Despite everything that’s happened in the past 4 weeks, we have to look back several months ago.   Back in the spring when the NFL first released its schedule, we knew this was coming.

We all saw 3 September games against incredibly strong playoff teams…ALL three on the road.   We hoped for an upset (almost had one too if Kenny Stills didn’t blow the Seattle game).  But we knew we’d lose.    We saw a home game vs. the Browns., and we all figured we’d win that one.   We barely won, but a win is a win.

So, given all that, we are right where we all figured.  No surprises about our record.

Also no surprise is that Mike Pouncey hasn’t even played yet.   Same thing every year, and yet this guy makes the Pro Bowl?

No surprise that Arian Foster is hurt yet again.  No surprise that Ryan Tannehill is looking as average as ever.   No surprise the offensive line isn’t cohesive.  No surprise that our special teams and overrated Darren Rizzi have added nothing to our games.     No surprise that our linebackers can’t cover.

The only surprise to me is that pretty much EVERYTHING is as it was last year.   I don’t think we’re any worse, but certainly not any better.   We were 1-3 at this point last year, and Philbin was fired.

Although I am not surprised, I admit I expected more from Adam Gase.    The only thing I like so far is that he’s benched a few players who were doing poorly, and I stand by him for doing so.

But the playcalling from this alleged genius is beyond baffling.   As I’ve been saying for four straight weeks, Gase sees what offensive plays and what formations are successful, and he only tries them once or twice.  He watches plays fail time after time, and he sticks with them.

He has Tannehill roll out maybe once or twice a game, even though he’s far more effective when he gets away from pressure.   Instead, Gase keeps him inside the pressure/pocket, and we all see what Tannehill does in those situations.

We’ve all but abandoned the read options, which were fairly effective plays for us in the past.

We still cannot pick up 3rd and shorts. Frustrating.   But even MORE frustrating is how we get into those third and short situations to begin with.  It’s usually because we are at 2nd and 7, and we gain 6.   Or 2nd and 8 and we gain 7.   Our short passes aren’t long enough, and the receivers are not breaking a single tackle.    That stuff happens.   But for the Dolphins, it happens CONSTANTLY and it’s never corrected.

The bubble screens aren’t working this year, at all.   Opponents now know that Landry is good;  they’re not going to sit back and watch him take a screen pass and weave for 40 yards afterwards.  We try (and fail) that same play 5 times a game, and nothing productive is occurring.

Gase doesn’t want to recognize that Tannehill lacks pocket presence.  The Bengals, Browns, and others figured out our offensive line as the game went on, and in the 4th quarter especially, the pass rush against Tannehill was tremendous.   It caused fumbles, strip-sacks, INTs and losses.

All because Gase kept calling standard drop-back passes and refused to call a rollout.

He also refuses to call a bootleg.   Good things happen when Tannehill runs the ball himself, but Gase (like Philbin/Lazor/Sherman) doesn’t give him the call very often.   We see other 3rd and 4th string QBs burn us weekly with bootlegs, but we don’t try it ourselves.  Baffling.

On defense, I think we’ve been great, despite 3 losses. In 3 separate games, the D only gave up one touchdown.  They wear down later in the game, usually because our offense is anemic.  But there are also boneheaded penalties, like Terence Fede pushing a defenseless punter, or Cameron Wake taking a shot against Jacoby Brissett about 5 seconds after he threw the ball.   We’ll never turn into a winner when we make such losing, avoidable plays.

It seems like once a month, our kick returner starts to come out of the endzone, and stops right at the goal line.  Then panic sets in.  We saw Drake do this last night in Cincy.   Damien Williams did it twice last year.  One time, remember, he took it out, ran back in, then had to dive out.   We started that series on our own 1-yardline and immediately took a safety.  Darren Rizzi needs to practice that stuff a hundred times a day until it’s second nature.  It’s the type of thing we never see from other teams.

And we wear disgusting neon orange uniforms.

Listen, we’re not a great team.   However, there is some hope.   You have to remember that the schedule will get a bit easier now.    No playoff teams for the next few weeks, and we play some winnable games.   Let’s see where we go.   See if we can build some momentum.   See if Gase makes any improvements.  I think we’re still looking at 8-8 AT BEST, but if we show promise looking into next year, that’s all we can ask.

 

 

43 Comments

  1. One thing that definitely was apparent, the the Bengal’s defense was fresh at the beginning of the fourth quarter. It’s was also apparent that Tannehill isn’t knowledgeable enough to call audibles either.

    And I don’t want to ever see those ugly ass orange uniforms again.

