Dolphins@Bengals notes and opinions

Of course it is. But like I said, I'm coaching for the team's best interests in the present moment, not for the kicker's future self-esteem. This team needed a win a whole lot worse than Dan Carpenter needs confidence.

 

Personally, I've had enough playing to not lose. I like the aggressive nature of the play calling. Points are the point of the offense after all.

 

And yet, Philbin & Sherman have a better track record than you do in those situations.

 

It's not all on him. But he has to realize he's in a zone blocking scheme, where one cut and go is the mantra, and he has to realize when his role is going to be more along the lines of keeping the other team honest, rather than winning the game himself, such as when he's facing eight-man fronts.

It spoke volumes to me when the team needed runs of 3, 3, and 4 yards on consecutive plays to win the game, and Bush was still dancing around back there behind the line. That's a mentality problem IMO. He's so busy trying to do more than what's called for that he can't even recognize the context of the game and the situation he's in and adjust his play accordingly.

He's so stuck on trying to "create" that he can't get off of it, even to win a game! It was about as bad as Charles Clay's going out of bounds. Failure to realize the situation.

 

I'm not drinking the Reshad Jones kool-aid yet. I thought he had a lot more bad than good in the game until that final game-sealing interception, including his lack of awareness on the punt turnover. Even on that interception I'm not sure what exactly he did that was good other than catching a football that was thrown right between the "2" and the "0". He was not at all in the process of breaking on the intended target when the ball was in the air. It was a poor decision by Dalton and an even poorer throw.

He's certainly proven himself good enough to keep going on as starter but he's still balancing on the knife point right now, IMO. Could still break in either direction.

 

I'm for coaching for the team's best interests period. That includes having the foresight to look ahead to what might be needed for the rest of the games on the schedule.

But the admission that you're only thinking about the present colors a lot of your recent posts for me.

 

Actually I called for a pooch punt in the game thread for the sake of not giving them momentum with a missed FG, which is exactly what ensued.

 

What might be needed for the benefit of the rest of the games on the schedule is a win.

 

On note of the running / 8 men in the box - we can exploit that with some passes - but its not respected fully yet. What we're missing is that home run threat. A receiver who can blow up a defense on an intermediate reception is the quick fix to the stacked box. Defenses know we can move the ball every couple plays when they stack like that, but theyre not truly burned for it. Point is, we can't pass quite well enough to make them respect it, and if they do respect it, we're not running well enough to consistently pick up the first just pounding the ball right now. One of those things has to improve if we're going to keep contending deep into this season.

 

What's missing is the player Charles Clay is intended to be, who can pick up big yardage down the middle of the field while the linemen, linebackers, and one of the safeties are in the box defending the run, and the corners and the other safety are covering the receivers outside.

 

Actually, we won the game exactly as it was called. Doing it your way may not have the same results.

 

And we'll never know, will we.

But what we do know is that after the missed field goal, Cincinnati drove down the field and scored a touchdown, which made the game a whole lot tougher to win.

 

absolutely agree - we need someone to step up and make those plays consistently.

We might even see some success if we could get a RB that consistently hit 3 yds a play or more...which isnt there right now. Cant even blame them when youre facing 8 in the box...but the 0 to -2 yds is only making it worse. (I am NOT blaming bush or harping on that...just pointing out we need consistent small games or a seam threat).

 

But holding on to picks has been a problem for MIA DBs. IIRC, this is Jones' 3rd game ending INT. I agree though, the mental issues are still there.

 

Then the players should play better.

 

I think referring to his interception against Oakland as a "game ending" INT is being pretty liberal with the term. It was a fantastic read and break on the ball but it is very important to point out that he didn't feel comfortable enough to make a read and break like that until the game was already over. There were 2 minutes left and the Dolphins were up 35-13. That's not even close to the kind of game ending INT that this one against the Bengals was, from a situational standpoint. But then the read and break on the ball in the Raiders game was much higher quality, as Andy Dalton pretty much just rocketed this one right between the numbers to Jones, who wasn't even breaking on the target.

There has been no 3rd game ending INT for Reshad Jones. In fact, as I said, there isn't even 2nd one. Yesterday was his 1st.

 

At that point in the game it was 17-6 in the 3rd quarter against a 3-1 team on the road that was favored to beat them. How much better do you want them to play?

Are you actually saying a 1-3 team on the road should've been "taught a lesson" about needing to play better at that point, rather than doing whatever was needed to win the game?

 

Agreed. DThomas is more suitable for picking up tough yds, but he doesn't offer the big play capability and opposing safeties don't come up as often when he's in the game. Lamar Miller has the talent to split the difference but it looks like the coaches want to see more from him in practice before they put him into the games.

I think Clay has a chance to be a producer once he gets the offense down. Not a dynamic guy but a consistent chain mover when teams are too focused on the run. If we get some more firepower at WR/TE we're going to be very difficult to defend.

 

I can live with the lack of game changing INTs if it's accompanied by solid run defense, decent coverage, and the lack of big plays allowed that plagued the secondary for the past few years.

 

Ditto for Clemons. Hartline. Jerry. Misi. SSmith. Carroll. Starks. With the exception of Long and Carpenter, our young guys are progressing nicely. Shout out to Vernon for getting some snaps as the nickel LB as well.

