As if it weren’t bad enough last week, the Dolphins need to absolutely abandon this ridiculous concept of twin offensive coordinators. Whoever is calling the plays needs to be relieved of his duties immediately. This falls upon head coach Brian Flores, and it’s a really good test of his leadership. It’s not too late to salvage the season, but Flores must demonstrate that he’s not too stubborn to make necessary changes.
On a Sunday when their defense gave up 31 points, the offense cost us this game. But not necessarily the players. No, it was the playcalling.
This is something that you won’t read elsewhere, but I’m gonna tell you the one play that cost us a victory. It was in overtime when we were already in field-goal range. We faced third down and three. We were down by three points, and a field goal would tie the game. But there is no way whatsoever that we should’ve played for that tie. It was absolutely imperative to pick up that first down and to keep moving the ball.
We had the Raiders on the ropes. And they just lost one of their DBs to an injury. First down keeps the drive alive, keeps us moving toward a winning touchdown, and takes advantage of a gasping Raider defense. Instead, however, the dual tandem of offensive coordinators dialed up a garbage pass to Mike Gesicki, which lost yardage.
When you need 3 yards, you don’t throw the ball 2 inches. You run a quick slant. You run a quarterback rollout. You run a quarterback draw. You run an out route to Will Fuller, which just worked a minute ago on a two-point conversion. You run Malcolm Brown right up the gut. And most importantly, you play with urgency.
Brian Flores needed to call a time out before that play. He needed to ignore whatever Garbage that the two coordinators were dialing up, and jog his ass out onto the field and get into the Dolphins huddle. He needed to tell his offense that we don’t want to rely on Jason Sanders. We want you fellas to get this first down like your life depends on it; this is the play of the season right here and we need absolutely to pick up this first down.
Instead, however, he was content with letting Tweedledum and Tweedldouche call a play that was doomed from the start. You’re asking Mike Gesicki to run horizontally across the entire line of scrimmage and then cut up field once he’s passed all the lineman. It never happened. Flores handed the entire game to the Raiders on that one play. The Raiders were giving us that field goal. They wanted the ball back, And Brian Flores fell right into their trap.
And I can’t let this column go by without mentioning the gift safety we gave them. On first and 10 deep deep deep in our own end zone, we decided to throw a 1 yard pass. In my whole life I’ve never seen a completed pass go for a safety. It just shows you how poorly that play was designed. It’s not like there were two Dolphins over there who both missed their blocks. No, there were no Dolphins nearby. The play was designed for Jaylin muff Waddle to catch the ball and break free from a tackler or two. But the way it played out, the play took so long to develop that the defensive back was in Waddle’s Lap as soon as he caught the ball.
Waddle and Jacoby Brissett are not to blame. That play call should never ever be made so deep in your own territory. This makes two weeks in a row where the playcalling is absolutely ruining our team.
I hope that Brian Flores understands that. I also hope he corrects it immediately.
As expected, Flores and Brissett are being lambasted for the safety play. Flores, as usual, says he will need to take another look at it. However, as I indicate in the column above, we gave up not one but two separate scoring drives in overtime. The defense failed us there. But only because we made it easy for the Raiders by settling for a field goal instead of fighting for a touchdown
I was finally able to listen to the game on the radio today and I have to tell you although I couldn’t see the game it sounds like this Brissett played his tail off and in my opinion what’s his name franchise QB should stay home for about 12 more weeks. Unfortunately what choice does flo have now with OC? Who would he bring in to replace this nightmare? He’s shown no ability to bring in coaches. I believe Chan gaily was a Ross acquisition not flo. There was one other thing I kept hearing the play by play guys griping about and that was that play after play there were no receivers open. There were some plays that Brissett threw the ball and the receiver, Parker I think, had to take it out of the DBs hands he was covered so tight. The inability of our recivers to get open is a plague this team has felt with for a long time and it’s totally unacceptable. These guys need to be able to create separation. Also the Dolphins need to come up with three plus they can run to geaikie when we need to pick up 3-7 yards like Marino had with OJ Mcduffy. Everyone used to know what Marino was going to do in 3rd and 4 but they couldn’t stop it and OJ hardly dropped the ball. This crap of not being able to convert 3rd downs is crazy.
Gailey was all Flo. Gailey took us from 5 wins (under Chad O’Shea) to 10 (under Gailey), and then Flo fired him.
Brissett played well, but he gave the Raiders 2 points and the ball when they needed it to get back in the game, and he almost got Waddle killed. I don’t blame Brissett. The play calling was atrocious.
This was a colossal coaching failure on both offense and defense. Offense, the safety play has already been covered but the fact that they didn’t run a decent offense until midway threw the 4th hasn’t. The raiders were giving short intermediate routes all night and were taking away deep but nothing like crossing routes or 5-6 yards over the middle until the fourth. The offense is a total mess. Now the defense, it sucks. It can not be relied on in any tight situation. It relies only on the prospect of turnovers. The raiders new this and waited for the blitz then audibled to backfield throws and short crossing routes and no one adjusted. This was David vs Goliath from a coaching stand point. And on a more basic level, this team loses every up front battle and subsequently can’t stop the run. I think I counted twice where a Miami D-lineman was in their backfield on a run. I hate to say it but the rebuild has failed, period.
