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Our New Identity

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by keithjackson, Oct 23, 2014.

  1. keithjackson

    keithjackson Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Miami has a knack for making a team look really bad. Chicago appeared outwitted and outmatched in all facets of this game where their best player was the turf. They resembled the Raiders' aftershocks by imploding afterwards. Upcoming coaches beware! The Dolphins are forging an identity of dominance when their cylinders are firing; the defense relentlessly minimizes yardage, and the offense makes you defend the whole field. To be critical, when a team plays as poorly as we made the Bears look, the results should reflect more of a butt-whooping.

    It's nearly impossible to gain yards against the Dolphins' defense (#1 in lowest yards/play against, #1 yards/pass attempt, #10 rush yard/attempt). The biggest reason is the improvement in tackling, a Philbin emphasis this year. Koa Misi and Jelani Jenkins are so much better than Wheeler and Ellerbe; the linebacking unit combined for ONE missed tackle against the Bears. However, the secondary really deserves the praise this week because it turns out monstrous WRs aren't the weakness of this defense after all. Cortland Finnegan gets the defensive game ball for playing his brains out, getting in Marshall's way and into his head, defending passes, and forcing a fumble (and a fight). Reshad Jones also proved he's an pivotal playmaker on this team, and perhaps the best player we have on the back end. Its also time to realize we have a top five secondary (just look at the stats: #1 ypa, #1 ypc, #5 aya, #4 ypg, #7 completion %). The most important quandry now is whether or not Jamar Taylor is an upgrade to Jimmy Wilson. This week? Unclear. But if he blossoms, this defense will win games. Jay Cutler is a good quarterback, and we turned him into Mr. Hyde. Quarterbacks AND coaches should beware of the Dolphins.

    What an eye-opening week for the offense! Clever, well-oiled, and doing new things, the offense won this game. The offensive game ball goes to Ryan Tannehill, who played the best half of football by any QB all season. 94% accuracy in the first half? His new running facet is electric. I only saw two or three questionable decisions all game. (Wallace continues to enhance his role on this team and score touchdowns. Brian Hartline was on the field for EVERY offensive snap, and was a big contributor to the win. Lamar Miller is surprisingly a better running inside than outside. Daniel Thomas had a much better game than his stats suggest, losing 6 yards on a turf related slip.) Miami's offensive performance on first and second downs was practically undefendable. We had 30 plays this week on first down: 15 went for 5+ yards, 7 of them went 10+, and we averaged 5.6 yards per first down play. In fact, we earned 16 of our 24 first downs on "1st &" or "2nd &" opportunities, and scored TDs on three others. (Of our 69 plays, only 11 were third downs.) Ryan only threw three incompletions on first down, but he truly excelled on second down throwing for 13/14 126 yards 2 TDs. Because of this, the Dolphins only had one 3-and-out against the Bears, which is fast becoming part of their identity (7 all year, 9.6% #1 in the NFL.)

    Dreadful on third down, we are an entirely different team. This week (4/11) we allowed two sacks, reminiscent of 2013. More disastrous, third down shot us in the foot repeatedly: Q2 at CHI 25, Ryan was sacked (-7) and Sturgis misses a 50y FG; at CHI 33, Ryan is sacked (-8) to take us out of FG range; Q4 Ryan gets flagged for Intentional Grounding at CHI 9 and Sturgis is blocked; even at CHI 1 our offensive prowess cannot gain a single yard. Ruminate on this, Miami had nine drives: the first stalls, five result in scores, and three get into scoring position and blow it. (Not to mention the penalty that turned Miller's TD into a FG.) This game should have been over in the second quarter, but we continue to leave 6-17 points on the field week after week. Botched opportunities are eventually going to undermine us. Ultimately, the Dolphins biggest weakness right now is a lack of a killer instinct on offense AND defense. Going back to last week, we didn't have the killer instinct to stop Rodgers in the fourth quarter. It felt like the end of last season where the perfect storm of screw ups had to happen (like not recovering a fumble, allowing a huge 4th down, and falling for a fake spike.) Even this week we saw the Bears able to get into scoring position on their last two drives. This defense needs a goal line stand! There's a cultural reason we are the #4 overall defense, but the #15 scoring defense. But why? If this team can improve offensively on third down, and close out games on defense, they will make the playoffs. Heck, they'll win the Super Bowl.

    Other Notables Continuing to struggle on Special Teams, Fields and Sturgis both looked like they need to be replaced. Luckily Landry continues his pro bowl pace as a returner. The coverage looked good for a change until a late return to midfield. Hopefully, Dion Jordan can fortify one of the team's worst units. Still, we continue to enjoy the best field position in the NFL. I didn't think it was feasible to keep it up, but the Dolphins started yet another drive in the opponents redzone, due to a Cam Wake hat trick, bringing the total to 8. That 11% rate is #1 in the NFL by a mile; #2 is only 3.66% (28 teams only have 2 or less). We start 19.18% of drives in the opponents' territory (#1)! Mike Pouncey had his second sub par game at guard, and even said himself that he's had to adjust to the difference in footwork. At some point you have to question whether he is a good fit there and what is the net value of his lineup. He mostly recovered from a rocky start, so perhaps he deserves one more chance against the Jags. Last year, I never would've guessed Fields and Pouncey would go from best in the unit to weakest link - such is today's NFL.

