I finally had a chance to rewatch the game. The Good: 1. I loved the look of the uniforms. I think they are far and away the best uniforms this team has ever had. 2. Dion Jordan flashed great potential. I thought he looked quicker than his opponents once he got going. He didn't fire off the snap as fast as I would like, but he looked like the superior athlete once they were moving. That's how you draw those penalties against the OL that help kill drives. He looked good in space on the one play he dropped back. I think that eventually that wingspan will wreak havoc with the passing lanes. I though he disrupted one of the passes to the sideline. That's the kind of thing that leads to INTs down the line. It's also easy to envision Wake and Jordan flushing QBs one way or the other all season for sacks by the opposite side end. 3. Martin played pretty well at LT. From reading through a few posts that doesn't seem to be the consensus, but I was pleased with what I saw. He was very good as a run blocker and decent as a pass blocker. He wasn't going against great competition, but I would characterize his performance as very similar to what we got from Long last season. 4. Bumphis flashed a bit. I didn't think he looked all that sudden after the catch, but I think he's great at finding the soft spots in the zone. 5. Gibson picked up that one first down. That's what I expect we'll see from him all season. 6. Keenan Allen flashed a bit as well. 7. Egnew did well both as a blocker and receiver. I just can't shake the feeling that he's just a fragile guy mentally. 8. We were pretty good at avoiding penalties. That's the one part that wasn't sloppy. 9. Carpenter was really solid on his FGs and kick-offs. 10. Shelby flashed as a pass rusher, but got sealed off a couple of times early against the run. Actually Misi got sealed off as well on one of those early runs. The Bad: 1. The tackling was horrid. Time after time the Dallas runners gained big yardage after contact. 2. The team was sloppy. Players ran onto the field late. A time out after a 2 minute warning. Uugh! 3. RT was off and his footwork seemed rushed. I don't know how much of that was not having his starting WRs? On that second play to McNutt, I thought that RT was smart to put the ball on the backside to avoid the S. A more experienced WR would have slowed down so he doesn't run through the window too quickly. But the first pass to McNutt was a classic example of not setting your feet or following through (rushing it) and ending up high and away. 4. We lost the TO battle. That's got to be killing Philbin. Even when we had a chance to fall on a fumble it must have gone past four Dolphins with the opportunity only to be recovered by the first Cowboy with a shot at it. 5. Dallas Thomas struggled at LT. It's not unusual for young OL to get run over and embarrassingly so. We saw it with Pouncey and Martin before him. Fans blow it up in terms of importance, but reality is that it happens to most OL that aren't taken in the top 5 or so. Thomas will get stronger after a year in the pros. I just wouldn't bank on him to man the outside for us this season. Yeatman did look decent though. 6. Davis gave up that PI. He said afterwards that he thought he was in worse position than he was. I get that. He just panicked. That's fairly common for young DBs as they adjust to the speed of the game. 7. Wheeler was beat easily on that early pass to the TE. The one area I thought we gave up some on our LB exchange this off-season was coverage. The coverage there did not portend well.
We got Keenan Allen? We got Keenan Allen!! WE GOT KEENAN ALLEN!!! JK... that was Keenan Davis. Good synopsis. I mostly agree with all of it.
I think that's a pretty good analysis. I agree with you on Martin. Everyone has been making a big deal about how bad he played, but other than that one play I thought he was solid. I think you also make a good point about that second slant to McNutt. I thought at the time how Tannehill had to throw it a bit behind to squeeze it in there, but everyone is criticizing him for two missed throws. I also agree about the tackling. I don't think the Dolphins backup linebackers are very good right now. Lee Robinson made some plays late, but Trusnick, Spitler, and company looked pretty bad I thought.
Agreed Raf... It also shows how things can look a bit off on TV, especially when things are moving along, and all the commentators are talking about is the HOF, rather than the game going on.
