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Thoughts on the Dolphins/Jags Game

Discussion in 'Miami Dolphins Forum' started by KeyFin, Oct 17, 2021.

  1. mlb1399

    mlb1399 Well-Known Member

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    Great post and pretty much sums up where I’m at on all of this. I’d add they no longer get 3 hours of my time every Sunday. I’ll watch some of the games because I want to see how our young players develop but they are no longer a priority.
     
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  2. Galant

    Galant Love - Unity - Sacrifice - Eternity

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    Before i speak, let me be clear, what I want for this team is success - consistent franchise quality, perennial playoffs and frequent contenders.

    That said, part of me is happy with this result. It gives less room for cheap excuses. What I do not want to see is continued mediocrity and drawn out losing. If there's a problem let's see it and deal with it.

    Now, there's a good chance the problem is Ross. In that case there's nothing we can do. However, if it's possible that a good GM can turn this team around, if Ross can find him and let him roll, then good. I'm not sure Ross isn't too dominating a figure to not squash a winner. But that's our only hope while Ross holds the lease.
     
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  3. Phin McCool

    Phin McCool Well-Known Member

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    I'm now two hours into a five hour journey home. I've been up since 5.30am. In spite of a massive Dolphin presence at the game, I somehow spent it surrounded by screeching Jags fans and anyone-but-Dolphins neutrals. And I chose to do this on my 20th wedding anniversary. I've spent almost £200 for the pleasure plus another £30 on flowers, which I left behind as a makepeace before I left home at 0630. To say that I'm pissed off is rather an understatement right now. I'm definitely not happy with the result.
     
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  4. Not a surprising loss. A pop-warner pea-shooter at QB, a cognitively low-functioning head coach, a GM that has been propped up his whole career for issues other than ability, an owner that is a borderline clown, lack of an NFL-level RB, an OL that starts a 1st rounder that will be out of the league soon/a few average talent hacks/a rookie, a WR room made up of complete pansies, etc, etc.

    A loss to a team with rookie QB, with one of the most talent-devoid rosters in the NFL, and a coach who wants out so bad he doesn't even fly home with his team. Everything must be burnt down, ship the pe shooter off for a 4th or 5th, fire the HC, fire the GM, hope the owner sells or goes to a rest home, hope some competent men begin anew, wait 3-5 years and make a run. There is no other path, you will soon learn it, just like every other lesson has had to be learned by most here who will long be dead before this gets right.
     
  5. Dorfdad

    Dorfdad Well-Known Member

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    Flores has t shown me the ability to hire a competent staff. He keeps getting all these half asses and now with himself clearly on the hot seat who would join a crew that’s sinking? Why delay it just cut it off now and start evaluating for next year
     
  6. KeyFin

    KeyFin Well-Known Member

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    To be fair though, how many GM's have built what you described above in the history of the league? Shula and Belichek did for sure. The Bears in the 80's, the 49ers in the 90's, Pitt is the 00's. Dallas had a fantastic run as well across eras. But who else? Surely it's not just a half-dozen teams across the hundreds that have taken the field over the past 50 years, is it?

    I bring this up because it's a critically important point- Grier promised a "perennial playoff contender" to get the job and then he jettisoned 100% of our talent the moment he took office. I called him a snake oil salesman the day all of this was announced because what he was promising was basically impossible- you can't build a team like that through the draft alone. It takes veteran leadership, the right coaches, the right assistants, the right scouts...and all of them have to be completely on the same page. Even if 90% of your front office is aligned but a few are pulling things out of left field, the cracks will eventually start to crumble.

    We don't know exactly what's gone wrong internally, but it was very clear from day one that the only way this three-year rebuild worked was with Grier hitting on virtually 100% of his draft picks. He tried to game the system by taking prospects with off-the-charts potential, which made our chances of success basically zero.

    I mean, people called Minkah selfish for wanting out three years ago. Does anyone still feel that way? Or did the kid save what little chance he had at a great career?

    I don't want to bash on Grier because he's either too dumb or too much of an ego-maniac to realize what he proposed couldn't work. I also said back then that when all of this fails, it was going to set us back a decade and look where we are- three years in and no playoff opportunity in sight. I hate it that I was right about all this stuff because it's not about that- all I care about is how do we fix it?

