The DL easily was the most disappointing for me...I expected it to be a strength but it's not off to a good start. Gotta get better.

 

I agree that the fast paced offense did not look too fast but I wonder if this was purposeful. It seemed like our coaches wanted to keep things very vanilla and under wraps offensively. Even with some of the big plays Tannehill made the plays were very basic. There were a couple of exceptions but not many. It's pretty hard to take anything away from this opening preseason game.

As I mentioned in another thread, we were 9-3 in preseason 2009-2011, so I'm almost glad the team lost

 

Fo sho. Spitler and Trusnik were out there doing their best Zach and Jason impersonations.

 

What happened to Jonathan Martin? He looked like a one-legged mongoloid out there.

 

I know it's mostly irrelevant but the only year since 2007 that we lost the opening preseason game was 2008, the year we went 11-5.

 

Inside run D was ok, olb's let the RBs get the corner. O's run game was poor, maybe blocking style. Chad J is a goof. Like the back-up WRs. I think Garrards situation threw the team for a loop. Like the hurry-up when Tann was in, not so much w/Moore.

 

I see everyone complaining CJ dropped that pass. How about the bright side? The route he ran was absolutely NASTY in a good way. If he can run routes like that still, at that speed, he will be successful here.

 

Not if he doesn't catch the ball.

 

Just because he had one drop on one play doesnt mean it is going to happen every play. **** happens. He made some beautiful catches in the scrimmage and this one drop doesn't overshadow his entire body of work.

 

You expect him to drop every pass? Yes even when he drops some he will be successful for us.

 

I concur. It was the most beautifully executed drop I've ever laid eyes on. ProBowl caliber in fact.

 

Never said it did overshadow it, but if he has drops even 15% (ex- around 12 drops vs 60 catches) of the time, he's not likely to be that successful.

I don't expect him to drop every pass, but if he even comes close to a drop every game, that isn't successful.

 

Chad Johnson has never had "drops" issues....way to put one play in the pre season under a microscope and ASSume its the norm.

I hate all of you sooooooo much. :yes:

 

You expect 12 drops in 72 chances? When has he ever done that

 

I understand what you are saying, but please avoid reference to old terminology about people with disabilities. Come up with another term; be creative.

 

A microscope lets you see something at a much higher intensity, allowing you to see aspects that you can't see with just the naked eye.

If we were putting that drop under the microscope, I'd think we'd be looking for/at things that contributed to/made up the drop: his gloves were wet, his head wasn't in the game because he hadn't been passed to yet, he had sex recently so was less focused, etc.

To be accusing anyone of assuming that the drops are the norm, then we'd be far more likely to be putting that play in a highlight reel, rather than under a microscope. :tongue2:

 

I don't know when he has ever had a drop rate that high, and I never even said he would (or that I expected it). I said "if."

He is not the same player he was 5 years ago, or even 3 years ago, so it's not like we should assume that is what we are getting either. Before last year, when did he ever only have 1 TD or only 15 catches in a season?

Just because someone has never done something before doesn't mean that scenario won't come to pass.

 

Ever consider going into politics?

 

What if he has150 catches for 2,136 yards....

 

Many years ago. :lol:

 

You're just saying that because you hope to one day have sex....with a real person. :lol:

 

I'd be stoked. But I think it'd be far more likely that he'd have a drop rate near 15%.

 

Dead people are real people too. :(

 

I didn't think the first team OL play was that bad. Bush had a couple of nice runs and Moore wasn't under a whole lot of pressure. Martin struggled at times, but he's a rookie in his first game playing a side he's still not all that familiar with. Give him a few games to get his feet underneath him.

First team defense, well, enough said. I know it's only the first pre-season game, but that was legitimately awful. Freeman and Orlovsky 13 for 14? Really? Again it's only pre-season game 1, but you would have liked to have seen them compete better than that.

 

I think it depends on the context of the drops and the catches. Right now we're playing in whacko bizzaro lets make up random numbers about possibilities world....

Even if he had 12 drops vs 60 catches he could still be successful depending on the context of the catches.

