I have stated previously that if the Dolphins win this week, I believe they will be a playoff team this season. A loss today and I see them going 8-8 at best or 7-9 and not making the playoffs. I thought it was important they beat the Jets last week to show they could go into New Jersey and beat a team they should have beat earlier in the season. They did that and now they have to go into the stadium of a team with the same record they have and show they can win possibly the most important game they have played so far this season. Unfortunately it appears some individuals on this forum seem to think that the Dolphins should win this game easily. I guess the fact the Colts beat the Packers at home a few weeks ago is irrelevant to these individuals. Luck is the best QB the Dolphins have faced since they played the Texans. Reggie Wayne is the leading WR in the NFL. While the Colts defense is suppose to be weak against the run. The Jets defense was rated lower against the run last week and the Dolphins still weren't impressive in the running game. In fact the Dolphins really haven't been effective in the running game since Bush was hurt in the first Jets game. I believe the Dolphins can win the game today. I would not be surprised if the Colts pull out a victory though. This is the type of game that scares me, because these two teams are basically evenly matched and the Colts play better at home than they do on the road. If the game was being played in Miami, I would feel a lot better about the Dolphins being victorious. I think this game is going to come down to the very end and even though earlier in the week I predicted the Colts would win 21-17, I hope I am wrong.
Updating myself, it appears as though PFT thinks Tannehill will start. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/04/report-tannehill-will-dress-likely-will-start/ Adam Schefter was just on and said that Miami will see how he moves in pregame warm-ups. If he does play, he'll be on a short leash depending on how his knee holds up to the pain.
Identity: Secondary blows and we're just not talented enough on offense and choked when they had a chance to win or tie. Good enough to go 8-8 or 9-7 because of a weaker schedule that sees the Bills twice, Titans, Jaguars. The Seahawks game is a big one...we're pretty much a lock to lose to the Patriots twice and the 49ers, losing to Seattle would kill any playoff hope you have, even if they'll just get knocked out of the first round.
If Luck can do that just think what Brady is going to do. You can mark the Pats games as two more automatic losses.
On the optimistic side. 3 of our losses have been by 3 points. Were close to the hump...just not getting over it yet.
This team wasn't ready to play the kind of game a favored team on the road has to play to win in the NFL. They're not good enough yet and don't have the identity for it. One day they'll get over that hump, but it wasn't today.
Nope. Our secondary got exposed for what they are, poor. Our best corner (Sean Smith) had the game in his hands twice today and failed to make plays. Jimmy Wilson was shredded in the slot. Chris Clemons continues to take horrible angles. We had no pass rush. Cam Wake was held 1,000 times but no one else did anything. Jared Odrick is not a defensive end. Our needs stay the same. We need a least 2 corners (I'd get three and more Marshall to safety). We need at least one more edge pass rusher. Our offense was no screaming hell today. We need to attack the middle of the field more, a seam busting tight end would help (for the record, I like Fasano a lot). The offensive line needs work. Mike Sherman needs work. We are better than I thought we'd be but we are not as good as we looked. We are a 7-9/8-8 team with holes. Could be worse.
With all due respect, I think you're putting way, way too much stock into that. This team lost because there's a severe lack of talent in the secondary, and Kevin Coyle did them no favors putting them into bad situations on multiple occasions. He blitzed too much on 3rd down and it cost them. Jimmy Wilson in particular had an awful game, but he's a guy that shouldn't be on the field as regularly as he was. I think it's clear that Miami's going to be investing heavily in secondary players this offseason.
Olivier Vernon came back to earth today, blocked field goal aside. He got pinned on several occasions on running plays. For someone with his strength and size, that shouldn't happen as often as it did today. He also struggled in pass-rush quite a bit. Once or twice when Luck held the ball he got in there, but Miami needs more than he and Wake if they're going to make serious noise going forward.
We're agreeing. I'm saying they're not good enough talent-wise to overcome the hard-on a home team gets when it's deemed an underdog. You have to be both talented and have a strong team culture to overcome that IMO. I suspect this team as it is now is insufficient for that in both areas.
