Of all the shame and anger I felt as a Dolphin fan today, and out of all the inevitable things that occur when you play a superior team, I am most upset by the one thing the Dolphins COULD control.
The Dolphin defenders are not talented enough to stop a surprisingly good offense. And the Dolphin offense and its patchwork newcomer linemen were simply outclassed.
I can live with that.
But what I couldn’t stand for was the lack of effort and pride. Ahead by 32 points, Jim Harbaugh called for a fake punt. That is a bush-league, dick move. Ahead by more than 40 points, Harbaugh called for long bombs. He went for it on 4th down. He left his starters in well into the 4th quarter. He called passing plays late into the game. Nothing illegal about any of this, but he showed why he is so hated everywhere in the NFL except in Maryland.
And the Dolphins offered zero retaliation. None.
Fine, so you’re facing a head coach who likes to rub it in. He goes out of his way to humiliate you. There are two ways to counter this. First, you come back and win the game. But we knew early on that it was impossible.
So the second way you counter this is to make the Ravens pay some other way. And that would be by smacking around a few of them.
Maybe an “accidental” late hit on Lamar Jackson, with a wink to Harbaugh. Or a shot to someone’s knees, taking the penalty, and then on your way out of the stadium after your ejection, you say to Harbaugh, “Go ahead and run another fake punt, you bitch.” Or a good old fashioned triple team on someone to knock them on their ass.
You simply MUST send a message to Harbaugh that calling for long bombs and fake punts while you’re up 46 points won’t be tolerated in our house.
Instead, Flores sent no message.
Can’t fault Flores for having no skilled players, but I can fault him for having no backbone.
I paid attention the post-game handshake, and Flores did nothing. Said nothing. Let Harbaugh get away with it without even speaking up. Weak. And not a single Dolphin seemed to take matters into their own hands. That’s another sign of weak leadership.
If we are going to have a weak coach, we might as well get Philbin back. At least he never lost by 46 points.
In addition, why was he calling time outs with 30 seconds left in the game? He was more interested in making his own team suffer than in making Jim Harbuagh think twice. It was a thousand degrees on that field, and Flores called timeouts. Instead of ending the misery. Yeah, that really taught the Ravens a lesson about running up the score.
Flores gave us zero indication that he knows what he’s doing, and even less indication that he coaches a tough brand of football. Man, he himself was overmatched, and that leaves a worse feeling than the the way our crappy players were overmatched.
I can’t believe in Flores since he pointed out that this team is a good one. There were also some other comments by him which were at least questionable. This will be a season where the Dolphins will play 16 pre season games. Flores will loose the locker very soon. There will be a new coaching stuff again next year. Hope a new management too
Excellent points, Torsten. Welcome.
Look, I get it. Every coach has to say “My team is good.” But he has to mke them act like they are good, and he has to help them by instilling the right attitude.
If Kiko were still on this team, Lemar Jackson would be on the IR right now.
Do I wish for an injury to anyone? No.
But do I want the Dolphins coach to teach about pride? Hell, yes
Flores will lose the locker room??? He already lost it when he sent Tunsil packing. What self respecting player wants to play for a shit head who lies to you straight faced? Flores said Tunsil wasn’t on the table for a trade – 2 days later Tunsil gets shipped out, one of the best LTs in the NFL who is young, cheap and what you should be building your team around and who was gifted to you on draft day because someone was out to destroy his career. Flores and Grier are idiots, they have lost the locker room already, they lost it when they shipped Tunsil out.
And Flores says it was an ‘execution’ issue. Was that not Gase’s favorite line?
Positively yes. Gase always said stuff like, “My guys are better than their guys, but they didn’t do their job of executing.:”
So running the ball only 37% of the time not helping your oline and D is an execution problem and not poor coaching? News to me same old same old…all of these new coaches don’t get it. You see the good teams establish the run but the Fins with their awesome oline love to toss it around all game. Make themselves one dimensional. 3 and out every series gassing the D. Patsies have Brady and guess what they run the fucking ball meanwhile they ask Fitz or before him tanny to be Marino. To add to this you have 14 new players with an oline who don’t know each others names grab a brain and give them a chance to succeed. Rant over but I’d tell the OC if you don’t balance things especially being a defensive coach you will be gone. Tell the same thing to the new guy until you can find a guy who gets it not some madden PlayStation wannabe….