 

That's why I left room and said "not likely to be that successful." You could still be depending on the context, it's much less likely though IMO.

 

Fair enough.

I don't think drops will be an issue at all though. You lose your physical attributes over time, but you never forget how to catch. If your hands leave you, it's all in your head or possibly injury related. Every WR drops the ball sometimes, when you only get one ball thrown at you and it's a drop people overreact.

If Calvin Johnson drops that same ball no-one cares. It's relevant because as I said, your hands don't leave you.

 

Just because your if is more likely then my if, doesn't make it anymore meaningful. Its still an if

 

If you say so. ;)

 

If Calvin Johnson dropped the same ball I would react the same as I am now. I think you are reading more into my comments than there is. I am just trying to expand the discussion. I am not saying cut him or anything.

And I disagree somewhat with your "never forget how to catch" comment. Yes you will know how to catch, but reaction time is a physical skill and a big part of catching, so it does not have to be in your head or injury related.

 

How dare you say anything positive about that overrated bum.



;)

 

Please, no sense or logic allowed. It is much better to just read the comments about how this one game is proof that he was a terrible pick in the 2nd and we should have drafted Stephen Hill or some other WR.

 

..well....I do..so there

 

He was getting blown up.

 

looks like we "found" last years INT in the 1st preseason game in CJ's drop, can someone post a picture that we can analyse it a little more...

 

its not mostly irrelevant, its completely irrelevant.

 

It's not irrelevant to the point that preseason wins and loses are indicative of nothing.

 

On the first offensive drive the big glaring thing that stuck out at me was Jake Long. What the hell is wrong with him? He was dragging *** out there. Not playing like him at all. After that I have to say Jon Martin was not landing his blows nearly as well as Joe Philbin says he generally does, and was basically failing his assignments one by one. Artis Hicks actually looked good for most of the plays, and then let a defensive tackle through the gates to make a play on the run. That's vintage Artis Hicks...4 not just mediocre plays but good plays and then one terrible one. I don't give two ****s what Chad Johnson's route looked like, he got too cute with it and wasn't ready for the ball. That was all on him. Matt Moore actually impressed me with this drive. You can't see it as well on the broadcast but he did a good job of moving laterally to open up passing lanes and get angles right. You can't blame this first drive's failure on him. Reggie Bush continued to be pretty excellent, more than I ever thought he'd be as a pure ball carrier.

When the defense showed up, the problem for me here is Gary Guyton's presence. Right away on the first play he gets nailed by the fullback and steered clear across the Atlantic into Olympic Park. He was also late picking up Luke Stocker in his zone resulting in a completion. And what the hell was he doing on that run play that LeGarrette Blount hit off tackle to the left side? Guyton was the linebacker to that side and he just decides to knife into the backfield and be a hero, except he was way off target. Contain? On the touchdown by Blount he's essentially just strafing the end zone behind the lines. He's a linebacker. He needs to stick his fricking nose in there not just wait for the ball to come to him (which by definition means a touchdown has already been scored). SMH. He's not that good of a player. I don't know why Kevin Burnett is out but he needs to come back. Several times on this drive and other drives I saw Koa Misi all over the place in run defense. He's stout as hell, very strong, and was snuffing ball carriers. He had one play where he loses contain and he gets called out as having a bad night. BS to that. He was one of the lone bright spots of the 1st string defense. He limited Zach Pianalto's underneath catch to a very minimal gain. He helped slow up Blount on the screen which allowed Richard Marshall to get him for minimal gain. He had some nice pressure on Josh Freeman's blind side on the play where Sean Smith lost his coverage and then compounded it with a missed tackle. He hit the hell out of the fullback in the hole on 1st & 6 near the goal line, got off the block and made the play on the runner in the backfield. Beautiful play by Koa Misi.

