1. One huge positive....If we had "good" QB play, we win this game today. The rest of the team is pretty competent. 2. Vince Wilfork was on a rampage, going on 4 weeks, wrecking havoc throughout the league. His game amounted to a popcorn fart in this one. 3. Jon Martin was pretty damn good. You read that right. No more on that. 4. Brian Hartline can really vulture off of a decent #1 WR, as he seems to lack respect from defenses, and he always gives effort. He is likely to get behind your defense and cash in on accurate QB play. He should have had a HUGE day today. 5. Reggie Bush is as good a complimentary back as there is in the NFL. He does his job, and is under-utilized in the passing game. He is not however allowed to demonstrate that he can be a featured back. 6. Reshad Jones. I am done. I said it early on. I like him. He is a keeper, and a playmaker that has earned protected status. Raise your hand if you thought that Hernandez was gonna rip us a new *******......... 7. A pretty good game played by the front seven. They were pretty gassed late and should not be scrutinized for that last drive. 8. Cam Wake is the second best pass rush specialist in the league. the best, happens to be the best Defensive player in the league. (Demarcus Ware) 9. The return of dominant play from Mike Pouncey. I expect it. Good to see that it returned after a couple of uneven efforts. 10. Sean Smith has shown that he can be the second half of the best CB tandem in the league, We need a top talent to complete that tandem. He's hard to beat with simple routes. Overall...I thought the Patriots showed a great deal of respect to our team, and for that, I am happy. We are skill position talent and a Db away from being a playoff team. I am actually encouraged by this result. Ryan Tannehill MUST be better though.
Nailed it. I still can't believe how good Reshad Jones has been this season. He is all over the field making plays. That dude came out of NO WHERE and could be a Pro Bowler.
If there's one thing Bengals fans loved about Kevin Coyle, it was that he completely turned around Reggie Nelson's career in Cincinnati. Reshad Jones plays just like how Cincinnati used Reggie Nelson the past two years; though I think Jones is more of a factor in the run game. I think the problem with Cincinnati, and now in Miami, is that the Bengals couldn't find anyone to pair with him. They went from Chris Crocker to Taylor Mays to George Iloka to back to Chris Crocker. I think Miami needs someone better than Chris Clemons to pair with Reshad Jones. I'll bang the drum again, but I think you could get Dashon Goldson for a relatively decent deal to come in and still allow you to try and sign a Ryan Clady, Mike Wallace, or Andy Levitre.
He is a rookie, a non elite rookie. He is going to take seasoning, time and patience. I have total faith. He shows me enough in his flashes of brilliance to think he will be alright. Will he be top 5 "elite"? Doubt it. But he can be a top 10 guy. Get the kid some ****ing play makers and protection. He was getting beat up today. I can't believe we STILL have glaring needs on the offensive line. We've had this damn issue every year I can remember. Seriously. Outside of 2/3 of a season of Jamie Nails being out of his mind and Mark Dixon for a short period of time when was the last time we had a guard we could count on game after game? That said, if Tannehill is competent today we win this football game. He was off all day. I think he was nervous and gave them too much respect.
I wholeheartedly agree on the Reshad Jones sentiment: dude is becoming one of my favorite players on D. On the DeMarcus Ware thing.....I think Aldon Smith is pretty dynamic as well. One thing about Wake's game that has really buttoned up his game is his run game effectiveness. I remember early in his career where runners would just run past him because he did not set the edge well. He is doing a fantastic job in that department, and it really is refreshing to see him disrupt some of those outside runs.
Aldon Smith has more sacks at this point in his career then any other player did at this point in their career. I knew the kid was special last year when i banged the drum for him....imagine if he played every down last year...his stats would be even better? I really wish Jadaveon Clowney was available for us this year. That would be a filthy compliment to Wake.
I think you should be forbidden from about talking about QBs. You want to be critical of him fine. But writing him off completely is ****ing stupid.
