Oh boy.   Where to start.

THE GOOD:

Reshad Jones had a great game and was all over the place.  I noticed myself, and I was pleased that Adam Gase singled Jones out as a top performer on the day.

Matt Darr had some effective punts, and he was a true weapon on his one and only punt in overtime.

The offensive line couldn’t get much going in run support, but they gave Tannehill time mostly all day in the passing department, even when we were forced to use a third-string center and when Ja’Wuan James got benched.

The WR corps all played well.  A couple of nice TDs by Landry and Parker especially.

THE BAD:

Gotta start off with Ryan Tannehill and some of his awful habits.  The first pass ever thrown in Hard Rock Stadium was right into the waiting arms of Jamar Taylor of all people.  Taylor had never intercepted anyone in his career until Sunday.  Tannehill threw into tight coverage and paid the price.  It was simply an awful throw.

Ryan and Wife.
Ryan and Wife.

When the game was on the line later, Cleveland began sending blitzers right at Tannehill.    They weren’t disguising it either…they had both safeties creep up and get on the line of scrimmage.  But Tannehill never saw them.    His lack of vision and awareness is almost impossible to believe, except we’ve all seen it before.    You must be very fast and very sharp to throw before the blitzers get there, but we see opposing QBs do it week in and week out against us.   It can be done.  But Tannehill doesn’t do it.

As I’ve pointed out many times, Tannehill’s worst mistakes–his critical fumbles and horrible passing decisions—always come from his non-blind side.   The safeties I’m talking about lined up on top of our right tackle, and Tannehill didn’t even glance over before the snap.   Just awful.

The defense gave up 17 points to one of the worst offenses in NFL history, and it should have been 26 points if they had a kicker.  Xavien Howard dropped an easy interception TWICE (once when it bounced out of his hands, and then again when he composed himself, had it in his hands, and knocked it off his own chest).   Unacceptable.

A couple of costly offsides penalties on Cleveland’s late touchdown drive.  Do we really need that extra inch and extra split second to beat a 4th string QB?    We needed to show a lot more poise.

On Cleveland’s 2-point conversion, Isa Quddus was draped all over his man but made no effort to jar the ball away once it floated into the WR’s arms.   Very frustrating.

Ju’Wuan James got smoked late in the game on those costly three-and-outs.    I am proud of Adma Gase for benching him.  Let it be known that our new coach does not suffer failure.

The offensive coaching isn’t getting enough done.   We watch Cleveland’s backup QBs rollout and bootleg all day long and have great success.   The Dolphins, on the other hand, continually drop Tannehill straight back.   Good things happen when he rolls out, bootlegs, or QB draws himself.   But for some mystifying reason, we only try that stuff once or twice.    Dolphin coaches have a recent history of not learning from their mistakes…but it’s more frustrating when they don’t learn from their success.   They see Tannehill catch fire when he runs the ball, yet they refuse to allow this more often.  Baffling.

The Ugly

We lost Anthony Steen to injury, along with Brandon Albert.    Both will be very doubtful for our 72 hours from now.  We’re gonna have to dig deep into the depth chart to patch together a line.  Fast.

 

 

50 Comments

  1. It’s frustrating as they can do it we’ve seen it but they are so inconsistent play by play drive by drive. It’s not just one guy they all F up from time to time but it’s usually the worst time when they do. A good example is that slant Stills ran a horrible route. We blame Tanny but he has to just throw it in trust that the WR will be there.

    I don’t know after sleeping on this it’s a team wide problem which leads me to believe that they either need to wake up or they simply aren’t as good talent wise as we thought.

    1. The team is garbage. Only 2 good players. Scrubs throughout. 9th losing season in a row. Thanks Ross!

  2. Forgot to mention that I felt like Gase that was the worst win ever…should have been a loss but I guess you have to take it.

  3. Author

    I also for forgot to mention that for the first time, we saw Tannehill angry. I don’t think he was mad at himself either, he was bitching to his linemen, and he looked furious. THAT was nice to see.

