Dolphins players questioning offensive gameplan

And so it begins...........

 

Darlington is truly an idiot for this one.

 

Players have every right to question game plans. locker room is together so far, hopefully in doesn't unravel.

 

Darlington's stating something that's been a trend since week 2; Miami abandons the run too early. It's pretty obvious if you watch the games.

 

Perhaps, in a way, that's actually a good thing. If the coaches can't see problems for themselves maybe this will bring it back into light. You have to think Joe Philbin won't take kindly to hearing Jeff Darlington reporting that on NFL Network. If Miami survives Thursday Night, the mini-bye week between Friday and the Bucs game on MNF might help the staff bring things back into focus and try and salvage this season.

 

Abandoning the run has been my biggest problem with the offense this year. But it didn't happen vs the Patriots. IMO Sherman called a helluva game, it was the execution that let us down.

 

Re-watch the 2nd half. They abandoned the run. Sherman called a heckuva 1st half, not a complete game.

 

With a 17-10 lead, here's what the Dolphins did before falling to a 27-17 deficit: 5 runs, 11 passes. 5 passes were incomplete, one was intercepted and Tannehill was sacked once.

Even though they gashed the Patriots for over 100 yards in the 1st half alone. And even though the run heavy offense is one of the big reasons the Jets beat the Patriots the week before. AND this was after we lost Brandon Gibson. So you lose a top WR, the Pats were doing poorly against the run...and you only run the ball five times with a 7 point lead?

 

The Dolphins came out of halftime back to being a 70% passing team, and that was before they fell behind by 10 points.

To me yes that's abandoning the run. It wasn't quite as bad as the fourth quarter of the Bills game, but it was definitely a change.

 

Thats the kind of talk that got players traded , released ,cut last year .I wonder who those players were because they are in danger....if Philbin survives.

 

You're shooting the messenger here.

If the players are saying he's getting away from the gameplan, he's getting away from the gameplan. They would know, wouldn't they?

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Hopefully this sparks change in Shermans game calling or employment.

 

Good. We are getting stupid on offense.

 

To me, controversies over rush attempts are pointless. This is just hammering the nail that sticks out. Are we really going to give Lamar Miller 25+ carries a game? No; this regime's political commitment to Daniel Thomas will necessitate him getting carries. You guys really want that?

Let's say that the offense commits to running the ball--that is, they decide to rush as much as they pass, or rush more than they pass. Assuming 60 offensive snaps, you're looking at say 35 rushes and 25 passes. You guys really want to give the ball to Daniel Thomas 18 times a game? You'll post in the game thread complaining that Daniel Thomas is getting carries. You guys really want to give less pass attempts to the developing franchise QB, the one with less total experience at the position than any of the other famed starters from his draft class? You'll complain about stunting his growth, because a QB that doesn't throw doesn't develop.

The answer to "run the ball more" isn't "give it to Lamar Miller", because there is no such thing as a featured running back anymore outside of Minnesota. (And how's that going for the Vikings, by the way?) You're looking at a split. Personally, I prefer to keep the ball away from Daniel Thomas as much as possible, and give it to Ryan Tannehill as much as possible.

There is no inherent problem with passing more than you run, besides violating Joe Philbin's statements that he wants a balanced offense. There is an inherent problem with relying on the run to win--it doesn't work.

Let Tannehill throw the ball. Just make him throw it out of more than a handful of similar pass plays, and try not to make him throw more than 35 or so times a game.

 

I've re-watched it 3 times.

New England came out in the 2nd half playing more aggressively on defense, Sherm anticipated it and called plays accordingly. Runs and quick passes. He mixed in a swing pass to Miller, a reverse to Wallace, and had Wallace WIDE OPEN for a TD to go up 24-3 but Wallace and Tannehill didn't execute the play. Sturgis comes in for the FG and he doesn't execute, either.

The second drive started with a 2 yard run and then the sack-strip-fumble. Pouncey correctly identified the blitzer pre-snap but McKinnie seemed confused about whether he was supposed to pick him up and didn't execute the play. Boom. 17-17.

The next series starts with a 1 yard loss by Miller, then a 20 yard completion to Matthews. You could argue for another run but after seeing the back blown up for a 2nd and 11 a play earlier you can understand why Sherm went to the pass. Two incompletes later RT hit Matthews for a first down along the sideline for a big first down but the refs called it out of bounds and Philbin elected not to challenge. Again, it's not play calling, it's execution.

The next series starts with a 4 yd run by Thomas, a 4 yd completion to Sims and on 3rd down Sims fails to get his head around for the hot route and nearly gets Tannehill picked off. Again, bad execution.

That's the series of possessions that Darlington is using to say that Sherman abandoned the run. It's a horse sheeit criticism, the kind people bring up after a loss that they'd never even have thought of after a win. And of course if Sherm had come out in the 3rd and run-run-run we'd have ended up having to up to punt-punt-punt, we probably lose anyway and then Darlington would be reporting on how the players are pissed b/c Sherm got to conservative and you can't sit on a lead vs Tom Brady, yada yada yada.

 

Sherman has been mistake prone on his game plans, much of that being acknowledged by him in interviews. As I have said before, I appreciate his ownership of the mistakes, but it does come to a point where it is a broken record.