After thinking about this a bit more, I really think the leadership among the players is not where it needs to be at this point. To go on the road and win as a favored team in the NFL, you need leaders among the players who step up and provide an example of focus and who play well in such a game. There was no player on defense who did that (no Randy Starks, no Karlos Dansby, no Cameron Wake), and on offense Jake Long, a player who should be leading this team and stepping up in games like these, provided an example of poor play. There was no other player on offense who had the kind of game that could counter that and set a positive example of being focused and making plays. Consequently, the entire team suffered from a lack of leadership in that game, and that can't happen if you want to win on the road as a favored team in the NFL. Hopefully this game will be a wake-up call for these players, and hopefully they'll take responsibility for this loss and refocus themselves on their roles as leaders of this team. If this team truly wants to get over this hump it's on and establish its identity as one of the NFL's truly good teams, these players are going to have to take a leadership role and make it happen. They're going to need to come out in games like the one yesterday and play very well and set an example for their teammates of what this team is all about.
Its frustrating that we're still the team that is mediocre and can't beat teams with winning records (all teams we beat are 3-5). The 3 worst teams in 2007 were Dolphins, Falcons and Ravens (for losing to our awful team, setting them apart from the other crappy teams there were like STL). Well the Falcons are 8-0 and have an MVP candidate at QB, the Ravens have been a playoff mainstay, a missed field goal from being AFC Champions last year...and once again our franchise barely does anything of note since then besides a lucky division title. Hopefully they do beat the rest of the losing teams on their schedule...then they can go 8-8. 7-9 would give us a 4th straight losing season, tying the longest losing streak in franchise history with the four 1960s expansion years. Been waiting since 2002 for this team to get over the hump and stop dropping these types of games (think Vikings game in 02 and Texans in 03)...will have to keep waiting. Though its nice that we can't say we lost because of the QB, like we did multiple times with Henne and his late turnovers against bad teams.
Same ol' Dolphins. This was the kind of game that could have propelled the franchise forward into a powerhouse and momentum thorugh the rest of the season and, like always, they fold. Let's see where they're at going into the NE and SF games. Those are a couple opportunities there as well, assuming they don't fall apart against buff, tenn & sea (which I don't think they will).
IMO it was the kind of game where, if we win, we start to expect greatness from ourselves week in week out, and if we lose, we still don't know what to expect from ourselves on a given week. And that's what an identity is: an expectation of behavior from yourself. This team doesn't yet have one.
You obviously have every right to believe the talent level of this team is better than it is and it's more a matter leadership than play-making ability that is holding the Dolphins back. I simply have a 180 degree opinion. Admittedly, I went into this season with low expectations (6-10) at best and the hope that Tannehill showed enough to consider the QB position filled. Check and check. Everything else is gravy.
Why play the games if we're guaranteed to lose? For all we know, both of these teams could "overlook" us considering San Francisco travels to New England after they play us. New England plays Houston at home after they play their first game against us. You never know. Why give up hope at 4-4? There are still 8 games left to play and you don't know how this team will react to the Indianapolis loss until this Sunday.
I have a hard time believing that Indianapolis is so good (or that we're so poor) that they shut down Randy Starks, Sean Smith, Jake Long, Reggie Bush, Karlos Dansby, Kevin Burnett, and Cameron Wake to the tune of average performances (by each of their standards) or worse. There has to be some failure of leadership IMO to account for none of those players' having an outstanding game in what could've been a corner-turner for this team.
There you go again. Reggie Bush wasn't shut down. Did you miss his nasty TD run? He just can't finish a game. That's not a big surprise. Why is there no other skilled position offensive players on you list? Probably because the rest of them reached their expectations. You do realize Chicago's defense has more TDs than the Dolphins receivers. Cam Wake was in full beast mode yet again. https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2012/11/05/refo-dolphins-colts-week-9/ The Dolphins defense is stout against the run and weak against the pass. No surprise. The one pleasant surprise is how well Rashad Jones has been playing in the secondary. I didn't see that coming. The offense has a chance to sneak into the top 1/2 of the league when all is said and done if they continue to progress. It's all good.
What I said was that Reggie Bush (and others) was shut down to the point that he had nothing more than an average performance by his standards. I didn't say he was shut down completely. He did nothing atypical for him. If he had made even just a couple plays that are potentially game-changing, such as a forced fumble or a tipped pass that resulted in an interception, I'd be singing a different tune about him. He surely wasn't the reason we lost, but again, the point is that you can't say he did anything atypical by his standards, and he's therefore part of the larger group of players about whom that can be said. Again, the point is that not a single player played in a way that reflected his seizing the moment in a critical game in this team's development.
