Dolphins Truth

Beating the Patriots does not help the Dolphins, but it also doesn’t hurt. Typically, one extra win could drop us 4 or 5 spots in April’s draft this year, but we do not own that pick.  So unless we really hate the Eagles, there’s no reason to win except for pride. (By the way, let’s hope the 49ers lose and do NOT make the playoffs, because that does help our draft status). Losing does not alter next year’s schedule either.  We are already locked in third place in the AFC East, so we cannot move up or down.  The final pecking order in the AFCRead More →

As much as this pains me, I think the Dolphins should retain both Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer and at least one of the two Offensive Coordinators. As bad as these three jokers were at times this season (and they saved their worst for the last game at TENN), I think that continuity is vital this time around. Before this year, we had Chad O’Shea for one year.  Before that was Dowell Loggins for one year.  That means every Dolphin offensive player who’s been on the team for 4 years  has had to learn a new offense every single year.  The entire summer is spent learning the playbookRead More →

Duke Johnson averaged 7 yards per carry and got benched. Myles Gaskin averaged 4.6 yards per carry, and he got benched. On a day when the running game was outstanding, Brian Flores decided to stop running the  ball.  Instead, the Dolphins decided to keep riding a struggling and ineffective Tua. The results were not surprising.  Flores acted like being down 7 and then 14 was like being down 40.  He went pass-happy, including ridiculous trick plays that went nowhere.  When he wasn’t fumbling or throwing interceptions, Tua was missing wide open guys all day.  He was ineffective.  And yet apparently the coaching staff saw somethingRead More →

Yes, we can win. I have restrained my enthusiasm and any hope for a playoff run to this point, knowing that this Titan game was coming up. But now that this game is upon us, I have studied and come up with the ways the Dolphins can win. Needless to say, a win versus Tennessee puts us in an even better position for a playoff appearance. While our defense has been playing great for over a month now, admittedly they have been playing against very poor offensive teams. The Saints had a fourth string quarterback, the Jets have no running game, the Panthers were inRead More →

I envisioned this scenario a few weeks ago when the Dolphins began their run of 7 wins in a row: If the Dolphins win out, they will be 10-7.  Their AFC East record becomes 4-2 (2 wins vs. NE, 2 wins vs. NYJ, and 2 losses vs. BUF).  The Pats will fall to 10-7, and also be 4-2 in the division.  And if the Bills lose to the Jets in Week 17 (let’s hope the Jets keep throwing the trick plays into their nothing-to-lose arsenal), they will fall to 10-7 and be 4-2 in the division.  What a mess to sort out. With a 3-wayRead More →

Mathematically, the answer is yes.  And that’s better than nothing.  We need to keep snorting the “Hopium,” as reader FlyerPhin says. I still think our best chance is to win the division.  I may alter that depending on the Bills-Patriots game Sunday, which is a day ahead of ours, and we’ll know more heading into Monday Night.  But if the Bills win, that means we are a game behind two AFC East teams with two more games to play.  If we beat New England in Week 18, we’ll own the tiebreaker over them.  So that means we need the Bills to win this week, andRead More →

Maybe he read all the stats about how accurate he was and decided it was a given. So Tua tried his hardest to not try.   He threw horribly all day long.  He gave the Jets points.  He underthrew a wide open Albert Wilson early.  But before we even got there, he fumbled on the first series of the game, then threw a pick on the second.  Disgusting performance. Maybe Brian Flores thought that giving players 5 days off in the middle of a (at least on paper) playoff run was a good idea.  Flores, evidently, certainly thought that running a fake field goal from midfield WITHRead More →

In a bizarre week of back-and-forth, with players going on the Covid list nd then coming off, it now seems that Jaylen waddle is the only starter who will miss the Jets game.  it could have been worse. The NFL continues to handle this all wrong.  The Dolphins are without their leading receiver, and were close to not having our top 2 RBs (plus backup Gerald Doaks is also on the Covid list).  That is a pretty devastating hit for any team to take.   And yet the league offered nothing.  Rather, Stephen Ross demanded nothing. But when a few player on more prominent teams haveRead More →

