Dolphins@Bills, or stop blaming every ****ing thing but Ryan Tannehill

lol @ people saying Reggie sucks...

Newsflash, every running back's success in the NFL is dependent on their offensive line. Reggie has created plenty of big plays when he's had a hole to run through. He's a tremendous open field runner. Problem is, he can't get to the open field. He's not dancing by choice... If there was a hole to hit, I''m confident he would. Hell, even Daniel Thomas has had some nice runs this year when he's had a hole. Sure, they're usually called back because of holding... But that's not his fault or any other RB's.

Offensive line is trash. They can't run block or pass black for ****. Yet Tanny and Reggie are getting blamed? Is such a thing even possible?

 

To an extent.

That argument would be a lot better if Reggie hasn't been dancing for a month and dropping the ball.

 

Reggie dances too much and Daniel Thomas runs into his own blockers. Pretty much the result of the same problem. No holes to run through. Reggie does need to secure the ball better tho. That's on him.

 

Disagree. Bush's is he's hesitant and looks for big gains instead of just taking a 3-4 yarder. DT has shotty vision.

Not disagreeing that the line is *** at times though.

 

When do you think the turning point was for the team losing faith in Philbin, if that's what you're saying.

 

It's Bush's history, and Ireland knew that when he traded for him.

 

Look at his history in N'awlins.....it was a known fact he was soft, and oft injured. Yet Ireland still traded for him.

 

So I wasn't the only one to read that post that way.....I was afraid to call out the OP on that.

 

Bada bing, bada bang.......best post of this thread !

 

Just now?

 

Yep, if we think about it the offense has been crap since MMoore took over in the Jest win, we've lost 3 in a row since then scoring what..2 Td's?

I suspect we will be lucky to win 3 games the rest of the way, the offense w/Tannehill is just punchless.

Insert MMoore and say we win those 3 games, so what? in 2013 you start with a Tannehill who has 6 less starts and MMoore most likely playing elsewhere, I suspect that is what is behind Gaffney being inactive and Bush's role being reduced, more or less they are already looking forward to 2013.

Sucks, is what it is, good thing my BC Lions are good or I'd take a hiatus from watching football altogether.

 

I think they've lost faith in Tannehill tbh, the team wants MMoore b/c they want to win, the organization wants Tannehill to play.

 

The rookie has hit a wall. Maybe his arm is shot. Lord knows he's playing hurt.

 

We are out of the playoffs. Makes no sense to pull Tannehill for Moore now unless his confidence is shot. The kid has got poor supporting cast. Ireland needs to go. 1st time ive said that .

 

Tannehill doesn't play OLine, doesn't play RB, doesn't give up pass interference penalties, doesn't miss tackles and he doesn't kick FGs. If you think the Offense hasn't nosedived at all then I disagree. I do think you are right to a degree that Tannehill has looked worse recently but to me its a collective effort on Offense, Defense and STs .

 

While Tannehill hasn't played his best football the last few weeks, to say its not on the players around him is just... absurd. The OL and our WR's is where this all starts, and ends IMO. Our running game... is non existant. Partially because the OL is struggling to get the job done, but we'll get to that in a second. It's also IMO partially on our WR's... and if you want to, you can tie that back to our GM. Nobody, and I mean Nobody, fears our WR's. They lack the the presence of a vertical threat. Can a guy like Hartline once in a blue moon get open downfield against some soft zone coverages? Sure... but not consistently. They struggle to get separation on deep routes, they're not speedy. Early in the season, especially the Arizona game, Hartline had a field day because teams were playing him off the ball, and its no co-incidence at that time, early in the year our running game was doing well. Now, its alot of press coverage against us. Teams are just playing us to stop the run, which is part of the reason we have no running room on almost every play we try to run, teams can stuff the box, and dare our QB and WR's to beat them. Which... isn't consistently happening because our WR's just arent good enough to get open downfield, and our QB is a rookie. So, because nobody fears our WR's, theyre easy to shut down, you dont have to worry much about them, and you can leave your LB's closer up to the line, which helps in run support, and also takes away the quick, short routes that our WR's really excel at. Seriously, that's where Bess and hartline are good, they're underneath guys. Bess is a slot guy all the way, Hartline you could use as a 2, but you are missing a guy who can take the top off a defense, make the corners play off, keep the safeties back, and force the LB's out of the box.

Its not on one player IMO. Its a failure of the whole unit, because we dont have good enough personnel on the field on the offensive side of the ball. Defenses are dictating how we play against them, and that's never good when you lack the talent to force them to adjust to you.

 

Its just that, its not us that's changed though. Its the way defenses are playing us that's changed IMO. We don't have the talent to change that either.