    1. I didn’t get to watch the game … how many more wins do you predict

      1. Author

        Personally, I see maybe 4 more wins. 6 more possible if we throw in some upsets. Buffalo is scoring 32+ points per game, and I don’t think we can compete with that. Maybe we beat the Jets once, 49ers, Titans and Ravens.
        I also think an upset opportunity comes this Thursday, with Cincy on a losing streak and little confidence. Doubtful, but possible.

  4. Its becoming obvious to me the players dont play for tannehill they play for or are inspired by Arian Foster. If the team that got crushed by NE played the Browns this would have been a 10 point win for us. Difference? Arian Foster not playing. I dont think our offense likes or is inspired by Tannehill. Whether you like it or not Foster brings the swagger and attitude our young team feeds from not Tannehill and to this point nor from our coaches. Just watch the Seattle game then the browns game . 2 totally different teams.

  5. I just watched the Gase post game conference. It seemed to me even though he voiced many things carefully about the team’s performance that he also through his approach will instill culture change. This may take sometime but at the moment Im still hopeful. And did any of you notice at the end of the game Gase hugged Ajayi? Thats a coach ! The stick and the carrot. When did Philbin ever do that? Ever?

    If his approach instills culture change it may take sometime with the smoking gun evidence coming a the end of this season with us again missing the playoffs. If I have a tiny and most faint glimmer of hope its Gase. And I totally loved how he praised Matt Darr and explained why in detail. Thats how you indirectly communicate to your players whom undoubtedly are listening.

    We may have a shitty record but might just have real hope for our future.

    Thoughts?

  6. If ever I’ve seen a deflating win, this was it. Now, I think this win asks more questions than answers them. If a quarterback sets the tone from the first series of downs, then Tannehill has shown he is a master of mood kill. That first interception that Tannehill threw certainly made up the mind of many fans. We saw no improvement from a quarterback that’s in his fifth year on the same TEAM! To tell you the truth (and I believe a lot of fans feel the way I do) Tannehill scares me. But the Dolphins do have other issues. The play calling is lackluster. The run blocking is pathetic. The defense is atrocious at stopping the run. While watching the game, my buddy was screaming at the TV and asking why do they have problems like they do with stopping the run? Being that I do have DVR, I replayed Cleveland’s run plays and pointed out over and over that our LineBackers always seemed to be out place. Run play after run play we watched how the Dolphins linebackers would rush the scrimmage line and Cleveland’s running backs would run at the exact spots the linebackers vacated. The Dolphin linebackers seem to forget that they are there to back up the defensive linemen. The Dolphins linebackers need to be more patient and observe rather than assume so much. Also our defenders in the secondary need to pay attention to the receivers running around freely and stop staring at the what the quarterback is doing so much. And please corners and safeties, catch the damn ball when you get an INTERCEPTION!!!!

    Thursday night is going to be a nail biter. Hope you guys have enough beer on hand. I know I will.

    1. It’s a must have! Sunday literally made me sick at least beer helps with the pain…

    2. Author

      Beer and whiskey. We’ll need it all.

  7. It is starting to look like disrespecting the country during the national anthem WLP +% is accomplishing what the concussions, domestic violence and deflategate could not do–drive down television ratings for the National Football League.

    Through three weeks of football the NFL’s television ratings are down across the board. The drop in ratings and viewership is unprecedented in recent years and has occurred during the protest of the national anthem, started by San Francisco 49ers backup QB Colin Kaepernick. Just last year some opined that the league’s ratings had no ceiling. That appears to be false.

    1. Yeah Jay, you really brought up something cogent that pertains to “THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY ” concerning the Dolphins win over Cleveland.

      Learn how stick with the subject and stop trying to dispense animosity over something you’re so butt hurt about.

      1. @Phil

        If ya wanna tell what you want them to say and when ya want them to say it then maybe ya should get your own message board JACKASS!!

        1. And Jay, if you wanna bring up stuff that’s way off topic, then maybe you should get your own message board DIPSHIT!!!

        1. Hey Jay, your mama is looking for you, she needs to change your diaper.

            1. Hey Jay, your vocabulary of insults has gotten stale.

              You’ll never make it pass Day Care like that.

