As our regular readers know, I have been saying for quite a while that the Mike McDaniel offense is dead in the water. After three games, we are averaging 11 points per game. Eleven.
But the writing was on the wall even before this season. In an off-season filled with exaggerated optimism (Wow, injured Odell Beckham is gonna come save the day!!), I was the voice of reason, letting our readers know that our offense was done for.
Dating back to last December and even January, defenses have simply figured out the McDaniel offense, and Coach McD has made no adjustments. If not for a Jacksonville fumble in Week 1, we’d be sitting at 0-3 because we simply cannot score.
With Tua, without Tua, or even with the second coming of a Tom Brady/Dan Marino clone, this offense is too predictable, and the opposing defenses have easily been able to stop it for months.
So, yes, the McD “genius” and “unstoppable” offense that put up 70 vs. Denver has now officially gone the way of the wildcat, a nice gimmick that cannot be stopped until it can be stopped. So now we have to move onto McD’s other weaknesses, all of which showed up again yesterday.
We painfully eyewitnessed McD standing two inches away from the ref and wanting to call a timeout. Inexplicably, he wanted the play clock to tick down further before calling the TO. Why did he want those extra seconds to tick off? There was no reason.
Such an embarrassment to see him finally signal for the TO and the ref just shook his head. As usual, McD was a step behind.
How many times have we seen our genius leader butcher his clock management? AT LEAST once per game.
We saw McD scream at the referees because he thought a play was dead and his players stopped moving. This happened twice, and McD seemed to be blaming the refs. I think our offense simply butchered the silent count and was not prepared for the noise of Seattle.
Watching Alec Ingold give up on a play and allow Achane to get blown up was infuriating. That was even worse than Ingold’s inability to pick up a yard on third and inches, and his later fumble.
Let’s just say that I don’t blame McD for Alec Ingold’s worst game ever.
I also don’t blame McD for Skylar Thompson’s not understanding the basic tenet of a Hail Mary…Throw the ball deep and pray for a PI or a catch. Heave and Hope. It’s that simple for every other QB in NFL history, but for Skylar, he just sat there, refusing to either heave or hope. TWO HAIL MARYS IN A ROW. Utter garbage and utter lack of awareness.
Then there is McD’s horrible decision on our first drive. Facing 4th and inches, he chose the worst of three options, and of course we got the worse result. Instead of going for it on 4th and inches inside Seahawk territory, or instead of punting to pin them deep, McD opted for a long FG.
Tying a game early in the first quarter isn’t overly beneficial, whether the FG was from 20 yards or 58. That was NOT the time to try a risky FG. Even if we made it, it’s not exactly a gigantic, game-changing momentum swing.
After an interception gave us the ball first and goal inside the 5, I (sadly) knew that Skylar Thompson wouldn’t do anything. Penalties and poor play calling are not Skylar’s fault, but he certainly didn’t do anything to help us.
Skylar is yet another leader (somewhat like Tua) who looks sad and lonely after some bad plays, instead of looking firey, and pissed, and inspirational. Would it kill someone–anyone–to go smack Julian Hill in the head or at least scream in his face for taking seemingly a dozen penalties?
McD told us that Skylar is an NFL-caliber QB, but I was disagreeing all along, starting two years ago when Skylar played in 7 games, and we only won 1 of those.
McD also seems to think that our TEs are good, but all they do is commit holding penalties and drop TD passes. Thanks for nothing, Durham Smythe.
The starting O line gets lit up regularly, and the backups are even worse. We addressed this in the off season by letting studs Rob Hunt and Connor Williams walk away. Perhaps that is not McD’s fault, but rather Chris Grier. If not Grier, then the buck certainly stops at inept Stephen Ross.
But don’t worry… Mr. Ross gave huge contract extensions to both Grier and McDaniel (not to mention Tua). That way, we’re locked into mediocrity for the length of these bad contracts…
Except for the blown coverage on the 71 yard TD pass, the defense played pretty well,
and kept the Dolphins in the game. I think they gave up after seeing the offense convert their two INT’s into only 3 points
Skylar seems injury prone. Skylar has only started four games in his career
and did not finish two of them because of injuries.
More pushback on Admin Skylar criticism – According to Omar Kelly, who was at the game, on that hail-mary play,
nobody went to the end zone – that is why Skylar did not pass the ball.
All of the receivers had sideline routes (Waddle actually went out of bounds).