That play was amazing... no, it was AMAZING!!! Especially with all the work the coaches (and players!) have put into the turnover drills. So in the game it happens! We strip the QB of the football, and it bounces forward. At least two Dolphins lunge at it, and it eludes their grasp, sliding forward more. Another Dolphin seemed to jump over the football. And then, a Cowboy slides into the ball and recovers the fumble. End result: first down Cowboys. I sit on my couch looking like a dejected basset hound shaking my head.
Agreed on a lot of that. 1) agreed 2) thought the same about both ends funneling sacks to each other. 3) had a pretty good grade for Martin, competition level wasn't there though..I'll take it. 4) agreed 10) so that bad play by Misi, totally gave up outside containment, got his *** sealed in the beginning of the damn game..pisses me off. The bad. 1) Tanner ran all over our asses..we don't tackle a lot to the ground in practice.. 3) Jesus I wish he would just relax and find his play speed early in the game.. So wish he would engage some athleticism when protection breaks down, problem is he doesn't have the kind that I want.....get him on the run early. Let him run a draw or something so he can take a hit..do something different than what you've been doing.. I thought Dallas struggled real bad on some plays but did good on others..
Don't see what the reports were saying about Kyle miller, think he will be cut, Dion sims is a good blocker, still slow off the LOS, just cut Brenner and McDonald..jeez...can't believe how hard it is to find good lineman these days. samuda played center and guard, much better at guard.
By the way, I wish we did have Keenan Allen. I know he was not very popular on this board, but I think he's going to be a very good player in SD and could very well be the OROY. I still cannot believe he fell to the 3rd round.
This is something I think will be mitigated by alignment once the regular season begins. Misi is lined up off the line, inside the DE (Shelby). Normally, Misi's in more of a 1x1 or 1x3 off the line, OUTSIDE of the DE, who you would assume in that situation is probably going to be Olivier Vernon, Vaughn Martin, or Jared Odrick. Even if Misi gets off his block, Derrick Shelby's knocked back off the line to the point he's probably in Misi's way. I think that's something Miami will scheme against in a real game. That was a pretty basic straight 4-3 alignment. If there's one thing to take from last year's defense, it's that Miami didn't line up like that very often, and when they did, Jared Odrick was usually at the right end spot and can hold the POA better there than Derrick Shelby showed on that particular play. In short, I wouldn't worry about that play or Koa Misi.
Is it wrong that I'm still fapping to the footage of Jordan dropping in to coverage? Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2
You're killing it now with the questions. Almost lost the rhythm. Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk HD
My biggest observation is the offense is still painfully inept. Dallas converted 10 or 20 yard passes at will. It seems we are lucky to turn in a performance on offense that to most teams seems routine. There has been no improvement by the offense compared to last years 18 ppg. This is harsh but that is the reality of the performance turned in by this 1st and 2nd offense in the first preseason game.
Maybe it's the play calling then. Our offense just doesn't look as crisp. We try too hard and seem to get less. I wanted to see more out of Miller but instead we pass 47 times. Dupree, I always expect contradiction out of you on any forum anyway. Sherif
Maybe it was the fumble or the that fact that the game was lost on two turnovers... You should check the stats still though. The game was played with nobodies named Bumphis and McNutt as our starting WR's and musical chairs on the OLine. We still out performed the Cowboys. Them / Us: First downs - 15 to our 23 Total yards - 266 to our 421 Passing yards - 96 to our 310 Punts - 7 to our 3 Penalties - 9 to our 3 Penalty yards - 67 to our 20 I thought the play calling was fine. It was the execution, or lack thereof of plays and schemes that was the issue. Still, take away the opening fumble and the bobbled pass for the pick 6 and we win handily... the best the Cowboys did was out rush us, but that was mostly just damned poor tackling by our defense.
two carries for 21 yards? I mean...i saw what i needed to see? two explosive runs over 10 yards. All he's gotta do is hold on to the ball going forward. Right now, we have no idea what we have at wr. Bumphis, mcnutt, Egnew, etc these guys are all playing for a job. We have to pass to make evaluations of them. Same thing with the offensive line. As we saw, they can run block. Can they pass block? Preseason isn't about running your offense to win the game, it's about seeing whose going to make your roster at the end of it.