This is PhinsUp. Long member of this board and for a few years absent. I only wanted to share some things with this board that are on my mind. First, I love my Dolphins and this site. But I cant bring myself to watch a franchise in perpetual self destruct mode. My SanFran and Raiders fans even agree the Dolphins are the training camp for incoming NFL rookies. Once they develop they leave to other teams and shine into pro bowl caliber players. We all know this. Every year Im encouraged by non Dolphin fans as to why Our team will be great this year. I tell them to fucking forget it and uncomfortable silence ensues. Because its the sentiment of the players and even coaching staff as to their current station in the NFL when it comes to being a member of the Dolphins. Nobody sees past the length of their contract and surely ALL consider their next contract with their perceived place with a higher caliber team. Until this perception changes, the losing Dolphins never will stop losing. Today’s spectacle was proof positive that even on home turf, our players will never shine any more than is needed. Playing to avoid injury while wearing the Dolphin logo will always represent the maximum effort we as fans are shown and disrespected with. I dont intend on being a doom and gloom fan. But I’ve had enough of half hearted effort and inexcusable performance to echo my many years of loyalty. To bookend and prove my points. I recall when Sprorano went 4-9 before he was fired as head coach. I watched all of those games and saw a rag tag team fighting with everything they had to win. Many of those games were lost by 3 points or less. I didn’t care so much we lost as much as HOW we lost. I could see a dedicated team trying to turn a corner but cut short by a dipshit owner with zero understanding about competitive development. Losing is one thing, giving up before the kick off is another. And twice as bad this happened at home. As Dolphins fans we all are doing no service to our dreams of a better team by tolerating this terrible product.
Meant with Respect
PhinsUp!
I knew you would come back to our blog one day if the Dolphins had a great season…or unfortunately something like a 59-10 blowout upset you that much!! Man, this was a bad one, wasn’t it?
Just have to hope the line comes together in time. Every other NFL team has had their line practicing together since April. Our line has practiced together since Thursday.
Forget the o-line, 59 points on flores defense “good team”. Hope he’ll be fired asap. Sad Dolphin fan…
What I find concerning is our defense. I expected the offensive struggles with no o-line.
But for our defense to give up 59 points with Xavien Howard, Minkah, and Reshad Jones in the secondary is very worrisome. And from a defensive head coach?
I know we’re tanking but I thought we had the pieces in the secondary. Raven receivers and tight ends were WIDE open!
Yes, great point as well. Our “stars” were getting burned back there. We expect Charles Harris to stink, and we expect Christian Wilkins to need a lot of time to develop. But Minkah getting burned every other play? Xavien and Reshad not even showing up?
Even that new guy from the Canadian league…he got ran over on Ingram’s very first play when he busted the long run to set the tone.
Minkah was disappointing he couldn’t cover any of their hack TE’s. D was never in sync but I’d expect them to get better.
Indy has a young QB and they are running it and guess what? They are in the game. Who would think…obviously Reich who’s a former QB gets it…better than a blow out. Meanwhile Fins actually draft a FB and dress him but he sits on the sideline with a finger up his ass. Like pounding the Ravens D shouldn’t have been tried.
I think their TEs had 14 receptions.I stopped counting at 14 or so.
On the plus side,Arizona is leading in OT,which will help us draft-wise.
There was not 1 positive on either side of the ball for us today. Not one.
I used the term,”bereft of talent” a few times the past few days. Now folks will believe me.
Possible 0-16 and I’m not kidding.
Good news NE doesn’t have a TE should be an automatic win next week…. Sense the sarcasm.
Minkahs response kind of took a shot at coaches:
Cameron Wolfe ESPN Staff Writer
It hasn’t been a smooth Year 1 to 2 for Minkah Fitzpatrick with position and playing time uncertainty. Here’s his take on what went wrong Sunday for the defense: “Guys not locked in, looking at the wrong things. Sometimes we weren’t put in the best position, but even still, it’s up to the players to make the plays. Coach can call whatever he wants but, like on my play, I wasn’t in the best position but I still got to make the play, I’ve got to cover my guy. That’s what I usually do. Just got to do my job.”
