I can do some over-analyzing about both games last night. Should be fun! Last night’s NFL games – Preseason Game 3s – the games that are supposed to tell you the most (of the preseason games) about your team were sort of an anomaly because they pretty much told you nothing. The 40-9 shellacking by the Lions of the Patriots… well, maybe it says a little about the Lions, but probably not much. It says nothing about the Patriots. When they line-up in the regular season, you’re still going to have to pressure Brady. He’s going to have Amendola instead of Welker, and Gronkowski will probably be healthy enough to play at some point. The only take-aways of this game is that maybe Detroit is going to use Reggie Bush like he should be used in the passing game (5 receptions for 103 yards), and Tim Tebow is probably not going to make the Patriots (he sat the whole game, I believe). Insightful analysis!!! The Panthers 34-27 over the Ravens (both teams the Dolphins play this year – so I thought the game might have some meaning) game was just as odd. Usually, you think that if your starters are ahead at half 24-7 in a preseason Game 3, the offense played pretty well. Cam Newton was 10/19 for 99 yards. Uninspiring. His back-up, Jimmy Clausen, was 2/4 for 20 yards. Neither had a TD or INT. Conversely, Joe Flacco went 18/24 for 169, and that looks pretty good until you see he had 1 TD and 2 INTs. Carolina’s leading rusher went 16 carries for 36 yards. Again, uninspiring. Ray Rice had 62 yards in 16 carries, which is better, but not great. He did score the first quarter TD on the first drive for the Ravens, so maybe that tells you something. But Carolina’s first half scores were like this: 1) Ted Ginn (YES! That Ted Ginn), 74-yard punt return; 2) Drayton Florence, 71-yard pick-six off Flacco; 3) Thomas Davis, 2-yard fumble recovery; 4) Graham Gano, 54-yard FG. And… you’re up 24-7 at the half. How often is that going to happen in the regular season? Maybe the Panthers will be a little opportunistic on defense, but nothing like this, I wouldn’t think. Oh, and by the way, their second half TD was a 33-yard INT return. So their offense basically led drives for two long FGs. You win 34-27, you should probably feel good, but if I was the Carolina coaching staff, I’d almost be like, “What just happened?” And if I was the Ravens coaching staff, I’d be like, “What the *)@&%(^ just happened???!!!” Even more and better insightful analysis! The Ravens are the SB Champs, so you can excuse this. But yeah, imagine how the South Fla. media and fans would be if Miami’s offense went out tomorrow night and dropped a bomb like the Ravens or Pats just did? Total and 100% meltdown. The sports call-in shows and all the message boards (yes... even this fine board) would be all over Tannehill, the offense, the coaching staff… it would be bloody. Let’s hope we roll a bit tomorrow early so nothing like that happens. Better yet, let’s hope we roll early in the regular season, or exactly that will happen. Most insightful analysis!!!
how early? If Gronk comes back, Thompkins is the 3rd receiving option. at best, he's 3rd WR in 12-team league.
Until Amendola predictably gets hurt. Actually he already is, so hurt again. Even as the 3rd option, he should have some big games. I've been getting him in the 12-13 round range but I'll prob have to pull the trigger at least 2-3 rounds earlier now.
You hit the nail on the head with the first part of the bolded sentence. The Ravens are Super Bowl champs. And the Patriots have proven themselves over and over again. Unfortunately, until the Dolphins go out on the field and prove it most weeks, there's going to be a lot of cynicism, some easy and perhaps unwarranted, some of it justified.
Here is how I look at it. The preseason is important for many reasons: Evaluating talent, schemes, etc. The dubbed "dress-rehearsal game" is important as a warm up, but it luckily still doesn't count, and we won't show the Bucs too much, as we play them in the regular season as well. I sure wish we'd have had a chance to draft Keuchly... he is a Zach Thomas clone! I hope the Ravens, Patriots, Colts, and rest of the teams on our schedule play great the rest of the season, and we still beat them. I want to beat the good teams at there best, not because they're hampered in some way.
It's kind of funny how preseason doesn't matter unless we're talking about 4 run plays by Daniel Thomas or a couple of pass protection snaps from Jonathan Martin.
Last night apparently Belichick benched Vereen, Bolden and Sudfeld after they all lost fumbles early in the game. Don't think Bill was too flippant about what was going on in that preseason game.
I don't think so either. I think it was a real wake up call for them. They caught their first taste of the fact that they're not going to be handed anything just because they're the New England Patriots.
Sudfeld lacks the experience that New England's tight end duo had but he does have the talent to make stuff happen. Here's one quote from me about him during last season: Hernandez & Gronk each caught 42+ passes, 545+ yards, and 6+ TD as a rookie. It wouldn't surprise me if Sudfeld did the same. He and a healthy Gronk could be like the twin towers at tight end inside the redzone. Patriots don't need their entire team right away in week 1. They just need Brady to power them through the first 10 weeks or so until everyone is fully healthy and hitting stride.
Brady's gonna get killed trying to throw 40+ passes a game with these receivers. If they win consistently it'll be b/c they're running the ball more and playing better defense. The defense will finish the season ranked higher than their offense, IMO.
Lions played like they had something to prove. Pats players played like they didn't give a ****. Which would bother no one except Bellichick.
Pats defense played very well considering the bad situations they were put by the TO's. Even the Pats O moved the ball well when they weren't turning it over.
This is thephins.com....where EVERYTHING is overanalyzed. I remember we had a 10 page discussion on the genus of Dolphins vs Porpoises and general animalae categorizations. It's like being in a library with nothing but librarians!
Nappy is clarifying that HE'S the one who said it's more inches than he's used to. Lern to read, dummy.
I'm not glad we let him walk. He wanted to stay in Miami and the Lions gave him essentially the same amount of money the Dolphins gave Matt Moore to come back. They're giving Vaughn Martin $2 million a year to essentially just be here and not play well. Reggie would've cost what, like $4 million?
IDK he looked like a productive, frequently-used asset in the passing game. That's not the exact same guy we had.
IMO it's as simple as Bush wanting to start and be the main guy at RB and Miami wanting a better "runner" at that spot. OTOH the Lions throw it 60+ % of the time so Reggie is a great fit for them.
Money wasn't really the issue, as you pointed out. The problem is that he wanted to stay in Miami as the lead back and get the bulk of the carries, a role he is ill suited for in our offense. Detroit is a pass happy team that runs a change of pace, they're a much better fit for Bush's skillset. No need to make it more complicated than it really is.
