Look at these numbers.....

I agree Zod, for all the huffing and puffing about Dan Henning, Jon Bonamego's ST unit was just dreadful, it is not that the Jets ST unit is so great, but they were mowing down 2-3-4 sometimes 5 guys on our kick coverage unit.

Blocked punt
140 additional yds in returns
Kick Off out of bounds

Cobbs and Bess did have decent games as Returners though.

 

Really great point. People get so caught up defending their personal agendas ("Henning is no good", etc) that they fail to recognize the real culprits (special teams in this case).

That said, I would argue that while the numbers the defense put up yesterday might be similar to what the Colts did, the final result is inexcusable.

Zero sacks
Few pressures
Zero turnovers
Multiple-drive sustaining penalties

I think that the defense is equally at fault.

The only unit that I have no beef with is the offense, which had a fantastic outing against one of the league's better defenses.

 

Tomorrow is Termination Tuesday, so far at least one player has been roster moved on the Tuesday after a game.

The newbie Te Mastrud would figure to be on the roster bubble.

Erik Walden may be as well.

And let's not forget, Pat McQuistan left the game last night and no one knows if that was due to injury or ineffectiveness.

I'd say Austin Spitler could be a prime target for a call up onto the 53 man roster if Walden is bounced, so is Te Mickey Shuler if Mastrud is bounced.

With McDaniel suspended there is also an additional roster slot open but that figures to go to a DE.

 

Dotson and Baker haven't shown much , they may be vulnerable , for all the bottom churning , we haven't hit on a couple special team aces have we?

Hilliard has been eaten up on special teams , want , need and expect more from a rb taking up a roster spot.

 

I like Baker, he doesn't have any one skill that stands out, however he is a heady player who can hold his ground and push the pocket when asked.

He reminds me of the Bills Kyle Williams or our old DT Jeff Zgnonia

 

Dederick Epps, come on down!

You are the next contestant to be the Dolphins Back Up TE!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2I_nUuSsQQ"]YouTube - The Price is Right music: 1975-2007 "Come on Down" cue[/ame]

 

The mob would like to point out to you that for all that effort, we amassed 23 points..... which wouldn't have been enough to beat them in both games last year either.

Special teams didn't stall drives and settle for field goals.

And while yes they sucked as loud as the defense did at times...... bottom line is we need to put the ball in the end zone. And stop putting our base offense in the hole as a result of Henning trying to reinvent the wheel.

We should by all rights have scored more points last night....... and not doing so is what cost us that game.

 

No. It put us in a deeper hole, but it didn't cost us the game. The defense and piss poor STs cost us this game.

 

we alsmost doubled tom brady's patriots. how many coordinators do you think are going to score 23 on the jets this year?

 

You can't expect to give up 10 points every Sunday and we had to score 25+ to beat them both times last year.

Sometimes you have to just outscore the other team....which we should have been able to do.

Bottom line is all we could score is 23 points....... which isn't much considering the stats we put up. That 23 points is also less than the Jets have scored the last 3 times we played them.

 

We scored more last year.....when their defense was better and we didn't have Brandon Marshall.

And you can bet your *** if we don't score more than 23 next time we play them we'll lose again.

 

would you agree that the patriots have a better offense than miami? by expecting more than 23 you seem to be implying that we have the best offense in the NFL

 

I think the Patriots are lacking the running game and OL to put up much of a fight against a good defense.........and yes, I like our offense better.

Scoring more than 23 points against the Jets doesn't make you the best Offense in the NFL...... you're not trying to pick up chicks, quit exaggerating

 

at the chicks comment. The Patriots are the number one scoring team in the NFL, number 8 in total yds. the jets defense was averaging giving up 12 pts per gm before facing us. we basically doubled that. how many coordinators are going to be able to score more than us this year? they are facing 13 coordinators this year. two so far have failed to score 23. this is their schedule. and the patriots destroyed a pretty good cincinnati defense

Buffalo (0-3) 1:00 pm EDT
Minnesota (1-2) 8:30 pm
Denver (1-2) 4:05 pm EDT
Bye
Green Bay (2-1) 1:00 pm EDT
Detroit (0-3) 1:00 pm EST
Cleveland (0-3) 1:00 pm EST
Houston (2-1) 1:00 pm EST
Cincinnati (2-1) 8:20 pm EST
New England (2-1) 8:30 pm EST
Miami (2-1) 4:15 pm EST
Pittsburgh (3-0) 4:15 pm ES
Chicago (3-0) 1:00 pm EST
Buffalo (0-3)

 

Faulty comparison. Total yardage is irrelevant to likelihood of victory. The Colts aren’t an elite offense because they rack up yards, but because they finish drives and score points.

We didn’t.

Though to be fair, if Yeremiah Bell doesn’t stink it up and allow two TDs—hell, if he only allows one TD—then we win that game, because in the final drive we could have just kicked a field goal to win after Marshall’s catch and run.

 

You're sample is all of 3 games and prior to Sunday we were giving up a lower average of points than the Jets.

How many times do I have to say this......... the last 3 times we've played them, 23 points wouldn't get the win. So you can't just say that 23 should have been enough.

I'm a lot more concerned with not being able to call a play that gets us in the end zone than I am with special teams....

 

23 should be enough. and it would have been if not for all the breakdowns and bad luck. that doesnt even include the 7 points that henne misssed on his first throw. if nolan hadnt been outgameplanned in the first qtr and if our sp tms had played average we win that game going away. its not even close. that was simply a close game where we shot ourselves in the foot. the playcalling was not the problem, the execution was

 

Down goes Frazier!!! ... or the mob; whichever you prefer to be called.

