***Dolphins vs Eagles*** Preseason Game 3 Thread

Lol what

 

Timmons, Godchaux, Branch, Wake, Suh, and Howard looked great.

Unfortunately, the rest of our defense looks really lethargic, confused, and at times disinterested in tackling.

And our offensive line, well, yeah. They they have a long way to go.

 

Just chiming in:

- Secondary not looking great. I think it's more communication than talent.
- Tackle anyone? Surprised Jones missed on that one, I believe, to Ertz.
- 22 showing ZERO effort. I don't mind people getting beat. At least get beat while putting in some effort.
- LBs ain't bad. I'm less worried than I thought I would be.
- Not worried about D-line at all.
- Cutler looked pretty good. Nice vet move on the save sack. Tannehill can learn from that. I do, however, still think Tannehill runs this O better. Cutler is a tad off on some throws where I think Tanny would have been more accurate. But Cutler has always been a tad off on some throws throughout his career. Still looked solid. I'm good with him.
- Ajayi is good.
- O-line needs to jell. Eagles aren't a joke up front, though. Good for them to get nice competition.
- Andrew Franks just went beast mode
- I could see a situation where Cutler comes back next year and Moore is released. If Cutler is willing to sit the bench? Just a thought......
- Parker is definitely coming into his own. All of the training camp hype is REAL. He's just smooth.
- I wish the O-line had a nastier demeanor
- Darr secretly works for NASA.

Fun game to watch, overall!

 

Backup LBs look BAD

 

Wow Grant!!

 

Grant has got some impressive speed.

 

Well, Gase will not lack for players to coach up following this game. Moore had one of his bad games, but still glad to have him for our #2 QB. The OL needs at least one more guard, but maybe we can grab a vet with a trade or surprise cut.

The early schedule is relatively soft, so I hope the team can gel while playing through some early mistakes.

Grant is a weapon.

 

I am very surprised at Grant's route running. Super impressed. He should have caught that Doughty pass. But man, he's got some good moves and blows by people. Now I know what the coaches saw in this guy.

 

Great play by LB Chase Allen at the goal line standing up the RB.

#40 may not have a job by the end of preseason. Two bad plays that allowed the TD.

 

I really like Mike Mayock

 

Couple of issues:

- 3rd down conversion
- TOP

I really, really, really hope they shore this up. It could be like last year where the D tires too quickly. Would be bad. Very bad.

 

that TD the Eagles second string scored wax on our starters....and it was easy. Birks no good.

 

On the Oline, i think our tackles are worse than our guards. Neither Tunsil or James is any good.

 

I'm feeling LB Chase Allen

 

You can't be serious

 

Gotcha our defensive coordinator is an idiot and over his head. It had nothing to do with lack of playing time prior to tonight. Leading to blown assignments and missed tackles.

 

Well he was serious about Birk being ver his head so......

 

Cutler, RB, WRs good...rest of team, substandard. Oh well, best to know now. i predict wrll start 1-4 again...If Gase can turn this around this year, hes amazing.

The unit im surprised by is our DBs...i expected more. they are hot garbage...including Xavien. of course, i think Birk is a very weak coach, so they arent getting any coaching.

ive been patient and let this thing workout through the prezeason, but if tonight is any indication, this is a 5 - 6 win team.

The good news, they have A LOT to work on. At least they wont break my heart this year...Vegas was smart setting their wins at 7. its under...easily.

 

glad you agree. its obvious. But if hes not, itll be easy to prove me wrong. if he puts outs top 20 defense, ill stand corrected.

 

It's preseason, so there are some things that need ironing out.

The D certainly didn't look cohesive. There were some miscommunications, esp. on the back end. That Torrey Smith TD was one. I think Reshad Jones simply got caught. Looked to me like 41 did the right thing in passing him off. Could be wrong, though.

The missed tackles are a little concerning. Jones didn't really look good at all.

I thought the backups on D weren't on the same page for the most part. Liked LB Chase Allen and his effort.

I just thought the D overall lacked 'umph' for the most part, but the TOs were very nice. There were some near-misses out there, too.

I'll give this game a pass. They were practicing hard all week against a good Philly team. It was hot as hell in Philly all week. Could simply be they just were a little on the exhausted side.

Saw some good things. Saw some things that need to be cleaned up. Burke has to get to work. This is his first gig at DC, so he has some things he'll work on. Most people would have a learning curve in that position, no matter how football smart you are.

My BIGGEST concerns are very much the same as last year:

- TOP
- 3rd down conversions

 

Not sure where you got I agreed with you

 

I'll start this by saying Jay Cutler's pocket presence and ability to climb the pocket is clearly more instinctual than Tanny's.

Tonight's performance was a mixed bag though. I saw three throws behind wide open receivers - one of which Darby should've picked off, one to Landry (great adjustment by him), and the other was the Parker TD. That was all Devante cutting his route short turning around and coming back to the ball instead of being led. His other TD to Thomas was an absolute bullet of a throw.

 

We already knew about Kiko and Timmons being solid, but Chase Allen and Hull may be the reasons our LB's overall don't suck.

 

I think some of it has to do with the fact that he's only been here for 2 weeks and his chemistry is still a little off.

