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" Don't sleep on the Dolphins"..

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by djphinfan, Jul 7, 2017.

  1. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2719652-dont-sleep-on-the-2017-miami-dolphins



    Personally, I can't wait to see the continuity factor in play, the very strong willed mindset that the team seems to have, the complete commitment to winning that the team seems to have, the upgrades and additions that were made by the front office, and the continued affect on performance that the venue will have on the team..

    Fu## vegas, and the rest of these ill informed pundits..I see a better team without question..and if you don't, I don't think your paying close attention to what's going on around here..

    This dude does so good job by him.
     
  2. Rickysabeast

    Rickysabeast Royale With Cheese

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    YES! I totally vehemently agree. We're going to rule some *** this year. 13-3 here we come. Steelers rematch in the playoffs with us Olindo Mare kicking them dead in the taint. Raiders handle the Pats same week...Raiders Dolphins AFC Champ game. We win. Dolphins Packers Superbowl which we win 42-21.
     
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  3. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I think we win 10,11 games..

    The team never quit last year, I remember thinking, how the hell is this team still in this game, I just never saw them quit or come out disinterested..

    I also think if we can get the fans to get inside the stadium earlier than the norm, it will help us not come out complacent..I know the team has set a team goal of going undefeated this year at home, so let's do our part in that quest.

    For the first time in a long time I just want to see what a team that has fully bought in looks like..

    And I want to see some youthful energy on defense..Harris..Tank and Raekwon should make an impact..

    I think it will be fascinating to watch this 20 year old young man establish his incredible leadership qualities..he will do so with class and respect, but don't get it twisted he will def do it..
     
  4. Fin D

    Fin D Sigh

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    U
     
  5. Finatik

    Finatik Season Ticket Holder Staff Member Club Member

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    I agree that things are looking up but..... Looking at those 3 games they cited, he should have been putting those numbers up against those teams.
     
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  6. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    Generally quarterbacks get big numbers by putting big numbers on teams with less than stellar defenses. It is why people think Luck is so much better than Tannehill, even though their statistics are close when going against similar opponents.
     
  7. Bpk

    Bpk Premium Member Luxury Box

    I think we are assuming continuity on offense, with some good reason.. but I am not sure we get it on defense. There will be a difference between Vance and Matt Burke. Not a system change, than God, but things like Vance's level of emphasis on and expertise in DBs will not be here this year, for example.
     
  8. Finster

    Finster Finsterious Finologist

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    I don't have expectations, the last time we played a schedule that weak was in '08, and just as in '08 we were totally outclassed in the playoffs, and when we had to play a normal schedule again the following year, it all came back down to earth.

    '09 cured me of Dolphinexpetionitis, man I thought we had a brand new shiny toy to play with, only to finally realize once the season started that the paint was coming off on my hands, and that it was just the same old crappy toy we had with a cheap *** Maaco paint job.

    I hope it's different this time, I was a huge Sparano fan at this same time back then, he certainly walked and squawked like a HC, that is, until we knew better.
     
  9. djphinfan

    djphinfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I really don't see this tough schedule thing being that tough where we can't win 10.
     
  10. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    I don't see any reason to expect this year's schedule is harder than last year's. Going into last season I saw articles claiming Miami had the 5th hardest schedule and this year I saw only one ranking and it claimed that Miami had the 5th hardest schedule again.
     
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  11. Fin D

    Fin D Sigh

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    Everyone forgets we had 3 west coast games, two of which were back to back. Everyone said if we don't make it out of the first 5 weeks 4-1 or at worst 3-2 our season was done.

    Strength of schedule is about the most useless thing in football.
     
