First off, I expected us to lose today so the win was a very pleasant surprise. That's about the nicest thing I have to say because it really wasn't a game...it was more like three scrimmage practices. We won the 1st 10-7, tied 0-0 in the 2nd and won the 3rd 17-13. I was extremely upset about the way they handled today though because the Titans lost five important starters to injury- and that just as easily could have been 5 Dolphins. How would you feel if we lost Tannehill, James, Stills, McMillian and Wake today on a wet field where players weren't allowed to warm up after a 2+ hour delay (TWICE)? You'd be pretty livid and I feel that for Tennessee...that's basically what they lost. Play was sloppy in the 2nd play period and downright ugly at times in the 3rd....this game should have been put off until tomorrow in the name of player safety. Anyway, onto the game review. Let me point out though that most of my comments are for the first half only though before any sense of rhythm was destroyed. 1st, Minkah Fitzpatrick is an absolute stud! He missed an open field tackle that would have prevented a 1st down, but then had that massive tackle on 4th and goal to set up our best drive of the day. This kid was swarming everywhere and he's soon going to be considered the best player on our defense. A+++ for Minkah's debut....and he would have got 5 more +'s if he caught that interception that he read so beautifully. 2nd, Gore and Drake both looked excellent in the first half....and that's because our line was blowing people out the door. Seriously folks, Tannehill had almost zero pressure in the first half and you could have driven a bus between most of those holes. Gore intentionally ran over a few people though and we're going to have a very nice 1-2 punch this season. A+ for the run game and the offensive line in general. 3rd, Tannehill is 100% back and he's going to be freaking lethal this year. The Gisecki pick was 100% RT with bad ball placement and the 2nd pick was more like, "What the hell, let's throw the bomb again and see what happens." Other than those two throws, RT was carving up the field and making all the right decisions. B- for Tannehill overall, A+ for the first half I just looked it up, he was an 89.9 on the day. Not bad at all considering he had 2 picks. 4th is Devante Parker....the WR1 that we didn't seem to miss at all. Grant is going to have a huge year, Wilson is as slippery as a snake, and Amendola is a true pro with great hands. I was so frustrated that we stopped play because we had everything going for us with that 98 yard drive....and you could just see that this team was clicking. And how about Jakeem Grant? Darn I love that little fella! He played like a stud all afternoon and that KO return looked too darn easy. Grant is going to the Pro Bowl this season folks. A- for our receivers 5th was our secondary, and this one's a lot harder to gauge because of the two huge timeouts. McCain got beat several times but he's scrappy as hell and kept competing. Jones, McDonald and Fitz all had solid afternoons. Howard didn't do anything because they weren't even going to test him...which tells us all we need to know there. They weren't nearly as good in the 2nd half but nobody was on either side of the ball, so I'm not going to judge that under the circumstances. Jones was awesome all day long...LOL, he wanted that TD so darn bad! A- for the first half, C+ overall. Last but not least, our front seven looked like ball players in the first half. I didn't catch the total run yards at the 1 minute mark, but it was minimal. Our boys were crashing through those holes hard and making excellent plays. Kiko's INT on the first play after the 2nd layover almost felt unfair somehow...it was a very good effort play. A- for the 1st half, C- overall. As for Adam Gase, I guess the biggest compliment I can give is that he trusted his guys to get the job done. If it wasn't for the delays I have a feeling that this one would have been a blowout...we just looked that fluid on that 98 yard drive. Yet I don't see how we can judge the 2nd half after so many layovers. Even when we were playing, the game was stopping every other play to take a Titan to the hospital. Anyway, it was a great win on many different levels today and I'm taking back my prediction of losing to the Jets next week- this is a winning team that's not going to slouch against weaker competition. Even though it came in brief spurts, I saw all I needed to see from this offense to have a heck of a lot of confidence.
You have to hope they don't try forcing Parker into a #1 role. Have him come off the bench and work him in as a 3 or 4. See if it lights anything. Would be great if the lights turned on, but he's been an enormous disappointment, and it would be a shame to take touches away from guys that have come out and made explosive and tough plays like Grant and Wilson. Trying to force feed Parker is going to be a bad mistake if they try it to get him going. Nice write-up!
I agree...we really didn't miss him at all today and I hope they don't rush him back either. I would not personally put Wilson or Grant on the bench to make room for Parker at this point. Both of them are perfect for a hurry-up offense.
I agree with you, except for McDonald playing well. Saw him miss a couple straight up tackles, be late in coverage and take a couple bad angles, one being the long run by Henry. He made a couple nice plays as well, but his bad far out weighted his good IMO.
Those were mostly in the 2nd half though- it's the only reason I didn't bring them up. There were so many guys moving at half speed in the 2nd half that it really didn't feel like a game to me. Most of them hadn't eaten since 9:30 AM and I think both teams were burnt out from all the waiting. You're right though...he did choke on a few later in the game.
I expected us to win this game, so much so that I actually went to the casino and put $50 on Miami. I can't recall the last time I did that. It has to be 10 maybe 15 years ago. I think that if the delay hadn't happened we win by more. Our defense looked much worse after the delays.