    Firing Grier/Flores mean we have the new generation of Minkah's will be running for the door and we've wasted all our draft capital on questionable moves. If we fire that duo now, I think it's going to be another five years before we have a competitive team again. The only way forward, in my opinion, is to develop these young players, keep Flores at the helm and vastly overpay for a legitimate GM. Then you build the franchise from the inside out, starting with scouts, executives and positional coaches.

    Again, we'll have to vastly overpay because we've burned so many bridges under Ross...and we can't package this as a "complete tear-down and rebuild". The only viable path is keeping Tua, developing this line (with vet help) and bringing in some free agent football players like Mack Hollins who will show up every day and do his job. We can't afford big splash pickups at this point anyway and we probably have to trade Jones and/or Howard immediately. As others said, Parker and Fuller can go as well to make cap room. But we have to stop this insanity of thinking the youth movement will pay off in a year or two...it's impossible folks.

    I clearly don't have all the answers here, but I do know that step one is getting the snake oil salesman out of the building and then overpaying for his replacement. That's all I've got though because I doubt Ross is even considering it at this point.
     
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  7. JJ_79

    JJ_79 Well-Known Member

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    Depends on how the season plays out but as of now there is no reason to keep Flores, Grier should definitely be gone…
     
  8. Dolphin Dundee

    Dolphin Dundee Well-Known Member

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    I would have more respect for Flores if he was pissed at the podium demanding more from his offense and defense but he is just so ho hum about it. He just doesn't seem to really be in charge or changing anything at this point so i can't say i would miss him if he's gone tomorrow.
     
  9. The_Dark_Knight

    The_Dark_Knight Defender of the Truth

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    Ok, after digesting the game and after doing some yard work, my head is clear enough to offer an objective opinion on the game.

    First off, right out of the gate the Dolphins offense looked great. Tagovailoa had a commanding presence about him in driving the offense down the field for a touchdown. I believe it was 9 passes and 2 running plays. I was a bit concerned about that but assumed those were relatively quick passing plays called to get Tua into a rhythm and get him comfortable being back after nearly 4 weeks. Now you all know me, I love the passion g game but also know that if you can’t run the ball, you can’t throw it. We’ll get back to that in a minute.

    Defensively, I thought they initially held up better than I expected. With the absence of Howard and Jones, and with how well Lawrence has been improving week after week, I was really afraid the Jacksonville was going to light up our secondary. They actually did better than expected initially but there was one thing Jacksonville stuck with that we completely abandoned…the run game.

    Miami did well at shutting Robinson down in the first half, but instead of abandoning the run game, they kept feeding it Robinson and it paid off. Robinson is a big strong back and even after initial contact, he was still able to pick up 3,4 or even 5 yards when he looked as if he was going to be dropped for a loss. This opened Jacksonville’s playbook to play action pass which they executed well against us.

    This is what Miami lacks, a serious threat at running back. Gaskins and Ahmed were often stopped right at the LOS and we were forced to abandon the run all but completely. When you ask your quarterback to throw for 47 times in a game, the outcome is rarely going to go your way, especially ina game as close as this one was. Until we get a big strong premier running back and an offensive scheme that uses that, expect dark days to come.

    Now the officiating? Geese, where do I begin? The incomplete pass that was complete? The offensive pass interference on Hollins that wasn’t? The unnecessary roughness on Baker I believe it was when he was playing the ball? It’s bad enough when you have such a young team struggling to compete and try to get a win that they are also having the officiating go against them so often in such key plays.
     
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  10. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    Don't forget the holding call on Carter that was just a really good block
     
  11. JJ_79

    JJ_79 Well-Known Member

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    + the Touchdown we didn’t get even though it was clear to see that the Ball hit the Finger of the returner…
     
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  12. brandon27

    brandon27 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    I hear ya. After letting the fire die out a bit after Sunday I'm more at peace with it. I'm still not happy by any means, but with things going on here at home its kind of had me changing my prespective a bit. I'm just over caring for this team. It's burning me out every week for 17 weeks, err 18 or whatever a year. There's more important things in life.

    That being said if I try and look at it logically there are some positives to take away as you said. They don't help me feel better about the loss, but whatever. It's a game. It's a team. I just think we still need to keep in perspective those positives, in particular on offense came against one of the leagues worst defenses. Tua showed enough to renew hope as well.

