38-14. Ordinarily you'd feel pretty good about winning by that type of margin. Your D forced 4 turnovers and had a score. Your QB played efficiently to the point he and several other starters were pulled early in the 4th quarter. But, the opponent on this day was the Oakland Raiders. Ah, there's the caveat. A VERY bad team essentially on a two week road trip. This was a game Miami should have expected to win. After getting thrashed at home by a bad Chiefs team, players letting word out about their displeasure with Kevin Coyle's awful gameplan, Ryan Tannehill's poor start to the season, and Joe Philbin being Joe Philbin, I doubt many expected Miami to win in the fashion they did today. It's more the Raiders are just THAT bad, but I do think this gives Miami a unique opportunity, provided their history under Joe Philbin doesn't rear it's ugly head. Onto the review today with Good, Bad, and Head Scratchers.

Good
- Earl Mitchell. 4 weeks into the season, 4 weeks in the Good. Miami's best player so far this year, and quite frankly, it's not really close.
- Kevin Coyle. He pulled his head out of his @$$ after last week's shoddy gameplan. Today was much better. No crazy alignments, coverage assignments, and "good" blitz calls (as opposed to bad blitz calls which he makes quite often).
- Derrick Shelby. 2 sacks on the day. I think he's now Miami's sack leader on the year.
- Ryan Tannehill. Today was a good day and a medium-sized step in the positive direction. He used his legs well and moved in/around the pocket better than he normally does. It's worrisome that he was inaccurate on some balls for as clean as he was. He had a very nice streak though of 14 straight completions. I think we saw the Tannehill that we expect when he's not sacked at all in the game.
- O-line. After having issues with Tamba Hali and Justin Houston off the edge last week they acquitted themselves well this week not allowing a sack and opening some nice holes in the running game. As a bonus we should see Mike Pouncey and Shelley Smith return to the lineup against the Packers; both are pretty nice upgrades to Samson Satele and Dallas Thomas respectively. And NO Mike Pouncey should not be moved to guard. Nor should Samson Satele.
- Dion Sims blocked pretty well today. Nice to see him make a tough catch.
- Mike Wallace. He played well today and has really shown some toughness after the catch this year.
- Lamar Miller's probably played his best back-to-back games of his career last week and this week, but need to work on ball security.
- Branden Albert. Easily worth the money this year. He was pinpointed several times today with his RUN-blocking. Pretty impressive stuff. Hopefully the bye week serves him well as he's had some shoulder issues. We all know his injury history.
- Cortland Finnegan. Miami's best defensive back so far this year, and it's not really close.
- Philip Wheeler probably played his best game as a Dolphin today. Nice to see what he can do when he's playing on the LOS.
- Jelani Jenkins was active, and while he only had like 3 tackles, he played well. He should play even better with Koa Misi back for the Packers game...hopefully.
- Reshad Jones returns for the Packers. I put this here because I don't think Miami's had as bad of safety play as they've had with Delmas and Wilson since Cameron Worrell was gallivanting around the secondary.
- Walt Aikens. While not always in the right position - I think that's more mental than physical - has some nice range and athleticism. I'm intrigued and it's nice to see Miami appears to have made the right call in moving him to safety as several intimated before training camp.
- Brent Grimes hasn't looked nearly as good as he was last year, but the 2nd half today was probably his best stretch of play this season. Hopefully things are headed in the right direction for him.
- Good time for a bye. Miami's got a boatload of injuries. We know the guys already banged up including Pouncey, Turner, Misi, Moreno, etc. Now we have Albert, Wilson, and a few others that got banged up with a week to recoup.

