The offensive line (starters, remember, not a bunch of nobodies) looks horrible consistently. Tua looked horrible on several throws. He’s waiting too long after guys get open. You can’t wait until the guy is wide open and pulling away. He needs to pass the ball the second he makes his break. A couple of balls thrown behind guys looked pretty bad so far.
Jaelen Waddle looked nice on his lone punt return.
Malcolm Brown seems to be the early workhorse RB. Getting 3 or 4 yards per play is good enough sometimes, depending on the situation.
Goal line offense was very vanilla. Obviously they didn’t want to give anything away and ran some garbage plays. I’m not too worried about settling for a FG when we had the ball at the one. Although…even though we ran basic plays…the O line barely showed up on the goal line series. 🙁
I think our starters on D showed some good things. All the Bears points were against our unknowns. Including one of the worst blown coverages in NFL history for a TD.
Our starters on Offense had a few nice place, but I saw nothing dynamic. Tua’s interception was clearly because he threw it late, giving the safety far too much time to come from the middle of the field all the ay over to his right. I liked how Flores inserted Brissett after that. Make Tua think about the INT all week long now. Might help the kid.
Agreed on all points. Where is this new and improved Tua I keep hearing so much about? Even the long pass to Gesicki was a pass any NFL QB should be able to make with that kind of separation. The offensive line wasn’t doing Tua or the RB’s any favors admittedly. It’s the first preseason game so I’m not going to read too much into it but it would have been nice to see some positive things from somewhere other than the defense.
“Where is this new and improved Tua I keep hearing so much about?”
“The offensive line wasn’t doing Tua or the RB’s any favors admittedly”
(scratching my head) What?
Armando at the Herald is really on Tua’s case because the INT was really thrown late…just like I pointed out before Armando copied me!
You know every year we always say, “It’s the first pre-season game so I’m not going to read to much into it!” Well it would sure be nice to see them come out and have a clean series wouldn’t it? I mean it’s been about ten years since we had that. I won’t read anything into this other than par for the course! When you don’t have good coaches you don’t have good players. We have a few good coaches on the team now but not enough. Who’s the OC?
LOL… the OC is a hybrid of two different people this year. No one knows how it’s going to work, but we literally have 2 different OCs.
I agree with you about how our starting O never does anything in the pre-season. I’m sure the play calling is different in a practice game, but still. I wanted to see a spark from Jaelan Waddle, but they didn’t throw to him. No worries, I’m sure they wanted to limit his contact, plus he had a great punt return.
You guys crack me up the starting D was lights out and if Tua threw a TD there to a fucking 3rd stringer or worse I may remind everyone people would be circle jerking. The guy was dealing with Grant as the starting WR and Waddle who we never saw against a pretty decent bears D but what the hell does that matter? I guess nothing everyone just wants to rag on Tua. To be honest I’m sick of that shit as he laid out some pretty decent passes to no names but apparently that doesn’t matter. Agreed bad pass in the endzone but Brady never did that or Manning so he’s the worst in history enough.
Exactly FLYERFINFAN. Like you, I wasn’t so disappointed with TUA to the point where I think he’s a wash. A pre-season game is supposed to be the chance to iron out wrinkles. I like the fact that the Dolphins were running the ball with frequency. There were some decent throws and decent catches. My main concern was injuries. Everyone should remember,Tua didn’t have Devonte Parker, will Fuller, and Albert wilson to throw to so the weapons he could use were limited. The cornerbacks had me fist pumping and the overall 1st string defense were not a disappointment.
All in all, I think the Dolphins did okay.
FFF, I acknowledge he had some good throws and looked good avoiding sacks. But I also must point out how terrible the INT was. This wasn’t some Bears’ starter making an incredible play. No, it was our quarterback having a wide open guy running down the middle. But instead of throwing it to him when he was open, Tua waited and waited. It doesn’t matter about his O line, or the absence of DeVante Parker, or having 1 or 2 or 17 offensive coordinators…on that one play, Tua looked really really slow to pull the gun. But it’s just one play. Even Marino and Brady threw picks.
Also, there are many out there who often list the Tua excuses. I’m not really one of them, but it is true that Tua has received a ton of leeway because of all these factors.
Justin Herbert had no pre-season last year, nor any decent receivers, etc., but he excelled. Tua seems to be behind.
Bears’ QB Justin Fields has the Bear fans salivating, but little did they know that Fields was going up against our 5th stringers who will all be cut!
I’ll take Tua over all the QBs we saw yesterday. But I’m waiting for him to improve to that next level.
Fields did not have a completion against the 2nd team D. Except the one that went for no yards. Nothing can be gleened from his performance.
But did you see Field’s TD pass? The way he threaded the needle to the guy who was in tight coverage? He had to throw a laser to an area where only his man could catch it, and he did it perfectly. Only a handful of elite NFL QBs cold complete that pass in that situation.
I agree. I think Tua made all the throws he needed to, except the INT in the endzone. This throw was late but was his 2-3rd read on the play. He should not have attempted the throw or should have run to draw out the defense.
Off topic but our old pal Minkah Fitzpatrick isn’t very happy with his top 100 ranking. 😃
https://www.si.com/nfl/steelers/news/pittsburgh-steelers-minkah-fitzpatrick-pleased-nfl-top-100-ranking
LOL…although whining on Twitter is an immature thing to do, I agree with him. He is lights-out and a two-time ALL PRO. I’d place him in the top 10-15, and certainly not way down in the 60s.
Here’s a better way to look at it:
We traded Minkah for, essentially, Austin Jackson. How many All Pro votes did Jackson get his rookie year?
Shoulda kept him, shoulda kept him, shoulda kept him.
It was nice to see ex Phins Damien Williams and Jordan Lucas out there on the Bears. Both of them won Super Bowls with the Chiefs after the Dolphins thought they weren’t good enough any more.