*Official Preseason Week 1 Game Thread: Dolphins at Bears*

I dunno...something tells me 2015 Philbin goes for that.

 

Vigil showed up nicely last night. Tied for the team lead in tackles with 5. Mike Hull was around the ball a bit, but wasn't as impressive, IMO.

Luc, for as big and as strong as he is, stays blocked.

 

This may be controversial, but I think MBT is getting a bad rap for that game. He had a pretty solid 2 minute drill and put points on the board, but as his surrounding talent went from 2nd to 3rd string his production dropped. I'd like to see him with the 2nd team for longer. Our depth doesn't dip into the 3rd string, which makes sense cause it didn't dip into far into the second string last year.

I think people forget, that you can't have second string depth until you have solid first string depth and you can't have 3rd string depth until you have solid 2nd string depth.

 

Good point, with Joe Queesy, anything is in play.

He's better than Freeman, but thats not saying much.

 

Disagree, I thought both MBT's picks were awful. I admittedly missed Freemans pick as my laptop died right before it but I thought Freeman had a couple nice passes to to Hamilton.

 

I'd agree...the holding call threw everything back a few plays, but they recovered from it well. Unless up by a few scores, in the regular season, I can see them approaching it the same. They know damn well they're not worried about a team being 1st and 10 from the 2 if they lose the 4th down play. Hell, I'll take 2 pts and the ball!

 

In regards to the 4th down try, in a regular season game it's possible Philbin would have tried it. I mean, if you fail to convert the 4th down it's still 0-0 and you got your opponent backed up in their own endzone with a DL thast has Ndamukong Suh and Cameron Wake. Maybe this season Philbin gets a little more ballsy and starts trusting his defense a little more.

 

he made sportscenter for throwing 4 ints in the CFL.....

 

I'll do a formal (informal, hey, it's preseason for all of us, right?) review later on as I was only able to watch the first two drives of the game over my lunch break. I saw from the mid-2nd quarter on last night. But, here's some of my initial thoughts:

- Ryan Tannehill played well other than trying to force the screen pass to Landry that Jared Allen deflected. He moved well in the pocket and, DJ will like this, scrambled for a first down. It was a good play and he kept the drive moving. Really liked the throw to Jennings; it doesn't look super smooth as Jennings bobbled it on the catch, but that's a really nice throw through the middle of a zone defense. More, please.

- Lamar Miller looked pretty nice out there. Had Ja'Wuan James finished his block on the first play, Miller may have had 40 yards on 3 carries.

- Jason Fox held his own in pass-pro against Jared Allen adequately. Ja'Wuan James looked good against McPhee, but was, IMO, the shakiest of the starters in run-blocking. Fox is a nice swing tackle and I'm glad the staff realizes that finally.

- Dallas Thomas and Billy Turner seemed to hold their own with the ones. Turner's holding penalty, while ticky-tack, wasn't the best look; he didn't need to grab the leg of the defender on the cut block. I think he cleans that up easily though.

- Going to be interesting to see how many double-TE sets Bill Lazor uses. Dion Sims looks a lot more smooth than he did earlier in his career running routes.

- Jordan Phillips is very quick off the ball and is a load. I think with some better conditioning and just learning how to be a pro in general, he's going to be a damn good player for Miami. That play where he long-arms the Bears LG and just walks him back with one arm was nice. Snuffed out and nearly stopped that screen pass.

- I think the only UDFA LB that makes this team, and maybe the only UDFA Miami signed period, that makes this team, is Zach Vigil. He looked good. Hull had some up and down moments, but those two flashed more than Luc and Hewitt.

- If Zack Bowman makes the team, it's purely because of special teams. He just looks slow in coverage. But he looked good on all special teams. The first punt of the night, he knocked the Bears gunner like 6-7 yards out of bounds; made at least one tackle on a kickoff too.

- You can tell Tony Lippett is going to take some time learning the nuances of being a CB, especially when Miami uses pattern-matching coverages. He got caught going over the top of "pick" plays a few times instead of going through or staying underneath.

- Bad Cedric Thompson showed up last night. If you've watched any of his Minnesota film, he can go from looking like an All-American to looking like an undraftable player from one play/drive to the next. He took bad angles on both the TD runs the Bears had, and he whiffed on the long TD run.

- For all the simplifying the defense talk, Kevin Coyle dropped Earl Mitchell into zone coverage on the second defensive play of the night. Second play. Just something to keep in mind. Usually, in the past, that's coincided with some sort of blitz coming from a S or slot CB. Last night? Nope, just dropping a NT into soft zone coverage.