IMO, we can't "except for that one INT in the endzone" and then give RT a passing grade. That fails him. You throw an INT in the redzone on that type of horrible throw, and your QB rating max should be 50--if you do everything else perfect. RT is a mudder, he's a grinder, but he's not a playoff caliber QB. I know he works hard "each and every day"...but each and every game, he makes bonehead plays. Not a fan, any longer. I want him gone.
How other QBs in football could have made that 2nd Kenny Stills throw? 55 yards in the air into a tight window where only his receiver can catch it (and catch in stride) all in a pocket that was starting to collapse. Rodgers and Brees definitely. Apart from them, Brady doesn’t have the arm strength, I don’t think Luck’s placement is good enough, I’m not sure if River’s arm is still strong enough but 2 or 3 years ago definitely, Flacco and Eli Manning would be very hit or miss, maybe Wilson but he doesn’t throw many deep balls into tight windows. That was one of the best passes you’ll see all season and he showed in 2016 he can make those kinds of passes often enough so it wasn’t a one off fluke. As for the Gisecki interception, there was more failure in play/design and call (Butler obviously knew what was happening) and Gisecki losing his feet in the wet conditions than with Tannehill. It was far from a good throw by Tannehill, but other guys did worserer on that play.
Tuesday morning, and happy as hell we won. I have to hand it to the diehard fans that stayed at the stadium. That was one exhausting afternoon/evening. Props to our team for hanging in tough for the win. It would have been easy to lose focus and energy, so glad they didn't. Watching the RT after game presser. Glad to hear him admit he wasn't as sharp as he wants to be. He left a lot of plays on the field and would love to have some of them back. He knows we still have a lot of work to do to get better. My take is it was game 1 and we got a win. We have only up to go. IMO, as long as we are getting wins it's better to peak later in the season when the games count. If we continue to build on each game, and get better by the week, hopefully we will make the playoffs.
Overall I think there were a lot of positives with a few frustrations. Tackling was an issue again on several occasions. With that we seemed to have issues defending the run. We had, though, a good number of passes defended so that was good to see. Two areas that looked bad but seemed to improve during the game were play calling and penalties. They give me pause going forward but I think I saw less bubble screen and stupid run calls and more roll outs etc. Hopefully that will continue to improve. The team looked resilient with a lot of momentum regained but perhaps the delays factored into that giving the players fresh legs throughout. Offensive line looked reasonable. Would have liked to see some sacks from our DL though.
TJ Mcdonald was horrible. Minka looks like a STUD Tannehill to me was disappointing. What was with the 3rd and long wr screen again, or the 3rd and long crosser to Wilson (he made the first down) the Titans left a receiver uncovered. The third n short hurry up for no gains were bad. Gore looks really good, what a great inside runner. Jakeem with a TD when we really needed on the kick return. I wish we would involve the tight ends more. The pick in endzone was a bad throw and a bad play call IMO. I wanted Gore on the field and pound the ball in, and save the pass for third down.
That's the story of Tannehill's life here..."(I know he sucked), but other guys did worserer..." Every single one of his endless and mindless faults is glossed over exactly like this.
Great post Key! My quick thoughts: Tannehill- I think he showed that when he gets protection he's really good. He started to roll there right before the first delay. Yes, he had a horrible INT on that EZ fade, but also, this was his first game in over 600 days. The 2nd INT, I believe, was he and Gant not being on the same page. They'll do more gelling as the season goes on. B+ O-line: Finally! After Tunsil settled down they liked a legit NFL line. A Gore: Stud. Beast. A Drake: Stud. Beast. Should have gotten that 2nd foot down on the one play. A WR's/TE's- They all played well. Couple drops, couple wrong routes. A Minkah Fitz: Dude can play. I haven't been this excited about a Dolphin's rookie since, well, I can't even remember. A++ DL: They played well. The Titans game planned well and were getting the ball out fast so it was hard to get sacks, but the pressure was there. B+ LB: Let's just say that ATM, I'm not overly concerned. There were a few washouts, overruns, mistakes, but other than Kiko (who didn't have a bad game) the rest are very young and I expect this unit to only get better. B Jones: F'n beast! A++ McDonald: I was disappointed yesterday. He missed a few tackles, let TE's/WR's get too much separation at times...I hope (and think) he just had a bad game and will tighten things up next week. C Howard: Good game. Nothing flashy, but good. B McCain: See Howard. B This is just my $.02 after watching a very weird game. I haven't done any in-depth looks yet, and the delay's, I'm sure, had an impact on play. Bottom line...this team hung in there, looked tough, physical, and fast! I don't want to get my hopes up, but if they keep improving I will!
lol...He had a 90 passer rating after missing 600 days of football. I can find one bonehead play from any QB in any game. Yes, it pissed me off. Yes, it was a bad throw. But wanting him gone for one throw is laughable. Come on man! lol
He completed like 72% of his passes. He averaged 12 yards per completion. He threw 2 TD's. He's not Aaron Rodgers, but man, he's a good QB.