    1. Author

      I think it’s time for a change. At least to see if the change works. Let’s give Matt Moore a look throughout the 4-game homestand.
      We need CHANGE, not just adjustments.

      1. That’s the way I feel Admin. For those who feel Matt Moore will lose games, I say what’s the difference in losing games with Ryan Tannehill or Matt Moore?

        I wanna see a fresh face at quarterback. I’m tired of seeing seasons being thrown away with Tannehill at the helm.

      2. MM is an overpaid slug who probably won’t be around next season unless we cut The ‘Bust after this season and he can tutor whatever rookie we draft.

        1. Well Karmatourer, Matt Moore wasn’t a first round draft pick either, so it’s take your chances with him or keep losing with a 1st rd pick….you make the choice.

  2. Changing to Matt Moore would be stupid. If Tannehill isn’t the answer, a backup is a waste of time. Only change that would be of any benefit would be to try Doughty. We could see if he is a potential future starter. Moore will never be the answer.

    1. Again Todd, the Dolphins would then have to do with Doughty what they didn’t do with Tannehill, and that’s letting Doughty observe and learn from an experienced professional quarterback. With Tannehill the Dolphins put the cart before the horse. It would be making the same mistake again and very counter productive.

      1. Author

        I don’t often agree with reader Jay, but he and I always point out that Matt Moore’s peers voted him team MVP in 2011. Then Joe Philbin came in in 2012 and said, “I don’t care that the players love and respect you. I am replacing you with a rookie college wide receiver.”

    2. Author

      Not opposed to Doughty either. Man, every team we play against rallies behind its backup QBs, rookie QBs, 4th-string QBs, etc. I truly believe the Dolphins would too. Imagine how happy our D would be and how hard they would try for a new QB

      1. Remeber last year there was that story about tannehill yelling at some practice squad players. I really think the team doesn’t rally around him maybe because he’s an asshole or they just know he’s not good enough to win games. I agree there needs to be a change for now let’s go with Moore just to see what happens. And next year let’s give gase a fresh start with a quaterback of his choice to see how good he really is or isn’t.

        1. Author

          Yeah, the defense watches him turn the ball over in the 4th quarter, and they lose all heart.

          1. Lackluster play calling, not downing the ball in the end zone, roughing the kicker, roughing the quarterback (although that happens all the time), not tackling receivers when you’re beaming straight down on him, being confused what to do in a blitz situation, and piss poor blocking.

            These are the most glaring mishaps the Dolphins must tighten up on, because from this point on, the Dolphins must play mistake free football.

  3. The orange uniforms are perfect for the Dolphins because they’re the southern version of the Cleveland Browns.

  4. I’m getting tired of rooting for a team whose punter is the MVP of every game.

    1. Do you remember a game against the jets a few years ago that we won, but the punter WAS actually announced as the game’s mvp? It was one of the sporano teams if I’m not mistaken.

  5. Fede’s hit on the punter was so late he might as well have gone into the locker room to deliver the hit after the game.

    1. Author

      Wait. Fede just hit the punter again 5 days later

  6. The fede hit looked staged to me . Like he was purposely trying to sabatoge us. He knows what hes doing. Remember it was him that blocked the punt by minnesota to save the game.

  7. Anyone else missing the good ol’ days of Wannstedt and Fiedler?

    1. No. We went through three F’s – Fieldler, Feely and Ferrot.

      Don’t miss those bums at all.

    2. Yeah, take those guys any day over the current garbage!

  8. How many coaches and players will Tannepuke get fired? LOL

  9. These jokers are VERY lucky they have one win!

    1. Jay I agree with you. Admin. The new site looks great. I still like the Orange background from the old version though.

  10. I know that everyone in the organization is preaching about patience and time. I even get what Admin is trying to point out about the Dolphins record basically being exactly where we envisioned it would be at this point. Hell you could maybe make the point that we had opportunities to beat Seattle and New England.

    But the record isn’t what bothers me

    It is that this team STILL has no sense of urgency and that starts with the HC and the QB

    What else bothers me is something that i complained bitterly about and no one other then Jay agreed with me (that I can remember) and that was that for some ungodly reason we have Mike Tannumbum picking our talent after he got run out of New York for running the Jets so far into the ground they may actually be in worse shape then the Dolphins with the exception that they may actually have a better HC and QB but nether of those two things have anything to do with Tannumbum .

    So we have a HC who is an “Offensive Guinness” except our offensive scheme sucks.

    We have a QB who obviously now is beyond salvaging as week after week he is outplayed and outmatched.

    I mean he was outmatched by the Browns receiver / high school QB that was riding so far down the bench they had to send fedex to go get him.

    Who here would like to have that kid start next week for us?

