I went the NFL.com to check the statistical comparison of this weeks game versus the Jets/Colts championship. It was Tim Graham's latest article that made me curious.
http://espn.go.com/blog/AFCEast/post/_/id/18938/
Here are two quick links to the numbers.
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2010012400/2009/POST20/jets@colts/recap#tab:analyze
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2010092614/2010/REG3/jets@dolphins#tab:analyze
It is freaking scary as to how close they are with a totally different result on the scoreboard. With all the banter that will continue this week about this and that, this little comparison points to one direction - special teams.
Sparano specifically mentioned special teams today in the press conference as deciding factors. He mentioned the punt block and he was certain not to leave out "and we practiced it" refering to the twist that got the player free.
I want to direct the mobs attention to the fact that this offense did what only one other team has surpassed in the previous year and this short lived year. The defense held the Jets to eerily similar numbers as the Colts were able to do in January. We should not forget that someone directed those groups and "by the numbers" they did everything that had to do to win.
But there was another group that was a total failure. That is the group directed by John Bonamego. If in any way this game leads to a "hot seat" it is this guys hot seat. Because all that we have heard is how much these games matter. How a division game is a game and a half. Let there be no doubt about it - John Bonamego's group just lost a game and a half.
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I agree Zod, for all the huffing and puffing about Dan Henning, Jon Bonamego's ST unit was just dreadful, it is not that the Jets ST unit is so great, but they were mowing down 2-3-4 sometimes 5 guys on our kick coverage unit.
Blocked punt
140 additional yds in returns
Kick Off out of bounds
Cobbs and Bess did have decent games as Returners though.HULKFish and dolfan7171 like this. -
That said, I would argue that while the numbers the defense put up yesterday might be similar to what the Colts did, the final result is inexcusable.
Zero sacks
Few pressures
Zero turnovers
Multiple-drive sustaining penalties
I think that the defense is equally at fault.
The only unit that I have no beef with is the offense, which had a fantastic outing against one of the league's better defenses.HULKFish, dolfan7171 and adamprez2003 like this. -
Tomorrow is Termination Tuesday, so far at least one player has been roster moved on the Tuesday after a game.
The newbie Te Mastrud would figure to be on the roster bubble.
Erik Walden may be as well.
And let's not forget, Pat McQuistan left the game last night and no one knows if that was due to injury or ineffectiveness.
I'd say Austin Spitler could be a prime target for a call up onto the 53 man roster if Walden is bounced, so is Te Mickey Shuler if Mastrud is bounced.
With McDaniel suspended there is also an additional roster slot open but that figures to go to a DE. -
dolfan22 Season Ticket Holder Club Member
Dotson and Baker haven't shown much , they may be vulnerable , for all the bottom churning , we haven't hit on a couple special team aces have we?
Hilliard has been eaten up on special teams , want , need and expect more from a rb taking up a roster spot. -
I like Baker, he doesn't have any one skill that stands out, however he is a heady player who can hold his ground and push the pocket when asked.
He reminds me of the Bills Kyle Williams or our old DT Jeff Zgnonia -
You are the next contestant to be the Dolphins Back Up TE!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2I_nUuSsQQ"]YouTube - The Price is Right music: 1975-2007 "Come on Down" cue[/ame] -
The mob would like to point out to you that for all that effort, we amassed 23 points..... which wouldn't have been enough to beat them in both games last year either.
Special teams didn't stall drives and settle for field goals.
And while yes they sucked as loud as the defense did at times...... bottom line is we need to put the ball in the end zone. And stop putting our base offense in the hole as a result of Henning trying to reinvent the wheel.
We should by all rights have scored more points last night....... and not doing so is what cost us that game.Merauder likes this. -
Springveldt, frozenfin and Stringer Bell like this.
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Sometimes you have to just outscore the other team....which we should have been able to do.
Bottom line is all we could score is 23 points....... which isn't much considering the stats we put up. That 23 points is also less than the Jets have scored the last 3 times we played them. -
We scored more last year.....when their defense was better and we didn't have Brandon Marshall.
