Well, who saw that game coming on Monday Night? I’d like to say I did, but I’d be lying to you. I’m in a weekly pick’em pool and for the MNF game you have to add a score. If you get the score correct, you get a bonus point. I had New England winning 28-27, so I at least had a bead on Miami’s output. But I did not see the defense playing the way they did. What a sweet win it was!
The victory give Miami somewhat of a legitimate playoff chance. Thanks to cbrad, it seems like Miami is in if the following happen:
- Miami wins out.
- Tennessee loses two of three OR Miami ends up in a 3-way tie so long as we’re not tied with Baltimore AND Oakland.
Who would’ve thunk it after all Miami’s been through this season? Certainly not me. I can feel you all ready at your keyboards telling me to focus on one game at a time. After hearing Kenyan Drake speak post-game on Monday Night, I can assure you that’s what Adam Gase is likely telling the team this week. Lose to Buffalo, and you’re S.O.L.
Before I jump into the actual game itself, did anyone else feel reassured when Sean McDonough said during the broadcast that in their prep meetings this week that Adam Gase said that Ryan Tannehill is their guy for 2018? Say what you will about Ryan Tannehill, but that made me feel good. Onto my thoughts from the game. I’ll just break this down into “Good” and “Bad”.
Good
– Jay Cutler – That was the best game he’s played as a Dolphin. He was poised in the pocket, and despite some funky footwork, was generally pretty accurate. He threw some nice passes in traffic. Off the top of my head I can think of first down flings to Fasano and Stills that kept drives moving. He surveyed and surveyed until he found Jarvis Landry wide open for his 2nd TD. He was accurate on the move (seriously, I couldn’t stop thinking about Ryan Tannehill being utilized in similar fashion next year).
– Kenyan Drake – Was impressive for the second straight week. I remember reading Nolan Nawrocki’s Draft Guide in 2016 and he said that one NFL team thought Drake was better than Derrick Henry. It wouldn’t surprise me if that team was the Dolphins. He’s shown burst, straight-line speed, blocking ability, pass-catching ability, and he can hit the spin move. I’m impressed.
– Jarvis Landry – What else do you say? Juuuiiiiiiccccceeeeeeee. I think Miami need to do what they have to in order to keep him. I’d be more interested in moving on from DeVante Parker.
– Jakeem Grant – Nice to see Miami take the shackles off him. I hope we see more of him down the stretch. He’s tough to handle and roasted Malcolm Butler.
– Laremy Tunsil – I thought that Monday was probably the best game he’s had this year. He’s had some mental lapses in prior weeks. Joe Schad reported he lost 30lbs from the flu before the first Patriots game. Whatever he’s done since has been good. The holding call that nullified the TD on the screen pass I thought was ticky-tack, but whatever. Get this man a good offseason and an O-line coach that isn’t doing blow and I think we’ve still got a potential top-5 left tackle. He’s made strides this season.
– Jesse Davis – I was slow to come around on Jesse Davis, but I think he’s found a home at RG. At this point, if I’m the coaching staff, I’m putting him atop the depth chart at RG for 2018.
– Andre Branch – That’s why they paid him.
– Jordan Phillips – If he can keep the level of play that he showed on Monday Night going all the time, he’s going to be a player. The 3-man rotation of he, Suh and Godchaux looks pretty good.
– T.J. McDonald – Miami have something here. I thought he was a bit rusty coming back in the Carolina game, but he’s made strides since his return. I thought the game against the Pats was his best work.
– Reshad Jones – Sort of the same as McDonald. I think once these two are fully comfortable we’ll see a really nice duo at safety.
– Alterraun Verner & Torry McTyer – Both got pressed into action on Monday and both played well in their roles.
– Xavien Howard – What else can you say? He’s the AFC Defensive Player of the Week and the past three weeks has played at an All-Pro Level. The second interception showed recovery speed I didn’t think he had. Brandin Cooks is the type of receiver that he’s had trouble with in the past. Not Monday.
– Adam Gase – I’m guessing he finally remembered where he hid his real playbook. Why’d this take so long? I’m not sure. But, I hope we see more offense like that down the stretch. Scary part is that Miami’s doing this with Mike Pouncey, Ted Larsen and Sam Young on the O-line.
– Matt Burke…sort of – I think not having Gronk available allowed Burke to dial up some pressures and different looks that we haven’t seen. For instance, we saw Cameron Wake at RDE on some third downs. We saw a package where Ndamukong Suh and Jordan Phillips played DE with Branch and Harris at DT and they stunted off that. We saw Charles Harris line up and rush over guards from a 2-point stance. That was new. He used late-rotating looks with a robber (Jones) and single-high safety (McDonald). That’s a hallmark of a Mike Zimmer defense, not the wide-9. Good usage there.
– Darren Rizzi – Miami’s special teams actually seemed to outplay New England’s. I don’t remember that happening since….help me out here, since…
Bad
– Matt Burke…sort of – On the flip side, I think we still saw some poor use of the LBs in coverage. Miami really have to find a way to get a 6th DB on the field. They were able to put McTyer on the field as a 5th DB on Monday, so why can’t he be the 6th DB in packages? This is especially true since New England didn’t have a mismatch with Gronkowski on the field. This is something I don’t feel that will be changed this year, but it needs to be addressed this offseason.
– Mike Pouncey – He’s just not what he once was. He doesn’t get push. He holds. He gives up ground in pass-pro. As much as he may be fighting to be out there every week, the time has come for Miami to move on from him this offseason. Get me Billy Price or Frank Ragnow.
– Ted Larsen – He wasn’t much better. While he and Tunsil seemed to figure out the Patriots stunts better than two weeks ago, he had a lot of bad blocks in the ground game and got beat inside on the late sack of Cutler.
– DeVante Parker – He made some critical third and fourth down catches, but man, something’s just always off with him. Two drops this week. He’s got trouble beating press coverage. He’s got trouble running routes. Maybe it’s a symptom of not having Ryan Tannehill, but it seems like the only time he’s open is when he’s schemed open or he gets a free release off the ball.
Any way you slice it up, it was a 27-20 win, that could have been more, and it was a helluva fun game. I viewed that game sort of as Miami’s Super Bowl and enjoyed the hell out of it. Hell, I had a victory glass of Woodford Reserve at 2:30am Tuesday morning after that game. I was jacked from the win! Made it to work 5 minutes early too.
But, as I said before, Miami’s got a chance to crash the playoff party if they win out. It starts this week in Buffalo. My fiance was out shopping last Sunday so I had the chance to really enjoy Sunday Ticket and watch some other games. I was very interested in seeing the Vikings and Panthers play. Tough, physical game. Great game. But…I kept getting drawn back to watching the Colts and Bills play that game on the ice planet of Hoth. The snow was unreal. Quite frankly, I’m secretly hoping it’s like that again just because it was fun to watch and so the Dolphins can wear their all-whites and basically be invisible. Sadly, it looks like Winter Storm Chloe won’t play a part in the game and it looks like the forecast is calling for it to be 30 and partly cloudy.
Tyrod Taylor is also back. Let’s hope he’s still gimpy. Him running around could be a challenge. Same with LeSean McCoy. Stop those two and I think Miami’s got a good chance. As always, channel your inner Bryan Cox this week. Also, this is always cool.
The famous Dan Marino behind-the-back pass:
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