To quote Chad Johnson, "Fins up, ****". I don't think you can get too excited about beating up on the Raiders, but it's clearly a good thing to see the team work well. The game-plan offensively is about what you should expect this year. The Defense is clearly pretty good, run the ****ing ball. Run the ball more than you pass if you have to. The scripting on the Dolphins offense to start games has been pretty good. They just seem to stagnate a bit once that's over. I think you're pretty happy with Ryan Tannehill's game. There were some issues, mostly with timing early, but overall he managed the game pretty well and that's a winner all things considered. I was really disappointed in Bush pretty early in the game because he seemed to make some questionable decisions running the ball from that first drive until the third quarter. He missed a couple cutback lanes I thought he really should have seen, but at the end of the day if you're that gifted physically and that productive, I think you can pretty well excuse a lack of playing within the scheme. Nice to see Lamar Miller running well. There's a bit about him putting Daniel Thomas in danger, but if we've got this kind of blocking at this team make-up, there will be carries to spare. Not so nice to see Lamar Miller almost get Ryan Tannehill killed on blitz pick-up. Brian Hartline is good ya'll. If they sign Jabar Gaffney and release Legedu Naanee they are in pretty solid shape. Not the kind of shape you don't make it a priority in the off-season, but it's not the tire fire people imagined. Charles Clay is breaking my heart. A more mixed game than the stat-line suggests for the offensive line in my opinion, but overall not bad. It's a nice to see John Jerry go from an objective of scorn and Jonathan Martin panic to looking like they belong out there. I'm liking Kevin Coyle. The way he rotates defenders is still a little weird to me, but it's clearly working. The defense was pretty irregular with pressure, but not bad. I think at a certain point, Derrick Shelby starts seeing more and more snaps. The Dolphins look like they might have gotten a pretty nice late-round/UDFA crop between him and Kheeston Randall. Koa Misi had a bit inconsistent, but he's found a good niche and he's clearly got some upside. The play where he went through Owen Schmitt to get to the ball career was pretty badass. I'm a little surprised I haven't seen anyone call Karlos Dansby an overrated, sub-human piece of **** because Kevin Burnett got stiff-armed yet. The defensive backfield gave up a lot of yards, but I don't think it was a bad game either, really. They bended but didn't break. Not against great talent, but Carson Palmer was having a good game despite lacking receivers.
good analysis. The only thing i would add is the shotty pass protection, wish that was as good as our run game! If we pick up jabar and cut naane I would have even more hope for this year!
I'd like to see them do something, anything to get Clay involved early. Hand him the ball, a screen. Just get the ball in his hands and hope to build his confidence.
I think it's time to start realizing Charles Clay was a 6th-round pick and adjusting our expectations accordingly.
Clay has always looked a bit stiff to me, kinda squatty, has made some plays but I haven't see a lot of talent flashes out of him. Hart and Bess are vets, time to get the kid Matthews involved..Reggie is basically our 4 th receiver when we go wide.
Dansby made some plays but there's times where he looks like he's not hustling after the ball carrier. Misi is inconsistent but I always seem him running hard after the ball carrier.
Although statements like this are usually right on, what about the Tom Brady's(late pick) and people like Bess that weren't even drafted?
Extremely rare exceptions to the rule. Even first-round picks have just a 50% chance of becoming starters. Again, I'm talking about tempering our expectations for Clay, not giving up on him completely. Your expectations are based on what's probable.
I thought a lot of the early success had to do with us focusing on stopping McFadden. They were doing a lot of play action and drop back passing on first downs and catching us in single high looks. Marshall getting hurt didnt help either. Later in the game, and in other obvious passing situations we were able to disrupt their pass game fairly effectively.
Agreed. But there's no denying he took a horrible angle on the TD pass. Dunno WTF Carrol was doing either.
Really he's had just two decent games: 3 catches for 50 yards, and 4 catches for 69 yards and a TD. At this point those would best be explained as aberrations for a 6th-round pick.
I think he may be having trouble picking up playbook and/or earning the confidence of the coaches. There doesn't seem to be any real effort to get him the ball.
Tannehill reminds me of David Woodley a bit without the emotional problems. thought he played great for week 2 of his career but he still has a ways to go. the running game is working well in the first two weeks but the passing game seems weak minus hartline's performance today. the defense is better vs the run than the pass. we give up too many wide open passes. the special teams are kicking *** although we were helped tremendously today by some ill timed penalties on the raiders part. overall enjoyable gm and should make the transition process easier on the fanbase for a few weeks
I haven't voiced an opinion on Clay either way, I am just saying that something other than where he is drafted should be used to make a case either way.
Personally, I have been waiting to see that. (the part that I bolded) I am tired of seeing Naanee half-*** his way around the field.
I think I also want to mention that... Randy Starks has been really ****ing good the last two games. And Reshad Jones looks like he's at worst replaced Yeremiah Bell in kind, and he might be an improvement.
At this point of Bell's career, that is not a difficult accomplishment. And it's also kind of undesirable, considering Jones doesn't play Bell's position.
Bell is a pretty good player at what he does and given how he's actually being used I'm not sure that distinction means what you think it does.
Starks has played like a man on fire these first two weeks. Re-sign him. Stat. In regards to Charles Clay, I wonder if his seeming lack of production is more scheme-related to what they want to do with Tannehill. I wonder if he'll factor in more as the season progresses.
This had promise except for the bit where it doesn't make any goddamned sense. Yeremiah Bell had like 4 career catches for < 50 yards vs. Dustin Keller on Pro Football Focus. Reshad Jones gave up two catches for three yards(and a TD, to be fair) vs. Keller.
I think that the biggest reason Clay hasnt gotten many looks is Javorski Lane. He came out of nowhere to not only make the team, but line up as Bush's lead blocker on the majority of plays. Not that he and Clay play the exact same role, but they arent likely to be on the field at the same time except in goal line situations. In the offseason, I figured that we'd see a lot of 2TE One Back sets. The staff has gone with a traditional I formation a lot of the time instead.
Clay was the primary lead blocker last week, I believe. This week it was Lane, but Clay still found his way on the field a significant amount...Just to drop a pass.
It's troubling that the TEs haven't gotten a handle of this new offense. From hard Knocks you can tell they don't get it except for Fasano.
Yes and we should expect them (Clay and Egnew) to thoroughly understand the offense sometime soon-ish. The other thing I thought troubling was Chris Clemons...I can't remember another FS taking a worse an angle during that Raider TD.
Clemons' was worse. And, Clemons ran himself directly into another player, on his own team, Reshad Jones.
The Jets will come at Tannehill even more than the Texans did so he's not going to have nearly as enough time to survey the field as he did against the Raiders. He'll need to get the ball out quicker, use he's feet to get away from pressure and throw out of bounds to avoid getting pummelled.
That's a pretty good point. They blitz a lot, but their individual rushers aren't particularly good. If your blocking scheme is done well there's not a lot to fear. That being said, that might involve Reggie Bush and Lamar Miller in pass protection so you never know
I'd rather send the HB out and have Lane block, while Bush and Fasano help out the rookie. Chad Henne had quite a bit of success against the Jets mainly because he was willing to dump it off and allow his decent YAC guys to get five-ten yards off of the Jets' overaggressiveness.
I would expect Philbin to spread them out, have 3 or 4 wide and force the Jets to try to blitz out of their nickel or dime packages.
