The difference between NE and the other 2 games.

Let's not look past the obvious. They were playing the Patriots ..... not the Titans & Texans who had a combined 2 wins between the two of them. Not to mention it was on a short week to boot.

This is exactly why I said to stay level-headed even after how nice the previous two wins felt. What's unfortunate are the injuries to Wake, Parker, and James. The first two I already had my concerns about and unfortunately they've come to fruition.

I wanted to see a competitively fought game. What I saw out there is a bunch of players who blew their proverbial wad last week vs. the Texans. There wasn't one guy showing any semblance of leadership tonight. In fact they all just sort of trotted off the field like they didn't give a rats ***.

 

We didn't even try to run the ball. I'd rather us try and run the ball, and fail, then completely abandon it (and still fail). Miller should get 20 carries a game. It should be mandated. We should run the ball up the middle on first down at least 3 times a game. Lazor sucks.

 

Lets not look passed the obvious... The Patriots were prepared for Miami's dink and dunk scheme and attempting to establish the run. We didn't do anything to put them on their heels. We need a QB that can stretch the field.

 

I hear Drew Brees is available...

 

That shoulder/arm are on the decline.

 

We didn't attempt to establiah ****. What game did you watch.

 

lazor needs to quit the dinking and dunking bull**** and throw the ****ing ball downfield.

 

Fox is awful. The second James went down and Fox went in, I knew we were in trouble.

 

I think NE exposed us for what we are, an incomplete team. This isn't on Campbell or one player. This roster is incomplete and has some major weaknesses. The Patriots are masters at exposing teams weaknesses and capitalizing on it. In spite of our great performances the last 2 weeks, Miami has huge holes at LB, DB and OL.

When I look at this team, I see a team who can't impose their will on other teams running the ball. Part of that stems from our OL. When teams know we have to run it, we struggle getting the yards. We also put ourselves in too many bad or negative situations with penalties, sacks, drops and negative or short plays. When we are in 3rd and long situations, we struggle with pressure and blitzes when the defense knows we have to pass. I think a coordinator can only scheme so much here. We have 2 OL that just aren't NFL starters yet. I'm hopeful about Turner someday. Thomas hasn't shown me anything for me to believe he should or ever will be even a solid starter.

Defensively, our DL is good but we get no help from our LB or secondary. Jones and Grimes are very good players. Their counter parts are backups on 80-90% of most teams. Taylor and Brice McCain are literally 2 of the worst starting corners I've seen. It's baffling how Ireland could have been so wrong on 2 CB's that were fairly high picks. While Jenkins and Misi are solid players, we don't have an impact playmaker at LB. Someone who can chance the course of a game, shut someone down at TE, get to the CB or close down running lanes. Once again, Jordan showed flashes that maybe he could be that guy but he can't get his head out of his a##.


I have a tough time figuring out what I think about Tannehill. I can't blame him for all the bad plays his teammates make. He has shown that he can make plays when everything is going right around him. At the same time, I don't know if he is good enough to overcome adversity which is certain to come against some of the best teams in the league. He just doesn't seem to have the pocket instincts that the good QB's have. He also turns the ball over too much. I still don't understand why his athleticism isn't used more. I can't figure out if he's capable of being a Top 10 QB or will be in the middle of the pack for most of his career.

Overall, this team is about where we were last year. A team that is capable of winning 6-9 games, maybe 10 if the balls bounce their way. This probably isn't a playoff contender and it's definitely not a Super Bowl contender. I still think we need to make some strides with how we put together a roster. I'm not a big fan of trying to build through FA and the cap problems that come with that. I guess when you need to sell tickets, you have to make those splashes. I think they need to figure out how to start drafting better.

When I see this team on the field, I see the poor draft and personnel choices that are still impacting them. The Dallas Thomas who can't block anything. The Dion Jordan who could be the key to shutting down Gronk. The Taylor/Davis that can't even play at a modest level. The Brendan Albert who could be great but can't stay healthy for a full season. The Suh who is a great player but isn't good enough to make up for so many bad pieces around him and probably isn't worth the money we paid him.

 

I assume you know that Brady dinked and dunked all night?

That will teach me to assume.

 

We came out flat.

The offense sucked. Scoring 7 pts sucks.

The defense sucked. Allowing 34 pts sucks.

Our defense has no idea how to stop a screen. Our offense has no idea how to stick with the run.

This is a full team loss from coach to the players. No one did their job right yesterday.

One of these days, we'll have a game where only one or two people have a bad game, instead of the whole team top to bottom.

 

I did not expect a win last night but I did hope for a better showing. It should have been obvious that the Pats were going to sit on the shorter routes going into this game. The phins should have been prepared to throw more intermediate and longer routes from the start. By the time they finally started it was too late and the Pats could pin their ears back and get after us.

The offensive plan was lacking going in.

 

Let's look at the trends:

- They looked really good against the Titans and Texans, two non-AFC East opponents who last played us when we still had Sherman as OC.
- They looked really bad against the Jets, Bills, and Patriots, our divisional opponents who play us every season.


What seems to be the case is that when we play teams who rarely play us and aren't familiar with our offense, we run over them. But when we play teams who are very familiar with the scheme and what we do, we get run over.

Lazor's offense has been figured out, IMO, and he is not taking measures to change it when we do face the teams who know us well.

EDIT: This trend goes back to the end of last season, by the way. Got destroyed by the Jets and Patriots and played well against the Vikings, for example.

