Ranking the defensive performances from those first two drives against mostly Buccaneers starters: 1. Koa Misi 2. Paul Soliai 3. Jared Odrick 4. Cameron Wake 5. Karlos Dansby 6. Richard Marshall 7. Randy Starks 8. Reshad Jones 9. Sean Smith 10. Chris Clemons/Jimmy Wilson 11. Vontae Davis 12. Gary Guyton
On the plus side despite the OL playing badly in everyone's minds........0 sacks given up. Run blocking though.....that was ugly. By the way do you think we might see Jeff trade a 3rd or 4th to get some DB help in here pronto? They can't go into the regular season with the DB's looking this bad.
This really deserved it's own thread, Chris. Lots of good stuff in here. Agree that Martin and Long both seemed 'off' for a bit. I can;t figure it out. Was the team tired for some reason at kickoff?? Did OL do extra practice yesterday or something? I felt like most of Martin's problems early were due to mental misses (not knowing who to block, angles to take etc) rather than not having the phsyical tools. Yes, he could get stronger and learn better technique and he will... but he did not look physically incapable at this level. He has enough speed and strength when he applies better technique and KNOWS what he's doing without having to slow down to figure it out. he'll be fine, because a Stanford guy must be smart enough to learn from study and experience. I expect him to steadily improve, month by month. I didn't think Moore was great until reading your post mitigated the hate a bit. I really disliked him not audubling out of that run vs the stacked LOS and getting DT stuffed. Meanwhile our inexperienced rookie DOES audible away from a run blitz into a successful play. Head-scratcher? Didn't notice Moore maneuvering better passing lanes. I guess that's how his ability to improvise makes up for some of the OL's deficiencies. Misi REALLY stood out. So did Guyton, for the reasons you said. I couldn't believe that play where Guyton jumped INSIDE Cam Wake. Wake, eating up the LT AND TE's blocks then SHEDDING both and pursuing wide actually had a body language moment of "Where the **** is Guyton?" as he came off those blocks to see Blount run past him unimpeded towards Marshall (who was playing a deep cushion). Odrick is slow and will NOT be making any backside pursuit tackles. The pass rush did not do well... but it's hard to tell if it's the front four, or a shabby secondary job. Soliai was off his feet several times in the first series with Nicks literally punching him up into the air on one of Blounts middle-gouging runs. Soliai and Starks looked like Long and Martin. I feel like our big men seemed to have tired legs early on. Not sure why. Maybe practice the day before the game gassed them because of the number of plays we run in practice? Bush looked great. Love him. Miller disappointed me on his runs. Say is there anywhere to see the all 22 camera on this game? I have no clue how well the WRs and secondary played, other than drops or missed tackles.
I still need to re-watch the second drive, but after the majority of the first drive I can't say Soliai was above Wake. Saw Soliai get off his feet twice (once airborne for four yards on being puunched, and another time grazing grass on his stomach).
I disagree on Soliai. Watched every play of his on the first two drives and I thought he only had the one bad play (where he got put on the ground as you say). Everyone else below him had at least one bad play as well.
I can't agree enough on Guyton ck... that guy was a liability the whole time he was in! Luckily it wasn't too long. I didn't really watch Martin in particular, but I really was sickened by the play where DT got blown up!
I haven;t finished rewatching both drives, so my opinion may evolve once I've seen what you have. (note... my opinions don't change.. they just evolve. lol.) Any idea why the bigger men seemed fatigued early, or did you not see that as endemic across our biggest players?
Looks like Dansby missed a few assignments, I'll reserve total judgment until tomorrow afternoon though.
I didn't really notice fatigue issues. When Jake Long comes out sloppy on the first play of the game, that's not a fatigue issue.
Chad Johnson drop doesnt bother me, unless it becomes problematic, but until then it happens. My concern is we looked pathetic. I thought Tannehill looked good and think that at this point he should start. I dont think you back yourself in a corner but in reality we have nothing to lose by starting him, this isnt too big, he has the confidence the poise so that adversity wont destroy him. I know it is one preseason game, but things I saw were this is a work in progress. The defense got 0 pressure from that line, and even when they blitzed it was 0. Yes it was a vanilla no scheme defense but teh offense was vanilla, it was matchup and we didnt match up well. I am not we didnt win the world ends we suck position, I am saying that this year is a progressing year, we will look better next week and the next and so on IMO, but we are not serioiusly contending for a deep playoff run, and it isnt like Moore has shown anything better, Garrard is out and is durability a concern? Why not see what Tanne has vs teh 1's and how he handles it? if he does well or shows that poise, roll the dice. This is coming from a proponent of qbs sitting. I do think that you have to be sure mentally he can handle the ups and downs w/o self destructing but Tannehill so far carries himself like he can handle it.
I don't mean the type of fatigue you get near the end of a game... I mean like your body just isn't restored and ready to peak. Like if you came off a playoff victory then had to play the Jacksoville Jags shortly thereafter and it showed. Or if you didn't sleep well. Or the humidity affected you. Or I'm just hallucinating. I just found it odd that Jake, Martin, Soliai and Starks were less explosive and fresh looking than I expected... and they are our biggest guys.
Funniest thing I've read all night. Smith wiffs on a tackle and gives up a big play and then backs that up by getting beat deep and your analysis is that Davis is struggling. Good stuff.
