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Combined opponents records: 16-8

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by CitizenSnips, Oct 7, 2013.

  1. CitizenSnips

    CitizenSnips hmm.

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    So these five games, before the season, were pegged as our toughest games. Many believed we'd be lucky to come out of them 2-3. Lot of naysayers were saying 1-4, some 0-5. Just some perspective. Doesn't mean we should be "happy" with 3-2 cause we could be better. I think it's worth taking a look at what our opponents have gone on to do since we played them.

    Cleveland (3-2, .5 game behind Ravens now for AFC North lead)
    -They've done nothing but play well since we beat them. That defense is still killing it against the run, Gordon and Cameron are explosive. The win over the Browns could end up being big in a potential tie breaker situation.

    Indianapolis (4-1 and just beat Seahawks, #1 AFC South)

    -Wow. This team looks pretty fantastic. Hard to believe we went into Indy and beat them. Luck is still killing it and their D is playing pretty well.

    Falcons (1-3, play jets tomorrow)
    -Their losses are to the Saints, Pats, and us. They had a shot against the Pats late and they blew it against us. they could still end up being a good team, we'll see. Still happy we beat them. Hoping they're 2-3 tomorrow night.:up:

    Saints (5-0, #1 in NFC South)
    -Boy, Saints-Seahawks in the NFC Championship game sounds like a good one. Bet it comes down to who has homefield advantage. Saints whooped us. But they're going to whoop a lot of people. They look super bowl bound.

    Ravens (3-2, #1 in AFC north)
    -Should have won today. Still hurts. But they ARE the reigning champs and currently winning their division.

    Combined our opponents are 16-8. The toughness of the opening 5 games seems to have lived up to the billing.

    So now we go into the Bye at 3-2. Comes at a good time for the defense. Wake, patterson, Ellerbe, and now carroll need the rest. We haven't seen the defense at full strength since the cleveland game. Been a bummer to watch knowing they could be better.

    Oline is atrocious. I don't know what we do. Garner at RT? Watkins at RG? Jerry at RT? Fire Turner? I don't know. but SOMETHING needs to happen.
     
    DolfanTom, darefugee, SICK and 5 others like this.
  2. GridIronKing34

    GridIronKing34 Silently Judging You

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    Overall I think I'm happy with how we played 4/5 of the games. We hung tough with Baltimore even when our defense was pretty banged up. I honestly think had we not been hit with the illegal procedure call on the kickoff, the defense would have stopped the Ravens. However giving them the ball at the 40 isn't exactly a recipe for success.

    We have to win the next two of out three IMO. All three are AFC games and two are divisional games. Hopefully the coaching staff gets things figured out and we come out of the gate swinging against Buffalo.

    Thankfully the second half of the schedule is much easier than the first half. Tampa Bay, San Diego, Carolina, New York, Pittsburgh, New England, New York, Buffalo isn't nearly as daunting considering most of those teams we should be able to beat... outside of New England.
     
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  3. ToddPhin

    ToddPhin Premium Member Luxury Box Club Member

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    Sounds more impressive saying they're 16-5 excluding the losses to us. :shifty:
     
  4. padre31

    padre31 Premium Member Luxury Box

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    Just win the games, enough excuses
     
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  5. byroan

    byroan Giggity Staff Member Administrator Luxury Box

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    We've played the hardest schedule so far in the AFC. The good news is that right now we have the easiest schedule left in the AFC.

    For those that like numbers. We have a 5% chance of winning the SB! 52% of making the 1st round.
     
  6. Dorfdad

    Dorfdad Well-Known Member

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    So your rationalizing their loses? This is the nfl you got 16 games to win it's not ok to give away games with bad play calling and poor choices of talent (see offensive line and running backs ). If you want to be considered good you have to beat those teams and not accept mediocre.
     
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  7. Ohio Fanatic

    Ohio Fanatic Twuaddle or bust Club Member

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    Unless we fix the pass-blocking, it really doesn't matter. The issue is that we are trending down, IMO. Teams have figured out that as long as they dial up the pressure, we're going to struggle to beat them. At the same time, the blitzing is shutting down our run game as well.