And you can bet your *** if we don't score more than 23 next time we play them we'll lose again. -
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Scoring more than 23 points against the Jets doesn't make you the best Offense in the NFL...... you're not trying to pick up chicks, quit exaggerating -
Buffalo (0-3) 1:00 pm EDT
Minnesota (1-2) 8:30 pm
Denver (1-2) 4:05 pm EDT
Bye
Green Bay (2-1) 1:00 pm EDT
Detroit (0-3) 1:00 pm EST
Cleveland (0-3) 1:00 pm EST
Houston (2-1) 1:00 pm EST
Cincinnati (2-1) 8:20 pm EST
New England (2-1) 8:30 pm EST
Miami (2-1) 4:15 pm EST
Pittsburgh (3-0) 4:15 pm ES
Chicago (3-0) 1:00 pm EST
Buffalo (0-3)jetssuck likes this. -
We didn’t.
Though to be fair, if Yeremiah Bell doesn’t stink it up and allow two TDs—hell, if he only allows one TD—then we win that game, because in the final drive we could have just kicked a field goal to win after Marshall’s catch and run.miamiron likes this. -
You're sample is all of 3 games and prior to Sunday we were giving up a lower average of points than the Jets.
How many times do I have to say this......... the last 3 times we've played them, 23 points wouldn't get the win. So you can't just say that 23 should have been enough.
I'm a lot more concerned with not being able to call a play that gets us in the end zone than I am with special teams.... -
The game was decided by the "hidden yardage" that Tony Sparano cites all of the time. It's not me citing the yardage. I'm just pointing to something that was blatantly obvious during the game and using Sparano's words to back up my claim.
Padre did a good job citing the yardage that Sparano pointed to in his press conference. If you didn't read it already, I'll say it again.
140 yards of returns
50 yards worth of blocked punt assuming a fair catch
20 more yards due to the kick out of bounds
Altogether it was 210 yards of special teams. The final two chunks of yardage in that math was just seeking AVERAGE performance. Is it too much to ask for a forty yard net punt? Is it too much to ask to cover a kickoff so the opposition will start at the 20 yard line?
Coverage units will take the field about 10 times per game. That is a total of 10 plays! Do the math. If our defense allowed 21 yards per play, how many points would the opposition score?
Or better yet here is a simpler equation. The Jets had 400 yards of offense. That is 4 scores considering a 100 yard field. Their special teams had two more scores by gaining over 200 yards. A full 1/3 of the Jets total yardage was on special teams. That's the kind of crap that you do not overcome.frozenfin, Stringer Bell, Fin D and 1 other person like this. -
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Late in the Wannstedt era (like everyone else) I was searching for answers. I did a little impromptu study of what it would take for the Dolphins to win enough games to make the playoffs the previous year. I was searching for what we were asking of the Dolphins offense. Do you know how many points I found? I found that it took (on average) 23 points to win 10 or 11 games in the season.
Now you have been adamant that it was going to take more than 23 points to win this game. The Jets scored 31 points.
A kick return put them in scoring position at our 43.
A punt block put them in scoring positipn at our 17.
How many scores do we take off the board by defensing ONE of these possessions?
Special Teams is a silent killer. In most games it's an obscurity. Other than field goals, it's just something that has to happen to change possession of the ball. That was not the case in this game. The Jets made it the deciding factor.Springveldt, padre31 and Fin D like this. -
Regardless of where they started with the football..... we actually had more scoring opportunities than they did. We settled for FG's more times than not and they didn't...... they got TD's.
ST will change a game on occasion but generally ppl make too much out of it's importance.
The deciding factor was they put the ball in the end zone and we put it between the goal posts. -
Stringer Bell likes this.
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Problem is I typically do not pay that much attention to fillin DT's so I had to name someone that people would remember. -
In the final analysis there was a one score difference between the two teams. It should be obvious that a half dozen plays could have changed the outcome.