Bad
- Vernon? Vernon? ... Vernon? He's been pretty quiet from a pass-rushing standpoint since week 1. Wake, while not getting sacks, has still gotten pressures and is doubled frequently. Vernon's lost to Cordy Glenn, Eric Fisher, and Donald Penn in pass-rush.
- Jimmy Wilson. Missed tackles, bad angles. I think he'll be better once he returns to his normal role as a slot CB when Jones returns.
- Louis Delmas. He's fiery, he's a big hitter...when he connects. Too many missed tackles and bad angles.
- Will Davis, aka "China Doll". He's Charmin soft. And, to date, has not been very good this season. He got burned badly on the TD pass today and just isn't good enough. Even when he's been in the right vicinity coverage-wise he still doesn't look like he's playing with proper technique.
- Jamar Taylor. Unless he's in a doghouse we don't know about, if he can't get on the field before Will Davis as bad as Davis has been, I'm pretty worried about him.
- Ball security. As a whole it was shoddy today. 3 turnovers usually won't let you win a football game. Ironically Miami's done it twice this season. Go figure.
- Dallas Thomas. He's been better than I thought he would be the past 2.5 games, but I just don't think he's a starter in this league.
- Tackling, especially by the DBs, has been pretty bad. Hopefully Miami works on this, at least fundamentally, with some extra time.
- Jarvis Landry returning punts. Somewhere Cam Cameron is having wet dreams about Ted Ginn returning punts and thinking about what could have been in Miami.

Head Scratcher
- Miami's on a bye this week. Long layoffs have proven a double-edged sword under Joe Philbin. The history: Miami won coming out of their bye week in 2012 with a 30-9 beatdown of the Jets in jersey to move to 4-3. Miami later had a 10 day layoff in the season after they dropped a game at Buffalo on Thursday night. They responded by beating Seattle 24-21. 2 for 2 in 2012. Last year Miami came out of the bye and dropped a game, at home, to Buffalo 23-21 who was quarterbacked by Thaddeus Lewis dropping Miami to 3-4. They received an 11 day layoff later in the season and lost to the winless Buccaneers on Monday Night Football. I'll grant you that the Martin-Incognito ordeal was going on, but Miami showed themselves as flat in both of those games. Let's see if Joe Philbin has learned/reverted back to his 2012 ways and gets Miami prepped during the layoff. Something tells me he will as the Packers loom out of the bye, and obviously they were Philbin's previous employer.
- Bill Lazor's playcalling, and handcuffed to that, Tannehill's at the line decisions, are still spotty and were today at times. Hopefully this is something that gets cleaned up at the bye.
- Will Kevin Coyle hatch more hair-brained schemes with extra time off, or will he pinpoint what Miami does well, and can hopefully expound upon with the returns of Koa Misi, Randy Starks, and Reshad Jones?
- Upcoming roster moves. Miami's going to have to axe someone with Reshad Jones' return. Is it someone defensively, like say, Jonathan Freeny? Do they lop an extra RB off? Seems likely as there's a surplus and hopefully you have the return of Moreno after the bye as well.
- This is after all, the Miami Dolphins. What happens during the bye? Does Joe Philbin be all Philbiny during the bye with the media? Do the Pounceys have a birthday bash? Do their friends? Does the ghost of Richie Incognito rear it's ugly head with a Louisville slugger somewhere? Does Dion Jordan fail another test. I'm leery of these things, especially with what happened in 2013 on long layoffs.

Apologies if some of those points are rather cryptic, especially coming off a win. But, I think there are still more questions surrounding this team than there are answers that have been found. At 2-2, with a chance to be on equal footing with both Buffalo and New England (go Chiefs!) heading into the bye, you have to feel...okay...I guess. The first quarter of the season could have easily been worse. But, I think there's reason for some optimism as you're 2-2 at the bye and you're going to be getting back: Knowshon Moreno, Mike Pouncey, Shelley Smith, and Reshad Jones all hopefully for the Packers game. If not then, very soon thereafter. Joe Philbin's going up against his old team, so I think he'll be a little juiced up for that. What that looks like, God knows, as Philbin puts out less emotion than a life-size Manute Bol cardboard cutout, if one existed. They're also heading into somewhat of a "Murderer's Row" part of their schedule with Green Bay, a tricky trip to Chicago, San Diego (luckily it's a 1pm game), a trip to Detroit (yours truly is going, hopefully my streak of attending holds - 3 game streak, and I've seen them win at Lambeau and Soldier Fields, so what's one more game in an NFC North venue?), Buffalo, and at Denver with Jacksonville sandwiched in there. Miami's going to have to navigate a rough stretch before it softens out in late November.

