I'll agree it's still early, but I don't think it's just a matter of Cleveland's defense being stout. The running game was lacking in pre-season also. The line needs quite a bit of work and the backs haven't been great, either.
Happy with the win. HUGE. Important. Needed. Good stuff. Tannehill was solid, can't knock him and Gibson has sufficently replaced Bess. Hartline can ball and both benefit from the space afforded by 11. 11 needs to SHUT UP and worry about the W/L column. Everything else will take care of itself. The RBs need to get it going. D looked damn impressive against a solid OL. Big test for the D next week, O should look solid though. Overall, great win and of last check no major injuries. Enjoy it folks!
My random thoughts after the game. Good: - Ryan Tannehill had to put the game on his shoulders today. He made great decisions on 3rd downs and that was a precision strike on Hartline's TD. Well done. - Lamar Miller's pass-blocking has really improved from last year. - Daniel Thomas, way to punch (dive) it in from short yardage. That was nice. - Hartline...nothing really to say, just stick him in the good column. - Brandon Gibson, nice moves in the open field and I don't think we'll miss Davone Bess as much as I originally thought based off today. - Mike Pouncey, nice work. Probably the only OL that wasn't noticeably bad at one point or another. - Pass-blocking as a whole really picked up in the 2nd half, and wasn't as bad as you'd believe with 4 sacks allowed. - Front 7 on defense is really good. REALLY good. - Randy Starks, middle finger incident aside, should be starting over Odrick, IMO. - Olivier Vernon did a nice job occupying Joe Thomas. - Dimitri Patterson did a nice job; thought he played better than Brent Grimes today. - Nolan Carroll...so you CAN catch? Nice to know. Where are the Richard Marshall apologists? - Caleb Sturgis. Dan who? - Don Jones gave a metaphorical "middle finger" to a lot of people on this forum. Nice job on special teams. - Kudos to Derrick Shelby for getting his first sack. Bad: - Ryan Tannehill still has a penchant for holding the ball too long. - Lamar Miller...what was that? You looked like Reggie Bush from 2012 (save for his Raiders' game). - Run-blocking in general was bad. - John Jerry... - Jonathan Martin I think might struggle against stronger defenders. He was bulled several times by Jabaal Sheard. - If Miami's going to cut a DB, I think Jimmy Wilson is first up. Not Don Jones, not R.J. Stanford. - Miami had some funky coverage schemes attached to blitz plays and got exposed. Misi and Wheeler come to mind against Jordan Cameron. - Brent Grimes had a few head-scratching moments out there today that will generally go unnoticed as the ball didn't go to his guy. Needs to clean some things up. Game Balls: - I left Cameron Wake out of the "good" section, because he was great today. Mitchell Schwartz is not slouch, and Wake made him look like one today. - Paul Soliai wants a new deal. - Randy Starks played pretty well when spelling Jared Odrick. Starks should be starting IMO. - Brian Hartline & Brandon Gibson, nice work today. - Sturgis, 3 for 3 in a tough stadium to kick in. - A.J. Francis. Wait, you mean he didn't play? He's not even on the team? But hey, you got more pub this week than half the rostered players. Nice work! Bizarre: - Let's hope it's much ado about nothing with respect to Mike Wallace's post-game comments and Randy Starks' Bryan Cox impersonation. - Marcus Thigpen seems to fit here. - It was bizarre seeing Michael Egnew on the field in a regular-season game. - Dion Jordan's snaps...we (ThePhins.com) want to see more (plays in the game). - Our last two picks in the 2013 Draft, Caleb Sturgis and Don Jones, had more impact in today's game than the 6 players picked before them in the draft.
Too many penalties and negative offensive yards at certain points for my liking. BUT WE WON THE GAME, SO THAT ALWAYS TOPS