 

Regardless of where they started with the football..... we actually had more scoring opportunities than they did. We settled for FG's more times than not and they didn't...... they got TD's.

ST will change a game on occasion but generally ppl make too much out of it's importance.

The deciding factor was they put the ball in the end zone and we put it between the goal posts.

 

we were #2 in the red zone last year. what makes you think we wont be this year?

 

Are we talking about last year or a specific game that was just played Sunday?

 

Why, because he's white? He certainly doesn't play like either of them.

 

when are they going to fire that guy?

 

what would you have done, run? we werent running that well on them. more than likely they stuff those runs so the end effect wouldve been the same

 

Nah, he is not that great of an athlete but he does the technical things correctly, doesn't lose leverage, finds the ball, good push.

Problem is I typically do not pay that much attention to fillin DT's so I had to name someone that people would remember.

 

In the final analysis there was a one score difference between the two teams. It should be obvious that a half dozen plays could have changed the outcome.

On offense: There are individual plays you can point to but the general problem was our ineffectiveness in the red zone. You could point to the play calling and/or the execution but that was the offensive failing. A little more effective red zone offense could easily have yielded enough points to win.

On Defense: There were several mistakes (and penalties) that either allowed a score, preserved a drive for the Jets or robbed our offense of an opportunity. A mistake or two less would easily changed the outcome.

On Sts: The general rule that many coaches use (including Sparano, I believe) is that 100 yards = 7 points. In this game, we had three major STs blunders that cost us about 140 yards, according to Sparano's numbers. The three blunders I'm referring to are the kick-off out of bounds, the long kick return and the blocked punt. Applying that general rule, those blunders cost us about 9.8 points.

Basically, in such a close game better play in any of the areas could/would have resulted in a win. I don't think it makes much sense to argue about which was the biggest culprit. I do think it makes sense to discuss which is easiest to fix. IMO the defense will improve against the run and pass when CC returns. I also think that the return of Odrick and Ike will greatly improve our ability to prevent the edge runs. I don't think its reasonable to expect secondary changes to have a big effect. The rules favor the offense and the CBs and Ss will have games like this. I don't think its primarily a scheme problem.

On offense, I think that we got too far away from the running game. The return of Jerry will help, but more importantly we need to use RB more in the base offense and also on third down. I like that Henne proved he can be trusted to pass often and still protect the ball. There will be games where we have to use the pass to set up the run so that trust is key. The timing between Henne and Marshall continues to improve. I would like to see our offense run through RB and Marshall with Bess as the third option.

On STs, I see several issues. I think the coaching is suspect. I don't think these guys are well prepared. I also don't think the players are winning enough individual battles. I think that if they use more starters on STs we'll solve half of the problem and that may be enough to make our STs not be a liability. But of course, we're risking injury to starters and we're increasing the fatigue factor for our offensive and defensive starters.

Now I know I listed multiple problems here, but we should remember how close this game was despite those problems. If just a play or two is different, we win the game. We would still have the same problems and be the same team, but everybody here would be feeling great. I only mention that to caution people against making too much of the issues b/c of their own emotional reaction. We have problems on this team, but so does every other team in the league. And I don't think our problems are greater than the other team's problems. In fact, I would say our problems are fewer than most.

 

might want to point out that at least 7 points came directly from ST play. The O may have stalled but it did score on a team it was not supposed to score on. They did not give up points as the ST's did.

 

Special teams hurt, no doubt about it, but more generally I think the difference between the 2 games comes down to the difference in the amount of mistakes made. Not just on Special teams, where there were plenty, but defensively and to a lesser extent, offensively as well.

 

Or put the Jets in prime position to score.

This was a sort of make up game for Ginn's two TD's last yr, and one more nail in the coffin of Football Outsider's moronic theory that "Special teams play is only 15% of a winning effort".

Two games this year, the Jets and the Vikings, both hinged on special teams performing, for all of the Int's Favre threw, Fields pinned the Vikes inside their 15 yd line 4 times in 6 punts.

Toss in Bess and Cobbs just are not threats as returners and Bonamego has a real mess on his hands, 4 core ST players who just are not performing meets Returners who aren't going anywhere.

 

I have not seen our special teams unit be worth a damn since Westoff left.

Its just been a train wreck ever since.

 

Well Cobbs did make it past the 25 yard line once, so that is really an excellent game for us.
Our kickoff unit is so bad I get excited when Cobbs makes it past the 20 yard line and I cover my eyes every time we have to cover a kickoff. Lex Hilliard must have set some sort of record for "number of times blown up on kickoff coverage in a single game".

 

Sparano talking about reasons why we lost. Skip to the 7 minute mark:
http://www.miamidolphins.com/video?bcpid=585645507001&bclid=606495203001&bctid=619248995001

 

Yep, there were two or three Coverage players who were consistently blown up by the Jets Return unit:

Hilliard
Dobbins

Were especially bad, Walden blew his blocking assignment (though I feel it was Ty Culver who took the wrong guy).

 

Nonsense, Keith Armstrong did a fine job as ST coordinator, until 07 when CamMule gutted the ST unit, he went to Atlanta and they set a record for fewest kick returns allowed.

 

one thing i like about sparano is he gets right to the heart of the matter. it was obvious we lost the battle of the 15 to 20 play scripted start but nolan adjusted nicely afterwards (player screwups not scheme hurt us) and for the rest of the game. the offense was fine but the special teams were abysmal. and i llike the urgency with which he is talking about it

 

Well, yesterday was Termination Tuesday, so we will see if there were any shake ups in the 53 man roster.