The first play of the game is run away from Koa Misi. He's actually split out over the slot on the defense's left. Philip Wheeler reads the play correctly and fills the gap allowing Reshad Jones an alley to close the play. The problem on that play is Richard Marshall didn't play outside-in because he got blocked pretty well, by #80, and the back was able to turn the corner before Jones can close in proper run support. The second play, Misi blitzes through the B gap and nearly gets to Kyle Orton. On the third play, Miami's in its base package against a 3 WR look, so that's part of the issue there. I think Misi reads his key correctly, but struggles to get off the block. But, even if he does, Derrick Shelby's pushed back enough he's probably going to be in the way of Misi being able to scrape off the edge and make the tackle. Chris Clemons comes up pretty nicely, and again, Richard Marshall gets handled pretty easily. To be fair, Miami's DBs are in a cover 3 look and bailed on the snap (easier for the receiver to setup his block), but Marshall still struggled there. On the fourth play, it's hard to judge based solely on what Misi does. He takes on the TE and gets off the block, but misses the tackle. However, it looks like Miami has a run blitz called as they bring Spitler and a safety (Clemons, I think) and have the D-line on an angle stunt away from the strength of the formation to the wide side, so Misi's first step is to squeeze down. I can fault him for missing the tackle. But, it's also unfortunate that Miami's got the whole front 7, plus a safety, moving right at the snap away from where the play goes. *Edit, that safety blitzing is Clemons, who would've been in that alley if he hadn't been on the blitz, as you can see Reshad Jones closing in when Dunbar gets tackled. And, in what I find to be a rather disturbing trend, Richard Marshall yet again struggles to get off the block by #80. Again, come regular season, I think Miami's going to scheme against plays like that to the point where your going to have Misi up closer to the line and Olivier Vernon, as far as we know right now, is going to be playing that DE spot. Shelby, IMO, seems more like Cameron Wake in that he's comfortable on the defense's left side - he did most of his damage in the HOF game from that spot with Dion Jordan on the right. I wouldn't worry about Koa Misi. If he's shown anything over his first 3 seasons, it's that he's pretty damn good at setting the edge and stopping the run. I'm not worried.
Wheeler and really Ellerbe, if Coyle is not mindful, will be burned in coverage a lot this season. Not Channing "BBQ Butt" Crowder burned, we all knew this, or at least when we paid attention to what they did last season. Otherwise, the Jags should be camp meat, if we don't kick their butts then we know that not all of the commentariat was not offbase with their concerns.
Just pointing out something... Last year, our pre-season was terrible. So terrible, a number of us were predicting 3-4 wins all season. While we did win 7, we competed in almost all of our games, and at one point, could of been 6-2 and at one point, had a few things gone differently in some of the earlier games. Not really all that concerned with pre-season. It's not indicative of much one way or another. Especially that Dallas game, with the mixing and matching of 1's, 2's, and 3's.
In these early games you don't really care how the offense or defense or STs looks as a unit. The offensive install was finished just a day or two before. They havent worked on fine tuning anything yet. Players have been mixed and matched and havent learned any cohesion yet. Theres no game planning. What you're looking for individual performances at this time. Anybody looking for the offense to look fluid at this point just doesn't understand how things work.
Your going to have a projected 6 new starters on defense DE DT (J.O. will likely move from end to tackle next to starks.) 2 LB's 2 CB's and your nickle backs will all be new. Your going to have a projected 7 new starters on offense RG LT (Martin to move) RT 2 WR's TE RB There is so much work to do...work to learn...cohesion to iron out. It baffles me on why expectations are so high. The NFL is the highest level of competition and there are teams on our schedule that are not only better than we are, but have a nucleus together for more than one season. In response to the bad A QB NEVER wants a reciever to slow down. It totally screws the QB's timing. Stopping or slowing down leads to INT's. The ball ends up where you were suppossed to be. Tannehill missed the throws, leave it at that. A good QB will throw it where he has to and lead his reciever, NEVER slow down or break off a pattern. It is competely unfair to Pouncey or Martin to even insinuate that what happened to Dallas Thomas was ever even in the same stadium as those two. Dallas Thomas ...well everyone saw it, no need to go into it.