In desperate need for RBs (both Ahmed and Gaskin could miss the next game due to Covid testing, and Laird on IR, and Lindsay & Brown still hurt), the Dolphins are bringing in Lamar Miller as a test run. We have a few practice squadders who probably know the playbook, but it’s still good to get a veteran in, for cheap, who can come in and get 5-10 carries in case the rookies don’t pan out Sunday.  I always liked Miller, but the Dolphins’ execs have a terrible history of getting rid of quality RBs.  They let Miller walk.  They traded Ajayi.  They gave upRead More →

Well, simplicity and common sense can never be overrated. When our quarterback is not getting berated by DeShaun Watson questions, and when our owner butts out, and when our head coach doesn’t make idiotic decisions to help the opponent, and when you play to your own strength, good things happen. Is it truly that simple?  Yes! The pundits/announcers/analysts typically come up with the same old cliches, and one cliche we heard a zillion times during the 7-game losing streak is “You have to mix it up.  You have to take shots downfield.”   Nonsense.   Earlier in the year, our OCs and Brian Flores believed that hogwash. Read More →

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 resultsRead More →

Center Michael Deiter is back practicing. Although he has not blossomed yet for the Dolphins, still, any lineman we can get back is a good thing.  If anything, it gives us some needed depth. When you watch Tua fade back, you NEVER get a sense of confidence that he will have time.   By the time you THINK the blocking looks okay on this play, some defender blows past Austin Jackson or Liam Eichenberg, and we either get a sack or Tua has to dump it off.   He has been a little better lately at stepping up into the pocket, and that was clearly missing fromRead More →

More to come during the week, but for now, I wanted to point out how impressive the defense looks lately. Big plays allowed and breakdowns are inevitable in football.  But as long as they don’t occur routinely (Which was happening during the 7-game losing streak), the Dolphins can ride it out. Yesterday, the Jets had one big 35-yard rush that led to a short touchdown a few plays later.  They also had one 62-yard TD pass, in which Byron Jones just missed breaking it up, and Jevon Holland seemed to turn the wrong way.  I won’t say it was a lucky Jets TD, but weRead More →

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It’s no coincidence…. Once the near disaster of a DeShaun Watson trade went away, the Dolphins began a winning streak.   History shows that whenever Stephen Ross takes a back seat and lets the players focus, we win.   When he inserts himself into things, we lose.   This includes stuff like him publicly wanting Watson, the Jim Harbaugh fiasco, Bullygate, removing 20,000 seats from Hard Rock stadium and replacing them with millionaire-only luxury boxes, and much much more.   It just can’t be a coincidence.  The team is at peace now and playing better, and I for one am convinced it’s because the ownerRead More →

The moment cam Newton was cut, I really thought the Dolphins should have pounced on him.   He was available for next to nothing, and is an infinitely better athlete than the lumbering Jacoby Brissett. I think Ross’s infatuation with DeShaun Watson might have interfered with common sense, but why not upgrade when we had the chance?  Would Newton have accepted a backup role in Miami?  That’s irrelevant.  You just tell him that he won’t start in Week One because he doesn’t know the playbook yet, and then take it from there.  Let a “starter” controversy arise if need be.  It’s certainly better than a controversyRead More →

Okay, we all feel good now and have a lot more pride than when the Raven game first began.  We’re officially on a winning streak for the first time all year, and with some doormats coming up, a 6-win season seems possible.  Last month, we didn’t think we’d even get to 3 wins. I’ll give Brian Flores credit for making some good decisions last night.   By “making good decisions,” I mean that he made the basic, strategic choices that he was supposed to make, like punting when we should have and maintaining successful defensive calls all night long.   Avoiding unnecessarily risky decisions is the rightRead More →