For the second week in a row, the Dolphins were able to stay with an elite team in the NFL and lost largely through shooting themselves in the foot. A more talented team would be able to make up for the margin of error, but at this point suggesting the team lacks talent pretty much defies common sense. I don't think Ryan Tannehill played a bad game, but he needs to make better ****ing decisions down the field. He had no business throwing about half of those passes, and a lot of the choices to go down the field were not really all that good, especially in the context of the down, distance, and point of the game. Overall, I liked the game-plan of playing mostly out of the shotgun with Anthony Fasano in the H-Back role to help out as a blocker. Reggie Bush had his best game in a while, and and I think they've gotten better at managing the range of things that Bush is good at. He's got stuff he's really good at, but the compartmentalization is problematic. I think Lamar Miller's problem is probably more than just mental that's kept him off the field. He's probably not practicing well enough. If Brian Hartline were bigger/faster/stronger or drafted in the 1st/2nd round, he would have caught that touchdown pass. It's really on him, and I imagine he'll probably be out of the league when his contract is up. Piece of ****. I don't know how the **** Aldon Smith got away with the hands to the face on Jonathan Martin on that first sack. It was like watching football in the 1960's. Or for that matter, Richie Incognito getting shoved in the back when the play is downfield with the referee jogging right past it. I think the offensive line played a solid game. Jonathan Martin was a bit over-matched at times, and I think some of his issues have nothing to do with left/right, but he also looked pretty good at times. Nate Garner I think also had a pretty solid game after I was sold he couldn't play tackle worth a ****. Tackling was pretty maddening at times in the front-7, and I think they were pretty inconsistent on their option reads. That killed a pretty much otherwise solid performance vs. a good team. Lots of penetration on both the run and pass game, and with a standard pocket passer I think the defense looked like they were going to kill it, but the 49ers did a good job with play action and keeping Kaepernick on the move. I think Jared Odrick is making a case to replace Randy Starks these last couple games. Starks has fallen off badly, and Odrick has come on, albeit still a bit out of sorts in the edge position. That Cameron Wake guy, eh? Pretty curious to see when the Rewind comes out who/what was shutting down Vernon Davis, I don't know if he caught a pass. Karlos Dansby missed a tackle, but overall had a pretty damn good game. His play had seemingly fallen off a bit since his elbow was injured(which may have nothing to do with it, but who knows). Sean Smith is pretty officially in one of his slumps that seems to have defined his career. He either seems like he's a pretty good cornerback who shows flashes, or he's dog ****, with no inbetween. Recently, he's been dog****. Reshad Jones didn't have any eye popping plays this week, but the safeties were spot on for the most part besides Chris Clemons dumbass late hit. I feel bad for Jonathan Freeny, because that touchback was bull****. He should have been more aware, but the call hinged on him having possession. He clearly ****ing had possession. Brandon Fields acting like a stellar team mate. You're a ****ing punter, dude.
I was not impressed with Clemons today. Beside the late hit, he missed or took bad angles on quite a few ball carriers.
The ST killed us giving up 10 points. Dan Deer-dorf killed by calling the game. Play calling/Tanny throwing killed us at critical times. Hey,the D really has held up the last 2 weeks against top tier teams.That is impressive,TBH. We had our chances in the 4th(both games),but we are missing those few ingredients. Next year's draft will look sweet....(If Joe has a say)
Can't really fault Hartline on the deep pass in the endzone, but holy **** how many times does this guy go down when he's barely nicked? It was very nearly as bad as Santi Cazorla getting that penalty kick in the Arsenal game this morning. I'm not surprised, as he's been that way his entire career, but damn. Seems like in addition to Hartline, Davone Bess, Reggie Bush, and even Lamar Miller slip on their own accord more than most players. Get them some better cleats or something. Hopefully Koa Misi's injury isn't serious. Jason Trusnik got exposed that final drive. I know Miami has more pressing needs, but some better depth at LB seems like a good idea, especially with Dansby and Misi's contracts coming to a close soon. Jonathan Martin held up better than I thought he would against Aldon Smith. I'm surprised Miami left him in 1-on-1 matchups with him as much as they did. But Martin needs to hit the weight room hard this offseason. Richie Incognito needs to be served his walking papers this offseason. I was impressed with the job that Mike Pouncey and John Jerry did today. Nate Garner looked like the 2009 version of Nate Garner today. I've been banging the drum for him since last offseason, but I'd love to see Dashon Goldson paired with Reshad Jones at S. Chris Culliver has quickly developed into one of the better young CBs in the league. I suspect we'll be hearing about that 2011 duo for a long time. Aldon Smith in round 1, Culliver in round 2. Miami could stand to add a duo like that this coming offseason. Aldon Smith is just a freak. He might be my favorite football player to watch that isn't a Dolphin. San Francisco's defense is just ridiculous; Vic Fangio is fantastic. I feel like Smith and J.J. Watt will be battling for DPOY Awards for the near future. Overall, despite the outcome, I thought it was an enjoyable game. Having sat through watching the Bengals vs. Cowboys waiting for kickoff, Miami vs. San Francisco was a good, clean, hard-hitting football game. No injuries, no players staying down after every play, just a good, hard fought football game. Dallas vs. Cincinnati came down to the wire, but it was such a start and stop, sloppy game, that it was almost uninteresting at points. Also, again despite the outcome, it's encouraging to a degree to see Miami have back-to-back games like they did against arguably the best teams in each conference in consecutive weeks. Miami has talent, but not enough of it in certain areas. Unfortunately, Miami's hung with teams like San Francisco and New England without bringing home W's for far too long.