 

I think that's a distinct possibility. However, it doesn't explain why the team laid an egg against the Titans in a game just after Tannehill had a 90 QB rating against the Colts.

Have they lost faith in him now? Sure, I imagine. But I don't think you can say the way the team fell off a cliff after the Colts game is based on a loss of faith in Tannehill, not when he played so well against the Colts.

 

A few things I've been noticing lately that's hurting our offense-

-Not getting yardage on 2nd and 10. We've been running the ball quite frequently in that situation, which on its own doesn't bother me that much. However, you have to gain yardage in those situations, pure and simple. This offense just doesn't have enough talent to make 3rd and longs at an even an average rate.

-Shooting ourselves in the foot when we do get drives going. This seems to be a major issue the past 2-3 weeks. Last night the Hartline interference call put us in hole. Other weeks have seen other dumb penalties or mistakes putting halts to drives where it appeared we were gathering momentum.

 

Agree, except we are getting shot in the foot by the refs quite a bit.

We had a drive going until Hartline was hit in the back of the head before the ball got there. If he took the same hit and he had the ball it would have been a penalty, but somehow its not before the ball gets there? That stymied that drive.

There were a few others that got stopped because of non PI calls on Buffalo. Then the OPI call on Hartline was bull****.

Hell their lone TD was bull****. Even if you give them a pass on running into the kicker, then you still got to call the FLAGRANT block in the back on the first guy down there.

We didn't play well, but we damn sure played well enough to win if a legit game had been called.

 

Re: What happened?

It's the same in all sports. Rookie comes in and torches everyone because no one knows his style or tendencies. After a while when teams have them on tape, they get shut down and its up to the rookie to adjust. Perfect example? Cam Newton....

Sent from my LT30at using Tapatalk 2

 

Bills fan here-

I live in S Florida and follow all the AFC East teams very closely.
I think the Dolphins blew it last year when they fired Sparano. As an objective viewer, I thought last years Dolphins never quit and showed some real promise toward the end of the year. Matt Moore was coming into his own, they played tough nosed football and were nobody's "easy out". Plus you guys won some division games and crushed the Bills, to me that is progress. Gotta win in the division first...Drafting Tannehill may work out great someday, but it is tanamount to "rebuilding" (pun intended). I think the Phins still have solid trenches. I disagree that Long is toast, that guy can ball, he needs better interioir help. Wake is a monster and that team has some good players on both lines. I can only wonder how good they could have been with more draft picks for Moore and staying the course.

That Defensive line of the Bills have shown flashes of what they did last night, I expected them to come out fired up at home. Also, Mario has been hurt all year, his wrist is finally feeling better after bye week surgery. Healthy I think the Bills line will still be dominant and you guys caught their first complete game last night IMO-

The Bills have only had 2 home games prioir to last night, they have the strangest schedule...

 

The scary thing is that it usually takes longer than this to figure a guy out.

It's hard for me to be too down on Tannehill though. He played poorly last night, no question. But when you see Davone Bess running double moves and deep routes at the end of the game, it really puts this team's talent into perspective.

Then Matthews comes into the game and IMMEDIATELY gets open deep. He may have scored if the defender doesn't drag him down. This makes me question the coaching staff. Why haven't seen him more? The whole thing is a mess.

 

The offense:

This side of the ball has had the biggest downturn. The running game in particular has really ground to a halt. You can say it's because teams are stacking the box and that would be true, but good running teams still succeed even when facing defenses crowding the box. The offensive line has gotten worse every game since the Bengals game. There has been a lot of discussion about Jake. He hasn't been too bad in protection, but is not getting the job done in the running game. Every Offensive lineman is having severe run blocking issues. Our guards have been playing poorly in both pass protection and the run game. Martin is a rookie and needs to benefit from off season strength and conditioning. The jury is out on him.

The running backs are playing poorly, although in fairness there are few holes to run through. I wish they would get Reggie involved more in the passing game. He usually gets replaced by Thomas no doubt because of protection issues, but Reggie can be dangerous as a receiver. Thomas has been mostly mediocre running the ball.

The passing game has really struggled too. It needs to be understood that Tannehill is a rookie and needs to be helped to succeed, not to be asked to carry the team on his shoulders. Particularly a team that is poorly equipped to give him this help. This is where the lack of a running game is hurting so badly. In the first few games when we were running the ball Tannehill was converting a lot of third and longs when they arose. Not anymore. Although Bess and Hartline are making some plays, and are decent receivers, it's not nearly enough. Lack of contributions in the passing game from other WR's and TE's, along with mediocre protection overall is killing the passing game.

