I'm kind of with you. BUT I don't think the OLine is a reason to excuse or dismiss the last two weeks of the year. The OL was actually playing decent ball down the stretch. But even if they weren't, there is no way in hell the OL alone is an excuse for putting up 7 total points against the Bills and Jets with the playoffs on the line. You have to do better than that as an offense as a whole. Yes, we would have won more games this season with a better OL. But we still could/should have made the playoffs regardless, if not for that epic team-wide collapse.
Very true, it depends on a lot of things, timing is obviously a big part of deep passing plays. If Tanny is always skittish because of pressure or plays are breaking down regularly its not unreasonable to think that has a big affect on deep passing. He has the arm for it so hopefully our new OC can get him straightened out there. IF Tanny improves his deep passing I think he's got a shot at being legit pro bowl candidate next year but thats a big if.
.....and that was exactly what I was saying in my reply. You can't say Tannehill failed because of the line but the running backs should have done fine on their own. The line sucked for everybody. Trust me, I held back more sarcasm that you did because nobody should have to be told that obvious point.
look at the oline play against the bills. that is why the dolphins were getting nothing going. the bills ranked 28th against the run. the dolphins had 12 carries for 14 yards 1.2 yards a carry, while allowing 7 sacks and tons of more hits and pressures. tannehill banged up his knee at the end which IMO was still hampering him in the jets game. what is worse is the coaching staff did absolutely nothing in the bills game to try and stop the pressure or to counter attack the bills defense. think after the patriots game the dolphins saw who was on there schedule and stepped off the gas pedal.
Umm...did you see the bills game? The jets was a piss poor performance up and down the roster..but the bills game...the horror
The Bills game was on the OL for sucking and the coaching staff for not adjusting or adapting at all. The Bills did whatever the Hell they wanted on defense all game and we did nothing to counter it. They stuck to their obviously failed gameplan, and just let it go to crap drive after drive. It was helpless.
Agreed. You can't put it all on the OL. At the same time there were a lot of issues w the offense that were beyond RTs control, all things considered I think be played surprisingly well.
We won 8 games with a 3rd string line, so that's probably some type of record if anybody wanted to dig through the NFL archives enough to research it. Tannehill did play well, but without the 3-6 mental mistakes per game we would have picked up another 3-4 wins. I honestly don't think that he can't throw the ball accurately...just watch him in practice this upcoming spring and you'll see what I mean. Last year, he'd hit Wallace deep 2-3 times in a row in scrimmage so he has it in him; the mechanics are just getting messed up in game-time situations. Maybe that's because he doesn't trust his line, or maybe it's because he's trying to play faster than he can actually process the field. In any case though, something happens between the time he sees his target and when he releases...and that's causing him to deliver inaccurate passes. If he can figure that out with the new coaching staff, then he may well have a fantastic year. I honestly believe that the run game (including Tannehill running) is a big part of that equation too though; it's the only way to keep defenses honest.
tannehill was ranked #9 in deep ball passing his rookie year, deep ball passing fluctuates all the time. the problem is just timing. it sometimes takes time to build chemistry with a new player. you could see tannehill and wallace getting some chemistry going in the second half of the season. with another offseason and with some experience with eachother, coupled with hopefully a new revamped oline, his deep ball will improve.
Watching Ryan practice is fun to watch..you can see the natural ability and accuracy..it's really not an easy evaluation here, I've tried to be clear about any criticisms, and I've stated how difficult it is when you have your offensive coordinator training the position to stay in the pocket at all costs and basically taking a whole instinctive measure out of the equation of qb'ing.. That all being said, there is so much grey in his evaluation. I'm confident he will continue to improve, I'm hoping he understands that for him it's all about becoming physically quicker in his training.
I think one of the best points and studies during the season was made by CK when it came to the deep ball, clearly he demonstrated how much longer the play by design was taking to set up..The philosophy was all wrong, and was clearly proven to be..the liklihood of completing bombs fifty yards in the air are not good, everything needs to be quicker.. Wallace obviously has a better chance of gaining separation the longer the play takes, but hopefully Lazor's design tightens things up.
yeah that is a good point and one that i definitely agree with. the play in carolina comes in mind where tannehill (due to the design of the play)did a play action, and a half a roll out and had to throw the ball almost 60 yards in air to wallace who was running full speed from the start of the play. that is utterly insane.
The minute Walker compared him to Henne I stopped caring about his opinion. Classic Dolphins writers. Should totally be a new QB next year if Tannehill "fails" this season. I don't know why I read anything from the Miami media anymore. Maybe when people realize that Dan Marino isn't walking through that door they'll finally be able to look at something objectively. I sometimes hope the writers and some fans get their wish: Tannehill is jettisoned and the search for the next messiah can begin and the misery can continue. The lack of patience is disturbing.
Honestly though, they're very similar quarterbacks. Henne is more polished with a stronger arm, yet Tannehill has great mobility and fantastic pre-snap reads. Their talent levels are not what makes them similar though; it's the lousy offensive play-calling and the poor development aspects from the QB coaches. I don't care who the QB is...if the OC can't call plays to showcase that person's talent, then that team is going to be weak offensively. Tannehill may well be the next Dan Marino, but if he's just average in 2015 then we will be trading him away just the same. It's happened around the league too many times to count, and most of the time it's the end of a career before it ever really gets started. Every now and then you have a story like Brees...but he's really the exception to the rule when it comes to good QB's starting out in bad systems.
The Bills ended up being 4th overall in pass defense. Miami was a team that lived and died by their passing offense. On that day, they died.
Hang in there berezo, we went into last season with all the hype. Next year it's us against the world again.... and hopefully we surprise everyone. Imagine last years team with a half decent online and some innovative play calling.
I think more than anything, the team was emotionally & physically gassed. A running game helps to close out games AND seasons. Our constant passing attack took its toll I believe. Its not like we had a passing game like the Greatest Show on Turf, where it all came easy and huge chunks. Basically, our passing game was like driving a 92 Dodge Neon across the country...I'd have been shocked if it didn't break down at the last 2 states.
What people tend to forget is that the most dangerous teams in the NFL in December are the ones with absolutely nothing to lose. They go into practice every day admitting that the season is over, and there's no pressure to pull of amazing feats to get into the post season. In fact, the only thing that have left to look forward to is ruining a division rival's chance at the playoffs...and they tend to come out and play some pretty darn good football. The coaches can gamble with blitzes all day long and they can take huge chances on offense...because the season is already over either way. Besides, don't forget that Sexy Rexy was essentially playing for his job...so the Jets had more to win than we did (in some regards). Combine that with Tannehill having the two worst games of his career, the line completely sucking and two very motivated teams to close their year strong...and you get the ***-whooping that we all experienced. I won't say that it was inevitable, but I'm sort of glad that it happened in week 17 instead of the first round of the playoffs.
I'll always take the playoffs, even if it is just for the first round. It's one more week of hope and Miami Dolphins football. It would also mean that we beat our arch rivals to get there.
Totally agree on the run game. My dream mock for last year was taking two OL in the first round and pretty much no one wanted to hear it. Im im not beating my chest, I was happy with the Jordan pick but once we signed Hartline, Wallace, Gibson and Keller I thought our best chance to be a winning team was to beef up the OL. Get the stretch game going with Miller, use bootlegs and play action off of that, have Keller and Gib work the middle, Hartline the chain mover, Wallace the vertical guy. It all starts with being able to move people off the LOS and create ruining lanes though. Hopefully that lesson has been learned.