- Ndamukong Suh is probably going to jump offsides 8-10 times this year; but holy crap is he good. Looks good in a Dolphins uni too. Interesting that Miami's already showing that they'll line him up as a slanted 1-technique. It's not that Ndamukong Suh can't do that; he can, and he's damned good at it, but it's just odd given that they've added a bunch of 1-technique guys (drafted Phillips, signed Mosley) in addition to already having Earl Mitchell. Miami got burned messing around with Earl Mitchell not playing the 1-technique down the stretch last year (Denver, Jets). Just something to watch for.

- I retract my thought from earlier this week that C.J. Mosley may have been on the bubble. He ran with the 2nd unit (I'm guessing they were just giving a savvy vet some extra rest in camp). He flashed on a few plays and it was interesting that they played him as a 3-technique alongside Jordan Phillips. Mosley, like Suh, can play both.

- Reshad Jones is the best player in Miami's secondary and I'm intrigued by a possible combo of he and Walt Aikens in 2016. Trying not to get ahead of myself here, but still.

- O-line depth could very well be problematic this year. Jason Fox is fine as a swing tackle. Jamil Douglas held his own. If you're dressing 7 for the game, I think those two round out your lineup. The rest of the bunch though? Sam Brenner looked alright but that's about it. Jeff Linkenbach was beaten a lot. Donald Hawkins got be bad once. I think Miami's going to be scouring the cut linemen around the league when the time comes.

- Josh Freeman and McLeod Bethel-Thompson aren't rosterable. It'd be nice if Miami were able to find and develop a 3rd QB that can eventually take over for Matt Moore down the road. Trade for Barkley....? MBT's decision making isn't good. Freeman's accuracy is shot; should have thrown a TD to Kevin Cone.

I'll watch the rest of the parts of the game I missed and add some more later today or over the weekend.

 

Good game, I'm happy with how our starters performed pretty much across the board. Our depth (especially at LB and DT) is noticable as hell. And our 3rd QB sucks he needs to be cut. I would keep Josh Freeman over him if we're going to keep 3 QBs but I'm fine with keeping 2.

Tannehill is durable and Moore is one of the highest quality backups in the league I think.

 

I agree with you. I think it's likely we go for that even in the regular season.

Philbin's guts to play on 4th down hasn't been the problem. It's execution of the plays themselves. Miami was 3rd in the NFL on 4th down tries last season, but only converted on 7 of 19. Anyone miss Lousaka Polite yet? I do.

Even that 4th down play last night looked a little sloppy. Still not sure about the redzone play calling, but it was a good throw and a better catch to stay in the endzone. Jarvis Landry is gonna be a mf'ing star.

 

Folks should realize, in the CFL it can take 3-5 yrs to become a all star Qb, that league is not Arena Football.

I dislike MBT..a lot..like Cleo Lemon a lot

 

Speaking of the CFL , Robert Marve ( dad is Eugene Marve former LB for Buff among others ) is making his first start at QB for the Bombers tonight .

He was Florida's Mr. Football and member of Parade All-American team as senior at Plant High School in Tampa after breaking three state season records. Then went on to play at UM and Purdue .

 

Ugh *grabs lotion*

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

Five observations from Preseason Game One:

1. Reshad Jones can be a top ten safety. He's been on the cusp the last few years, but this is the year he takes he next step. He's fast, and always seems to get in on the play. I recently re watched some 2014 games, and was really impressed with his play; it seemed that whenever the Dolphins were doing well, Jones was making plays. It's a strong correlation that should continue. The safety unit as a whole may be the most underrated on the team. Delmas wasn't even playing! Look for the unit to continue to improve.

2. The biggest problem? While the running game with Lamar Miller didn't miss a beat, there was nothing to write home about after him. We (still) have a problem in goal line and short yardage situations. Is that the fault of the guards or the backs? We know what we have with Damien Williams, a great pass catcher and a so-so runner. Hopefully he will just be limited to replacing some of Charles Clay's reps. With more performances like this, LaMike might be LaCut. While playing behind a backup Oline may skew some results, he squandered his biggest chance in the return game showing almost nothing. I don't really see that improving either. I'm curious to see the team try Kenny Stills back there, as he will prob become the #4 WR. On another note, how nice was it to play against Daniel Thomas; there was a point the Bears relied on him for short yardage and every Dolphan breathed easy knowing it wasn't gonna happen. Hopefully, the answer is Jay Ajayi, who squeezes every possible yard from his carries.

