First off, I fully appreciate that for some here, the last thing they want to read is anything written by a Patriots fan - that said, i've had some good discourse over the last couple of years here (including taking my medicine after week 1 last season ) ......so here we go..... 1. This was always going to be a super tough match-up for an interim HC - Campbell is a young guy and also a young guy with no pre-season to work with and not much in the way of coaching experience (above position coach) as far as i'm aware. Right now, Campbell is a guy who can get the team fired up - try and put a bit of swagger back in their step (mission accomplished previous to Thursday) and try to get the team in the best position to win. What he isn't going to be able to do is effect the game in real time - I noticed him standing there chewing gum or whatever anytime the camera cut to him and it made me realise how little an interim position coach is likely to be able to do once the game starts - very, very little. 2. There is an awful lot of mediocrity in the league this year - confirmed by Denver being 6-0 without anything that resembles an offence and a record number of teams at or below 0.500. The Jets look the most likely to cash in on this out of the AFCE but I wouldn't rule out the Dolphins (even with aforementioned interim HC) from sneaking a 6th seed - you could conceivably get in at 8-8 or 9-7 which I don't think is beyond this team if they put the bad teams away like weeks 6 and 7. 3. The Patriots have hammered some very good teams over the last decade or so - the Dolphins should just chalk this one up as a learning experience and move on. 4. I hope Wake is not done for the season - he is one of my favorite non-Patriots players in the league - his route into the NFL, the hard work and dedication and the fact that he plays with such energy (yet doesn't stray over the line) are great qualities. 5. The Suh contract is likely going to be a millstone around this franchise for quite awhile. Some teams clearly value ticket sales and preseason hype over the reality of the NFL regular season - Suh got pretty much deleted from the game by a combination of most two well trained JAG's. When you look at the guy's salary cap hit you cannot afford to get such poor return on investment. 6. Ryan Tannehill. Yes, i'm going to weigh in on the topic that dominates 88.7% of thePhins.com forum traffic . The league is experiencing a shocking shortage of starter level QB's - forget future stars of the Brady/Manning/Rodgers ilk - this league is struggling to put QB's on the field that have sufficient ability to do the basics. Tannehill (as inconsistent as he can be) is easily in the top half of NFL QB's - that is not something you should be looking to give away regardless of the likelihood that he ever makes it to 'elite' level. 7. Lazor is not doing Tannehill any favors at all with his playcalling - outside of Jarvis Landry (who is awesome!) there isn't much in the way of talent in the WR corps - certainly not enough to justify putting Tannehill is so many obvious pass only situations. I think the score was still 9-0 when the run all but disappeared from the Miami offensive plan - you cannot afford to do that against a team with so many good pass rushers (one of our big areas of improvement this year) - especially when you have such a leaky O-line. That is about it I guess. If there are any crumbs of comfort I would repeat that the Patriots are something of an outlier in terms of quality of play this season - Dolphans should not get to disheartened at this loss - when I look at the remaining Miami schedule I would give them a good chance to win 7 of the 9 games - that puts you in the 9-10 win range. Anyway, thanks for the hospitality - i'm sure i'll be back this way before week 17 kicks off.
Very classy post, thank you! I think our season is going to depend on the Wake and James injuries. If they are both out for more than 2 games, I think we have very little chance of making the playoffs. A lot of us wanted to see how this team would react to a loss and if Campbell can continue to motivate them. Now we have that chance after a blowout, no less.
I'm from Miami but a fan of another team too (the Broncos), and after watching the game last night to check out the Patriots as a possible playoff matchup for us, these comments look accurate to me. What it looked like to me too is that the Patriots gameplanned to take away the run and the short pass, and the Dolphins weren't able to counter with anything effective offensively. I believe the Dolphins had just one play you could consider "a play" in the passing game, the deep pass to the tight end after the QB had scrambled around. Against a good team like the Patriots, when they take away the running game and short passing game, those kinds of plays need to be made much more frequently for a team to be competitive. The Patriots basically made the Dolphins zero-dimensional on offense. Hopefully that won't be the story for Peyton Manning if and when we meet them in the playoffs! Good luck to you all the rest of the year.
Yeah, four losses doesn't mean we are out of the playoffs, but no Cameron Wake and Jason Fox anywhere near the starting lineup pretty much does. To make the playoffs we'll have to beat Buffalo and the Jets in their houses and most likely we'll have to defeat New England in week 17. That puts us 3-3 in division matchups if that happens, but it's a very tall task. We have to have success running the ball and the offensive line needs to give Tannehill time to make a throw....This is repeated week after week and until it's fixed things will continue to beat hit or miss with Tannehill looking like Montana one week and *** juice the next week.
If we manage to go 9-7 and take care of games outside the division, there are scenarios where we make the playoffs by winning only 2 division games. But we still would need to beat the Jets and Bills at their house, which seems like an impossible task right now. Next game basically will define our season, if we beat the Bills our playoff hopes are still very much alive.
You were exactly right in the first line. My uncle and his family are NE pansie fans. If you beat us 72-0 I'll still be saying **** the patsies. I can't wait til father time catches up with Brady which shouldn't be too long from now, then we can deflate NE fans Egos like they do their Balls.
Thanks for being classy and fair. As much as it pains me to say it, you guys are far and away the best team in the league yet again. I'd wish you luck, but I'm not a liar. I'm sure you understand.
I seriously doubt 9-7 gets a playoff spot though, there are the 4 div winners and the steJ and Steelers, who are both better than we are and will have double digit wins, as much as the rest of the AFC is sucking, it may actually take 11 or 12 wins to get into the playoffs.
While some individuals on here view me as negative, I have always seen it as being realistic when it comes to looking at this organization. I have been saying for the last five years that this is a mediocre team and their record over that time has been about as mediocre as you can get. This years team has shown they can beat most of the sub 500 teams on their schedule, but against the better teams, they have been blown out. Two years ago many people thought that it would be the Dolphins who would be the Patriots major competition in the division over the coming years. The Jets and Bills were both seen as bottom rung teams at that time. Now two years later, based on games within the division, it is obvious the Bills and Jets have past the Dolphins and the most we can realistically expect this year is another mediocre season at best. I think finishing with seven wins is about the best we can expect and a 5-11 or 6-10 record would not surprise me in the least. I would love to be positive about this team, but the truth is unless you are happy with mediocrity or worse, there isn't really any reason to be positive about this team at this time.
You can view it that way, but there was such a huge difference in the way the team played the first 2 games under Campbell. you never saw that in any game with Philpin. Lets see how they do the rest of the year.
I feel bad for Campbell because he's been put into an impossible situation. He's left with Philibum's offense and defense, and then multiple holes on the OL, and secondary (why didn't they address this in the draft/FA??). Even if he manages to get this team to 8 - 8, Ross will probably still look for an experience coach... Who's will in turn want to bring in his own people. Campbell can fire people up but he can't make people block better or tackle better, or not get beat down field.