Smith also runs interior stunts pretty well. It helps that he has Justin Smith at his side, but given he has the ability to do so effectively gives him a leg up. Cam does apply fantastic pressure, but he is certainly more of a grinder type. And once he gets flushed a bit, QBs easily can step up to make the throw if there is minimal interior pressure. I also see Wake getting handled easily at times, and unfortunately, sometimes loses his footing taking himself entirely out of the play. It happens. He just keeps going and going until he gets his sack. Whether it is scheme, etc., I do feel that Wake has only one effective rush move (speed rush), and seems to only use a spin in the apex of his rush. I have seen him use the spin early in the rush without any real effectiveness. His apex spin does keep him in the play if the secondary helps, but Miami's secondary is not the best. PR agent or not, I still feel that Smith is a little more dynamic of a player even though San Fran's overall defensive cast and scheme is superior to Miami's.
I disagree with #7. Call me a hardass but if you dominate in run defense all game only to give up a 7+ minute drive at the end of the 4th, You blew it. We'd be all over the offense if they failed on the last drive of a shootout, same goes for this d. If you lose a game 6-3, the defense gave up too many points. If you lose a game 56-53, the offense didn't score enough. that's just how i personally feel about football. Defense. Gets no pass from me, that's our strength. We needed them.
jonathan martin didn´t embarrass himself out there after Jake Long got injured, 15 million gone or Martin on the left side and draft another RT ? i´m all for it
I don't think thats a realistic expectation to be honest. If you look around the league, there are very few defenses that perform at a level higher than Miami yesterday. There certainly aren't many defenses that carry teams to many wins anymore. San Fran is one. Chicago is another at times. But beyond that, its pretty rare. If you said that the defense would allow 24 pts to NE with the turnovers committed by the offense, I think most people would say that would be a successful outcome for the defense.
I don't know how you can say this. Sure, in a vaccum, 23 points to NE is a pretty good day, but expecting the defense to get a stop, and not give up nearly an 8 minutes drive in the 4th quarter is not asking all that much. The offense had put together two nice drives in a rown and was getting things going. All we needed was one stop. Not even a 3 and out. Just a stop with no points and a reasonable amount of time elft on the clock. Instead, they were completely dominated at the LOS and gave up several key 3rd downs
Yes, they had a bad drive. Overall, it was a great defensive performance, even including that bad drive. How many defenses have been able to meet your expectations against NE?
Don't forget on THAT side the Pats were on their THIRD option... So may not be a true telling of how good he is.. I say if he does well against the 49ers then you are 100% correct.
Who cares if it was a good performance "overall" when they crapped out at the moment of truth? Even a quick strike NE score would have been better than what actually happened. And I don't care what other teams might have done against NE. I know that all we had to do was not allow a 7 minute drive that ended in points and we failed.
i don´t know if anyone really will look good against justin smith or aldon smith, but yeah its a good test coming up for sure
I think its rather important when actually placing the performance in context of what regularly occurs in the NFL. Using this logic, allowing anything >0 is a failure. "Moment of truth" is also really just a subjective platitude. The "moment of truth" could entail a lot of different missed opportunities.
There is nothign subjective. The offense had put up 10 points on its last two drives to pull within 7. There is over 8 minutes left. All we need the defense to do is almost anything other than what they did. Because of the way the defense performed on that lastd rive we never got a chance to see if the offense could continue the success it had. Put it this way, if the defense had gotten the ball back to the offense with a reasonable amoiunt of time left and the score still at NE + 7 and the offense failed to do anything you could rightly kill the offense.
Ok umm your O had ONE TD ALL game, went for it on 4th down and made it on the Pats 10 earlier then failed to punch it in in 3 tries and you kicked the FG. I still don't understand why you go for it on the 10 (or 12) yrd line but on the 6 you dont go for it??
Bump. We need a positive thread. Agree with you Section. Also: 1) Charles Clay is developing. 2) Good signs from Daniel Thomas again 3) Thigpen got a carry. Hope to see more offensive touches for him. 4) The early mistakes were nerves. Won't happen the second time this team and coach face the Pats. 5) Now this team knows it CAN beat the Pats. I think the players entered the game scared of being blown out on their home field. But now they know they can compete. Reminds me of the Giants losing to the Pats in the regular season when the Pats had a juggernaut offense and the Giants almost kept up. Straphangers said after, it made them think "Wow we really COULD bea these guys! And next time we will!" Gotta hope the Dolphins feel that way too. That was the year the Giants beat the Pats in the Superbowl.