  12. Dolphin North

    Dolphin North Well-Known Member

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    I just skimmed after that part. When people start eliminating bad games to support their opinion that a player or team is good, or when they throw out good games and cite bad games to support their opinion that a team or player is bad, I stop taking it seriously. I'm glad this guy is behind us, but picking 3 great games by Tannehill to tell me he is better than he is does not work for me. Throwing out his best games to prove he is bad does not work for me either and we have seen some of that as well.
    I think he is good enough to win with if everyone does their job and we can all hope he continues to climb under Gase, which improves our chances immensely IMO. But that only happens when it happens, through all games he plays, not just our chosen games that we use to prove a point, positive or negative. It's hard to see what is, as opposed to what we want to see and I think the guy who wrote that article is an example of that. I could make Tannehill the best QB in history if I could just eliminate all incompletions, interceptions and otehr negative plays and only look at his TD passes but then that would work for everyone wouldn't it? I know that is a ridiculously extreme example but it's the same principle. You cannot eliminate whole games. A play here and there can be explained but when you gut whole games from a player's resume the point becomes more and more eroded and less valid to me.
    I wish I could do that in life; make certain moments go away so that only the best parts of my year remained. But then, wouldn't pretty much all of us be great if that were possible? Couldn't our worst enemies paint a horrible picture of us if they could eliminate our successes?
     
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  13. Finster

    Finster Finsterious Finologist

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    Well we didn't have such a tough schedule in '09 either, the problem was lack of a very weak schedule.

    What happened last year should be paid attention to imo, but to be clear, I'm not arguing 10 wins, if that's what you think I'm not going to argue, because it's entirely possible, and I hope it happens, my argument is solely about my caution of Dolphinexpectaionitis from my own perspective.

    So, last year we played a very weak schedule, and we came out victorious! which was great, however, look closer, we came out of that struggle vs a weak schedule, bloody, battered and bruised, and in no shape to take on a real playoff contender.

    Honestly, I have no idea if we have the depth to last all season, I have no idea who Matt Burke is, he's a LB coach for 7 years, that's all I know, so for me, I need more info before I go all in, but that's just me, I'm not trying to tell anyone not to expect 10 wins, it's just my own "coping mechanism" if you will.
     
  14. The_Dark_Knight

    The_Dark_Knight Defender of the Truth

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    That's been me saying that Tony...not so much the strength of the teams we're playing, but the brutal amount of travel...12,000+ miles in 5 weeks.

    THAT in itself is brutally challenging.
     
  15. Fin D

    Fin D Sigh

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    Right, but my point is that we were 1 dropped pass away from being 3-0 in those west coast games.
     
  16. The_Dark_Knight

    The_Dark_Knight Defender of the Truth

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    Yea, I wasn't happy with Kenny Stills on that dropped pass...but at least he felt good about himself kneeling during the national anthem. Glad to see where his focus was.

    Sorry, I digress...
     
  17. Galant

    Galant Love - Unity - Sacrifice - Eternity

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  18. dirtylandry

    dirtylandry Well-Known Member

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    the key is a fast start. I know the psyche of the team can over come this, but the reality of having to wait for other teams to lose is not in our hands.
     
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  19. Phins4ever

    Phins4ever Member

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    We have full potential to move forward to get to the playoffs again. Also Improve each season as well. Get more further into the playoffs. To be taken more seriously as well.

    I hope in the near future the Dolphins can win a Super Bowl again. I wasn't born when they won their 2 Super Bowls.

    By Next decade the Patriots will decline. Be a horrible team. Brady and Bellicheck will both be retired by then. The Dolphins will be a dominant team in the next decade.
     
  20. Fin D

    Fin D Sigh

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    The point is, as hard as everyone said those WC games would be....we walked out of them 2-1 almost 3-0. So maybe the preconceived notion that these distance games are brutal, aren't really that accurate.
     
  21. cbrad

    cbrad .

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    It turns out sleep research is a good place to look for a study on NFL teams' winning percentage as a function of where they play because some sleep researchers study circadian rhythms (biological processes that follow a ~24 hour cycle).

    Anyway, here's a recent paper that I don't think you can access because it was just published (usually these journals make it open access after a 6 month period or so), but they looked at winning percentage of NBA, NHL and NFL teams from 2010-2015 based on whether they traveled eastward, westward or stayed in the same time zone:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28568314

    In any case, Table 2 in that paper shows that NFL teams that travel in the same time zone (so they're away teams) won 43% of the time, but when they travel westwards they only win 38% of the time. Traveling east they got better with 46.6% win percentage.

    The paper really wants to point out the difference between afternoon and evening games because they show that if teams travel westward but play afternoon games the winning percentage is 38.8% but if it's an evening game the win% goes down to 33.9%. In other words, if you force athletes to perform when they're normally used to resting (evening in a later time zone) they perform worst.