    Penalties reared their ugly head for the first this season, which is very atypical for a Philbin team. However, five were on offense, and I think it shows that there's still a learning curve under Bill Lazor. This is the first week Ryan ever looked like he was controlling a game. And the WRs have started to figure it out too after a few weeks of the dropsies. Even the coaches really are doing a great job of adapting to figure out how to best put this team in the position to succeed. The deep balls aren't working? Stop throwing them and send Wallace on other routes. Lamar is dropping passes in the flat? Gone. Charles Clay needs to touch the ball more? Get him involved early. Jarvis is better than Brandon? Inactive. We are starting games from behind? Stop deferring the kickoff. Ryan plays better when he is running? Employ the read option with more keeps and the Bears will surrender! I don't know if I've ever seen a Dolphin team be so flexible about catering to its strengths. Even on defense this week, Phillip Wheeler saw his snaps reduced to 11, which seems way too sensible to have actually happened! When this team plays well, they can beat anybody. And it's getting better. Don't look but the Dolphins have averaged 29 points for and 19 against since Tannehill was challenged. So much seems to rest on Ryan's shoulders, but if the Bear's game is any indication, his comfort level is finally skyrocketing and he will be coming at you throwing and running.

    The whole NFL better beware.
     
  2. GARDENHEAD

    GARDENHEAD Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Best post I've seen in a while.
     
    DPlus47, SICK and ElNino like this.
  3. CRAZYFACE

    CRAZYFACE Active Member

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    I''ll second that.
     
  4. thisperishedmin

    thisperishedmin Well-Known Member

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    Reading all those stats....my only thought right now: If we figure out 3rd downs, look the **** out haha.
     
    DPlus47 likes this.
  5. ElNino

    ElNino Well-Known Member

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    Agreed. Not only good writing, but also filled with nice little tidbits of facts to back it up. :up:
     
  6. Bumrush

    Bumrush Stable Genius Club Member

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    Excellent article.. Better than most of the stuff published online.
     
  7. Sethdaddy8

    Sethdaddy8 Well-Known Member

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    Very nice.
     
  8. PhinFan1968

    PhinFan1968 To 2020, and BEYOND! Club Member

    Nice read.
     
  9. Fin4Ever

    Fin4Ever Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Really nice read...I usually find your post informative and positive and spot on in the areas that we still need to improve to become dominate and those areas are getting fewer and farther in between.....Way to go Miami!!!! Keep it up all of you....Fields for so long has been dominate and turned field position around to help us that I for one can be patient with him and am confident he will work it out....wow! Miami starting to make us diehards proud again. :)
     
  10. vt_dolfan

    vt_dolfan Season Ticket Holder Club Member

    Waiting for the anti Tannehill crowd to come in and put a wet blanket on a great post.
     
  11. keithjackson

    keithjackson Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Does anyone have an opinion on Jamar Taylor v. Jimmy Wilson so far?
     
  12. jcliving

    jcliving Active Member

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    We have managed to embarrass the Raiders and the Bears. I really believe Hickey's additions are changing the identity. Mitchell never gives up on a play. Delmas and Finnegan bring attitude. Albert is awesome. James is fulfilling his responsibilities. Satele is a solid center that does well in ZBS scheme. Coaches have used the talent he acquired to build a team without glaring weaknesses.

    The other part is our offense is fulfilling its responsibilities. Lazor's play calls are not predictable, so the team functions as a team.
     
    Sceeto likes this.
  13. Fin4Ever

    Fin4Ever Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I agree and one of the most important (if not The most important) additions the Dolphins have made is the hiring of Hickey...with a close runner up for Lazor..the Dolphins have made so many good decisions thus far that if we can keep the pieces all together then I see great things in our future.
     
  14. Larryfinfan

    Larryfinfan 17-0...Priceless Club Member

    As always Keith, a great assessment. I just wish that this identity will be more consistent. The team has taken on Philbin's quiet, but strong persona. I still want to see this continue, but it's a great start for this year. Of course, if Finnegan makes one tackle inbounds, which he could have easily, we are really talking differently right now, perhaps the nat'l media as well....
     
  15. Finatik

    Finatik Season Ticket Holder Staff Member Club Member

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    As much as he said that he's played guard as a natural position, I think it's going to take at least 6 games for not only him to be comfortable with his footwork but everyone else to be comfortable. He's coming back from the injury so you can assume he's not "fully" healed and playing a position he hasn't played in some time. Not making excuses for him but I would expect to see more and more improvement in the coming weeks as he and everyone else get comfortable playing in the guard position.

    I forgot to add what a great post the original post was. Kudos.
     
  16. Alex44

    Alex44 Boshosaurus Rex

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    I don't predict defensive scores, or huge plays that result in easy field position for the offense. So assumiassuming the Jags don't turn it over I have us winning 27-13.
     
  17. fin13

    fin13 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    As RT's confidence builds other parts of his game will improve, watch the long ball
     
  18. LBsFinest

    LBsFinest Banned

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    Jimmy Wilson sucks as a safety but at least he's proven himself capable at corner, Taylor on the other hand hasn't done ****, he can barely get on the field, Will Davis is even worse, he can't get on the field at all. Both of them have been very disappointing.
     
    PhinFan1968 likes this.

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