My old high school coach had a saying, “It’s better to be the hammer, not the nail.” Well, today Miami was the nail and got hammered by the Jets 20-6.  There’s not a whole lot you can really say about this one.  The offense couldn’t get ANYTHING going for the second straight week in the first half.  This is becoming a disturbing trend with Adam Gase.  I’ll cut him some slack for now as it’s only the second regular game with Jay Cutler.  But Cutler looked like the one that frustrated Bears fans; not the one from last week who looked like he was having fun.  And because the offense’s best trick today was to go 3 & out, the defense was left on the field for what, 36 minutes or so? Not a winning recipe.  I’ll simply break this down into “Good”, “Bad” and “Ugly” for today.

Good
– Miami’s run defense, despite not having Raekwon McMillan, Lawrence “AWOL” Timmons or T.J. McDonald was pretty good again this week.  Yes, the Jets managed to break 100 yards (103), but it took them 34 carries to get there.  A 3.0 ypc average.  Getting Stephone Anthony up to speed and McDonald back later in the year should help.
– We saw a few flashes of the pre-injury Reshad Jones today.  That was encouraging.  Hopefully the flashes become consistent.
– Cameron Wake had a nice game today, and played the run very well.
– DeVante Parker looked nice on the final drive.

Bad
– The CB spot opposite Xavien Howard.  It doesn’t matter if it’s Maxwell or if it’s Verner; they both stink.  Cordrea Tankersley needs to play, and play now.  It literally can’t be worse than those two were today, or worse than what Maxwell’s been in both games.
– The safety spot next to Reshad Jones.  This is going to be a concern, and while T.J. McDonald should help in the run game when he returns, I worry about him, Nate Allen and Michael Thomas playing in pass coverage.  Matt Burke seems to be pretty aggressive; not a bad thing when you have the personnel.  But, when you don’t have the personnel, it’s a problem.  I’d almost be inclined at this point to play Maurice Smith, along with Tankersley at CB, just to see what you have.  Moves are coming this offseason.
– LBs in pass coverage.  I can see why Burke wants to continue to roll out nickel looks:  Verner looks bad, you don’t want to play Michael Thomas if you can help it, etc.  But, man, Kiko Alonso and Mike Hull just look lost out there.  I’m not sure that Lawrence Timmons would help.  Maybe that’s something that Stephone Anthony can help with when he’s up to speed.
– Mike Pouncey.  Leonard Williams handed Pouncey his ass repeatedly today.  That’s a matchup problem for Miami.  It was last year as well, despite Miami running well in the game at home and sweeping the Jets overall.

Ugly
– Adam Gase’s play-calling.  I love, LOVE Adam Gase.  But today was Bill Lazor/Dan Henning-esque.  Miami got NOTHING going.  That’s two clunkers in a row to start the year.
– Jesse Davis.  The experiment needs to end.  Hopefully Ted Larsen is able to come back and play well because Steen wasn’t good by any means.
– Jay Cutler’s mechanics.  Woof. Watch the tape.  Self-explanatory.  Ryan Tannehill – if I ever said anything bad about you, I didn’t mean it.  Godspeed in your recovery; see you in 2018.

Now, off to London.  Miami will have traveled more the first 3 weeks of their season than something like 14 NFL teams will travel – IN TOTAL – for the entire season.  I think that’s gotta be draining.  And looking at what Tennessee is doing today – running all through Seattle – I think Miami needs to put a win in the bank and get to 2-1 before their home opener.

BTW, this blog is a thing now.  Sorry I posted my first entry in the wrong forum; I’ll see if I can get it posted here.

Kevin

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