Second offensive drive and right away it's clear Martin has his hands full. He gets shocked so far backward on contact. You'd love him to be the one doing the hitting. Jake Long still struggling, misses his target on a pull on Daniel Thomas' first run, and it was Jake's target that made the play. At least he was quick to realize he couldn't get there and regrouped to block a secondary target just in case Daniel made the first guy miss (he didn't). Pouncey really let one up on that play. Matt Moore with a nice pre-snap read on the slant to Legedude who made a great grab on a ball placed on the wrong shoulder. Jon Martin actually had a nice pass protection on the ensuing big pass to Davone Bess, but erases it with a false start the next play, and then allowing an easy speed rusher to dive at Moore's feet the play after. But you know what? He wasn't the only one. Jake Long was late to pick up a man stunting into his zone and if Moore hadn't thrown the ball when he did then Long's guy sacks him. Decent catch by Daniel Thomas, but it'd be nice if he actually made the open field tackler miss once in a while. I don't think that draw play that got snuffed in the backfield was anyone in particular's fault. But the next play, I remember this play and saw it from the end zone so I had a good view of what went on. The play ends with Moore scrambling and throwing on the run a low ball to Davone Bess who doesn't come down with it, but even if he did it wasn't near 1st down yardage on 3rd down. When I saw this from my view, it looked to me like Moore held the ball too long. I don't think he had the arm to get it to Davone at the sticks. He had to keep running out and holding the ball a few beats too long while Davone came back to him more. That was really the first play of the game I saw where Moore had a bad play, IMO.

Second defensive drive started well. Odrick pursued the cutback from the back side pretty well, though I wonder how many of those plays he'll make this year because I don't like his speed coming from that back side. The other DLs all did well too. Koa Misi had a nice shed on an attempted cut block and got to the ball to cap it in case Odrick didn't get him down. The next run play was pretty much all Paul Soliai. Of course, Gary Guyton was well blocked and taken out of contention on the play by an OL. SMH. On 3rd & 5 this was probably the first chance our pass rushers have had all game to actually rush the passer because they've been getting the ball out on short drops. The Dolphins came with four with Dansby as a spy on the tailback who was kept in the backfield, and Guyton spying on the tight end who stayed in to pass protect. Even with their seven man protection against our four pass rushers, Cam Wake was about to hit the hell out of their quarterback but Vontae Davis totally blows his coverage on Tiquan Underwood allowing the ball to come out before Wake could get there, and the completion. Vontae is in trouble. The next play was really just a freak play, as Sean Smith came in on Doug Martin's perimeter run beautifully and hit him hard on the legs, flipping him over. It just happens that Martin did a complete flip and somehow stayed on his feet without ever going down, and was able to continue the run. I saw that play happen right in front of me live and thought there's no way you can really fault our guys on that. Sometimes freak things just happen. The next pass play illustrates one of my fears. A 1st & 10 play and the passer has all day to decide what to do with the ball because Cam Wake was neutralized and nobody else is prepared to actually rush the passer on these plays. Orlovsky gets the timely checkdown off to the back against zone and he picks up some yardage. Same thing happened on the next play but this time Wake lined up as a linebacker to Odrick's side and overloaded on pressure to that side. Yet, everyone was way too lax in their rush and Orlovsky again had all day, launched a deep ball to Tiquan Underwood who wrestled it away from Jimmy Wilson. Again I saw this play live and saw the defensive backfield before any coverage cameras could pan to it. Wilson did everything on the play perfectly...except come up with the ball. Again a measure of how good Koa Misi's night was, he made the play on the ball carrier on the first goal line carry after the big catch. He lined up at DE on the play. AND THEN he made the play on the ball carrier a second time. When Martin was able to punch the ball in the end zone it was a combination of two things. First, Randy Starks didn't get low enough and strong enough against I believe it was Donald Penn. Second, Karlos Dansby never got himself in position to fire up on a dive attempt.

After those two drives is when the backups started rolling in almost exclusively for both sides. Dolphins' second string OL was in but Matt Moore stayed on for one more drive.

 

LMAO. Was that Fasano the pass went to last year, when he had to reach back a little and the ball bounced off his pads and got picked? I'd forgotten all about it, til someone else mentioned it last night.