So far, through the small sample of 17 games, team takes whats there to be had on offense, and makes the most of opprotunities given to them by the other team. So often through the years, dating all the way back to Jimmy, the HC would insist on winning "his way", and if that meant banging the running backs into a wall all day, or throwing it to the #1 WR when he was covered, or something else along those lines, so be it. Stick with the game plan. Dont adjust. Philbin's teams so far have done such a better job of taking whats there to be had. Throw it to the open man. Get first downs. Put points on the board when the other team gives you good field position. How many drives have we killed by running a gimmick play? None that I can recall. Solid, clean, smart football. Make the other team beat us. Dont shoot ourselves in the foot. I like it, and it makes me comfortable.
Definitely true, however, eventually I'd like Philbin's offense to evolve into such a good unit that we can dictate to the defense, not take what they give us
Philbin, Sherman, Coyle and Rizzi are all excellent coaches/coordinators IMO, I'm very worried about our running game, or ack thereof, so I'm very much looking forward to seeing what they do about it before we play Indy next week. I was disappointed not to see a few more plays that would take advantage of what their defense was doing to shut down our running game, maybe some QB draws, screens, the like. But Philbin sure doesn't seem to lose his cool or hold onto stubborn needs to pound the rock, if it ain't working he and Sherman aren't afraid to take a different tack. Good thread. Good game, at least the outcome anyway. Wake already has 3 sacks, right? Andrew Luck may be in for a long day, I know we had 6 sacks as a team, we might just win one or two of these upcoming games, based mostly on Defense and the premise of your OP, it will be interesting.
We had three take always and should have had at least one TD. Having said that one we settled down we looked great. (Like how I said we)
I think what we're beginning to see is the culmination of Philbin's plan, which is to be solid enough in any phase with any package, that we can win. I think the Browns didn't expect Ryan to beat them today. They knew they could lock down Wallace with Haden. They figured our running game would be the thing to stop so they keyed on that. We just turned around and beat them with Hartline, Gibson and Clay. That is Philbin's way....go ahead and stop an aspect or two and we'll just beat you with another. He has that philosophy with the whole team.
I kinda hope he keeps something in his hip pocket until the Patsies game...nothing like seeing Belicheat with that deer in the headlights look. None of that wildcat bull****, but something else he doesn't expect and doesn't know how to handle...I know that's kinda hard to pull off, but I'd love it.
I love that Philbin plays for TDs. He doesn't always get them, but he tries. I think it was a 3rd and 10 or 3rd and 12 play in the first half. Miami needed just a few more yards for an easier field goal. Sparano would have thrown a check down or ran the ball, guaranteed just to guarantee the field goal. Philbin / Sherman called a pass play and Tannehill nearly completed the pass that would have resulted in the first down. There were numerous instances like that last season too. So refreshing, even if it doesn't always work out.
There are still a lot of things on offense we didn't even call. Screens? Draws? Misdirections? Counters? Cleveland wasn't giving us much but I was surprised at how straight forward we were playing it. Ryan faked a read option on one of the handoffs. Which means it's in there...
I expected a few counters after they were over committing to one side to crush our running game, but it never came. I hope that the staff makes that adjustment the next time it comes up. Did we have any Wanny/Tony moments where we ran the ball up the middle on third and 8? Or other "give up" nonsense? I dont recall any. Calling a safe pass that has a reasonable chance to get a first down but happens to fall incomplete is ok strategy to me. The team was about 50% on third down yesterday. Thats a win.
Another thing we have to realize, is that our coaches don't believe at throwing everything at a team, if they know they can beat them without the kitchen sink. Our offense will look different based on the opponent. If there are teams with similar defensive schemes as the Browns, we'll probably play similar offense. If they believe the defense we're playing susceptible to the roll out or play action, we'll go with those more. We aren't used to it, because our previous coaches (after Shula) were either megalomaniacs or inept.
I agree although a great offense is about consistency with personnel. Timing is such an integral part of an offense and that's really tough to do when the pieces are always changing. For instance, we're still seeing RTH and Wallace trying to sync up. We've had a revolving door and a new QB. I believe we have 7 new starters on offense this year. Hopefully, between this year and next, we keep a lot of the same pieces in place while upgrading TE and RG.
To add to these two posts, everyone should watch Tannehill's PC on the official site: http://www.miamidolphins.com/multimedia/videos/Tannehill_Talks_About_Season_Opener/3ee64cce-a219-4777-9d87-f517802fb5c7 You see that while our run game was maybe worse than they had hoped, the Dolphins knew the Browns were going to be very hard to run on. They knew Wallace wasn't going to be much of a factor. As a bonus, hear Tannehill explain the TD pass to Hartline, then come back and tell me he locks on to receivers.....
I admit that when poster claims that RT locks on to his receivers my opinion of their understanding of football drops.
or they say he's poor with the long ball, considering he lead the league in accuracy of passes over 20 yards last year.
Another Philbin fun fact: His speech disfluency = "A'ight". Check it out: http://www.miamidolphins.com/multim...m-Speech/fa59d707-21bb-48d9-a1e4-b9d433c8668d Which begs the question: Sparano's "Kay?" or Philbin's "A'ight?" Philbin only seems to slip into the "Aight's" when addressing the team though, and not during pressers.