      2. @Phil

        Jay has actually been participating a lot in this board and while I agree a lot of the past posts are repetitive/redundant/useless posts about tannehill. That is actually not the present and by your own words was a veiled compliment wrapped in a blanket of insult toward Jay saying things other than Tannepuke. Now Im not trying to be an a-hole to you but progress is a good thing. Please just ease off a bit is all Im trying to say.

        If anything Ive said offended you then I pre-appologize now right here front and center.

        1. Hey PhinsUp, I don’t care if Jay has been posting message a lot on this board. I have been through discussions on the Miami Herald internet site since 2006 and have argued with very intelligent individuals who owned their own businesses and possessed Master Degrees and I held my own and were complimented by them. I didn’t start the mud slinging with Jay, he began it with me when he said “you unpatriotic simpleton DUMBASS!!” I’ve carried on conversations many of times on the internet with people who want to use such derogatory and abusive language like that and believe me, they learn quickly that I can mud sling with the best and they either change their attitude towards me and talk like a civilized human being or suffer being belittled like they’ve never seen before. Just check all of Jay’s comments to me and you’ll understand who’s doing the insulting. If Jay want’s to talk like a juvenile, then I’ll treat him like one, if talks like an adult, then I’ll treat him like one. The onus in on him.

          I posted a comment towards Admin and Jay. Admin took it like an adult, considered what I said, and took it with humility and no vulgar response. Now that’s the adult way.

          1. Sorry PhinUp, but that is me above responding to your post.

            1. @Phil Its all good man. like I said not trying to be an ahole. I must have gotten the 2nd half thinking it was the first. It seemed like you went on the offensive. My bad.

          2. Author

            My own policy, from day one, has been to let our readers comment on whatever they want, using whatever language. I don’t delete or censor comments or get involved unless it’s really out of hand. So far it’s been no worse than what you hear at a game. I went to many Dolphins games in Buffalo and I endured things a million times worse than any of the comments on this board !

  8. Yeah I totally agree with you man politics have no place in sports

  9. There’s no way that Gase could possibly be as bad as Philbin. It may take time to get his system and players in place but he’ll do better no doubt about it. He at least understands players robots don’t work in football.

    If anything we’ll find out if we have a serviceable QB this year amongst a few other positions. Just hope for some consistency on Thur…

    1. Author

      I love that Gase benched Ju’Wuan James in the middle of a game. Clueless Joe wouldn’t have benched him, would have praised him, and then woulda said, We’ll get it corrected.
      I think Gase has to see the same stuff we’re seeing in Tannehill. He can’t be that blind, right? But then again, I watch his play selection. I watch nearly every single series beginning with a 2-yard run up the middle. I watch us throw a 7-yard pass play on second and 8. Then I watch us blow the first-down opportunity every time it’s 3rd-and-1. Gase’s lack of originality has me scratching my head. He sees that some of our better plays worked well against NE and Cleveland, but he refuses to call those plays more often.
      He has a full week to come up with a game plan for our first series…How we’re gonna go for the jugular right out of the gate…but instead he runs a 2-yard rush up the middle, followed by a pick to Jamar Taylor. THAT’S the kind of garbage this genius comes up with? That needs to improve immediately.

      1. It’s not his fault the running game doesn’t work. You would of thought it was a good call if it got 5 yards instead of 2. We just don’t have a running back, and the interception isn’t his fault earlier. Sometimes it comes down to execution it’s not always the coaches fault. Hopefully he does see what we all see with Tanny though if not then I’ll begin to doubt him to.

  10. Also I’m not so worried about the OL not run blocking so well. They are doing a really good job of pass blocking right now which is a hugh improvement over game one and last year so I’ll take it. I’m sure its just a matter of time before run blocking takes hold with this group if they can stay healthy.

    I thought I read that Albert was out for Thursdays game. If thats true Tannahil better figure out how to audible to a play that has him passing out of a moving pocket! Moving to the right that is!

    1. I don’t know Brian. A few times Tannehill had me yelling at the TV to stop staring at his check down and hurry up and throw the ball. The Dolphins has got to improve their run blocking asap because relying on just Tannehill’s arm just won’t cut it.

