Takeaways from Miami's 23-10 Victory over Cleveland

Nice article CK. like you, I picked up Jordan Cameron this week. Unfortunately, I wasn't brave enough to start him over Tony G. probably won't matter, my opponent had P Manning this week.

I really wonder how much easier life would b for Tannehill if Keller was out there catching passes on third down or when the pass protection breaks down. Did you happen to see if Dion Sims played much, I don't recall seeing him

 

I think our D is as good, if not better than the Wanny D's of the early 2000's.. If those teams with Fiedler contended for the playoffs every year, I think it's reasonable to assume that as this team improves and Tannehill develops this year we can compete for at least a wild card. We have the makings of a dominant D with our three top draft picks not seeing the field much. What type of depth will we have when they start contributing?

 

I think if someone had told everyone that Wallace & Martin would be shut down and we still would win by 13pts, (against a team univerally picked to beat us) people would think the person was crazy.

 

You could have done OK playing Fauria at TE as well

 

Ahem...universally? My liver begs to differ.

 

Your liver did not predict Wallace and Martin being shut down.

I do think it predicted my last kidney stone though. I will not explain how.

 

The pundits were all picking against us. There were threads about it.

 

No mention of Tannehill telling Matthews to get the **** off the field? I'm disappointed.

 

but what'd the rest of the team look like?

 

I think we'll see that not having Keller on the field does Wallace no favors.

 

Pouncey clearly points at the scoreboard too. "**** you doing rishard!? SCOREBOARD!"

 

Disagreed. Playing with Heath Miller is not exactly going to create opportunities; why would the absence of a guy who never played a regular season game for the Dolphins be a down arrow for Wallace? The Dolphins institutional "get a good WR to act as a decoy and free up the bad WRs" philosophy does Wallace no favors.

Though CK might be right in that it's just a lack of chemistry. But that chemistry likely won't develop quickly.

 

I'm not saying we won't miss Keller, but on this day, we did not. Clay played strong. made the catches and had a couple first down plays on 3rd if i recall. I was very happy with Clay today.

 

BTW, can I just say- I'm not a fan of B/R; they've seemed somewhat amateurish in the past; I can't stand that they delete spot-on posts that argue the merit of their articles; but I will say-- having Chris write for them is a breath of fresh air..... even though he clearly displays a reading comprehension problem regarding his Short List questions. "Mittens"? Really? I hope this is a twenty year old cat you named as a teenager.

 

I remember seeing a player with a linebacker number (54 I believe) literally bending J. Martin at the knees and getting to Tannehill. Tragically amusing.

 

One thing I take away from this game is......the takeaways this defense came up with. Miami already has a 3rd of the amount of takeaways they got all last season.

 

Are you seriously knocking on Heath Miller, a 2X Pro Bowler who posted 240 catches, 2748 yards, and 18 TDs the previous 4 years with Wallace?

we didn't sign Keller with the intention of him missing the entire season. Cmon man. His ability to threaten the middle of the field puts a strain on safeties who KNOW they have to respect him. Until Clay actually proves himself, defenses can put a greater emphasis on limiting Wallace in ways they cant with Keller on the field.

You have no proof that's the philosophy under Philbin.

It won't make chemistry development any easier when defenses can pay Wallace more attention until other receivers/TEs on this roster begin making them think twice about doing so. Keller was the type of player who makes you think twice. Today was a good start for Clay. Hopefully he gains momentum from it. I don't recall, how many of Clays receptions came down the middle of the field?

 

Don't confuse my description of a philosophy with a labeling of the current group of receivers.

Not that my opinion of the current WRs is miles higher, but it's certainly something less than bad.

 

Knocking? No. Refusing to put him in what appears to be in the same elevated category you do? Yes.

We also didn't sign Keller with the intention of making or breaking the entire TE group with him. Otherwise, what were all those draft picks used at the position for? Every TE on this team is someone that was drafted within the last 3 years. What happened to them?

I guess you aren't understanding what I mean by institutional.

According to this board, so are Brian Hartline and Brandon Gibson. So why does Wallace have to be a decoy for them?

 

My RBs are awful enough that I had to start Shane Vereen as a starter. Making me look crazy like a fox! Who is the other starting RB you might ask? Ben Tate. Just sticking pins in my Arian Foster voodoo doll over here...

 

I benched Hartline and Jordan Cameron. FML

 

Lamar is my flex. I'm still about to win, but with Ridley my RB2 (and possibly in Belichick's dog house which is harder than Alcatraz to get out of) I need Lamar to step up quick!

In my $500 league I have Jared Cook and Julius Thomas. Both had monster weeks

 

Rishard Matthews is officially the Dolphins' Mario Chalmers.

 

Sort of, Clay did well for himself today.

Keller was more of a sure thing, Clay has always shown flashes, could be he jumps up this year into that pass catcher he really should be.

 

I knew CK would time it.

Ryan definitely didn't hold the ball long and they started trying to get it out as fast as possible.

Looks like next year its back to the drawing board on the OL.

 

Yeah, he sure as heck had no rime to hold the ball, especially early. IIRC, they gave up 2 first half sacks on first down passing, which you would normally think would allow for a bit more time....

 

Something interesting about how tight the games were today, Miami has the 3rd highest point diff. so far at +13. only others that are larger are the Broncos over the Ravens (+22) and KC over the inept Jags (+26).

 

No excuse on the sacks. He had time to set and plant on all of them. You have to learn to throw the ball over a receivers head into the sideline. I'd rather take a grounding knowing he's starting to show such instinct. There was not one, not one jail bird break for a sack. He planted on each one. 2, 3 seconds- see it, recognize it, get the ball at a WRs feet, high into the sideline near a Phin jersey, at the feet of the RB/TE take your pick. Sometimes theres nothing you can do but i don't remember seeing Tannehil throw one away all of last season. He needs to start to develop the instinct. All of the greats had/have it.

 

I remember the sacks being fairly quick but ... he showed no ability to get away from them either. I didn't record so I can't go back, but I can't remember if he was able to roll out and throw it away

 

No. From memory, the sides did crash in quickly. But he did have time to set.

I thought he had an amazing day out there. Perhaps I'm losing my football IQ but i saw a QB ready to take his place as one of the best in the league. I only see 2 things missing from his game; pocket awareness and hitting the long ball. His awareness is not far off. His long ball, ugly more often than not.

 

Besides the turnovers and perhaps the best and most consistent pass rush I've seen from this team in a long time, I was quite happy to see this team do 2 things that they've been struggling with for the past decade- finishing and not allowing quick momentum changes.

Two key parts of the game for me- After they had taken a 13-7 lead, Cleveland came back down the field. But Miami held them to just a FG and kept the lead. How many times, over the course of the past decade, have we seen this team gain momentum with a big score only to give it right back on the ensuing drive? While true that they didn't exactly shut the door on the Browns, they didn't give back the lead, either, which for them constitutes a step in the right direction.

Second, the drive that put them up 20-10. Their ability to finish there was big. If they had managed just a FG it would have only been 16-10 and Cleveland would have needed just a TD drive to go ahead (and in fact, thoughts of deja vu went through my head as I recall Miami losing to Cleveland a few years back in a similar manner). The fact that they had the chance to put some distance between themselves and the opponent and actually took advantage of the situation was also something this team has been lacking for the past decade.

Obviously there are parts of this team that are still very rough around the edges. But it does appear as if they're getting better at learning how to win. If they can keep that up we might be in pretty decent shape.

 

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....and though its been said...we did it without a running game and without our $60 mill receiver. Things are looking up.