On offense: There are individual plays you can point to but the general problem was our ineffectiveness in the red zone. You could point to the play calling and/or the execution but that was the offensive failing. A little more effective red zone offense could easily have yielded enough points to win.
On Defense: There were several mistakes (and penalties) that either allowed a score, preserved a drive for the Jets or robbed our offense of an opportunity. A mistake or two less would easily changed the outcome.
On Sts: The general rule that many coaches use (including Sparano, I believe) is that 100 yards = 7 points. In this game, we had three major STs blunders that cost us about 140 yards, according to Sparano's numbers. The three blunders I'm referring to are the kick-off out of bounds, the long kick return and the blocked punt. Applying that general rule, those blunders cost us about 9.8 points.
Basically, in such a close game better play in any of the areas could/would have resulted in a win. I don't think it makes much sense to argue about which was the biggest culprit. I do think it makes sense to discuss which is easiest to fix. IMO the defense will improve against the run and pass when CC returns. I also think that the return of Odrick and Ike will greatly improve our ability to prevent the edge runs. I don't think its reasonable to expect secondary changes to have a big effect. The rules favor the offense and the CBs and Ss will have games like this. I don't think its primarily a scheme problem.
On offense, I think that we got too far away from the running game. The return of Jerry will help, but more importantly we need to use RB more in the base offense and also on third down. I like that Henne proved he can be trusted to pass often and still protect the ball. There will be games where we have to use the pass to set up the run so that trust is key. The timing between Henne and Marshall continues to improve. I would like to see our offense run through RB and Marshall with Bess as the third option.
On STs, I see several issues. I think the coaching is suspect. I don't think these guys are well prepared. I also don't think the players are winning enough individual battles. I think that if they use more starters on STs we'll solve half of the problem and that may be enough to make our STs not be a liability. But of course, we're risking injury to starters and we're increasing the fatigue factor for our offensive and defensive starters.
Now I know I listed multiple problems here, but we should remember how close this game was despite those problems. If just a play or two is different, we win the game. We would still have the same problems and be the same team, but everybody here would be feeling great. I only mention that to caution people against making too much of the issues b/c of their own emotional reaction. We have problems on this team, but so does every other team in the league. And I don't think our problems are greater than the other team's problems. In fact, I would say our problems are fewer than most.Merauder likes this. -
Special teams hurt, no doubt about it, but more generally I think the difference between the 2 games comes down to the difference in the amount of mistakes made. Not just on Special teams, where there were plenty, but defensively and to a lesser extent, offensively as well.
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This was a sort of make up game for Ginn's two TD's last yr, and one more nail in the coffin of Football Outsider's moronic theory that "Special teams play is only 15% of a winning effort".
Two games this year, the Jets and the Vikings, both hinged on special teams performing, for all of the Int's Favre threw, Fields pinned the Vikes inside their 15 yd line 4 times in 6 punts.
Toss in Bess and Cobbs just are not threats as returners and Bonamego has a real mess on his hands, 4 core ST players who just are not performing meets Returners who aren't going anywhere. -
I have not seen our special teams unit be worth a damn since Westoff left.
Its just been a train wreck ever since.Fin D likes this. -
Our kickoff unit is so bad I get excited when Cobbs makes it past the 20 yard line and I cover my eyes every time we have to cover a kickoff. Lex Hilliard must have set some sort of record for "number of times blown up on kickoff coverage in a single game".padre31 likes this. -
Sparano talking about reasons why we lost. Skip to the 7 minute mark:
http://www.miamidolphins.com/video?bcpid=585645507001&bclid=606495203001&bctid=619248995001 -
Hilliard
Dobbins
Were especially bad, Walden blew his blocking assignment (though I feel it was Ty Culver who took the wrong guy). -
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one thing i like about sparano is he gets right to the heart of the matter. it was obvious we lost the battle of the 15 to 20 play scripted start but nolan adjusted nicely afterwards (player screwups not scheme hurt us) and for the rest of the game. the offense was fine but the special teams were abysmal. and i llike the urgency with which he is talking about it
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