Suggesting that a drive at a certain time of the game is more important than another time of the game is extremely subjective. The offense scored 17 pts against one of the worst defenses in the NFL. They should be criticized.
I think Charles Clay's "development" may be an illusion. He's still inconsistent. That's not really development. Instead of picking up where he left off toward the end of 2011, he played like dog *** for the entire first half of 2012. The fact that his positive performances happened toward the end of the season instead of toward the beginning could be nothing more than random coincidence, a function of his inconsistency. What exactly was good about Daniel Thomas' performance against the Patriots? He put the ball on the ground yet again, constantly plowed into contact with his back turned to defenders, and averaged 2.0 yards per carry. Daniel Thomas is the poster child for the system of battered wife level lowered expectations conditioned to be common amongst Dolfans. I'd be real careful declaring what will or won't happen the next time the Dolphins play the Patriots. I don't know how mistakes by the Dolphins are attributable to "nerves" where mistakes by the Patriots are sticky and will persist. Remember Week 17 of 2010? We played the Patriots backups, and they stomped all over us. I don't know how the Dolphins walk away from this loss at home by multiple scores thinking "Yeah we can beat them". They thought that way before they played them, anyway. They saw the Patriots lose to the Cardinals, Seahawks and Ravens. They never thought the Patriots were invulnerable to begin with. I think in a second matchup you have to give the advantage over to whom you view to be the better coaches and whom you view to have the better depth. By Week 17 there will need to be depth involved everywhere on both teams. I have more confident in the Patriots' coaching, and their depth, and they'll be at home. You can go ahead and make shou's mistake betting on the Dolphins to win in Week 17...but I'm gonna sit that one out.
Agree with most, but Sean Smith is this generations JB Brown. Somehow convinces people he's a solid corner (or elite in some minds) but repeatedly under performs. Don't even get me started on his run support.
^^ When's the last time Clay's had a drop? He does seem like he's making the most of his opportunities as of late, and right now, that's progress. Completely agree on DT.
That whole thread was confusing because shou told us to bet the Dolphins to win, and he also told us to take the points. And personally I consider the Dolphins to have lost by multiple scores. That decision to kick the field goal was strange to me.
OK OK I admit I am an old timer and not ashamed to ask. WTF is a popcorn fart ?? LOL I thought we did a pretty good job on him. Sure he made some plays, he is good but for the most part Incognito kept him at bay. On that stupid fumble Wilfolk recovered Incognito had him stopped solid at the LOS. I was screaming on the TOP of my lungs RICHIE RIIIIIIICHIE FUMBLE. but he could not hear me thru the tv lol. We have a good football team. IMO we flat out gave that game yesterday to the NE Patriots. When it started off the way it did I knew it was going to be a loooooooong day. But again, we do have a good football team.
IMO Clay inconsistentcy come from not being utilized enough. This entier offense circles around Hartline, Bess, Bush and slowly coming up, Thomas. Thats it.
Yes. I've not seen an explanation that really makes that much sense to me. I don't see any inherent advantages in saving the touchdown drive for after the onside kick as opposed to before it. Either way you need a touchdown.
Aaron Hernandez kinda did rip us a new *******, didn't he? He had 8 rec for 97 yards, and that was with a wide-open TD that Brady missed him on.
My only guess is Philbin though he had a beter chance of scoring a TD with 33 seconds left, then continuing to try and get the TD, and even if you get it, trying to get into field goal range with maybe 10-15 seconds left. It made no difference either way as the game was going to be nigh impossible to tie. Only made a difference to the gamblers, which if Philbin wasn't such a square would make you wonder....
To whom? I have heard several players, analysts and coaches (both former and current) say that icing the kicker only gives the kicker a practice run and makes him more likely to make it on the second try. And in fact, I believe there are statistics which show that.