    I would!

    Matt Moore? Are you kidding me ADMIN? Is that an F-ing joke? REALLY?

    I expect so much better from you.

    What would Moore be? Wasted snaps is all. If we actually had drafted a QB to groom thats who should be in there – but we didn’t because were stupid. No not us – tannenbaum is stupid and gave Tanehill 500 million and didn’t draft a QB to groom.

    If we put moore in he will win enough games so we get the 19th pick again but not enough to make the playoffs and he will end up hurt and Tannehill will just come back anyhow the last two games probably.

    Play Tannehill all year so there are no more excuses and cut him lose with his crummy 14tds and 97ints because he cant see the entire defense reading his throws and sitting on the throwing lanes.

    It’s time to replace him with his replacement but we don’t have a replacement like the Patriots do so keep playing him so their is no doubt to anyone we need a replacement.

    The only problem is tannenbaum is going to be picking that replacement

    Think MARK SANCHEZ!

    the Jets traded their first and second round selections and three players to get Sanchez and guess who the GM that made that colossal mistake was?

    tannenbaum = were doomed!

  11. Mark Sanchez did win 4 road playoff games( 3 more than Marino?) . He would be a HUGE upgrade over TannePuke!!

  12. @Jay

    Those jets teams won those games Sanchez was a manager and I remember how many games they didn’t want him to throw the ball?

    He sucked and stunted the Jets growth for half a decade at lest

    1. Call him whatever you like but he got the job done and had about a 160 QBR rating in 2 of those playoff games. There is no doubt in my mind that TannePuke will NEVER do what Sanchez did in winning 4 ROAD playoff games.

  13. Can we at least get Chad Henne back? LOL

    1. Jay, NO! Chad Henne has been given more chances than an ice cube in hell. I kept telling people that Sporano was risking his job too much sticking with Henne and he got ran outta town. The Jaguars (for some insane reason) thought they could make Henne into their version of Tom Brady and they replaced him with a rookie.

      Please, no more Chad Henne, that would be complete madness.

      1. Henne hasn’t been given nearly as many chances as TannePuke! And he is definitely a better QB than Tannehill IMO but I’m joking when saying he’s the answer.

        He would be an improvement though….as would 50 other QB’s in the league.

  14. In TannePuke’s 5th year!!!

    Third-down offense (28 percent, 32nd in the NFL).

    1st half pts 5.8 avg (31st in NFL)

    WOW IS HE BAD! LOL

    1. Author

      Yeah, sometimes I have a bad habit of being patient with Tannehill because he’s relatively new to this league and very new to the offense.,..but then you have to stop and remember that he is in year 5, as Jay mentions. He hasn’t shown the leadership needed, and our losses are piling up.

  15. I’m not getting the hate towards Matt Moore. Shouldn’t we at least give him a chance, he’s one of the highest paid back ups in the league for a reason. That way at least we find out what the real problems are, instead of just watching Tanny blow it week after week.

    1. Yeah, last time he played steadily he won team MVP!

  16. @Jay

    If you content with Sanchez then your going to love the next 5 years because thats what were going to end up with. Keep in mind that the great Sanchez who Tannabum gave away the draft and three players for ended up a 3rd string QB!

    Of course the Patriots 3rd String QB beat us so there’s that!

    1. If we get 4 road playoff wins and go to 2 AFC title games like Sanchez did I’d be stoked in comparison to the garbage losers we’re playing like since Ross took over !!

      TannePuke is just a 3rd string/practice squad player masquerading as a starter….worse than Sanchez!

  17. @Jay

    The Jets didn’t go to the playoffs because of Sanchez

    In 2009 and 2010 the Jets sent five players to the Pro Bowl!

    G Alan Faneca
    DE Shaun Ellis
    C Nick Mangold
    CB Darrelle Revis
    T D’Brickashaw Ferguson

    Notice that Sanchez wasn’t among them?????

    Since you can’t remember that it was the Jets Defense anchored by Darrelle Revis that won most of the games over that span maybe you should excuse yourself from this discussion.

    You argue with me when I don’t agree with you

    You argue with me when I do agree with you

    I think your hopeless!

    My original point was that Tanabumm will not pick us any REAL talent and he will give away the bank.

    You disagree with that and think he is the best talent evaluator in the NFL?

    1. You can’t have it both ways, if you think those jets team were talented that means tannebaum did a good job building those teams.

    2. @Brian M

      Funny, I don’t recall making any comment about Tannenbaum or the Jets defense. But make no mistake, Sanchez played extremely well in at LEAST 2 of those ROAD PLAYOFF GAMES!

      Meanwhile TannePuke cant win shit!

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