http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-dolphins-0811-20130810,0,357527.story Good info on the team's line of thinking, some of which was already pegged by some of the posters here, but good info nonetheless.
you know what this tells me? The jags actually altered their defense when wallace was on the field. thats half the battle. if their spending time on covering wallace, they're not spending time on other things.
True on the altering, but it also, it seems to be an able formula for removing him from the game, as long as they win against the O-line. Basically 10 on 10 with the deep threat neutralized.
Dustin Keller (and hopefully sims and crew) will thrash every team that does this to us then. Its a TE's dream! Only gotta beat LB's in coverage?! I know that if Wallace doesn't get the #s, everyones going to be pissed we paid big money for him. I feel hes going to have a huge impact for us, but it wont be transparent on the stat sheet.
I think people are also going to be mistaken if they think Mike Wallace is going to be a high volume target. That's not really his game, and I think it's likely that Brian Hartline and Dustin Keller will be getting more targets than him.
Pfft..more like he should have 15 Td's by now. Realistic expectations are not a part or too much of a part of Dolfans existence.
I think that its possible Wallace was healthy, but not 100% as well. The coaching staff let him play, but directed Tannehill not to throw his way. Let the defense open up around the rest of the field, but dont overly stress Wallace or have him get hit and go down akwardly.
Of course, we'd love to see Wallace catch a long bomb during preseason... but if he doesn't, well then he has the regular season to make up for it.
IMO that's exactly what you want them to do preseason. Not showing your hand is one important aspect of it but also you run exactly what your opponent expects you to run so you can evaluate individual players on how they match up against opposing players. Blown coverage because the other team wasn't expecting it does nothing in evaluating what you have in a player. The coaches need to see if a player needs more time in the weight room, practicing techniques, or in the classroom learning to read situations better. Wins and losses mean nothing in preseason.
Well, in an interview since the game, they said they had 8 or 9 plays called for him, the O-line just didn't let it materialize.
If we dont get the protection figured out, the only one dreaming is going to be the QB in a Concussed state. The number one priority in a passing game is to protect your passer...not have a deep threat WR or a strong armed QB. If you can't protect, you cant throw the ball, regardless. Right now, we cannot. And this was not a team with a great DLine...this was the perennial top of the draft Jaguars.
True, but I have faith it will be worked out. When the coaches focused on fixing the breakdowns during the game, it was fixed pretty quick...and that was with Smoota in there, who WON'T be come season time.
The biggest issue with regards to the oline is RG. Clabo is serviceable and we do have enough bodies at the guard position to get it figured out. Did Samuda have a poor game? Yeah, that's alright. There will be ups and downs right about now. What you want to see is the unit perform decently at week 3-4 of the preseason in a traditional pre season. That is 2 weeks from now basically. That's a long time as camp will end and you legs will come back to you a bit and you body begins to recover. Martin has done well enough at left tackle thus far, but we need to see how next week goes, just because the talent of the number 1's he'll be facing is better than what he has seen thus far. The interior linemen as well. I'm not that panicked about the O-line just yet. I watch it, but its not like it is just an abomination. Right now you've got an entirely new right side - 40% of the unit. If you change 40% of anything you will see a period of poor play as players begin to adjust to each other. It takes a bit of time. If the same 5 finish preseason and start the season together, byt game 3-4 just about any kinks will be completely worked out. By that time thy have just had enough reps together.
time will tell. There are other factors that played into that. We didn't establish the run. From the looks of it, we didn't event try to. We were the most transparent I've ever seen playcalling wise. Lamar Miller busts a big run on a draw against and overzealous pass rush and that will slow them down plenty. Same with screen plays and play action in general. It's obvious this oline is going to struggle but i think the playcalling will help when we move into more of a regular offense. I don't think what we've seen from them this preseason is anything like what we're actually going to do in the regular season. Miller and Thomas don't even have 15 carries combined yet.