 

Wasn't it pretty balanced through the 3rd quarter?

 

I'll eat that one.

And I'll keep shooting the messenger until he comes back with an actual quote from an actual player. I disagree with the premise of his statement and I disagree with the cowardly way in which he's putting it out there.

Obviously there's an adversarial relationship between the team and the media, that's their business. As a fan I err on the side of what's best for the team and we play the Bengals in 48 hours, do we really need our players being hounded for qoutes about Mike Sherman's play calling right now?

 

Not necessarily balanced in the "equal amount of runs vs passes" sense but I'll take smart play calling over balanced play calling any day of the friggin week.

 

How is Darlington being a coward? He's standing front and center and reporting on national TV. He's in the building and in the locker room. He's not hiding from anyone.

If a player goes on record but requests anonymity, that is his right. It's also quite common. Make no mistake, if these players didn't want this out there, they wouldn't have told him on the record. They are frustrated.

Jeff Darlington is a guy I trust. I don't believe he fabricates quotes.

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I can't speak for everyone here, but in this particular game we went away from what was working.

Abandoning the run against Cleveland and Atlanta was logical and the flow of the game dictated it. We were completely ineffective doing it.

But against the Pats, it's the best I've seen them run the ball in quite some time. The blocking was great, Miller was turning the corner consistently, finding wide running lanes, etc. It was a colossal mistake, IMO, for our ratio to sway the way it did. IMO it was the obsession with getting back ahead by 2 scores and the fact that we should've been up at minimum 20-3 in the back of Sherman's head that got him (and maybe Tannehill too) away from doing what was working

 

Our running game needs more talent...on the offensive line and at the RB position. I think we should have run a lot more in the 2nd half but I just don't get the feeling that our coaching staff trusts these Rbs to handle a big load. Not sure what to say about our offense, I thought it would be better than it is. Gibson going down was just brutal, he was becoming a borderline star for our team and certainly a goto guy on 3rd down.

 

Why didn't you count the first drive of the 2nd half? Right down the field with a 5-2 pass:run ratio, easy TD and 24-3 if Wallace-Tannehill finish the play...

 

I'm confused as to what Darlington did wrong.

The guy said the team is still very much together and spirits are still high, but they just questionned the way the gameplan went in the 2nd half of this weeks game. Heck, I'm not sure you can find any football fan that wouldn't question the reason for calling more pass than run plays in the 2nd half. The guy was in the actual locker room. And he's not the negative type(Armando) to attempt to create this type of story.

 

I'm not saying he fabricated a quote, I'm saying he doesn't even have a quote. An anonymous quote would be fine for Darlington to present as news. But to say that anonymous players are grumbling anonymously, why is that news?

You don't need insider access to know that players complain about game plans and coaching decisions.

 

Listening to the 2nd half debacle on Siruis XM, the Patriot commentator made the comment "boy the Miami Dolphins were gashing us with runs and attacking the flats...they have totally abandoned that and the Patriots are getting after them"

So...

 

Wow, well this season is a wash.. Look for a 6-10 record... Joe has lost the locker room.. Regardless of what or who said it players will be giving up if we fall behind in order to sabotage joe and get them outa here.. And btw I'm pretty sure it was Thigpen that said it since he and joe are at odds.. Thigpen wants to be a part of the offense but joe told him no to his face and didn't give him a reason.. So there's your mole, and Thigpen has friends in that locker room that will become a problem.. Wallace comes to mind, soon he will be questioning tann's ability and complaining about the scheme not being a fit for him.. Miller will follow suit since he knows he needs the rock to get better and he is avg nice avgs per touch.. Jes watch.. The first domino has fell more will follow...

 

This is the fundamental problem. People see rush plays that aren't being stuffed or are going for average gains and they want to keep calling them. No thought is given to whether or not rushing actually has measurable success relative to wins earned. Rushing more does not increase likelihood of victory. It's the opposite.

This is why I said this thread is just hammering the nail that sticks out.

 

Sooo.... give credit to the Pats b/c they made the adjustments necessary to counter what we were doing? The idea that they were just going to sit back and allow us to run all over them for 30 more minutes is pretty flimsy IMO.

 

You don't know what you're talking about.

 

Agreed completely, Darlington is one of the few reporters on NFLN that isn't completely clueless.

 

It's not like they started stacking the box, I agree with a lot of people that abandoning the run in the second half has become a disturbing trend the past month.

 

I don't mind the passes. What I mind is seeing the groundhog day spread formation short and wide incomplete to Wallace; short and wide incomplete to Hartline.


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It's been a disturbing trend all year long, but it didn't happen vs New England. The play calls were solid, the execution was not.

 

There were junctures where a run made sense given the success the run had had. See below....

It's not horsesheet. There were key plays there that could have sustained drives and led to points that are necessary to win instead of lose.



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You know what? After watching the locker room chatter after practice I am starting to think nobody questioned the play calling directly.. Watch Richie in his brief chat with the media say I wish we would run toe ball 35 times a game, and mike basically said we need to keep pounding it and I really think the reporters ran with it..

 

I'm going to go ahead and call it a little bit of both. With our joke of an OL, it's easy to see Sherm has to limit his play calling from a creative standpoint.

Domino effect.