    So there is an effect of traveling westward, but it's not the traveling per se (the effect isn't there when traveling eastward) but having to perform when you're normally resting, at least according to the study.
     
  22. dirtylandry

    dirtylandry Well-Known Member

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    Miami must survive camp in order "not to be slept on." We have to overcome notorious injuries to Parker, Pouncey, Thomas and yes, even Koa Misi. Not a lot has been said, but I like the rookie duo Miami drafted to team up with Suh. I want Miami to be ready to make a quick adjustment to life without Pouncey, because unlike the other injuries, his has the ability to be the entire season.
     
  23. Tin Indian

    Tin Indian Rockin' The Bottom End Club Member

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    I think Tannehill is going to force everyone in the fanbase and around the league to reevaluate their opinion of him this year.
     
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  24. dirtylandry

    dirtylandry Well-Known Member

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    Interesting you say that because isn't his contract kind of funky? I believe after this year there is no guaranteed money, so would we be looking at a contract extension after this season? Watch out for Rashad Jones this year
     
  25. dirtylandry

    dirtylandry Well-Known Member

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    yeah RT next is 19,800,000 against the cap, $4.6M in dead money.
    I'd say there is motivation for him to well also since basically all the guaranteed money is dried up.


    Suh is not cuttable until 2020,
     
  26. rafael

    rafael Well-Known Member

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    I think so as well. Most people give the QB too much credit/blame and don't consider the team around him. The Dolphins with Tannehill prior to Gase were a dumpster fire on so many levels. And Gase's Dolphins took a clear step after game 5. Between game 5 and game 6 is when Gase made that big purge on the OL. Prior to that Gase repeatedly stated that the QB couldn't be evaluated b/c of all the crap around him. I don't believe that's exactly true. I'm sure that Gase was evaluating Tannehill all along. IMO what he was saying is that all the people that can't see past what's surrounding the QB or the people that rely on team stats for their QB evaluations couldn't evaluate the QB.

    From that point on Tannehill's stats were 161 of 233 for 1723 yards 13 TDs and 5 INTs for a QB rating of 125. So if the team around Tannehill has really improved then you're likely to see improved statistical production from Tannehill this next season. Now obviously no one should just plug in a 125 rating as the expectation. But it is now undeniable that he's capable of that level of production for an extended period (at least half of a season). He was also very consistent during that stretch. He really only had one poor statistical game (Baltimore 63). Every other game was above an 85 rating. I generally believe that once your QB is consistently performing above that 85 level then he's probably not the problem. (This is not how I evaluate QBs but most people can't see beyond stats and wins and we're talking about fanbase and league perception here). I believe that a reasonable expectation for Tannehill this year is a 100 rating. That would clearly put him in that elite range statistically.

    Now I said that most people can only see stats and wins so the team would also have to get the wins for people to notice. That's tough when you're in the same division as the Pats. I don't see them as unbeatable, but they're clearly a great team that casts a big shadow. I think that if Miami posts double digit wins again and gets a playoff win this season that most people will start recognizing them as a good team rather than a fluke. (People want to excuse last year by claiming it was an easy schedule, but I don't see any reason to believe it was any easier than this coming season or easy in general). I think that the biggest factor in Miami accomplishing that will be improvement by the defense. They added quite a few pieces on that side of the ball and are also getting back some key injured players so I'm optimistic that we'll see that improvement.

    If we get those wins and Tannehill just does what he's been doing then people will reevaluate their opinion of him. They'll claim that Gase "fixed" him or that Tannehill made some quantum leap. None of that will be true of course. Tannehill will probably continue his steady improvement, but people will finally notice what was obviously there b/c of the improvement of the team around him.
     
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  27. dirtylandry

    dirtylandry Well-Known Member

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    just get an extra 1.5 seconds or so to throw the damn ball and let's see where we can go!
     
  28. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    Tannehill would have to play Oswieller bad to be cut.
     
  29. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    That is true of all teams. I thought the Vikings were going to be one of the top teams last season, until Bridgewater blew his knee out.
     
  30. dirtylandry

    dirtylandry Well-Known Member

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    I agree. but the out is there and we all should be aware
     
  31. dirtylandry

    dirtylandry Well-Known Member

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    yeah but those three guys specifically make or break this season on offense
     

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