Ronin's Post Patriots Thoughts

Well, what had started off as a craptacular weekend of football turned out very enjoyable around 4:30pm today. 33-20. Could have been better, and I think that's the thing that will linger with me. Whether that's true or just a mirage could be revealed as early as next week since Miami plays Buffalo. We did not match up well with them last year and lost to a Thaddeus Lewis-led team. Twice. The latter game Miami was physically manhandled. We'll see what happens. Onto my thoughts from today's game. 3 Cateorgies - Good, Bad, and Head Scratcher.

Good
- Last year it took Miami until the 13th game of the season to top 30 points. 1 for 1 so far this year.
- I liked the resiliency of the team. Not only did they shoot themselves in the foot practically the whole first half, but Ryan Tannehill didn't play well. Still won. Ripping off 23 unanswered points while thoroughly shredding New England's O-line in the second half was a thing of beauty.
- Cameron Wake. Nothing else need be said.
- Third time I've said this on here today, but Knowshon Moreno is Marshawn Lynch Lite. Fantastic debut! The team fed off that and hopefully that's something Miami can establish as an offensive identity.
- Miami found ways to move the ball without much involvement from Brian Hartline, Charles Clay and Brandon Gibson. 5 catches for 62 yards. Combined.
- After the fumble Lamar Miller ran as hard as I've ever seen him run. He has a place in the offense to be sure, but I think that needs to be determined.
- Ryan Tannehill bounced back and played pretty well after a putrid 1st half. If Clay and Sims don't drop those 2nd half passes his numbers would have looked good.
- I think Mark Duffner may play dividends down the road. Not many teams could play a team like New England without all of their starting LBs and not just stay in the game, but take it over. Kudos to Trusnik for playing 2 spots today and Jelani Jenkins probably had his best day as a pro.
- Earl Mitchell. Moves down the line in ways 310lbs men shouldn't. He's a find and is going to be good.
- Randy Starks snuffed out a screen very well in the early 2nd half.
- Chris McCain will be a find. He's got good burst and certainly showed special teams value.
- Kudos to Kevin Coyle. As I noted in the game thread, showing the Double A gap pressure stuff doesn't work against Tom Brady and puts your linebackers, who were all backups by that time, at a natural disadvantage in coverage (see Jason Trusnik on the Gronkowski TD). Well, he adjusted and played a pseudo 3-4 defense with Odrick, Mitchell and Starks up front and Wake and OV on the outside. It got Jonathan Freeny off the field - Miami's better with him not on it - and really ratcheted up the pass-rush. From that, and the subsequent sub-package looks off it, Miami had sacks from Wake (1st was prior to this), OV, McCain and good hits on Brady from Starks, Odrick, and I believe Jamar Taylor on a slot blitz very late in the game.
- Okay, I have to talk about Cameron Wake. What a beast! One thing I noticed today was that he made a lot more inside moves to get free than normal. I think this could be a prelude to Philip Wheeler...or Chris McCain coming off the edge when stacked behind him, especially in Under fronts. Wake's burst off the edge is phenomenal.
- I'm not sure if these are planned or not, but several times, including the play where Vernon got his sack, Wake started his rush to the outside and was posted up by Vollmer and a TE/Back (Hoomanawanui I think) and immediately spun back inside, something he's not done frequently. On the same play OV spun inside as well and got free of Solder for the sack.
- Jared Odrick got consistent pressure up the middle day. He seems to play his best against the Patriots.
- The O-line was pretty good in pass-pro today. Branden Albert got beaten badly by Chandler Jones once and the Jerod Mayo delayed blitz were not good, but for the most part today's effort was a vast improvement over last year.
- The run defense gave up 89 yards at a 4.4 ypc clip. 21 of that came on Julian Edelman's 2 jet sweeps and Shane Vereen I think had a 14 or 15 yarder. Miami looked much better up front, especially with all 3 backup LBs in the game.

Bad
- Ryan Tannehill, despite his numbers had a pretty bad game. His decision making was questionable at best and as Trent Green poignantly pointed out, even on his completions, several of his passes were not as accurate as they could, and should be. The mesh on several of the zone-read plays was sloppy as well, and resulted in the fumble with the Moreno exchange.
- Mike Wallace does not catch well with his hands and has trouble tracking the ball.
- Charles Clay with the drop...I guess it is possible.
- I'd have to watch the replays, but several times New England lined up Chandler Jones over Daryn Colledge and had either an OLB, other lineman, or a DB blitz/rush over Branden Albert with Jones stunting. He got through 2-3 times, roughing Tannehill twice on those occasions. I'm not sure if that's on scheme, Albert or Colledge, or even Tannehill not sliding protection properly. But, it's not good to have unblocked players teeing off on your QB.
- Bill Lazor's redzone and goal-to-go playcalling was pretty bad. I get that he wants to get players in space, but Lamar Miller...twice...in a row? The fade call to Charles Clay was a TERRIBLE throw, but the play-call was bad. I don't think Tannehill was moved around enough, especially in the redzone. How about a read-option or some type of constraint play? It's equally troubling that Tannehill's completed that ball in similar situations before - San Francisco in 2012 with Anthony Fasno and Charles Clay last year against the Saints.
- I wasn't particularly impressed with Jimmy Wilson or Louis Delmas today. Cortland Finnegan had some moments, but I think he's better off on the perimeter and I wonder if teams won't try to exploit his lack of speed inside while Wilson is still playing safety.
- The 3 consecutive turnovers really hurt the D in the 1st half. They were on the field for over 7 minutes on the drive New England scored in the first quarter to make it 7-7, and THEN had to play 3 drives in pretty quick succession, relatively speaking. Clearly halftime was a boost to them as the pass-rush really picked up after that. But 3 consecutive turnovers is BAD.