 

I think a lot of his mistakes, including costly ones, are going unnoticed and/or being intentionally ignored. For instance, had we lost this football game somehow, you end up looking at that bonehead play of his on the punt return and you have to say, a play like that is the difference in a tight ball game. That play was more bad than his interception was good. The interception was gift-wrapped to where if he did NOT intercept the ball, the review on the play would've been thrown into full reverse from a "good" to a "bad" play arguably just as costly as the punt return miscue. That's why I say that the good wasn't as good as the bad was bad on those two plays.

 

I don't see how the punt was a "bone head" play by anyone other than #34. It looked to me like a punt that should have been handled by the actual Punt Returner, and he's had a problem catching the ball for two weeks straight. Last week he was letting balls bounce and roll down inside the 20, this week he's letting the ball bounce and hit a teammate IN THE BACK. It was a 38 yard punt with decent hang time, it should never have hit the ground in the first place. Worse, Thigpen is still back pedaling on the bounce, anticipating it coming further up-field, away from Jones. He doesn't even give the alarm call until after the ball has bounced and is heading towards Jones, by then it is too late. I suspect this is why Bess is put into the game to catch punts when we don't have favorable field position. Jones was in the wrong spot at the wrong time, the ball could've hit Armstrong just as easily (or unluckily).

 

I don't see any argument here. When you're on the punt block team and you have no awareness to where you're letting the ball hit you, that's bad on you. I'm not defending Thigpen on the play, just saying one wrong doesn't absolve a second wrong. You say Anthony Armstrong could have just as easily been hit on the play but that's clearly not the case since Armstrong was aware of where he was on the field and clearly had looked up and spotted the football with his eyes so that he could get out of the way if need be.

 

Yes, Armstrong looks for the ball, as does Jones, and they both make efforts to get out of the way. What I'd like to have seen was Jones disengage from his block and move out of the way altogether. But at that point he's as likely to move into the path of the ball as he is to move out of it. Either way, I think it's overly harsh to throw out his accomplishments over the course of an entire game because of a botched punt return. Especially when you're basically chalking up the game ending INT to luck.

 

I don't feel it would have been playing scared though. I think it was the smarter move. If Carpenter makes it, it's great. But he'll get plenty of chances to regain his confidence. I just think the risks outweighed the rewards there and Philbin got a little greedy/reckless.

That is EXACTLY what I was telling my TV when he was trotting out there.

 

That and we were hosed on the out of bounds recovery non call.

And as I said in the game day thread, that looked like a designed play.

 

I'm with you. I just don't think that would've been the case here. I like the aggressive playcalling. Just feel it would have been smarter to turn the defense loose on them again.

At that point in the game, our D was killing them. Completely short-circuiting that group. The previous five drives: 3-out, 3-out, 3-out, 4-out, 3 and a fumble (actually two). Miss and you give Cincy the ball on their own 43. The Bengal offense hadn't sniffed that part of the field since the first quarter.

I just feel like you go with what's working there. I punt and be like "Go ahead and try to 90 yards against this defense."

 

We need to find a kicker and thats all on the scouting dept. Look at what the Rams found in like the 6th or 7th round, forget, but the kid is awesome. Carpenter needs to go. Its crazy to go try find a kicker now. Many out there but they all have the same problem as Carpenter, accuracy ouside of the 40 yard to 45 yard range. Josh Brown comes to mind but at this point in time he is a bookend to Carpenter or even a little worse inside 45 yards.

 

I have to say one of my favorite plays on offense was at the 9:26 mark second QTR.
The blitz was coming from the corner. Ryan knew it, Jake knew it, Reggie knew it. The communication was damn good on that play.
Tannehill almost got torn in half but put it in a great window to Clay. First down. That was good stuff from our kid folks.

 

I never said it was that ONE play. I said until that interception he'd done more bad than good. I had noted a few plays where I didn't like what he'd done. But to sit here and just dismiss that turnover which was essentially his fault, I don't get that. The later turnover where he caught a ball thrown right to him...I'm not even sure that cancels the other turnover out.

 

What about the play at the goal line. RJ was unblocked but knifed in. He read it perfectly and sniffed it out.
It was great awareness. I'm not gonna ***** about a guy on ST's blocking.

Please don't tell me you will ignore that one.

 

Ireland has shown that he has talent when it comes to UDFA's. Maybe he will find us a great kicker without using a draft pick. Then again, kickers are probably the most likely position with good impact when it comes to a late pick.

 

OK, more bad than good, gotcha. Not sure I agree with that either, but I know you've got a keen eye so I look forward to hearing your thoughts on which plays specifically caused you to come to that conclusion.

 

I don't think Bernard Scott wanted to play anymore after that hit.

 

I love the throw by Tannehill but I thought the blitz pickup was a little shaky. Long seemed to block down on the end who was already picked up by Incognito, meanwhile 3 guys were coming off tackle-TE. Fasano picks up the widest guy (51) but two guys (58 & ??) get a free run at Reggie Bush. Bush picks up the outside guy ( a DB), leaving the LB (58) with a free run at Tannehill as Long tries unsuccessfully to disengage from his double team and pick the LB who nearly cuts Tannehill in half.