    We also need to find someone during the bye that can rush on 3rd and 1. Granted, the run blocking was pretty mediocre on the short yardage situations in the 1st half yesterday, but the Olinemen were at least at the line of scrimmage. Miller has a good skillset, but "Punching it through" is not part of that skillset.
     
  8. Ohio Fanatic

    Ohio Fanatic Twuaddle or bust Club Member

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    Relax. We are not an elite team. anyone who had such thoughts even after our 3-0 start would have been an idiot. We are a 2nd tier team that's talented, but thin wrt depth (which is now showing with all our injuries) and a piss-poor Oline. Given those two factors, we have to play mistake free to beat other good teams, even the ones in the same 2nd tier, i.e. Baltimore. We made several mistakes yesterday, combined with those two pretty bad calls on pass interference by the refs.
     
  9. Marino1384

    Marino1384 Member

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    I think it's essential we win atleast 2 of the next 3 with must wins vs bills and the bengals. Bengals are very important win for wildcard hopes. Loss to the ravens hurts cause now we we must finish a game ahead of them if we are both going for wildcard. So we want the ravens to win the division and beat the bengals. Chiefs still have 2 games vs the broncos and a game vs Indy and a few games vs teams like redskins and chargers who have potential to beat them. Very possible the chiefs slip. Still have a positive look towards this season. If we fix the oline, this team can be a serious playoff contender. If not I'm not opposed to using our entire draft and just drafting offensive linemen. We gotta get lucky and draft someone good if we use all our picks right?
     
  10. GARDENHEAD

    GARDENHEAD Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Did you even watch the game yesterday? Why on earth should we have won? We stunk against Atlanta and won. We stunk against the Saints and Ravens and lost. The better team won yesterday.
     
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  11. Ronnie Bass

    Ronnie Bass Luxury Box Luxury Box

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    The truth is we should feel fortunate to be 3-2 with that OL and running game. If I was just to see the results from them only I would say we would have to be 1-4 or even 0-5. They have been THAT terrible.
     
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  12. Disgustipate

    Disgustipate Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    That's very self-serving. By the same measure, with very little additional luck we would be 4-1.
     
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  13. Dolphins1Beatles

    Dolphins1Beatles Ziggy Stardust

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    It's nice but a really good team wins yesterday's game. With all the mistakes they really should've lost by more, but the Ravens were not playing all that well either which is why we blew a good chance to separate from the pack.

    Now we're just another mediocre team for now lumped in with all the other 2-3/3-2's. And if our OL and run games don't improve at all we're in for more of these losses.
     
  14. Marino1384

    Marino1384 Member

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    Really don't understand your logic that the better team won? Their offense looked just as bad as ours except turned the ball over twice. Our defense can be argued that they played better as well causing 2 turnovers a score and having that one td gift wrapped for them by the refs. I won't say that the dolphins were the better team but I don't think the ravens were better either, both teams played bad and it was a game of one play could of turned around completely. Gibson gets that penalty or refs don't gift wrap ravens a td and it's a different ball game. Either way even though the ravens are a fraction of the team they were, they are still better than any team we face in the remainder of the schedule. You may argue New England but we just saw them fail to put up even 7 points. Again a team that is just a fraction of what they were, still NE's division to lose but still in this for the long run this year. Just pray some back ups step up on the oline.
     
  15. Finrunner

    Finrunner Season Ticket Holder

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    A reverse way of looking at this might be, how many people thought we'd be 5-0 or 4-1 before the season started when looking at our opening five game gauntlet? I wasn't looking at many people's prediction, but I would guess not many, if any. So if most the most reasonable expectations were 3-2 or 2-3, and others might have said 1-4, then the Dolphins have done as well over the five game stretch as most people thought they could before the season started. Doing the best you can is a good thing, right?

    Obviously, once you open 3-0, expectations rise a little, and with New Orleans @ NOLA and Baltimore @ home, you want to be 4-1 coming out of that. And then there's the other little issues about teams now knowing our flaws and doing their best to expose them as we move on in our schedule. Of course, we have the bye now to try to cauterize our wounds, and then to find better ways to attack opposing defenses with what we have going forward.

    The hard part is the two weeks with the bitter taste of two losses swirling around in the mouth as we await the Buffalo game to come.
     
