Let’s break down some of the scores within the 40-0 drubbing that Adam Gase masterminded.
Joe Flacco 13
Miami Dolphins 0
Flacco didn’t even play a half game.
Ryan Mallett 13
Miami Dolphins 0
Shoulda been 14 but for missed PAT conversion.
Jimmy Smith (a defender) 7
Miami Dolphins 0
CJ Mosley (a defender) 7
Miami Dolphins 0
The cat who ran around the field 0
Miami Dolphins 0
At least we got a tie!
Dolphins Personals Fouls 3
Dolphins Offense 0
You get the idea. And it’s humiliating.
Don’t forget, the Ravens have the WORST run defense in the NFL. Number 32. And Gase couldn’t exploit that at all. Why?
Because he stubbornly ran the same old plays, and Baltimore knew what to expect. Instead, Gase should have studied what OTHER rushers had done against Baltimore. There is no way that Baltimore’s run defense suddenly got better on a short week. No, they didn’t get better. Adam Gase ran Adam Gase plays instead of running plays that other teams trounced the Ravens with.
Pitchouts and draw plays have destroyed the Ravens all year. And you know how many of those Adam Gase called last night? You got it, ZERO. Stubborn, arrogant loser.
To make matters worse, some unknown running back who they showed River Dancing with a bunch of little boys gained a hundred yards, while Jay Ajai got squat.
It’s amazing to me you could watch last night games and blame anything but the offensive line. If you thinking running to the outside would be better your crazy. If you want to run outside you need better blockers than if you wanted to run inside, and Miami has terrible run blocking tackles. 2nd off yea the screens don’t work but what else can you call when at tops Matt Moore gets 2 seconds to throw it. In football there are only so many routes that can work in under 2 seconds so of course the offense is going to look predictable. The run game simply doesn’t work because the oline is the worst in football, without consistent blocking play calling doesn’t really matter. And to make things worse Matt Moore is not a great quaterback. The dude has no real strengths, not a great arm, not great accuracy, he just has heart and if he doesn’t get massive amounts of help last night is what happens.
I don’t disagree. Let’s clearly state that the O line fails us time and time again.
So whose job is it to get it corrected? THAT’s where my admonishment of Gase comes in. When 5 men cannot do the job, then you simply add a sixth. Baltimore did it, and Tony Romo pointed it out. It worked.
If 6 linemen don’t work, then you add a 7th. 2 tight ends (or 2 extra tackles) + the QB is 8 people. That leaves 3 WRs with an empty backfield, or else keep Ajayi back and put Stills and Landry on either side.
There are things to try. Ways to innovate. Changes to make out of desperation when nothing else works. Adam Gase does NONE of that. Instead, he says, “The line missed their assignments” No shit!! They’ve been missing for several years, and you do nothing about it.
Even after this since they went on their streak last year they have the 3rd best regular season record in football. 3rd best. Only behind KC and patsies. Imagine if they actually had a oline and aren’t on their 3rd QB option. We do have reasons to complain but in reality the Fins could easily be the browns.
It’s hard to put extra linemen on the field when first your already down a couple because of injuries and second the 6th guy is even worse than the 5 already on the field. Baltimore has depth up front that’s why they can do the overload packages with extra linemen. Miami has no depth and has terrible starters at oline. I put 100% of the blame on the gm and ownership. This has been a huge issue since Joe philbins first year with the team. Hell tannehill might be great for all we know, he at least put up 20 points a game with this garbage oline.
The tone was set at the beginning of the game, the officials just ignored late hit after late hit on Matt Moore by the Ravens and nary one flag was thrown. No way, I say no wayyy Tom Brady would have gotten abused like that in the least. I’m not making excuses, but the camera doesn’t lie. And Admin, you’re right, Gase is the worst play caller I’ve ever seen. The Dolphins offensive plays were so predictable to the point where even I was sitting there in my east chair watching the game and easily guessing what plays the Dolphins were going to run next.
And like said Admin, I saw no adjustments on the offensive line by Gase and that caused the Dolphins defense to be on the field a staggeringly amount of time.
FYI, the Ravens run defense has been bad because NT Brandon Williams missed four games due to injury. His first game back was Thursday night and as we all saw he makes a huge difference.
Can’t make adjustments when your that bad upfront. I don’t know what you expect him to adjust to. Run quick hitting plays, well they do that already and it doesn’t work. Try to run it more outside, they can’t even set blocks on the edge consistently. Literally 75% of regular NFL plays Miami can’t run because of the oline. So of course it’s predictable Gase literally says this in the post game press conference every time. Also if what he said about the players not studying and learning the playbook is true it’s definatly not all on him. Miami actually has a coach who has some fire and seems to give a shit when we lose. I like that.
As I mentioned earlier even for all of our complaints they still have the 3rd best record in the NFL since last season. No way this was happening under philbin. But Agreed if the oline was better this team could reach its full potential. Why doesn’t the front office realize this?