All that said, forgive me if I'm not as jacked up as I was after week 1; there's just too many questions surrounding that team. The optimist in me says, well, for the Dolphins that's "situation normal". The pessimist in me says, there's a long way to go and I'm not sure if things are going to go well or not. The recent history of the team always makes me lean towards not. I hope I'm wrong. So, with that in mind, to close, I'll leave you with this.

The only two unbeaten teams at this juncture are the Arizona Cardinals and Cincinnati Bengals. Historically, two of the most downtrodden franchises in the NFL. It just doesn't seem right. I really hope the Bengals lose soon as the city is pretty unbearable right now. At least Ohio State put down UC this weekend and the Reds are done, mercifully. But something tells me that'll just make the Bengals fans, especially the bandwagoners, scream even more loudly.

Enjoy the bye week. I will hopefully have the review back up for the Packers game. I'll be out of town for that weekend, so it may be a day late.

 

To me, that's the thing with Tannehill. When he's not sacked (I think Oakland got 4 knockdowns on him on the day) he plays well. He sees the field well, moves in the pocket well, and seems to recognize when to leave it. I'm interested to see what happens against the Packers. They've obviously got Clay Matthews who is pretty dynamic and Julius Peppers still has something left in the tank. Plus Dom Capers has a complex scheme with his fire zone blitzing, though the loss of Charles Woodson has taken some bite out of that. If Tannehill plays well against the Packers I'll feel better. I think Miami ought to take a page out of the book that Seattle wrote against the Packers to open the season and try and gash them on the ground early and often to open things up.

 

I think he did well free agent wise for sure. Ja'Wuan James looks like he belongs, and I like what I've seen with Anthony Johnson, Chris McCain, and I was intrigued by Aikens today. Landry I think will be good, but he's more hype than substance at this point. I think Landry, Turner, and Aikens have future starter potential, maybe Tripp.

Louis Delmas is a miss and I'm somewhat alarmed the staff and Hickey have been alright with Jimmy Wilson playing safety for this long; he's been BAD. Daryn Colledge is a savvy vet and has been okay. Not pulling the trigger on trading Dion Jordan could bite them.

Have to remember that even at one point Jeff Ireland had some shine to him. I think the onus would be really put on him if he's got to select a quarterback, though I think if it got to that point he'd be out of a job.

So far, I'm impressed, especially with his big free agent acquisitions as Albert and Mitchell are home runs. The big test will be next year. You could be looking at deals for Pouncey, Odrick, Moreno, Clay, maybe Delmas, maybe Tannehill. That's a lot to handle.

 

Okay, when he's not pressured consistently all day long he moves around well. When there are guys around him, he freezes up, even if the pressure is not overwhelming. I don't think he climbs the ladder in the pocket very well. Today was the exception for him, certainly not the rule.

 

1. I'll just agree to disagree with you. I think this scheme thrives when you have mobility on the line, and Pouncey and Smith both have that in their favor over Satele. Pouncey does in spades.

2. How many pressures have those 3 allowed? It's been as if Miami's been playing with 10 guys the past few weeks when it's a pass. I'll be interested to see when...or if :sad:...Dion Jordan comes back if they start moving Vernon inside in obvious pass-rush situations. He was really effective when they did that last year, recall the first Jets game? I appreciate that he's shown a spin-move, new this year, but he's just not consistent.

 

The throw to Hartline in the 1st quarter still rings through for me. It didn't matter today, obviously, but if you're in a closer game you mark that play with a red flag. I mean, that's a pretty routine throw for upper echelon QBs. If Tannehill's going to improve, I'd like to see that throw made more consistently, especially when your receiver is as open as Hartline was on that. It was a 3rd down play to, IIRC.

 

And? Are you looking at it on a game by game basis? I'd venture that Kansas City got more pressure than either New England or Buffalo. Ryan Tannehill played worse against them, IMO, than the Patriots or Bills. The average doesn't really tell you much if you're not accounting the individual talent level of pressure players opponents have or what their scheme/blitz tendencies are.

 

Are you strictly going on last season? Showing your data would be helpful as Schaub, Cassel, and Campbell all had few games played than the first three, and probably by virtue of that alone the former 3 probably had more pass attempts as well.