Head Scratcher
- If you'd told me that Miami was going to beat New England without the services of: Mike Pouncey, Dion Jordan, Reshad Jones, Philip Wheeler, Dannell Ellerbe, and Koa Misi, I'd have called you crazy. Toss in an overall bad day from Ryan Tannehill to boot, doubly crazy. Top it off with turnovers on 3 consecutive possessions in the first half? Yikes! Here's your straight jacket. But, Miami won this game and thoroughly dominated in the 2nd half. Kudos to the staff, Kevin Coyle in particular, for adjusting. If you know me, you know that I don't dole out kudos to this staff often. I mean, let's face it, as a Dolphin fan it pains me to say this, but that wouldn't have happened with previous teams or even last year's team. It was different today and it was nice.
- I'll put it here too, but the redzone play-calling has to be better.
- I'm not surprised New England didn't go after Brent Grimes, as he played well, but I'm surprised that New England didn't use Gronkowski, or LaFell and Wright for that matter, on the outside trying to exploit size matchups.
- I thought Dannell Ellerbe played well prior to his injury.
- Koa Misi's still a question mark for me and hopefully his ankle injury isn't bad.
- Health status going into the Buffalo game...Ellerbe, Misi, Wheeler, Wilson were all dinged up to the point they left the game, were already out prior to the game, or left for a series. Getting those 4 back at full strength will be helpful while Jones and Jordan are still out.
- Lastly, I think pretty much every rational fan on here realizes it and even Ryan Tannehill mentioned it in his post-game presser today, that the offense could be better. I think that mostly hinges on him being better with accuracy and making decisions. But let me ask you this. What happens if he plays better; how much does the WHOLE offense improve?

As a whole, you've got to be pleased with a 33-20 win over the Patriots, especially ripping off a 23-0 clip after being down 20-10 at the half. That was resilient, we saw the coaches adjust, and we saw playmakers step up: Wake and the D-line, Knowshon Moreno, and I'd even argue that despite his day being up and down, Mike Wallace probably played his most complete game as a Dolphin. Enjoy the day, and the rest of the games tonight and tomorrow, and here's to Miami getting healthy, quickly.

Oh yeah, enjoy 33-20! Tastes good today. Now where's my Jack Daniels?

 

Well put. Hopefully the redzone playcalling today was the outlier, not the norm. That's about the only thing I noticed today that Sherman's offense seemed more efficient...effective...not sure of the right word at the moment...as compared with Bill Lazor's offense.

 

I meant to get this up right after the game but I was in Columbus all day yesterday for the OSU-Va. Tech game and was out of town last week and am traveling again for work this week so I had to take care of some errands before I head out again.

I'm interested to see more of Gator. I noticed he was in on the Lamar Miller TD and had a handful of snaps after that. Despite the drop, I'm impressed Sims was that open down the field. Too bad he dropped Tannehill's best pass of the day.

 

I need to watch him more individually next week. It's just so hard for me to NOT watch Wake. His spin move was very effective on the sack play and he had good rushes as well on one of Wake's sacks and McCain's sack.

 

Well...at least Josh McCown wasn't suiting up for Miami today. Credit to CK on Twitter for this:

https://vine.co/v/Oz7e2QQuAOD

Better than the ButtFumble? Or Worse.

 

Thanks.

I'm pretty sure the bit about OV is aimed at me. I still don't think, based on how Coyle operates his defense, you understand why I want Dion Jordan to overtake Olivier Vernon at DE. We'll see how OV does moving forwards or if he's like he was last year and plays very well in disconnected spurts.

 

To address those:

1) As far as the weight gain goes, I've never endorsed it; I merely pointed out that he weighed into training camp at 275lbs. What he's at now, who knows? I think it has certainly helped his ability to set the edge and he did so in preseason as well as Olivier Vernon did today. Obviously that has to play out when he returns. Hopefully Dion stays away from the m---- while he's suspended.

2) This one has to play out. Vernon did well today. Let's see how he does against Buffalo next week. They gashed Miami on the ground last year, especially in the second contest. This will be a test for OV. If he plays the run as well as he did today and generates pass-rush, I'll start conceding this one.

3) You can throw this one out as it applies to me. I've clearly stated multiple times that I still want him as a specialized matchup player in sub-packages and 3rd down situations.

 

I was at the OSU game last night...unfortunately. I do travel there from time-to-time for work. I might also be up for the OSU vs. UC game later this month. I'll let you know.

 

Yeah, you're probably right.

I just find this funny as that's like the worst possible throw & decision AFTER you've already fumbled it trying to throw it. And he got rocked too.