Perhaps the biggest different between a 4-game winning streak and a 7-game losing streak is that the current Dolphins, under Tua, are able to overcome mistakes.
Like when our head coach decides to run a high-risk, no-reward play at the end of the first half and hands 3 free points to the opponent. That’s a play that never should have been called. Already in FG range with only 12 seconds left and no timeouts, did Flores want to run another out-pattern to pick up 3 unnecessary yards? Or did he want to throw a low-percentage Hail Mary? In either case, he was wrong. And the results proved it.
The difference is that the defense is playing better, and they bailed out Flores right after halftime when Carolina had all the momentum. Flores’s disastrous decisionmaking did not cost us a win.
We came out and stopped them on three and out, and then a fake punt caught us napping, and then another 3 and out. The defense was stellar, except for one long pass when Cam Newton made a fantastic blitz read and burned us for 65 yards. otherwise, we played lights out, and it was impressive to see!
The offense looks better each week. Even the crappy line did enough to win, and that’s something that was missing during the 7-game debacle. We are now on our 4th-string center, and we still survived. This is really great and gives us something to build on.
Yeah, terrible decision to call a play at the end of the half! Again, I am loving Tua’s progression! We might very well have our guy! He still has some bumps to go through for sure though! But he’s getting it!
They say that Tua’s rating was the 4th best in team history!
Short passes = success. Straight dropbacks with 5 wideouts on third and short? = sacks and fumbles. It’s pretty simple.
We need to get off this only-short pass narrative that some fans keep pressing. Short passes are all this o-line is allowing. Tua is doing all he can.
The short game is working very well, and there is no need to “fix” it. I get tired of announcers talking about how we “have to” take shots down the field. Uh, no. If the short passes are working well, why “fix” it? We had numerous plays yesterday where Tua looked long, and we got sacked twice, and he fumbled twice on two other plays. Our line is unable to block for sustained periods consistently. Getting to a respectable record this year (such as 7-10 or 8-9) might make some free agent linemen consider the Dolphins during the next off season. But if we stayed at 2-15 or 3-14, no worthwhile free agent lineman would come here unless he just wanted the $$$.
If Grier is retained, surely he must see how bad the line is, right?
First Dolphins QB to have two straight 80 percent completions
Impressive. Gotta give our playcallers some credit too. They are slowly but surely realizing that we need to call quick dump-off passes, because our line is horrible.
And sadly, if Brian Flores doesn’t call a timeout to help the Jags win and doesn’t call for a prevent defense when we had the Falcons beat late, we’d be 7-5 right now instead of 5-7.
If Jason Sanders doesn’t miss two field goals, we beat the Raiders and are 8-4. I’m not one to go over coulda and shoulda, but it’s interesting to think about.
Had to watch the game on delay but you are right the record could be a lot better. I bet if Tua wasn’t injured they would have won a few more no doubt about it. Hopefully the oline continues to improve as that will be the key for the remainder of the season and next year.
Also nice to see Phillips be disruptive. The picks are looking better now Waddle had a great game and so did Holland.
I think the losses were more a function of poor coaching and defense. They say that after the 7th loss, players and coaches met and they reverted to the defense that they ran last year. Whatever, changes were made and it has shown since. This upsets me that someone decided to change something that was working and it costs the team the season.
FFF, where the hell were you? LOL. Me and Cadfl were dying for you to be on the live chat, since your boy Nik Needham had a nice pick, and Coleman had a TD !! It was a great day for both of our reserve CBs.
Yes it was a great game I stayed over at my cousins place and didn’t get home in time to watch it live. I should be on the chat this Sunday. They may not make the playoffs but it would be nice to see them make a run at it. If anything pass the niners!!!
I would take just one of those 3 losses back then we would be five hundred. That Jaguar loss is the killer. An AFC conference game, easily winnable.
Why did it take the defense this long to get going? In reality this is the type of defense we kind of expected to see from the beginning of the year. Why did it take 12 weeks? Ok they did start to improve a few weeks ago so why did it take 10 weeks? Why is it that if we win out (Which we won’t) we will still only have 10 damm wins on the year? It was also nice to see the Offensive line actually blocking. At one point during the game I thought some one over there must have circulated the photo that Admin posted earlier this week where half the OL was laying on the ground, the other 1/3 staring into space and AJ looking like an idiot. Maybe that prompted them to block someone. Another thought was that maybe Flores came in this week and apologized for being such an idiot with his calling and rallied the team but than there he was again at the end of the half trying to give the other team a boost. So why did it take so long? To me it all starts and ends with coaching. Want a comparison. Look at New England sitting at 8-4 and on top of the division. Yes Mac Jones is a baller but it isn’t like they have a star studded roster from top to bottom but they win. We have a pretty talented group here and we……. don’t win much. We will not make the playoffs this year. Consider that last year we should have made the playoffs. We were right there on the cusp and New England was 7-9 and looking like they would be in a race to the bottom with the Jets for the next few years. Now? It looks like were in the race for the bottom with the Jets while the bills and patriots dominate the AFC East. Not because they have more talent but because the have a far better coaching staff. How many NFL teams have tandem Co-Offensive Coordinators? This stupid idea was probably floated to Gaily last year before it took him all of 22 seconds to draft his resignation. Give Belichick some no-name guy from the local 7-11 who wants to play and he will win a super bowl. Give Flores all the talent in the world and he still can’t make the playoffs. It’s coaching. Imagine if Jimmy Johnson had this team back in his prime, We wouldn’t be 5-7!
Why did it take the defense this long to get going?
Well, looking back, maybe Flores was correct when he asked us all to be patient. Yes, it would have been nice for Waddle, Phillips, and Holland to excel immediately and to know the whole scheme immediately. But it really did take some time, and we’re starting to see the dividends,
Don’t discount the effect that losing Tua had on this team. Jacoby Brissett is awful, and he led us to many many 3-and-outs, which of course exhausts our defense and make them stay on the field far too long.
I also think (really) that once the Watson rumors went away, all the Dolphins played at ease, and we see the results. 85+ QB rating for Tua twice in a row? Even Stephen Ross has to appreciate that and make him realize we don’t need Watson.
Well it is Ross we’re talking about. Don’t give him that much credit. 😃
Ha, very true !
Yes I can agree with this as there is a lot of young players even the oline is still very young so maybe there is hope. Davis needs to be replaced for sure and maybe the C if Deiter can’t be the guy. I guess sometimes you need to take a step back before moving ahead and in reality they would have been better if Tua wasn’t injured for so long. A little bit of bad luck as well and stupid decisions. OC’s had to learn too.
Yes I think you are right about the Watson thing it did slip my mind that I thought that was a huge distraction for the whole team. Silly and stupid. Also it may be so that it took the defense a little while to jell but why is flo making so many mistakes this year or did we just not see them last year? Did Gaily prevent these mistakes, probably a lot of them? It just seems like we’re wasting yet another year while NE simply reloads….. again.
Speaking of distractions, DeVante Parker is returning to practice. He’s not really a genuine distraction, but when the team has won four straight games, now is not the time to change things. Waddle has flourished as the #1 receiver, and Albert Wilson and Mack Hollins have picked up their game. I think if Parker plays, our coordinator(s) might start calling different plays again. I’d love to see Parker work his way back in, but not be used on every single pass play. We’ll see.