They did not lose this game because of unexceptional Skylar or backup QB play in general. They lost because of play calling (Coach) and poor execution (players like Tyreek).
play calling: How many blank-and-one downs did we have where we lost yardage on the next play call? Usually a failed perimeter run attempt or a a sack. very frustrating.
Poor Execution: Tyreek dropped that pass on the screen play, upon further review, the blocking was in place for a big gain.
Poor Execution: too many penalties. As Kevin Harlan said “yellow flags all over this joint”
Poor Execution: getting the Play call in and the offense set before delay of game timeout, often it was a keystone cops situation
I too am pleased with the defense. The dudes are out there 80% of the game, forcing threes and outs, getting turnovers…all while exhausted. I also saw many reports about the 2 Hail Marys that weren’t even thrown. It’s another example of McDaniel being cute and “outsmarting” the defense. Apparently, none of our WRs ran to the endzone to wait for the ball like a normal Hail Mary. Instead, they ran normal routes as if it were 2nd and 5 and plenty of time on the clock. This is utter garbage leadership from McDaniel.
I’ll give Skylar (and Boyle) credit for not turning the ball over in the face of blistering pass rushes all day long. We figured that Skylar wasn’t a star, so the ONLY thing I was hoping for was to see some improvement from his 7 games in 2022. I saw no improvement.
Lack of accountability and lack of discipline is so prevalent on this team. Starting with Ross, as usual, who rewards McDaniel and Grier with huge extensions. That trickles down to the players, where Grier rewards them with money and McD rewards them with praise. Special Teams Coach Crossman manages the worst special teams in NFL history, and McD actually kept him on in the off-season. WHY !!??
Defense looks great but they will start to accrue more and more injuries as Calais Campbell and Jaelen Phillips and others are playing all these snaps.
Jaylen Wright had two successful touches early in the game (two runs for a total of 17 yards). I wonder why they did not use him again?
I saw a 3 separate pass plays where Wright was lined up wide, next to Waddle. Each time, Waddle was yelling and motioning for Wright to move. Wright was lined up in the wrong spot apparently, and maybe that’s why McD gave up on him in the pass game. That does NOT explain your valid question about the run game.
hypothesis:
McDaniel offense system might be too complicated.
this is is why there is often disorganization with the play selection before the 40 second play clock times out. this happens often with Tua. and Skylar. and this might be the reason McDaniel sticks with Skylar because he can understand & administer this complicated system to a certain degree
also, this is why we rarely have seen audibles in the McD system too fricken complicated
I don’t quite buy the complicated jargon as the cause of this. I think it is simply McD is too slow to get the play called in. You should have some 3rd-and-one plays already in your head. Already practiced all week long. Just pick one and call it. Maybe wait 10 seconds to see the D’s personnel, and then call it the play. But, for God’s sake, don’t wait until there’s 8 seconds on the play clock to make your call.
We don’t know the jargon, but let’s say there’s a short-yardage play called “Ingold dive” where the FB gets the carry and lunges forward. It takes one second to call that play.
In McDaniel’s world, that same play might be called, “3-out flanker, double-cross, Omaha, box-set motion under fly zip fullback lunge.” Just making shit up. Calling that play takes a few extra seconds, and that doesn’t account for the 30 or so seconds McD constantly waits. I’m just saying. I not ready to blame the complexity of the offense instead of simply blaming the coach himself !
honestly, it probably doesn’t matter how complex or not complex the offense is, the offense seemed so unprepared and undisciplined.
that is all on coach McDaniel. He had 10;days to prepare.
what a mess!
I would argue whatever you name the play is also part of the complexity. The optics often convey confusion and keystone cop town. And we know the offense design was optimized for Tua to provide a quick window of opportunity within the first 3 seconds, that all requires precision route running and blocking
and here is anecdote:
“I just hope I continue to build that confidence. I plan to,” Tyler Huntley, who compared learning the Dolphins offense to preparing for the bar exam.
another anecdote from the passing coach:
“It is not an easy task to learn an offense that is this verbose….He (Huntley) has really come in and sunk his teeth into it and gained the knowledge that he needs to have to be out on the field,” Darrell Bevell. “I think he’s underrated with what he can do as a passer because of all the talk about what he can do with his legs.”
Maybe this is why McDaniel sticks with Skylar, who was the last QB drafted before Mr Irrelevant always drafted by the Niners. His first and maybe biggest mistake:
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