 

We can sit here and make all the excuses in the world. The Miami Dolphins are what they are - full of holes. Everyone here knew that going in. They are a 9-7, 8-8 team.

We lost for 1 reason and 1 reason only - we played Top Tier Talent

Could Dan turn the ship. Of Course, he already has. Those were two really bad football teams we beat.

I hate loosing. But it is what it is. Dan has already apparently removed the restrictions that was holding us back. Now question is does he have the knowledge and ability to fix it. Assuming it can be fixed.

Of course saying the term "FIX" implies it at some point worked. Been a long time since I think we could legitimately say it worked. Are there flashes of the team we hope we can be - no doubt. However those types of things are usually an indication of lack of talent or coaching needed.

As much as I like Dan and what he stands for look for him to be replaced at the end of the season. I say that because we are not going to be 12-4. We are most like even up. Not sure Ross will move forward at 8-8 with Dan Campbell. Look for Ross to try and make a splash

 

In order to win multiple super-bowl championships as Belicheck has done ( 4 in 10 yrs), one must first know what strength looks like. Think its safe to say Belicheck has that one down PAT

Want to dismantle a team - reverse engineer

 

Allowing 34 points on defense is ALWAYS an indictment of the defense. Keeping us in the game for 3 quarters is great and all, but there's 4 quarters in a game. They are better than they played last night, so is the offense.

The team bought into the Pats' hype, came out flat and let them dictate the game. Plain and simple.

 

We should never have gone into this game expecting to move the ball with short passes like we always do. Belichick was ready for that. We needed to go in showing something different to get them out of their game plan. Make them react to us. Lazor should have known better.

 

Some people have the unrealistic expectation that a defense (one lacking any depth) is going to hold all game long when the offense can't sustain drives to give them rest. Makes complete sense right?

The entire offense let that group down.

 

Both units sucked. The offense sucked last night, from Lazor to Tannehill to Matthews.

Allowing 34 points and 500 yards of offense is not a good night for the defense though. Make any excuse you want.

 

Again, EVERYONE sucked yesterday, but in order of blame (top 5):

1. Lazor
2. Wake's injury
3. James' injury
4. the oline
5. the lbs

 

The line was a complete **** stain. Zero effort. Don't even get me started on Cameron's third straight bad game. I'm still pissed at that effort.

 

I think there is a contingent of fans will make up any and every excuse to absolve Tannehill of blame, just like they have for the last 27 starting QBs.

Now.. Tannehill is the most competent QB since Pennington. He just too many holes in his game to ever be elite. If he hasn't fixed them by year 4 he probably isn't ever going to.

As for the OL, I saw pretty decent pass blocking, the run blocking was atrocious. Most of the times Tannehill got sacked is cause he held onto the ball too long.

It's funny in a way. It's like when the running game got blown up and our dink and dunk **** aint working we have no back-up plan. I think it took until we were down by like 3 scores to throw the ball passed 20 yards (maybe I'm forgetting)

Now I'm not gonna be one of those guys who says Tannehill sucks and he doesn't belong in this league. Teams have won the superbowl with much worse QBs. But in order for that kind of QB to win the rest of the team needs to be really good.

 

I assume in some way you are trying to compare Tannehill to Brady?

 

The defense was gassed in the second half. They have no depth. Yet you're surprised they finally broke down? Pretty much par far the course these last 3-4 years.

Talk about being unreasonable. They're the only reason we had a slight glimmer of hope heading towards halftime.

 

The defense played better than the offense last night, that is for sure . But that is nothing to hang your hat on... The whole team looked awful last night, the entire roster. I find no joy in arguing what side of the ball was worse. I thought the game plan was awful.. I put that on Lazor


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There does not appear to be good spacing. It seems a lot of the times we have 2 receivers in the same general area.

 

The other major difference - a QB who cares.

Seriously, every time I saw Tanny on the sideline he was just chewing his mouthpiece looking like he mentally checked out for the night. Would it be too much to ask for some emotion out there? Would it be too much to ask for him to get in the face of his lineman (especially Fox) and DEMANDING better play?

I've seen the man who was across the field from him doing it for his entire career. These are times when I miss seeing Marino play. He absolutely would not tolerate this stuff. He would let the guys around him know about it.

 

We showed them exactly what they expected to see...on both sides. There were a few times we confused 'em, but overall they had it wired. They saw the tape, planned, saw the same thing as the tape in the game, drooled.

 

Ya they did. It played out exactly as I was talking about pre-game.

 

For that to work, a player has to appear to his teammates to have the play at his own position taken care of. Otherwise, the teammates simply say, "well what about you?"

 

The dolphins didn't run a single offensive play on the Patriots side of the field until the 2nd half. And we want to blame the defense equally? That's trying to obscure the blame. Safety and we're going to punt to the 45 for NE to take over. And I think the defense actually stopped them?

This was 60-75% on the offense. Period. If the offense sustained some drives it's possible NE doesn't score as much. In fact, it is most likely because they would have less possessions and the defense would be less gassed. Doesn't guarantee a win but it sure would have helped.

 

I agree this game was a long shot for this Dolphins team. And nobody should look at the results and view it as any indication of whether or not Dan Campbell should be this team's head coach going forward.

It's just part of cheering for a mediocre football team. There are some games you know you're just probably not going to win. It's been a long, long time since anyone could watch the Dolphins the way the Patriots fan watch their team. And expect them to win regardless of home field advantage, short week, injuries, etc. Here's hoping Dan Campbell can be the guy to get this team out of the mediocre rut.

 

Good post until this. Covering gronk with Jordan would be insane.