Some guys are just gonna focus on the negative and ignore the rest because it suits their narrative. Andrew Luck look ok but didn't look great yesterday. Wasn't he out last season as well? Yes, yes he was. That's no excuse. Cut him! Did you see Rothlesburger yesterday? Wow, just wow. One of his picks was thrown into triple coverage. CUT HIM NOW!!!!!!! Dak Prescott lost a fumble last night and cost them the chance at a comeback. Cut his *** too! Aaron Rodgers got hurt. He's injury-prone. Cut him! Garrapalo & Wilson both lost. They suck. Cut them!
Hardly. its not one play...this is THE kind of play that Tannehill continues to make. He never stops making this kind of play. That his passer rating can be over 90 with a total redzone meltdown shows just how irrelevant passer rating is on QB play.
True. And the other fact is Tannehill is never going to be elite. Hes going to the guy that puts up high comp % and chokes in the redzone.
I get some of these guy’s are a little overzealous with their Tanne takes, but he has been a pretty good red zone QB I think maybe even top 1-2 in 2016. Ryan can drive Gase’s offense pretty damn well and that’s about all you can hope for when you don’t have one of the elite QBs who are franchise changers.
Lol...I love when Tannehill gets compared to Super Bowl winning QBs. Ben sucked yesterday, but hes won 2 SBs. Wilson was actually ok, but he did lose...but hes led team to 2 SBs. Aaron Rodgers did get hurt...and showed why he's legend. Prescott is a young QB on a horribly coached team. Andrew Luck is a very talented QB. He makes great throws...has taken team to AFCCG. Point is, history matters. it especially matters with Tannehill. His history is one of being a bonehead.
Yes...these QB's are the only people on their team. They throw, run, and catch their own passes. They also block for themselves and have no coaching staffs. But, your Prescott excuse is more comedy genius. Luck and RT have nearly the SAME stats, but Luck throws great and RT doesn't? Ma'am, you don't know football. lol
I agree with you- that could be a "game losing" throw in future weeks and I'm sure Tannehill is getting an ear-full in the film room today. That was a bad play and 100% his fault. At the same time though, he made up for it with the Stills pass and that's what we ultimately need in a quarterback...the ability to bounce back. He got leveled on the one sack of the game ad limped off the field as well- that was scary. But he bounced back from that as well. Plain and simple, we lost the game yesterday without Tannehill. Neither Fales or Osweiler makes that throw to Stills. So while I agree with you that we need to be critical about red zone mistakes, you can't judge anyone by a single play. I'll take a single bone-headed mistake in a game we win any day of the week, and yesterday will easily be the toughest game of the season because of the way it played out (7+ hours, no chance to build a rhythm, exhausted players, etc. in the first game of the year). We were night and day better over the week 1 game in Seattle two years ago where we couldn't move the ball at all, and a huge part of that is the difference in offensive line. This team will win a lot of football games this season and I'd be shocked if it's not RT's best year ever statistically. So don't get too worked up over one really bad throw YET...there's a lot of football left to play.
I wish I could have actually SEEN the game but thanks to the NFL's rules in Central Florida that is Verboten. But I will say I really believed the Offense would be much better this year and it looks like they are on their way.
You are correct-'my football knowledge compared to most in this board is extremely lacking. I am the casual-est of fans. My ranting usually have very little relevance and ABSOLUTELY ZERO expertise. You are also correct about Dak... I liked him very much at Mississippi state and I have never liked the coach of the Cowboys! I have no idea if Prescott is a good QB. But you do make my point in your first paragraph. We have to use all those excuses...its not RT...its bad line, bad coaching, bad WRs, no running game, bad refs...and you may very well be exactly right. It may be all of those things, and I am too damn dumb to know the difference. I'm just ranting about wanting a better QB.
There is a world of difference between excuses and reasons. The fact that people still don't get that is incredible.
Yes. And usually there are both...I'll give you an example. There was a reason RT threw that ball the way he did on his INT in the red zone. The reason is the amount of force he threw the ball with. Another reason was how much arc he put on it. Another reason is the play that was called. But in the end, there is NO excuse for him making such a piss poor effort. Am I making sense? Is that irrational?
No, saying that was a poor pass is not irrational. It's true. If you blame ONLY Tannehill for that play, that is irrational. Does that explain my position?
I loved Tannehill's pocket presence all night. He was shifting, sliding and stepping up incredibly well. He moved better in the pocket than I've ever seen him. Even when he got outside the pocket he moved so well. When he was moved to the left he would stop and square his shoulders before throwing. It was beautiful watching his footwork finally develop.
He under threw it. Did I cringe. Yes. I didn't like the call as even the announcers called the play before it happened. Everyone knew it was coming. Did it cost us the game. No. It could have but it didn't.
I do not understand the dislike of the call. Everyone knew the play was going to happen but that is not a bad thing. Everyone should know and the play should work. If it does it opens up Miami's redzone playcalling as people will have to account for it. I hated the execution, I loved the play call
I agree. Which is also why I'm harping on the other parts that were bad, not simply the throw. Tannehill could have thrown a perfect ball yesterday, and it wouldn't have been completed.