  16. 77FinFan

    77FinFan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Honestly, just looking at the record and record of our opponents we seem to be in pretty decent shape. The problem is getting absolutely spanked on national tv against the Saints and losing a very winnable game at home to the freaking Ravens. That's what makes this so painful. Personally, I think it's too early to lynch coaches. Too many injuries, just getting some of the rookies going, etc. Give me the bye and maybe 4 more games to see how things look, assuming some guys get healthy, and I'll be ready to do some serious *****ing if things don't improve.
     
  17. NorFlaFin

    NorFlaFin Active Member

    I gotta wonder is the Ravens will keep winning. Flacco big arse contract is keeping them from signing quality depth.
     
  18. CitizenSnips

    CitizenSnips hmm.

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    We won the turnover battle. Our qb outplayed theirs. Our defense made a few big plays and we had a shot on the final drive to tie it.

    Frankly we blew the game by no capitalizing in the first half off rices fumble, but we were very much in the game all throughout. despite our piss poor oline
     
  19. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    I think the gift touchdown at the beginning of the half was worse
     
  20. Silverphin

    Silverphin Well-Known Member

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    You mean the two most bs PI call yesterday?
     
  21. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    Yes, two of the worst I have seen
     
  22. RoninFin4

    RoninFin4 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I agree, but there's got to be improvement on both sides of the ball if this team is going to be a playoff team. There's no way around that.
     
  23. PhillyPhin

    PhillyPhin Banned

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    To each his own but rationalizing a 3-2 record really doesn't serve anything but causing back and forth amongst people who see the glass as half empty and those who see it half full. Dave Wannstedt's teams started off strong in 2001, 2002, 2003 - 2001 they made the playoffs and 02 and 03 we missed playoffs, Nick Sabans 2005 team started off 3-7 and ended up 9-7 (still missing the playoffs). I would err on the side of caution and instead of being thankful for being 3-2 take it with a grain of salt. The theme seems to be the team usually doesn't make the playoffs, regardless of starting slow or starting strong.

    I'll tell you if this is a playoff team or not...in January.
     
  24. FaninPatsyLand

    FaninPatsyLand The Truth

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    I am continually baffled that folks think we're just going to steamroll the 2nd half of this schedule. What is the expectation for our AFC East record? 5-1? Sweep the Bills and Jets? I really don't see it. That Jets defensive front seven is going to be a nightmare to block, especially with the state of the OL we continue to throw out there.

    I am having a hard time envisioning a better divisional record than 3-3.
     
  25. GridIronKing34

    GridIronKing34 Silently Judging You

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    I didn't suggest that we would steamroll anyone. However if you can't see the difference in level of difficulty between the first and second half of the season then I can't help you.
     
  26. CitizenSnips

    CitizenSnips hmm.

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    Well we get the bills with possibly the worst qb situation in the nfl. We have some oline problems, but we got a pretty good defense. I can't see tuel/manual beating our defense. Same for geno.
     
  27. FaninPatsyLand

    FaninPatsyLand The Truth

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    Yeah, I think this is pretty overblown to be honest.

    NO, obviously, is an elite football team and Indy hasn't regressed in the way a lot of folks had predicted in the offseason. That said, I think we can say with confidence that the 1-4 Falcons are not who we thought they were, ditto for the Baltimore Ravens. I think by the time we see NE at the end of the month, they're likely to be as good as any team we see all season.

    And as I mentioned up-thread, I think people are severely underestimating our divisional foes.
     
  28. Dolphins1Beatles

    Dolphins1Beatles Ziggy Stardust

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    It wasn't as hard a schedule as it looked. Atlanta sucks, Baltimore was beatable and we should have taken advantage of them at home missing 2 WR's and Dennis Pitta and Cleveland is mediocre. The Colts win was impressive, but most teams have impressive wins in a season. It's about being consistent which the Dolphins aren't yet. We're just as middle of the pack as the Ravens and Browns.

    2nd half games against NYJ, maybe on the road against Buf, and SD could be tougher than we thought. Can't underestimate Carolina either, they could feast on our O-Line if its one of the games their D decides to show up. Considering our OL and run game, I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
     

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