I've learned, over time, to realize when one hears "oh, they keep the game plan vanilla" to hit the mental "oh that's bull****" alarm. Along with "oh..it takes time for the OL to gel" Even steamier bull****, have heard that for 6 yrs now, season starts, the OL plays the same damn way it played in the preseason, a guy can play or they cannot, it's not as if they opponents are running all sorts of defensive games atm, not at all, our OL is getting their butts whipped on occasion, let us not speak falsely now. 2 games in on a 5 game mini season, no need to panic quite yet, however can they spare us fans the cliche's?
I agree with Snips... If Wallace does nothing more than run the down the field, he is going to draw attention and the Safties have to account for him. Taking the top off the defense is always a win for the offense and will open up the field or help provide TDs for Keller, Gibson, Miller, etc... and Hartline may even get 2 this season...
Ted Ginn could do that. We need him to do that and produce like Gawd almightly for the money we're paying him.
Well then, as a dolphins fan living in steeler territory, let me just get this out of the way now. You are not going to be happy with Mike Wallace. Hes a big play guy, and hes gotten pretty good with screens and certainly gets open underneath because DBs are terrified of the deep ball. But he is not a consistent target guy. I'll be very surprised if he gets over 1000yds this year. I didn't necessarily want Wallace, but i'm not going to complain that he's here either. He adds to our offense what Brian Hartline could never give us, big plays that threaten to score from anywhere on the field. BUT...look for Gibson and Hartline to catch more passes than him in every game i bet.
You're focusing too much on individual stats. The point was that if the team can benefit and score TDs and get wins, then his individual stats do not need to be gaudy. His value to the team will be justified.
Oh cmon with the Xs and Os excuses, what BS. I'd rather them say nothing than spin this crap. Give the ball to the guy you gave 60mill, it's not that hard. Why does it have to be a deep ball? I wish Tanny would've hit him on a slant, out, whatever. Didn't we all hear how he's 'not a one-trick pony'? Do it for the fans, man...60mill to the hotshot FA leaves us wanting something!
I imagine what you're describing is the design of the offense. Teams are going to scheme against Wallace, leaving gaps for the short-intermediate guys to do work and for Miller to find running lanes. Once Keller-Hartline-Gibson-Miller etc establish themselves as threats then Wallace will be able to get his. The same way a boxer sets up his KO punch by working the jab and going to the body. If people think Wallace is going to walk on the field and immediately start producing 70 yd TD passes or catch 100 balls for 1500 yds in order to "live up to a contract" then that's their fault for not understanding how things work.
Yeah, send the 60 million dollar investment to go out and catch slants in the preseason. Genius. If the fans want something, it should be a clue.
My apologies if it was. I just have a feeling we're going to hear a lot of "he's overpaid" if Wallace doesn't fill up the box score.
The team is not making that argument, why are you inventing excuses? They explicitly said they wanted to get him involved, and had single coverage on him deep, but could not.
God hope your right brother because if i see more than one draw play from the shotgun during the regular season im going to thow the f@k!ng flat screen through the window. Sandbagging or not Sherman hasn't shown me sh!t. Forgive me for the curse words but im passionate on the subject.
Samuda was just pure garbage most of the night. He might not have been the only cause of poor protection, but he was a big huge massive reason. Sad to say but Jerry might win this job back because Louis won't be ready and Garner is much more valuable as a backup at 4 spots. I'd be hard pressed to figure out 2 guys to cover 5 spots on the OL as backups for a game right now without Garner. Also, they'll get Wallace worked in even if they keep trying that stuff. They will give Wallace short routes that still take advantage of his speed against cushioning. If the CB's are going to bail out....that'll leave some nice routes underneath and a lot of room for the TE's.
On a lot of those plays he was in on, he took care of 2-3 DBs each play. That's already a huge advantage even if he doesn't touch the ball. Bombs and TDs will be gravy on top.