Well, they'll need something this offseason because I feel like Matt Moore is going to be a starting QB somewhere else - Arizona, Buffalo, Kansas City, the Jets. Devlin's an ERFA, but I feel like he's enough of Joe Philbin's teacher's pet to be brought back. Do you trust him enough to be the #2 if Tannehill goes down and Moore is not around? Clearly, Tannehill's struggling, that's for sure. I think it does speak pretty highly of him though that he didn't have a turnover against a defense like the 49ers he saw today. I feared the outcome would be much, much uglier. But, much like every week, you see him do something or make a throw that we haven't seen a Dolphin quarterback do since #13. I like his moxy. He's not afraid to tuck it and run for a first down knowing he's going to take a hit. He's put the ball downfield much more than I ever anticipated him doing - especially today. Miami had their chances, but as Disgustipate said, too many dumb mistakes. Thigpen muffing the punt was killer at the time. I'd like to think that Tannehill will get better as he watches tape of himself this offseason. I'd like to think that Mike Sherman will put him in better position to make plays after watching tape this offseason. Heck, I hope Sherman took some pages out of Greg Roman's playbook today. I could envision Tannehill operating muck like Kaepernick (maybe the knee has something to do with it still..?).
Haha no they won't. Dude needs a supporting cast, that's all there is to it. Mike Mayock, who's opinion I hold in a pretty high regard, said it during the Buffalo game. The announcers said it today as well.
A veteran receiver you mean? I don't see any FA QBs that would stand as a reasonable choice to compete with Tannehill outside of MAYBE Jason Campbell. I think for better or worse, Tannehill is the guy as long as Jeff Ireland and Joe Philbin are in Miami, as it should be. I think now you've got to add pieces around him and tailor the offense better to match what Tannehill can do. I don't think you've got to do what San Francisco is doing with Kaepernick or what Washington is doing to RGIII, as I think Tannehill's got a more traditional base to work from, but I don't think Mike Sherman's done as good of a job as he could have making it easy for Tannehill. Perhaps that's by design, perhaps not, but I think Philbin's got to have a "master plan" moving forward to make the offense at least look more like his unit's from Green Bay. http://www.spotrac.com/free-agents/nfl/quarterback/
Tannehill was fine in this game. He makes the right read and throws a good ball to Brian Hartline who is wide open, the first responder has a quarter of a field to cross and Hartline has any angle he wants to make the guy miss and run for the long score. He gets tackled. Randy Moss and Michael Crabtree catch balls underneath and they make the first responder miss, even if hat guy had a short distance to cross and a favorable angle. But nobody is going to talk about that toe tackle when Hartline had a 360-way go to try and make a desperate responder miss, they're going to keep talking about the 24 inch overthrow on a 160 foot throw against the Patriots. Tannehill was nothing short of brilliant at times in this game, on the road, against one of if not the top defense in football. But he's the reason the Dolphins can't stay within two touchdowns of a good team. And not because he's not good, no that would be a negative reflection on the front office. He's good, he's just performing bad because he's a rookie. Even though there appear to be two playoff bound rookies this year. Even though Mark Sanchez has been to two AFC Championship Games and continues to steer a team that wins more than we do.
Why does it have to be mutually exclusive? It seems like you're always so quick to put the offensive failures solely on Tannehill. Can't it be Tannehill AND a lack of offensive weapons and talent? Today it was pretty clear that at WR we lacked any sort of separation and when we did get separation it looked like a the last picked kid in Gym class trying to catch a ball (Marlon Moore on the deep ball).