3. The first team looked as good as any first team in any game last night. A pristine QB rating and forcing three-and-outs? You can't ask for better than that. It's been said before, but the biggest difference in Ryan was his collected calmness and control of the situation. We he was out there, he looked like the best player on the field for either side. Add Parker and Stills, and actual game planning from Lazor, the sky is the limit for the young man. Expect him to have a better year than "golden boys" Brees (who is my surprise-fall-off-a-cliff player for 2015, finally showing signs of aging with a worsened receiving corps) and Brady (who seems distracted for some reason) to make it into the top tier of QBs. On the other hand, Suh's effect was evident the moment he came out of the game. We will only go as far as our best player on each side of the ball will take us, which looks like the playoffs after that one drive.

4. Penalties Penalties Penalties! Ultimately I'm not worried about the amount of penalties in this game because over the last three years, Philbin's team has been the least penalized team in the entire NFL. Chalk it up to first game brainfarts.

5. Holy cow, the bottom of our roster is full of pushovers. However, who knows how many will even see the roster, so lets just give out an MVP of our delevopmental guys: Zach Vigil should see his standing improve with quality plays at every opportunity. He looked like the real thing out there; he might be the winner of the udfa LB derby.

Those are just my knee jerk reflections the morning after. (It's kind of nice that the starting guards really are a non-story, just like you'd hope for them to be.) How awesome to have football back!

 

you mean get kicked out of UM and Purdue bc he couldn't keep himself away from the sauce and parties....

 

maybe its time for you to realize....the CFL isn't very good....

 

Cutler, Cutler, Cutler...

 

Not over-reaction. Life in the NFL means injuries, and these are the players that Hickey & Philbin have chosen, and frankly they are just not that good. If we get a major injury, this team could fall like a house of cards. When players know they have a weaker player on the field playing with them, they know they have to worry about that player and not concentrating totally on their assignment, and will do things to compensate for their team-mates weakness, by sacrificing some of their own effectiveness. It affects the team tremendously, and in our case it apparently will be a huge problem.

 

It is an over reaction.

You cannot build the back up reserves while you're building the starting unit. Last year and this year, has been all about assembling a solid starting squad. They've done that (based on the info we have currently). Once you're good at starters THEN you can start working on back ups.

Our depth improves next year. Expecting anything other than that, is silly and unrealistic.

 

He didn't get kicked out of Purdue he just wasn't very good, he split time with Caleb TerBush during his time there.

 

Most of the people who were bad on Thursday are people who have very little chance of making the team.

 

Good post.

When you're paying guys like Suh, Wake, Grimes and Jones you accept that you're going to have younger and unproven players at other spots. Too many fans beating their chest & feeling smart bc they can point all the spots where the Dolphins don't have Pro Bowlers. Ignoring that no team has 11 all stars on the field at once and not understanding what it really takes to win games, generally speaking or for their team specifically.

 

The vast majority of the team that gave up 24 unanswered points won't even be on the squad. The 2nd half team the guys who will be lucky to make practice squads.

 

One thing to consider, our 2nd string defense held their 1st string offense to a field goal. I know it is the first preseason game against a team with a new offense, however it still makes me happy.

 

I still don't know what Stills does. Havent heard any reports as to him doing jack squat throughout camp. I don't know how he fits. I know how he is supposed to fit, but? I wouldn't be surprised if Mathews gets real playing time this year. He seems to have a good connection with RT. Who loses playing time when Parker is healthy? Can anyone remember Stills doing anything yet besides having Wierd hair?

 

[video=twitter;632677944834531328]https://twitter.com/NFLFilmStudy/status/632677944834531328[/video]
[video=twitter;632679068652208128]https://twitter.com/NFLFilmStudy/status/632679068652208128[/video]
[video=twitter;632681541232144384]https://twitter.com/NFLFilmStudy/status/632681541232144384[/video]
[video=twitter;632683726401597440]https://twitter.com/NFLFilmStudy/status/632683726401597440[/video]
..to beat Bowman out"

 

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Ouch.

[video=twitter;632686872561610752]https://twitter.com/NFLFilmStudy/status/632686872561610752[/video]

 

Considering he has been hurt and held out of the majority of camp, I not surprised you haven't heard of him doing anything.

 

"Kenny Stills #10 is QUICK. His slants are gonna be a dangerous weapon for us. Had a really nice catch that he had to jump up above Grimes to come down with." That's what I wrote on day 1 of training camp. I'm not worried about him, he's been healing his calf.. what's there to hear about when he hasn't been on the field??

 

I was watching the replay of the game and saw this play and the Bears announcers were all over this as a face guard by Davis. at first I was ok with that then they showed this angle and then I was thinking that was a push off by Bowman and on top of that he used Davis's face mask too. I think once Davis shakes off a bit more rust he will be ok.