For three years I have been commenting here (well the last three seasons it may be 2+ years) and I have consistently lambasted the offensive line.
They have certainly upgraded from the turnstile twins and Tunsil will be good for a long time but this has to be Pounces last year…. PLEASE the guy USED to be a pro bowl center but that was so long ago only statisticians at ESPN remember it.
I havn’t harped on it much because they had so much to fix on the defensive side of the ball last year and to their credit it looks like (Except for the Jets game) they are on the right track with the D.
Tannehill getting hurt really screwed up a lot of things and one of them is the Oline because with his athleticism he had to keep the defenders at home in their lanes. Defenses have teed off on cutler and Moore knowing they can’t outrun my grandmother with her walker to the kitchen. This puts a lot of stress on the OLine.
Sure Moore couldn’t set protections right, he had two days of work with the starters all year! Sure Ajia couldn’t pick up a 3rd down blitzer because Gase takes him out of the game on most 3rd downs and on top of that when there are two lineman and a LB in the backfield a second after the snap who the hell is he supposed to block anyhow?
I’m sure this is the draft we get some more help on the OL. They went cheap this year because they had much bigger needs but we need an OL once and for all. If Moore would have had anytime to throw the ball last week we may still have lost but not the bloodbath we saw.
Also the Defense has been on the field A LOT this year. Remember the game against the Jets they played a ton of snaps and then in Baltamore they were on the field all night. They were just gassed.
Hard to blame them…..
The Offense has to pick up 1st downs…..
One thing I liked about the aftermath of the Baltimore game is Gase getting fed up and finally telling us the truth. He isn’t the worst play caller on the planet his players limit him because they aren’t prepared.
Well lets go Gase. Put your money where your mouth is and sit Landry, Thomas and fasano those guys look lost the last few games.
Lets see what happens…….. but without Tannehill teams will continue to exploit the OL all day and kill our QBs
Sorry I meant to say – Except for the Baltimore game
I havn’t harped on it much because they had so much to fix on the defensive side of the ball last year and to their credit it looks like (Except for the Jets game) they are on the right track with the D.
As bad as the line is, it falls upon the head coach to make something work.
Look, this is an extreme example, But say we had 5 old ladies playing on the O-line. You’d adjust your offense to run some lightning-fast pass plays or else call a ton of pitchouts….ANYTHING to get the ball way from the defenders who you know are about to charge, You know your line sucks, so you try something new.
You do NOT say, Well Grandma #1 forgot her blocking assignment, and #2 didn’t pull, and #3 missed her gap, etc.
We get it Gase. The line sucks. But part of why they suck is you ask them to do the same things repeatedly but hope for a new result.
What would you have him do? He tried screens he tried throwing quick hits to the flats he tossed it to Ajai four times in the first half and they all got blown up for losses!
You couldn’t run any routs more then five yards without your QB getting killed and the RB ran more then five yards one time the whole game.
If there’s a criticism that I think sticks with Gase it’s that plays that work he doesn’t stay with.
Caroo was given a ten yard cushion most of the game he exploited it twice with a comeback route. That should have been played over and over until they doubled him! Then Gase should’ve moved him to the other side and done it again.
You mentioned rollouts but not with Moore. The more he runs the more picks he throws but if the offense was stripped back to basics why couldn’t they have run some hurryup.
The Dolphins Trade Ajayi for a fourth round pick? What don’t we know?
Gase and Ajayi have butted heads since the beginning. Gase may have valid reasons for putting him in the dog house, as he has complained about players not putting the effort in and not following assignment. However, I hate this move because there is no one to step up behind him, he isn’t solely to blame as Williams and Drake have been atrocious also, and the O-line is not opening holes for him. This moves seems like he’s just trying to remind the team who’s in charge, but at the cost of someone who did great things for us last year?
Idk about this trade but I will say ajayi does have a high potential for injury because of the previous knee injuries he had. Maybe Miami just didn’t want to pay him and felt like this was the best deal they could get. Still this seems like a poor return for a pro bowl running back who did play well last year.
I agree! I think we could have gotten a 4th round pick at the end of the year for him. To bad this trade wasn’t for our Pro Bowl Center then it would have made more sense.
I’m guessing that he was missing assignments whether it be blocking or pass catching that’s why he wasn’t out there on 3rd down. Hurt the offence. Gase said that guys weren’t doing their homework or willing to so that was probably it. Either way it sucks but what can you do?
I’m guessing that Williams doesn’t have the overall talent but does all of that. Perhaps give Drake a better opportunity maybe his effort is far better. Not throwing Jay Train under the bus as the oline is bad but they obviously felt that he wasn’t doing enough. Hurt the overall offence.
Seems in football trades you never get enough though….
Just made our new blog post on this. Let us know your thoughts.