      1. Phil,

        If ya don’t like my posts DONT READ THEM, JACKASS!!!

        1. What did you say Jay? Look, wipe the drool from your mouth and speak clearly!

  11. I believe that he was making a concerted effort to run the ball as he knows that passing every down will eventually lead to failure. The whole team benefits if they can get better at it. Unfortunately by forcing this there are growing pains in the short term. Winning TD paid off from this…they’ll have to continue on Thur especially if Albert is gimpy or out.

  12. @Phil

    I absolutely agree we can’t rely on tannehill! That pipe dream is over and we have no 3rd stringer we drafted to develop so after this year of rebuilding we will spend next year rebuilding too.

    Oh ya that’s bassicly every year that Ross has owned the team!!!!

    1. And then 3 or 4 years for the new guy to learn the new system and the team will ask us to be patient.

  13. I don’t know that kid in Philly seems to have picked it up pretty quick he looks damn good!

    1. Author

      Yeah, Wentz in Philly has been incredible. I also look at Sam Bradford, who played pretty average for a few years, but then once Minnesota made him the man and gave him the job, he’s on fire. Keep waiting for Tannehill to bust out, but it never happens. I thought the Vikings were doomed without Bridgewater and Peterson, but the next man up just comes in and and it’s business as usual, like so many other teams do to us.

      1. The Vikes have a pretty solid team around their QB elite D.

        The Eagles finally allow their D a chance to rest now that Kelly’s gone and they’ve been better for it just like the Fins D would be if they ran a little more. Either way it’s a huge turn around for them.

  14. @Anonymous

    14 of miamis points will be scored in the last six minutes when the game has been decided and cincinatti has guys in there who’s names tha announces don’t know!

    1. @Brian
      I so hate to agree with you but yeah we/tannehill rule garbage time.

  15. Injuries are mounting as well 3rd center, both outside LB’S, starting RB…this is getting crazy. They need next man up but you only have so much depth.

    I do find it funny how the Fins are always on the road on Thur night but the pats always get a home game. Huge advantage as you lose a travel day. Like they need more advantages…nuts!

  16. The Dolphins D should be a lot better with the A list we have. Wake is still very productive and no one can contain him . Just ask Austin Pasztor surrendering six pressures and one sack while being whistled for three holding penalties plus two illegal procedure fouls. Suh is a force that is overlooked by the mainstream. I went to the Dolphins/Chargers game last year(BTW almost as many Fins fans as Chargers fans) and remember Suh almost got a sack then ran 10 yards down field to make the tackle while the rest of the team was running away from the ball. But there is something wrong with our D that continues to give up 3rd and long time after time. We will stuff them for a loss then give up the big play to Homer the 4th string QB. Sometimes it seems like our front 4 is so fast that they are getting past the QB as he steps up. I don’t know what the answer is , maybe close the B gap with bridge, but I have a feeling we are going to get burned this Thursday.

  17. Oh and a couple things about our Offense. I’m really thought Ajayi would be better. Besides that last TD he has sucked. He has surprised me with his poor play. I swear Thill is making just enough good plays to mask the fact that he is trying to lose. I know that’s sounds unbelievable but some of the things he does like stares down the 3 yd pass without even going through his progressions Or throwing an INT with no Dolphin within 10 yrds of the ball. It’s got to make you think WTF …. Right?

    1. @kelrvet

      I have often wondered the same. youre not crazy and not alone in that regard.

  18. Matt Moore for Pres 2016
    I don’t care, I still like him

    1. You’re not the only one. My only concern would be the ring rust. He needs to practice with the first team all week

  19. I knew from the beginning the Dolphins were making a mistake drafting Tannehill with their first pick. I believe Tannehill would’ve still been around in the 3rd round the year the Dolphins drafted him. And instead of the Dolphins grooming Tannehill by letting him learning from a veteran quarterback first, Philbin decides to thrown him in without any experience in the Pro’s.

    I don’t fellas….it may take a few more years to straighten out this debacle.

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