I have no idea how you have Smith in the top 10. He sucked. Hard. I realize everyone wants to blame Wilson for the big reception, but that was Sean's guy.
Just a thought. Is the difficulty that the OL is having due to their unfamiliarity with the zone blocking in a real game situation? Preseason or not, it is different than practice.
preseason wins and losses are irrelevant, individual performances in the preseason on the other hand actually matter.
my point is we're all aware of how meaningless the preseason record of any team is, i dont think anyone here cares that we LOST THE GAME, the problem is that Vontae and Jonathan Martin and plenty of other starters looked terrible.
Smith's coverage was fine on that play. It was a freak play. Jimmy didn't play the ball well but he had the position. He's still learning. The missed tackle, yeah... he needs to work on that. But we knew his tackling was below average already.
As I said earlier the relevance is that final scores of preseason games are indicative of nothing. I was not talking about individual performances, but since we seem to be now, they really need to be evaluated over more than just the opening preseason game. A lot of really good teams stink up one or more preseason games only to have great regular seasons. It's a little too early to be overly concerned with last nights performance.
Absolutely the point! Too many people on this board get their panties in a wad from people discussing performances unbiased and bluntly. A lot of guys did not show up for the Dolphins last night and got beat. It's not an end all. It does not mean that the season is lost. It does not mean they can't correct the issue. Just means that a lot of our players need to step it up a little immediately because many were clearly outclassed by their opponents across the ball.
Smith was covering the under throw knowing he had safety help over top of the deep middle. That's where Jimmy Wilson was aligned the entire time, the deep middle. I saw this from the end zone with a Madden view, had the read on the secondary the whole way and when Orlovsky released that ball immediately I yelled out "interception" with glee. Wilson botched it. No that was not Sean Smith's fault nor did he really "suck" that night except for essentially one play. Even that missed tackle on Doug Martin was just a freak thing.
Clay looks more fluid and polished this year. Pruitt and Wallace look yoked and crisp, as well. Love the tempo...
Watched the play. Smith never even looked back until it was too late iirc. He couldve made a play on the ball. He looks like he has no control over his long body either. Never have been impressed by him.
IMO Sean Smith made a horrid play on that Mike Williams tackle attempt, but was not at fault in the other plays people are referencing. The hit on on Martin was very good and just a great play by what I expect we'll soon recognize is a great back. On the long completion, Smith was in the right position. That was all on Wilson. I thought Moore played fine, but never looked as in command as RT did. I expect that if Garrard is not healthy and it's between Moore and RT that RT wins the starting job. Bush looked good, but every other runner left me unimpressed. Fasano looked real good. Egnew didn't look that athletic or fast to me. Other than the one play, I was disappointed. Clay flashed a bit, I was just hoping he'd do more than just flash this year. BTW I loved how RT looked off the coverage on that TD pass to Clay. Matthews (WR) looked good on the KRs. I don't think he has the elusiveness you want in your punt returner, but on kickoffs he seems like a guy who always picks the right lane.
i'm a big fan of sitting a rookie qb and letting him pick up a few things from veteran qbs but with garrard out for 4 weeks Tannehill should be our guy at the start of the season. the scoreboard didnt show it, but Tannehill gave us several chances to score. we had an iffy call on the td that got called back then went for it on 4th which would have never happened in the season. if we had the real refs i think it would be inconclusive evidence to overturn. carpenter missed 2 field goals. granted it was a 50 and a 51 yard field goals but he made several of those the past 2 years. bottom line is that Tannehill moves the ball well and gives us the best chance to score and win. i really hope Tannehill gets the start next pre season game so we can have a better idea of what he is capable of.
I really doubt that. At game speed, looking from behind the offense, you don't really see it, but frame by frame from the side, he clearly did not make a clean catch.
i totally agree. one dropped pass in a pre season game isnt the end of the world but whats up with his off the field incident? what a moron! i think he cares too much about what people think about him and i think his dropped pass made him think... i wonder what the critics will say about me now.. then he got in an ill mood and head butted his wife!
there was one angle that made that call get overturned but if u put it together with the other angles his hands were under the ball the whole time. the ball is allowed to hit the ground if you have control of it. since it was originally called a td i see it as inconclusive. if it were not called a td and challenged by us i would still say it was inconclusive and would expect it to remain the same.
I watched the re-run of the game this morning. I know Martin had a couple of penalities, but he wasn't nearly as bad as some of you are saying. I also watched Samuda and McDonald. I thought they have a shot on the roster. Some of you fee ocused on Fuller dropping a couple of passes. Didn't see the big issue there. He caught his first pass thrown his way, and I know one of the balls thrown his way was not accurate. It concerned me we didn't see much of Kaddu. Trusnik was a nice surprise. I thought Freeny looked ok as well. Randall and number 95 (forgot his name) played well in the middle. If you look at the game overall, the defense played better as the game went along. I have some concern regarding the backup dbs. Not sure about Wade, Brown, and Agnew. I don't see Johnson making the team at safety. Depth is so much an issue at linebacker and defensive back that I see some pickups before the roster is finalized. How about watching a Dolphin home preseason game with the Buc's media team three of the four quarters? Respect from Nfl Network there.