Let’s be honest here, Minkah’s strong suit is not covering, at least that is what he has shown at the pro level. When X got injured late last season and he filled in for X, he was the opposing offenses main target because he is a liability in coverage. he has range and he has hands, but his coverage skills leave a lot to be desired.
There are some rumors out there about Dolphin players asking their agents to have them traded. I wouldn’t doubt it after today’s pathetic display. Please Mr. Ross- sell the team!
Just go on Instagram piss of the coach, GM or owner and you can end up on the patsies. Simple solution worked for Brown…you don’t need your agent to do anything.
We have to be patient. The outcome is not a surprise. In the past decade, the Dolphins have been blown out plenty of times and put up zero effort. It happens. Today just rubs me the wrong way to do the lack of pride it seems.
Yeah it’s never as good or bad as it looks although if the coach is fucked well we’re fucked. Can it be as bad as the past idiots???
It should also rub you the wrong way because the Ravens on quite a few plays they blew the Dolphins up, it’s like they knew what was being called and they were all over it. And yes, unlike Gase’s teams, this team gave up before kickoff on opening day.
1 positive today is Gase leading 16-0 and losing 17-16 AT HOME! With the talent they have,I can’t imagine how much more Jets fans hate him now. His bullshit got him a few years here and he fooled the idiots in NY to give him a contract.
Send him back to Miami, Please……
At least Philbin was so bad, his players screamed at him.
With Flores, the players simply didn’t care at all.
The Jets don’t have much talent, in 2 years time Gase will have them in the playoffs – as a matter of fact, they will get into the playoffs before we will, that’s how pathetic Flores and his staff are.
Kyler Murray is the real deal. Josh Rosen is trade bait again
Agreed. But he has 1 more year as a cheap insurance policy after we hopefully draft our franchise QB. Or trade him like you say if we get a cray trade offer.
“Cray”? Cray?
Wait, are you sure you are in your 60s?
I missed the “z”. Otherwise,I would have used cray cray! LOL
68
Murray had a win locked up. Cards’ DB had an incredibly easy pick-6 with like 10 seconds left and he choked.
Every rookie coach showed some promise today except Flores.
Hoe many playoff teams does NE play in the 1st 8 games-none.
That’s about right they get every break. Killing Pitt tonight too without the imbecile brown.
No team with a winning record from now until Week 9
A few positives about today: We scored more than the Bears. We tied the Packers. If not for Harbuagh running up the score like a gutless bitch, plus drops by Williams in the end zone and Grant’s muffed punt, we probably only lose 31-10. Still a loss, but more tolerable. Also, Steelers, PAckers, and many other teams with supposedly good offenses all did nothing in Week one. And Adam Gase lost !
Adding to the positives, Parker seemed to be the only one on offense that showed up with some big plays. It seems like every year is his year but fingers crossed we can get some production from him. The loss didnt sting as bad after watching the steelers get tossed so I totally agree with you! Also Harbaugh is a complete joke, I lost my ish when he ran that fake punt I couldn’t believe what I was watching. Always hate purple week when the ravens come up on schedule, something about them always has rubbed me the wrong way and especially since we always lose to them it just makes me saltier.
Absolutely agree. I’ve criticized Parker since Day One, but he made two outstanding grabs yesterday that I have to give him credit for. Preston Williams looks to be an exciting addition, but I can’t forget that touchdown he dropped. Didn’t squeeze that ball tight enough, and hopefully his coaches point it out.
It was very subtle, but in one of his blogs yesterday, Armando at the Herald FINALLY wrote that Brian Flores is “inexperienced.”
Since his hire, the Herald likes to say that Flores has been working for Belichick for 10 years.
DolphinsTruth always has to point out that his first 5 years was a desk job, as an assistant TO a scouting assistant. It was an office job off site, and I bet BC didn’t even know his name.
Then he spent 4 years working as a helper for for Matt Patricia. Finally last year, he was allowed to call some plays for the Pats (but was never promoted to DC).
