Random thoughts... -When the Pats went up 17 to 7, most of us (myself included) didn't expect a 26 to 3 Dolphin performance from that point on. -Amazing to see the team at the half make adjustments and actually pull it off. 23 to zip in the 2nd half is no fluke. -How much the heat had to do with that is up for debate certainly. But even if it did, the fact that the offense stayed with the run throughout the game IMO is the reason they won. -Thought the Dolphins D got a handle on what the Patriots were doing offensively, especially in the passing game. -The bomb to Edelman was the one exception. -Not having a mobile quarterback and really going away from any semblance of a running game lent itself to our strengths of just teeing off against Brady most of the game. -Cameron Wake, never ceases to amaze me with his superlative effort off the edge. -The consistent pressure from the d line was there all game today. Even when we were down, going into the half, I thought we've been hitting Brady a lot.. those hits will take their toll as the game progresses. Don't underestimate how much they did when looking at his accuracy in the second half. He missed a few big passes IMO because of his happy feet. -Knowshon Moreno is a friggin beast. His energy was contagious. Just a monster impact in this game. I said it before and I'll say it again, he's keeping up the Lamar Smith / Ricky Williams / Reggie Bush trend of backs coming to Miami and giving the team as well as their careers a huge lift. Moreno though, maybe that statstical year with Peyton Manning wasn't just because of Peyton's record breaking season? -Jarvis Landry made two great plays that stand out in my mind, first was a punt return in the middle of the game that set the offense up in good field position. He went hard for the bouncing ball, grabbed it on the run and turned up field for a nice return. Yeah he did let a couple get away in the second half. The other play was the big TD run from Moreno that put us up 10. He knifed down the LOS and got his head in front of the Pats DB shoulder pads for a clean block while Moreno was dodging two defenders in the Dolphins backfield. If he doesn't make that block, who knows what happens. -Chris McCain with two big plays. Continues to impress. Of course, the blocked punt to start the game and then a big sack at just the right time. -Yes the offensive line played well today. We certainly won on both sides of the line, offense and defense. But, big test for them next week in Buffalo. This game is about match ups. We seem to match up really well against the Pats lately... the Bills? Going to be a huge test against that d line and those running backs with our banged up lb'ers. -Samson Satele I thought played well filling in for Pouncey. His snaps were near perfect... perhaps the one exception was a false start, although not sure whose fault that was. -refs missed some calls to go our way, but all in all, it was a fair day for them. The two Chandler Jones roughing the passer calls were massive. -Ryan Tannehill and Mike Wallace... The TD to Wallace that tied the game in the second half was a big big play. In the first half it just seemed like Tannehill was forcing it to Wallace... his ball placement was all over the place in the first half. I thought in the second half he settled down and two drops (Sims and Clay) were indicative of how accurate he was. The TD throw to Wallace was a fortunate play that went our way as that ball could have gone anywhere.... if it was the first half, it would have gone to a Patriot defender. But Mike did a good job of concentrating on the ball for once. I can't knock Tannehill in this game, in looking at the entire game. Yes he had some poor moments in the first half. But it's not how you start but how you finish. Fortunately our defense kept us in it for Tannehill to bounce back in the second half. Only 10 points on those three first half turnovers was huge in that regard. And obviously the running game took a lot of pressure off of #17. -I thought the special teams were solid today. Obv the blocked punt was big. Four field goals by Sturgis. He had some good depth on most of his kicks until the end of the game where I thought him kicking into the wind (to the left on your TV screen) and having to kick off from us scoring so many points... maybe he got a little tired Our return game was decent. No penalties that I can recall (always huge when we get hit with them). If memory serves, Gostkowski did kick the ball for touchbacks on all but one KO. -the linebackers that filled in... even Trusnick... not spectacular. But they didn't hurt us either. Jenkins was solid... made some nice plays in the passing game. His downfield coverage was quite good. Freeny even had some nice downfield coverage a couple of times. I cannot complain... and that's a huge victory for this group. -I expected the Pats to run the ball better than they did. And that was before we lost Misi and Ellerbe. Combination of the Pats OC not taking advantage of it and I thought solid play by our d line helped. -finally, Bill Lazor. Take a bow. halftime adjustments, or commitment to run the ball in the second half had a lot to do with this win. Moreno and Wake game balls from me.
Cameron Wake has perfected both consistency and explosiveness. A consistently explosive player is a beautiful thing to watch.
Both in the 4th quarter IIRC. Another thought... And Trent Green pointed it out a couple of times in the 2nd half... Tannehill threw the ball a couple of times out of bounds and he said that the Dolphins fans won't like those plays, but they were good in that they didn't result in turnovers. You think someone got in Ryan's ear at half time and reminded him it's okay to throw the ball away? I do.
Absolutely. I thought those passes were great decisions. I actually really liked RT's decision making today in terms of his targets. There was one play I thought he should have checked to a run and I felt he should have kept the ball a couple of times on the read-option, but other than that I thought his decision making was good.