    I watched the game last night though because my wife has always been a Titans fan so we could share in the hatred for the Bills. What a football game that was first of all. It's SO GOOD to see Ryan Tannehill playing well. He's still so damn accurate. Anyways, the point of the story here is I actually felt what it was like to enjoy watching football again rooting for the Titans last night not just because they played the Bills but because it actually felt FUN to enjoy watching a game and supporting a team. It just really made me realize just how much I'm just over the current state of this franchise.... AGAIN. I'm just not sure I can do it any more. I think the Dolphins and I need to spend some time apart so I can enjoy the game again; because they've ruined it for me essentially. They're still my team, but I can't give the energy I've given anymore if it's ruining my enjoyment of watching the game itself. It felt damn good last night though to watch a game and enjoy a game and be able to root for a team that the end result didn't matter to me either way but I found myself sitting there watching and going hmm.. I like this team. I've always liked Tannehill for his toughness. Henry reminds me of Ricky in a way. It just felt good to have something "invested" in a team that actually looked like a real NFL team on the field playing up to their competition.

    I miss that feeling with this team. I miss that feeling with this place... so thank you for at least trying to bring some positivity. It really did make me reflect back on the game and go huh... why the hell do I care that much? I'll spend more time watching a team that's fun to watch, has a common interest with the wife, has our former QB and actually just simply enjoy watching football again. I'm not going to suffer through another wasted season when it's only October 19th. I've always watched other games, but I'm usually still focused on ours win or lose. I'm just going to try and not allow myself to do that any longer.

    Oh who am I kidding... I'll still be here and watching this team on Sunday :lol:
     
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  13. KeyFin

    KeyFin Well-Known Member

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    That's awesome man- I really enjoyed that Titans game as well (even though I forgot it was on and started watching in the 3rd quarter). But yeah, it was fun to see a team playing with confidence and just doing their thing against the elite Bills. That's how we're supposed to feel when we're rooting on our team- not all this miserable doom and gloom stuff.

    We can't control the Dolphins and we know it's not going to be a good year. I still write the weekly reviews because I enjoy that, but I completely get why others would get upset about it. That's the 3rd game this season we pretty much just gave away...it's maddening! But hey, that's really not my problem and it doesn't have to be yours either. We are still a rebuild team that's playing a lot of kids that aren't 100% ready...it is what it is. I'm just not going to get angry anymore over it and that switch in mindset lets me enjoy the games once again.

    With that said, I think the Dolphins will eventually figure some stuff out this year and put together a little win streak at some point. But I am going to remember who they are and the lack of leadership they have up and down the roster. More games will suck and I accept that. We definitely aren't a Tennessee or Buffalo that has most of the game figured out! So I'll expect losses, get excited for wins and just keep my expectations in check.

    I hope that perspective helps some people here- I was so miserable after us losing to the Bills that I wanted to punch something. But why do we get that way? It's just not worth being that emotionally invested in a team that's not there yet.
     
  14. Fishhead

    Fishhead Well-Known Member

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    I think what has us all on edge via anger, frustration, and disappointment is the fact that it has been decades, not years since the positives outweighed the negatives with this team. Not since Marino’s glory years has being a Dolphan been a joyful experience - and even then, there was no championship!

    I barely remember the ‘74 SB, and I’m sure many on here were not even born then. That’s a long time for a fan base to stay enthusiastic and engaged. There were raised expectations coming into this year, only for things to seem like more of the same old, same old with this team. I’d to quote Tug McGraw and say “ ya gotta believe”, but that’s harder to do each year.

    Just like Brandon, however - I’ll still tune in each week to see what happens. I guess we’re all just gluttons for punishment, lol
     
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  15. pumpdogs

    pumpdogs Well-Known Member

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    Ouch!
    That is beyond disappointing.Sorry for ur bad day!
     
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  16. JJ_79

    JJ_79 Well-Known Member

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    I was fine until Ricky left for the first time, even though everything went downhill with the Dolphins after Pornstache took over...
     
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  17. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    Anyone who decided that Rick Mirer was worth a first round pick should not be given any GM powers.
     
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  18. Fishhead

    Fishhead Well-Known Member

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    Wanny has the dubious distinction of crippling two franchises - after what he did in Chicago, the mere fact that he got another job in the NFL is mind boggling, much less one with say over personnel
     
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  19. brandon27

    brandon27 Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Spot on. I do appreciate your positive outlook and those post game threads. I just have to wait until the following day to read them after a tough loss :lol:

    All this Watson news though today really has me wondering about the future of this franchise, and not in a good way.
     
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  20. Galant

    Galant Love - Unity - Sacrifice - Eternity

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