because that's what we built this "machine" to do, let the speedy guys eat over the middle. When that's taken away, both the "cog" and the "machine" are limited. We supplement that with Achane, which is an excellent cog in his own right. But if a team can stop the run and defend the middle of the field, then we're in trouble and not going to adjust fast enough to compete. Again, I think the offense did well adjusting to find ways to make it work. It obviously wasn't enough though and it's going to be very hard to walk into Buffalo in a few days and expect a different outcome. Our secondary is in trouble and that's the most glaring problem.
Generally when people say a person is a "cog" in a machine they mean that person's role is relatively minor. That's not the case with Tua. He's very difficult to replace in the system McD implemented a few years ago where you need quick decision making combined with accuracy (at least in Tua's case to the 1st read). Not many QBs can do that. No, Tua is not a "cog" in a machine. And no I don't think McD called a decent game today. It took way too long for him to get away from conservative play calling. And of course our defense is just horrible.
I'll rephrase that- McDaniel started off horrible on the first few drives, but then made adjustments. A few of the Tyreek chunk plays were just "throw it up and let him beat the defender"...it's hard to credit anyone but Tyreek for that. I agree with the rest though, Tua is not "a cog"....he's "the cog". The wheel just doesn't turn without him, and McDaniel deserves credit for making an offense that Tua can thrive in. Still, I don't understand how he went from playing lights out a few years ago to hit and miss today. The offense is largely the same with our skill players...why the regression? I'm not asking you because I don't think anyone has a decent answer. It simply perplexes me how we can go from the hottest young offense in the NFL to a potential 5-win team. We have way too much talent.
McD can't adapt after others have adapted to him. I warned of this years ago that the ability to adapt and continue to perform at a high level after defenses adapt is something we need to see as the years pass, and now we know the answer. He doesn't have a good plan B.
This is something about McDaniel that has really gotten on my nerves. While there is no doubt he developed an innovative offense, sooner or later, defenses were going to adapt and start finding the chinks in the proverbial armor. And with defenses adapting McDaniel himself has no adapted, when in reality it would have been quite easy for him to make those adjustments. In San Francisco, he was the run game coordinator, meaning he SHOULD have plenty of running plays in his playbook. Additionally, he has a speedster in Devon Achane and a phenomenal back in Gordon. McDaniel often says over and over, “we need to run the ball more” and yet, he refuses to do so. Last year was it? (Or the year before?) Achane was AVERAGING over 11 yards per carry. Where’s the running game? Gordon has a tremendous camp and preseason, he touches the ball ONCE for an 8 yard carry and you don’t stick to the run? While many here will point fingers at Tua and the weaknesses he has, one has to remember, with a porous offensive line and not adjusting your offensive scheme, adapting to the defense that’s adapted to you, there’s only so much you can rely on your quarterback to do. If you can’t turn him loose like a Mahomes or Allen, then you need to protect him with a stout offensive line (I know, beating that drum yet again) and adjusting your play calling to catch defenses off guard. Running the dam ball more consistently will do that, but McDaniel just can’t seem to commit to that change. And that’s not even taking into account the number of times the offense is breaking the huddle with only 10 seconds left on the play clock. His ingenious plays can’t be executed properly with all of the motions when you gotta get the ball snapped right quick and in a hurry. I’ve been fooled twice with 2 of our last 3 head coaches…these offensive Wunderkinds. Gase and McDaniel, while the brought some innovation and the Dolphins lept into the playoffs, these coaches haven’t been able to adapt, maintain discipline with the team and prove they were more than a one hit wonder. At this point, I’m all for going politically incorrect and try and see if Jon Gruden would come to Miami. At least with Chucky, there’s NO DOUBT who’s in charge. But first thing’s first…FIRE CHRIS GRIER!!!!!
Any top qb in the top 10 can run this offense better than Tua. Im confident that everyone in the top 10 has a stronger arm, has better pocket awareness, and can go through their progressions better than Tua. Some of them have more skills in arm talent, accuracy and mobility. Tua is not the only problem with the dolphins thats for sure.. but he is the biggest problem because he is the “captain” of the team and when the rest of the team sees that their captain is ****, and he doesnt really inspire them to play better, not really a vocal leader.. then theyre not going to battle for him.
This year for sure a lot of QBs would do better than Tua in the same offense. But not in 2022 when he came in #1 in passer rating and McD's system was a novelty for defenses. Almost no other QB would have had that success. Now that defenses have adapted and McD hasn't you're right of course.
We scored enough points to win that game. Tua played well enough for us to win. Our defense did us no favors and our secondary is in some deep ****. There's plenty of blame to go around. As for Tua...The offense has two cracks at winning the game. He threw a pick the first time, and then took a sack to end the last drive. It's a shame Achane had his TD called back because I thought that was ball game. It's on to Buffalo now. I don't think our defense stands a chance and I think our offense is going to be shut down. We're definitely looking at 0-3.
Bro, even then, the better QBs would would have done better than Tua. He still wasn't driving the offense. He was just a piece.
When he came in #1 in passer rating? You're down to maximum 5 QBs in 2022 that might have done comparably or perhaps better in such a situation. It's just statistically too unlikely in any given year for even a top QB to perform that well. Whether you call that "driving" or a "piece" at that point is irrelevant. He was close to indispensable and definitely not a "cog".
I disagree. Passer rating isn't necessarily dependent on the QB. Having one of the fastest offenses in the league, running a new offense, that centered on short passes to speedsters who got massive YAC, with occasional bombs to a wide open Hill is a much better explanation of that season. Tua was not good the seasons prior. Yeah I think Tua was very much a result of the offense, not what was creating those numbers. I've tried to explain this every which way I can think of, but you just don't get it. Passer rating is a result. All it tells us is that the QB more than likely played well in that game, and it gives us a numerical representation. You see that numerical representation, and then attribute it almost solely to the QB. Passer rating doesn't win games. Points do. Know how to have a good past rating? Play on an offense that generates tds. The reason why Tua didn't have the sustained success is because he's isn't and wasn't elite. Some of the Dolphins offensive struggles right now might be that McDaniel can't do anymore with Tua. When your QB cannot scramble, your severely limiting the playbook.
We're never going to agree if you really believe what you wrote above. Passer rating is heavily dependent on the QB. That doesn't mean the majority of passer rating is due to the QB, but it's a huge portion, I'd say at minimum 1/3 and probably closer to 50%. As to why Tua wasn't good before McD, it's because McD implemented a system suited to Tua's strengths while that wasn't the case before. McD's inability to adapt is the primary reason for the regression of the offense.