Correct “threw to through” and “new to knew”, stupid auto-correct
There are a lot of plays I will analyze during the week, but truly the coaching is getting destroyed weekly by the opposition. We’ve given up 82 friggin points in only 3 games. We blitzed at all the wrong times, and Carr ate us up. Gruden is so much smarter than our DC. Giving up TWO scoring drives in Overtime is simply unheard of. I know it’s occurred, but come on! Oakland had the ball twice in OT and we couldn’t get a single stop. Not one! That falls on horrible play from the D
Not trying to makes excuses for the defense or more specifically the defensive play calling, BUT can you really fault the players? They were on the field for 85% of the game! They were EXHAUSTED by the time OT rolled around. If our Offense can sustain any sort of drives and give this defense a rest, I think we would be seeing a MUCH improved D than what we’ve seen thus far!
I can’t argue about the D being on the field too much. But at crunch time…the two overtime drives…the D was well rested. When it counted most, we had a long drive to end regulation, then 10 full minutes of OT prep and coin toss, etc. They were rested. We couldn’t stop the Raiders, so our offense got the ball back and had another long FG drive. Again, our D got plenty of rest there. I agree with your point in the 2nd and 3rd Qs, but when it counted, the D coordinator had us blitzing at all the wrong times with all the wrong personnel. As usual, the opponent adjusted and we did not.
Also cannot argue you point(s). As I stated in my original comment, the play calling was atrocious, but that’s not on the players.
I think the Raiders defense was just as tired as ours in the OT. I’m shocked there were no blown coverages in OT, due to exhaustion, on either side.
We need to toss out the wildcat from our playbook. It hasn’t worked in years and everyone knows the team is gonna run. Horrible play calling
Because all I could see of the game was on Red Zone though in OT it was quite a bit…Admin, what you say above is on target…I think this ridiculous offensive duo thing has to go and fast! Lab experiment failed. What really stuck out to me in OT was the huge chunk of yards Carr threw for and set them up for the winning FG…geezus, the defense looked like a bunch girls out there not wanting to mess up their mani!! Might as well have taken them off the field and let them put the ball where they wanted it. Awful defense that was supposed to be better than this! They were last season. I did not see the safety but I’m totally with you! I don’t think Brissett was that bad at all and actually the guy puts himself right in there and doesn’t shy away from anything…contrast to Tua IMO. I been saying this all along, we are doomed until this owner croaks bec. he’s not that interested in a winning football team that way the other owners are. Dolphins are a trinket ticket for him to hang with the other billionaires…he’s all in to his real estate. Need to change the GM too…his crapped picks for MIA are giving other teams much better players…tired of this after too many years…we should have gone for Sam Darnold.
YES!!! I agree with everything that has been said. The play-calling yesterday was disastrous. The D let us down at some critical moments… all in all it was a game we coulda/shoulda won and just couldn’t get out of our own way to make it happen. BUT the one thing I agree with MOST of all is Grier has to go. I read a report on ESPN that Flores actually preferred Herbert but Grier ultimately went with Tua. I’m watching the LAC/KC game nearly in tears because that SHOULD have been our QB and he is clearly destined to be a top 5 QB in this league. I’m still not even convinced Tua can ever be more than mediocre.
“I read a report on ESPN that Flores actually preferred Herbert but Grier ultimately went with Tua. ”
Interesting. There are always a lot of coulda/shoulda rumors out there, and you never know what to believe. The rumors about Ross wanting DeShaun Watson still persist, and there may be truth to all of these.
Unlike the people bashing the Dolphins on this day after the game against the Raiders, I’m here to say that I was proud of this team. The Dolphins went into the Raiders stadium as an overwhelmed underdog who had to play it’s second string QB against one of the best teams in the NFL. And regardless of all the snafus we saw, the Dolphins broke up the Raiders and the Raiders know it. I bet right now the Raiders are licking their wounds and are a little worried about their next game. And that non defensive penalty call that robbed Fuller in the end zone was a gift the officials gave the Raiders. No Dolfan can tell me that they didn’t somewhat worry about how many points the Raiders were going to put up on the Dolphins and how atrocious the Dolphins were going to look.. especially after that Goose egg we saw against Buffalo in Dolphins stadium last week. Was I happy with everything I saw, no. Did things turn out better than I expected, yes. And the Dolphins, even though they lost the game, can return back to South Florida with their heads held high.
Phil is at a point where I will be tomorrow. The anger subsides, and then I focus on the positives. He’s a day ahead of me.
I am proud of the players. The O-line played a million times better than last week.
Too many guys are a work in progress, but we’ll see where it goes.
The coaching is awful. The play designs are too easy for the opponent to exploit. That part will still gnaw at me, but at least the players themselves improved from 35-0
I was proud they fought hard bec. no one (even me) was giving them any chance to come in and be 14 points up and get some instant street cred at that point. Was I and the rest of us frustrated bec. we could have pulled this out? Of course…that stadium picks up where the one in Oakland left off with wild fans (I do love that!) that can kill the opponent’s buzz.
It’s what this team COULD BE if it was built with more knowledgeable scouts and a GM not taking the picks he has been…look past those popular picks bec. we’ve been there done that way too many times. Coach Flores may need to have a come to Jesus with his coaches.