I’m just going to skip over the Bengal game at this point, other than saying that it’s a head scratcher how we got our most points this season in Malik Willis’s worst game of the year. Baffling.
Anyway, here is what needs to change. Now.
- Malik Washington but be removed as the KO and punt returner. In Week 4, he muffed 4 separate returns. Four. Somehow, we recovered all four of his mistakes. In Week 5 vs. Cincy, he called for a fair catch TWICE inside of his own 10 yardline. That’s simple football 101. Let it bounce into the endzone. His first fair catch set the tone for our loss. We had tied it 7-7 early. We kicked off and held the Bengals to a three-and-out. Soooo much momentum was on our side.
They punted, and Washington gaffed again, fair catching the ball at his own 7 yardline. We go 3 and out, and had to punt from our own endzone, giving Cincy excellent field position because Washington lacked common sense. I blame Washington for these mistakes, but it makes me wonder if our special teams coordinator goes over the basics with these guys. Speaking of which… - Coordinator Chris Tabor must be fired. When the opponent has a long KO return for the 5th time this season, there is something wrong. The Dolphins historically have the worst special teams in the NFL, year in and year out. But this year seems worse, mostly because I trusted Hafley to improve our unit. He did not. We can’t stop returners, and it’s time for a new coordinator.
- It’s time to give Kyle McCord a shot at QB. Malik Willis simply is not good. I counted 5 separate times that Fox analyst Mark Schlereth pointed out basic mistakes that Willis made. Basics, not complex schemes.
It’s not like Willis just misfired on a few balls. It’s more his lack of command of the basics. For example, TWICE Schlereth pointed out that Willis needs to be aware of something simple. And then there were two other times where he pointed out wide open men right in front of Willis, who ignored the open guy and tried to hit a bullseye on a well-covered man.
Willis also is a turnover machine, and they are bad ones. He has not learned his lesson about throwing into coverage, nor does he ever protect the ball.
On a day our offensive line held up fairly well, Willis let everyone down with really stupid decisions and even worse execution.
I know NOTHING about Kyle McCord, but let’s see what the kid can do. And yes, I wanted to see what Quinn Ewers and Skylar Thompson (and others) could do. We did get a chance to see, and the results were not good. But we have to see and find out. Malik Willis costs us games, and I was very disappointed that Hafley refused to bench Willis on Sunday amid his miserable performance. - An ultimatum to OC Bobby Slowik. It’s a broken record at this point, but it’s shameful that Slowik and Hafley refuse to run the ball. First and goal from the 5-inch line, and they thought that Willis’s chicken arm was the best course of action? Ignoring powerback Ollie Gordon so that Willis could take a brutal sack and then throw (what should have been) an interception into coverage? I don’t know who Slowik is trying to fool with these play calls, but it was a disgusting sequence of play calls that kept us out of the endzone. Opposing defenders breathe a sigh of relief when they see Willis fade back. Let’s hope Hafley has the guts to come down hard on his coordinators, because he certainly doesn’t have the guts to come down hard on Willis.