I said most of the blame, not all. He had good protection. The best of the season. He missed open receivers several times. He had an off day. It happens to most every young QB from time to time.
Disagree on luck, agreed on Newton....Luck is just a little wild right now, he's tying to make stuff happen with limited options..he'll learn how to minimize these int's, but the thing about him is we've seen greatness come from his arm, legs and mind.
He was also not 100% from the beating his o-line let him take the game(s) prior, which affected his accuracy.
I'm not arguing that Luck isn't a great talent. He definitely is. I'm arguing that people are giving him too much of a pass for the 7 INTS the past 2 games. The first game I agree, he was trying to make something happen against the Chiefs after falling behind 3 TDs. Against the Pats, you have to be smarter than that and take the underneath stuff and not be greedy and sling it down field against a Bellichek defense. You know... it IS ok to say that he made some bad decisions and had a bad game. lol...
I thought so as well... and the kid was sacked 7 times and hit countless other times as well as being knocked OOG with the knee injury. A QBs legs and confidence are as important as his arm. After he lost Hartline in the stej game none of the other receivers did anything to help Tannehill. Marlon Moore and Matthews dropped great throws. Wallace was Wallace... most passive receiver we have.
I give him a pass because I've seen him do things on the field that make me believe that he's already elite at his position, and I know he's working with Whalen, Rogers, Brazil and brown as primary weapons, and a sh&$y defense.
What adjustments would you've had them make? The protection was the best all year. He missed open receivers several times. Granted, the one wide open drop by Matthews could have been a game changing play, so it wasn't all on him.
It really seemed like he and Hartline were really struggling the last two games. Very strange for them.
No, he isn't. You're forgetting Hilton and Fleener... his entire receiving corp (WR and TE) and OLine are better than ours. Hilton and Fleener ran wild for 177 yards combined against the Pats. Also the Colts coaches simply don't trust Richardson handling the ball. They're like Shula used to be with Danny. Just say Fk it and throw it. His defense has nothing to do with it when he practically threw a pick 6 to start the game. 3 INTs, he gets a pass. Not 7. 7 INTs, Deej... 7... Cmon now... if Tannehill throws 1 or 2 in a game, let alone 2 games in a row, people are gouging their eyes out with forks and proclaiming the apocalypse is upon us. Luck threw 4 in that loss, and 3 in the Chiefs game. I gave him a pass on the 1 in garbage time. 7 Dj... 7... SEVEN... lol...
Tannehill played badly, but more like a guy physically and mentally beaten, especially after losing Hartline. No telling how much the Buffalo beatdown really affected him. Sherman should have faced a firing squad after that game for not doing more to protect him and generate some positive plays.
This immobile (other than Pouncey) OL wasn't conducive to being an effective screen team. Be that as it may, the person who coordinated the offense and did not make the adjustments you suggest is gone now.
Again though, as Mr. Clean pointed out, the protection was as good as it had been all year. Also, rolling the pocket removes about half of the field. You can only do it so often. And to run screen plays, you need effective blocking. This team couldn't block those plays effectively all year. What makes you think they were going to suddenly be able to do so?
You make a good point. He could have been beaten down enough from the Bills game that is carried over to the Jets. Even assuming that is true, a couple of plays here and there and that game was winnable. Had Matthews caught that gimme pass on 3rd down with miles of green grass in front of him, and if the back judge would have rightfully called PI on Milliner in the end zone a play before he picked off RT, the entire game would have different. We saw Grimes and Carroll get flagged in the Ravens game for much less egregious things. Like we hear often though, good teams overcome those things. To a point they do, but not always.
Wallace never gets those calls because he is so passive when the ball is in the air. He makes any true effort and he gets a few PIs a season. He should model his game more after Desean Jackson, who plays aggressive and attacks the ball more. Agree in the inconsistent officiating though. It's often infuriating. I think Jim Harbaugh would agree. He damn near pirouetted himself in an officiating induced frenzy during the Panther's game... lol...
You strike me as a sensible Phins fan, so I am curious of your take on the decision to replace just Sherman and Ireland. Were they right moves, or should Philbin have been axed too, in your opinion?
i think wallace needs to watch every torrey smith snap this offseason. Te ravens best play is "Blue 42 Draw-the-call on 3"
About Luck, one interesting stat I saw is that he lost all games in which he passed for over 300 yards this year. Ryan was 3-2, with the losses being Carolina and the Ravens.
Some pretty good efficiency by our guy IMO. The ravens loss was his coming out party. Tannehill did just about everything you could have asked a young qb to do and everyone let him down. Clabo getting torched by suggs. Clay had a huge drop near the end of that game. Wallace had 3 drops in that game. And STILL, despite it all, tannehill picked up that 4th and a mile to Brandon Gibson. What did the team do to respond to his almost herculean effort? They failed him. Miserably. I believe it was sack, drop, sack, missed fg. Ravens win. man **** everything. Im reliving demons now. Panthers game? **** our defense. That last panthers drive was just plain pathetic.