The defense:

The defense last night played pretty much they way they've played most of the year. They gave up a lot of passing yards but only 12 points. Classic bend but don't break defense. However they really need to get better in pass defense. Not enough pass rush and poor coverage. The inability to come up with turnovers is really frustrating. The look on Philbin's face when Wilson flubbed the pick in the end zone said it all. There is some good play on this side of the ball. Reshad Jones is playing really good, as is Wake in particular, Starks, and Soliai. On the negative side Carroll was abysmal last night. Tackling and pursuit was generally not so good. Odrick is not a good player right now.

So to me the deterioration of the running game and the lack of consistent help for Tannehill in the passing game is what's throttling the offense. The inability to come up with gift turnovers is what is killing this defense the most, followed by the need for improvement defending the pass with more pass rush and better coverage. I would say a good bit of our problems are due to a dearth in overall talent. I think players like Wilson and Carroll, Misi, Odrick (when playing inside), and Clemons are good depth, especially having played a lot this year, but our roster needs a big upgrade at receiver, and now along the OL, at DE, and in the defensive backfield. I would be happy to say goodbye to Ireland, but my biggest concern is who is available to replace him and be a reasonably certain upgrade? If we end up with a new GM, what happens to Philbin and his coaching staff? I would not want him replaced after one somewhat promising year. There would be a lot of ramifications to a major change in the FO.

 

Well I think you saw, on that exact play why we haven't seen him more. I believe it was that play anyways. He lined up on the wrong side of the field originally. RT was screaming at him, and when Matthews finally clued in, we got the snap off with like 1 second on the playclock. He's clearly struggling still to know where he's got to be. that being said... he's got to see the field. It looks like the potential is there with him. Have some of the more aware guys like Hartline, or Bess help him out in the huddle, do something... just help the guy get in position, if that's what it takes to get him on the field, and he's able to get open like that... then do it. He'll pick it up eventually.

I think its more than teams figuring out RT, but its teams figuring out our offense as a whole. It's short, quick outs, slants, and curls for the most part. That's easy to defend, especially when you're shutting down the run, and don't have a deep threat to worry about. As a DC, you've got to have a major stiffy when watching film on our offense. It's going to be a cakewalk.

 

Wow thats disturbing.I guess he is missing that it factor that you can't teach you either have it or you don't.**** I miss marino.

 

5 straight games our team has failed to have 100 yards rushing. All the pressure is being put on the rookie QB, who doesn't have the talent around him to throw to or protect him.

 

Yeah, I mean, getting first team reps and game experience should help in that regard. It's why I was so upset Egnew hasn't been active. You're not/never were a playoff contender (despite what some thought) so get your rookies in there and experienced for when you are ready to contend.

I also agree with your second point, especially about the quick passes. A couple things here: It was obvious Tennessee noticed this on tape and made a concerted effort to force Tannehill into bad decisions, hence Ayers dropping back on 3rd and 1 tipping the pass for a pick 6. Additionally, Tannehill is either holding the ball too long on these short drops, or guys aren't getting separated from the DB's quick enough. Without watching the All-22 tape, I can't definitively say which one of those it is. Either way, it's giving D-Lineman and LB's a lot of time to read Tannehill's eyes and react to the play.

 

You can't really blame Bush though.
That is the player he's always been and always will be.
The big play maker is the role he should be in.
We are trying to make an every down back out of him and while it has worked at times it fails more than not.
Not Bush's fault were trying to make him into something he isnt.
That's what you have to do though when you have gaping holes on a roster.

 

Yeah that's our problem..... we don't have Sparano anymore......
He's turned that Jets O into a Juggernaut! Yeesh.

Amazed anyone would come to the conclusion that the Dolphins problems are attributable to firing Sparano.

 

I did not say that was the only problem. Look at teams that win consistently over time, they build a cohesive coaching staff. Sparano has this team on the right path.
Do you disagree that the team you saw near the end of last year, was better than this one?

 

They have been bipolar. But let's be real - they were something beyond bad against Indy.

 

lol, cmon man. The Bills totally outplayed them. If the Bills had played any kinda decent red zone offense this game would not have been close.

 

Oh, definitely. That game was terrible. By recently I meant the last two simce that game.

 

Not entirely fair argument, because going into this game the Dolphins had the #2 red zone defense (from a TD perspective), only allowing a TD about 37% of the time. So it's not just about the Bills playing decent red zone offense, it's about that being the one place on the field our defense steps up.

 

Agreed.

 

The come-from-behind thing worried me a bit before we drafted him as well, especially with Sherman also joining the staff. How much of it is on Sherman's play-calling AND the fact that Tannehill has had less than stellar talent at WR on both teams is anyone's guess. The situations are pretty close in that regard.

Now obviously, Tannehill has made some poor throws and hasn't played extremely well. That's on him. But I can't get too down on the guy for not being able to overcome the dog**** he has around him. That would be pretty tough for just about anyone to overcome.