Because Philbin and his team showed much promise last season when everyone said we'd be lucky to win 3 or 4 games. Carpenter hits a couple FGs and SSmith holds on to an INT and we would have won 9 or 10 games - with a rookie QB, who once played WR in college and everyone said would need to learn from the sideline. We're a better team this season, have better DBs, better DE/LBs, and have better WRs and TEs than last season. We SHOULD have expectations of a winning season.
Harder schedule, much harder. Also, we have a worse offensive line and anyone can sugar coat it anyway they like, it is worse. Suprise me, go 10-6 and make the playoffs - I'll come here and eat crow post after post with a smile. I just don't see it this year. Keep this squad together, make a few additions, and put your QB and Head Coach into their third year..... Now we might be talking 10-6 and the playoffs. I guess that all rides on the progression of Ryan Tannehill.
The strength of schedule fluctuates every season and you cannot account for injuries to opponents or players dropping off or having bad seasons. As for the line, last season, RT was very bad and LT was average. This season Clabo is an upgrade at RT and Martin should be average at LT. The guard positions seem no worse than before and may be better if we can get guys healthy to start the season. We'll probably also pick up a few guys after cuts happen. The defense is much improved - faster and younger. But yes, it all rides on Tannehill and how he meshes with his starting WRs, once they are healthy. Something we have yet to see in a game.
10-6? Naw...I'm thinking more at 12-4. Call me optimistic, but honestly I think they can accomplish that. Think about last year. We lost close games to teams like the Cardinals, Jets, and Titans. All by missed field goals. If we made those, we'd be in the playoffs with at least an 11-5 record. I truly don't believe that 12-4 is that far off by a stretch.
We got absolutely crushed by the Titans, and had we won all those we would have been 10-6, we also have a much more difficult schedule, I say we are 8-8 to 10-6. We're a young team I think we can sneak into the playoffs, but I think we're still a year away from truly competing
If by truly competing, you mean competing for the Super Bowl, yeah, that's probably right. I don't think we're in the mix for the Super Bowl this year; not a final four team. But just by virtue of perhaps being the 8-8 to 10-6 team that you suggest, we're already competing for a playoff spot, and if we end up on the high end of your prediction, a 10-6 team, we're in the top third, maybe even quarter, of the NFL teams, record-wise. Then, as you mention, we're a young team, especially with a young QB. To borrow (and likely misuse to a large degree) a term from economics, I think we have a greater elasticity than a lot of other teams because of our youth. Our potential to grow during the season from where we start and how good we are then to how good we are by season-end is likely greater than many other teams. If we get a reasonable jump from Tannehill in his second year, I think the way we view the team by Game 17 will be night and day from how we view it right now. Obviously, I'm projecting a bit (and projecting it positively because I'm a biased Dolphins fan), and that comes with many risks (such as if x-Variable Tannehill tanks, we could go south in a hurry). However, we've got a reasonably young defense with veterans (Wake, Grimes, Soliai) at key positions that should stop the run and pressure quarterbacks pretty well leading to turnovers (knock on wood), and an offense that has quite a few more teeth than it did last year. The schedule's tough, but we're a team that could do some damage if we can make it in because I definitely think we'll be ascending by year-end. Not to mention the second half of the schedule is easier, on paper, than the first half. I'd love to win a playoff game this year. It's been too long.
The receiver has to adjust his route to the coverage. QBs and WRs who have worked together enough anticipate what the other is going to do. On that specific play, RT was right to put it on the back hip. Sherman actually stated that specifically a couple of days after my post. The WR should feel and anticipate that. If he slows down on the last step or two it makes the catch easier. Pouncey and Martin got run over just like Thomas did. Pouncey never had a whole game that bad, but he certainly had plays where he was run over, knocked on his butt just like Thomas did Sunday night. And how many times did we see that gif of Martin getting run over and knocked on his butt last season? It was just like Thomas getting run over and knocked on his butt.