Flores is the epitome of inexperience, and it took a 59-point drubbing to make the Herald write the truth finally.
I’m glad Armando is finally copying my site.
Belichick is laughing his ass off..flores is trying to be him, he’s an errand guy. Just hope team will not collapse and want out of Miami which if is true fuck it, sell the team ross
Agreed. Does Ross/Grier think that Belichick is mourning the loss of Flores from his staff? Is Miami better and the Pats weaker since we stole Flores from them?
Did Belichick offer Flores a ridiculous amount of money to keep him (like he did with Josh Mcdaniels)?
It also goes without saying that NO COACH from the Patriots has been successful after leaving New England – which shows that Bill is and will always be why they keep winning. And yes, Flores is garbage. I was pissed when Ross booted Gase in favor of Grier, and even more pissed when they got Flores. And now I just don’t care since they got rid of all of our talent but decided to keep X – not that I have anything against X but it makes no damn sense to have a high priced CB while dumping all of your other young talent like Tunsil and Stills.
At least Philbin was so bad, his players screamed at him.
With Flores, the players simply didn’t care at all.
In 30+ years of being a die-hard, aqua and orange bleeding fan… I’ve never been more disgusted and humiliated.
I was “okay” with tearing down the roster, taking a hit this season with the intention of putting themselves in a position to get a franchise QB and build the team the right way. But a “rebuild” generally means getting rid of high-priced veterans that aren’t playing to their contracts. So okay… love the guy to death but I see where Cam Wake doesn’t fit… BUT how do you trade away perhaps the second most important player on the offensive side (LT) who is a stud and just barely starting to enter his prime? This is a guy you build around. Adding other draft picks aren’t going to mean @!@$#% if they don’t pan out. The point is this… they went WAY overboard on this. The roster is a joke. Gotta love Preston Williams but no team should have as many UDFA’s on their team as they do.
So the roster is garbage (with the exception of maybe a handful of players and that is being generous at this point) but you hope that at least you’re coaching the right way, preparing them to play as best as you can and implementing schemes to put them in a position that they can have as much success as their talent will allow them to have. There was NONE of that. We looked lost and confused on both sides of the ball the entire game. If not for some outstanding catches by DeVante and Preston it would have been a shutout.
And here is what frustrates me the most… yes… we’re going to have a lot of high draft picks and MAYBE we’ll hit big on some of them… and we’ll have ~125 million under the cap to get guys in…. but who is going to want to come to Miami and join this shit show? If we can’t turn things around and at least show that we have some “promise” that we can be a better team I don’t care how much money we throw at them they are all going to pull a Jadeveon Clowney and say “no way will I ever play for you”….
So the future isn’t looking all that promising either…
Very well said.
On the play when Jackson hit Hollywood Brown on that 75-yard TD, we rushed 3 men. Ravens had 6 linemen/blockers back to face 3 Dolphin rushers.
That’s 6 against 3, and I don’t care if we rush Taylor, Buonaconti, and Wake…3 is not gonna beat 6.
It’s that same garbage defense that teams try against New England. “We are only gonna rush 3 players, and 8 will drop deep so that he will have nowhere to throw the ball.”
Just ask the Rams and Falcons and Chiefs how that works our for them.
Garbage coaching.
Yeah, I was really hoping Flores despite his inexperience would have that blue collar work ethic and be a stabilizing influence on this team instead of a prima donna coach like Gase… but clearly he’s out of his depth as a head coach… at this point we can only hope he learns FAST….
I’m gonna give him some time and patience before officially declaring him out of his depth. The rotating personnel during the last month would hurt anyone’s game plan, experienced or not.
Despite your personnel, you have to try to scheme something or other. We ran the same base D all day.
Jackson and Harbaugh knew it too.
Agreed I’ll give him a few more weeks but if he doesn’t at least have the players in the best position to win he has to go. I guess in all honesty even if he’s a tard they’ll finish last which will help the draft although I still want the players to improve throughout the season….
Guys, that is all this is this year. In a way, this is a great way to see if Flores is even remotely competent because if there is any improvement with this team then he is good. We are only looking for improvement. I hope to see close games without expecting to win.