Agreed. Not sure if this is tracked anywhere, but I would bet that Miami benefited very little from PI calls and New England and Baltimore benefited quite a bit. The rules are something our players need to be coached to take advantage of. I know a lot of guys will disagree because of how the season ended, but watching every second of every playoff game thus far has led me to appreciate Tannehill and his game more than I already had.
I think they were the right moves for several reasons. Sherman and SIL weren't helping us progress, especially against stouter defenses like Buffalo, and Sherman seemed more intent in proving points or pointing fingers at either play execution or poor OLine performance than actually working around these short comings and winning games. The fact that Ireland and Tannehill both were reported questioning the play calling speaks for itself, if true. Ireland was a PR disaster and while he was arguably the best GM we've probably ever had, we have spent the last few years struggling in the same areas every season - OLine, LBs, receivers, and RBs. His drafts were average - rarely a game changer, especially on offense. Hartline (an average receiver), Clay (inconsistent), and Tannehill (inexperienced), are his offensive draft highlights. Watching the playoffs, there are lots of guys that could have been in a Fins uni and were available when we were picking. Frustrating. As for Philbin, I don't think he and Ireland shared the same vision. Helps explain why Ireland brought in Wallace, who does NOT fit with the style of smart, crisp route runner that Philbin covets. Philbin wanted Cogs gone as well and Ireland brought him back. Also with Philbin hiring Sherman, who was vastly more experienced as an HC, he was probably a bit too prone to defer to him. Going forward, we see what Philbin is really made of and if we got the guy we thought we were getting when we hired him. I think Philbin deserved another season, where as Sherman did not. I was disappointed in Coyles as well, but hope he has learned and will be better next season. If I were a prospective GM, I would grill Ross on whether I had the option and the final decision in 2015 of either retaining Philbin and his staff, or replacing them. That only seems logical and fair. Otherwise, I might pass. Ross should be willing to concede this to get a guy like Gamble...
Indeed... and as I said how aggressive Desean Jackson played against the Saints. For a little guy, he was attacking the ball and the secondary and drew a huge PI call. Not asking Wallace to do things he physically cannot do, just not be such a damn pansy. His passiveness was a part of the problem.
Agree on all points... and Wallace had the game winning TD against the Panthers in his hands and dropped it.
For an example of that please see exhibit #1 49ers vs Panthers. Panthers had to overcome the worst officiating I have ever seen.
I like Philbin, but it's ridiculous to claim that there were not some really poor game plans from the coaching staff this year. For some reason the last two games in particular we trotted out almost identical game plans from weeks before even though those teams had specific areas of strengths and weaknesses that could/should have been minimized and attacked respectively. I think the coaches also failed to take advantage of certain players abilities. The most obvious of which is RT's ability to run. It was no coincidence that our run game looked much improved against the Steelers when we used the read-option vs. how it looked against the Bills and Jets when we didn't. Sure they had better d-lines, but that's all the more reason to use misdirection to help your OL. I do think the coaching staff did a nice job of incorporating and utilizing Clay's skill set, but they did poorly when it came to Wallace and at using the backs out of the backfield. IMO much of the problem with the RT/Wallace connection (particularly early on) was the design of the plays. Wallace's speed threw off the timing. RT was often late just due to the process of carrying out the fakes. I also hated how little we used the backs in the passing game. Outside of that wheel route to Miller and too few screens we didn't use those plays enough. I just think it's not a big enough part of Sherman's system as we failed to use Reggie Bush in that manner enough when he was here as well. Those are just one example of the types of plays that help your OL and QB by setting them up to succeed. I think getting rid of Sherman was absolutely the right move. My hope is that he was the largest reason for our lack of adjustments and poor use of some of the talent on this team. I think the dynamic between him and Philbin was such that Philbin wouldn't have over-ruled him or criticized him as much as he should have. My hope is that a new OC bring some of the more innovative offensive strategies that we're seeing the young playoff QBs in the league being helped with and that Philbin is receptive. I don't agree with the idea that this team is talentless on either side of the ball. I see more offensive play makers here than I see in Seattle, Carolina, NE, KC and SD. The OL had issues, but there were ways to manage them. Seattle's OL was as bad or worse than ours for much of the year, but that coaching staff did a better job than ours of managing their OL issues.
Not guaranteed. Jeff Ireland was not the worst GM in the world. It is certainly possible to regress despite our dislike for the man. If Ross gets it wrong, we could definitely see darker days. Whoever we bring in, is not an automatic win.
No, but Ireland was a poor evaluator of offensive talent... we need a guy who can identify and procure above average talent on both sides of the ball.
I truly do not think we are very far off at all. This offseason we will improve the o-line, which will help the running and passing game. Tannehill clearly has great chemistry with Hartline/Clay/Gibson/Matthews, and the last 6 games of the year Tannehill and Wallace began to get it going together. Miller should improve with more holes to run through. We already were a top 10 scoring defense, with a strong secondary and talented pass rushers. With Tannehill showing a lot of improvement from year 1 to year 2 despite really tough circumstances, I think playoffs next year are very realistic. Hell we should have made it this year. As far as being a superbowl contender, as we all know that ultimately comes down to RT.