 

I was forced to watch the "Philly broadcast" where the announcers sang the Eagles praises all night. As soon as Grant caught that pass though and spun out of the tackle, the announcer said, "Oh wow, he's gone...." That's when Grant was still within one step of the two defenders- it really made me smile. But yeah....he was 7-10 yards ahead of everyone by the 20 yard line...the kid has ridiculous burst speed. If we can work Grant into the regular offense and somehow get him one on one with those little slant patterns or go-routes, he's going to score 5-8 TD's this season.

Just think about that- you HAVE TO double Landry. You HAVE TO have help over the top on Stills and Grant. So if we go with a 4 WR set, Stills and Grant split to opposite sides (obviously on go-routes) with Landry in the slot, do you leave Parker one on one? He's probably the best overall receiver we have and it's crazy to even think about. Our speedsters race the sidelines, Parker on a post and Landry on a little hitch route in case Cutler's in trouble? That's first downs and six points all day long.

Anyway, the chains are going to be moving this year fellas. Once this offense really clicks, oh my goodness.

I wouldn't read too much into the 3 and outs though- we moved the ball well with Cutler and Ajayi. Speaking of, the holes were massive for the J-Train early on....I can just feel that this team is going to be special. DL and linebackers looked solid. Receivers looked even better. Moore- well, I think age is starting to become a factor...few really bad tosses. Thank the heavens we got Cutler...he is CLEARLY the better of the two. Just cross your fingers on our secondary...

I'm making a prediction right now. We will win every game this season where we hold opponents to 24 or less. I'm saying we score 25+ in all 18-20 games.

 

We play very few 4WR sets. Usually we have a TE in and by the way I don't know how you pass protect in these 4WR sets. I mean, with our OL this translates into a lot of sacks. Still I agree that our WR corps is a great unit, they are diverse and have pretty much everything.

 

Good thing I recorded the game since I didn't get home from work until nearly 8pm so I couldn't follow the thread while I watched the game however after perusing this thread, I'm wondering if I was actually watching the Dolphins last night because I actually saw a great showing by the Phins but everything I'm reading here said we sucked!

Ok, my take on last night's game...

Ok, I'm a believer in Cutler now. He was just that impressive. Provided nothing catastrophic occurs, Cutler is going to the Pro Bowl.
I've listened to all of the hype about Parker with skepticism but after that 71 yard grab, I'm a believer!
The J-Train has no ill effects from his concussion...another 1200+ yard rushing season.
The STARTING OL is awesome!
The STARTING DL is awesome!
I still have concerns with the LB corps
The DB's aren't THAT autrocious.
Suddenly everyone LOVES Andrew Franks when I was the ONLY one defending him last season
It's Matt Burke...not Birk...and I'm still nervous about him as DC. If we had Wade Phillips as DC, no one would score on us.

All in all...first team that is, I was VERY impressed.

 

Chris Perkins basically echoed the things i said last night....poor run defense, poor secondary. Good QB, good WR. but after this game, im worried. Cant stop the run, cant stop the pass. And this wasnt the Cowboys, Packers or Falcons, or much less the Patriots. this was a very average team. My biggest concern with Gase now is his loyalty to Birk. IMO, the guy cant cut being a DC. Time will tell. nothing last night gave me any hope...very few bright spots defensively.

 

It was hot as hell in Philly all week? Aren't these the Miami Dolphins playing in the most absurd combo of heat and humidity in North America? I get that Philly gets hot like many places but these guys have been marinating in excessive heat/humidity for two months now.

 

The starting OL was not awesome. They were atrocious on a couple drives.

 

And it wasn't just the Guards that struggled. Tinsel got our QB killed and caused us to lose a fumble. James was abused as well. The Oline was/is a HUGE liability at every position, if you consider the probability that Pouncey probably can't last 16 games.

 

When has the level of execution in preseason accurately reflected the level of execution in the regular season? I honestly cannot think of a time.

Teams are so vanilla and still trying out personnel and players aren't going all out....I just don't take much away from preseason results or level of execution, good or bad.

 

I don't know...flip side for me is, if you can't execute in the preseason, why would you be able to in the regular season?

All too often we've said, "Don't worry, it's the the preseason." Then, come regular season, we saw the same crappy play or flaws that we saw in the preseason.

 

The results of the game may have been the same in preseason vs regular but the execution of the play wasn't.

I don't think most vets go all out in preseason to avoid injury.

I kind of feel like you could say "if you can't execute in the probowl, why would you be able to in the regular season?" the games are meaningless for the vets.

 

Yeah, but you have vets on both sides. So, you should have vets on both sides not playing hard, so they should still be able to execute.

 

The score was 38-31. Doesn't sound like there was a whole lot of performance on either defense.

 

Who is this "Birk" you keep mentioning?

 

Can't take too much out of a preseason game, even the 3rd one. Cutler looked great, all things considered. Moore looked awful, but that's what Matt Moore does sometimes. Backup. End that discussion please. Jay Cutler is our starter, and will be the QB that leads us to the playoffs for our 2nd straight year. Yes, we are making the playoffs. Adam Gase IS THAT GOOD! He has a better team to work with now than last year, and sorry Tanny, Gase also has a better QB with Cutler.

Jay Cutler sees and processes the game much faster than Ryan Tannehill. Period.

 

That's my point. If lackadaisical play by offensive vets against lackadaisical play by defensive vets results in the oline being dominated, why would the result be different in the regular season?