One thing that confounds me is how we find a different way to spot the other team points *every single game*... Every week I watch the games wondering who will screw up in what way, and unfortunately it always happens. Just enough to make it too big a mountain to climb. *sigh* I see other teams make mistakes as well, but somehow ours seem to be more devastating as we can't seem to overcome them. Very frustrating. And yet I'll be back next week, hoping not to see the same thing happen.
Looking back on that Moore play....it's kind of funny. You could see his indecision on whether or not to dive, then halfway through you just know he's thinking "WHY DID I DIVE!"
We sit there and complain about the deep throw to Bess but it's like, who else? Hartline, who was completely blanketed by Chris Culliver? Marlon Moore, who even if he does separate cant catch it? At what point do we recognize that the roster itself is setting a lot of these actors up for a no-win situation?
And that's a huge problem. In a Mike Sherman offense where we're running 3+ WR sets a lot of the game, we don't have anyone outside of Hartline and Bess that we can rely on to catch the football. Sad thing is, Jeff Ireland himself knows it's a huge problem. He even recognized it publicly on video during Hard Knocks, yet some here pretend like it's NOT actually a problem in defense of the guy that has said it IS a problem
Dude, this so many times, lol. When the D shows up which is pretty often the offense can't score. When the offense begins to climb back in it the D slumps a little bit. When both sides are doing just okay, there's a special teams gaffe. We're the type of team that can't afford it.
some of you guys sound surprised our wr's suck I don't get it we knew this going into training camp. I just don't get why were not trying trick plays or running plays for our te's between the 20's fasano only gets balls thrown to him near the red zone.
The Dolphins are actually kind of lucky. As insufficient as the WR unit is as a whole, it's somewhat competitive because of Hartline and Bess. The Dolphins have gone 13 games without either of them getting hurt. If they'd been just a little unlucky then the passing game would be that much more in the ****ter, regardless of how well Tannehill throws the football. That's one of the units that I've been talking about all year lacking depth. Another is LB, where I said they'll be screwed if any of the three get hurt, even Koa Misi. Sure enough, Trusnik (who just received an extension from Ireland a few weeks ago) comes in for Misi and was a huge liability. He was not the only reason Kaepernick scored on that final drive, but he was the biggest by a good margin. And they were eating yards to his side from the moment Misi went out of the game, whether it was run or screen.
So you're saying a backup didn't execute like a starter? Isn't that why he's a backup? .... and what does Ireland have to do with Misi missing time due to injury? Did he extend Trusnik with starter type money or backup money?
The backup shouldn't be a gaping liability, which is what Trusnik is. And giving him an extension so that everyone can continue to fear him being thrown into the game, continuing to fear him being asked to actually do his job, is ridiculous.
5 seasons is not enough to adequately judge Ireland's job bro. Even then, two of those years were under Parcells. So...3 years isn't enough time to determine whether a General Manager is building a winning team. Especially not in light of the fact that all but one year under Parcells being a winning season. Seriously guys, he's overseen at the very least 400 transactions (I counted) with full autonomy (2010-2012) and in that time, we have one quarterback, two wide receivers, two running backs, two tight ends, and two offensive linemen (Pouncey and Martin).
isnt Trusnik job on special teams thats why he was resigned? , should of signed the guy we brought in in the off season for a try out phillip wheeler ,having a good season for the raiders and would of been far better back up option . wondering weather freeny or even vernon would have been better back up option than trusnik, both been seen playing there at times this year is sure a big need linebacker depth next year !! and what to do with burnett and dansbys big contracts ,
If they were good decisions and passes, it would be something different. Throwing it up and hoping for the best is appropriate for a tiny minority of players in the league
Trusnik wasn't great this week, but he's generally been both deserving of his roster spot and good when he's played.
And the one with Hartline was single coverage with the corner trailing. And the one with Bess theoretically should have been in the hole between two defenders. That is if the guy running the route had better than 4.65 speed. Or better size. But, I could be remembering the play wrong. We will see on replay but I think there's a 90% chance it wasn't at all a bad read.
I don't think the dive was all that unneeded. Moore should have caught it, but it certainly wasn't a great pass.
Unless there's a non-zero chance that Davone Bess was going to suddenly change his physical attributes mid-route, it's a ****ing bad decision.
I mean, if the play is designed to have Davone Bess running a deep route...and that's the best option... That speaks for the situation itself.
A quarterback's job is to read keys in the defense and get the ball to its weakest point. If Davone Bess needs to be taken completely out of that decision making process simply by virtue of being Davone Bess, then he shouldn't be on the field. But then that would be an admission that he's not one half of a good WR unit.
No, that's not at all correct. Having Davone Bess run off coverage is not a bad decision. Him drawing the double coverage by virtue of going deep is beneficial even if it involves him being functionally taken off the table.