Tannehill needs to watch some film too and figure out how he can exploit defenses instead of just this dink and dunk check down stuff. All the great quarterbacks Manning, Brady, Brees, and Rodgers are in the film room night and day. Your game plan shouldn't be the same every game. Certainly not checking it down all game. You must attack the weaknesses of the opposing defense. Great job by Watkins. Props to him for studying game film and exploiting a flaw in Grimes game.

For instance if a team is weak in LBs I want you exposing that. Get Cameron the ball. Get him isolated one on one mismatches. Or if they're weak over the top at safety go deep to Stills. I think yesterday was the first time this season Tannehill connected deep with Stills or any receiver for that matter. And no I don't count those big YAC plays in the Titans or Texans games.

 

Sammy Watkins explains how he had a good day, and one post in it becomes a Tannehill thread, rather than a thread about our defense, that gave up 160 some odd yards to one WR, and TWO, 100 yard rushers.

Unbelievable.

Maybe lets discuss for once, our bad our defensive personnel is? The LB's are trash. Especially Kelvin Sheppard. Grimes' age has caught up to him, and everyone below him on the depth chart quite frankly, just... isn't that good, or is very inexperienced.

We give up an average of 26 points per game, 10th worst in the league.
We give up an average of 385 yards per game, 8th worst in the league.
We give up an average of 142 rushing yards per game, 2nd worst in the league.

But yes, let's keep talking about the QB, one post into a thread on the defense.

Unbelievable.

 

Maybe we can work it out and have Tannehill face our invisible defense. And speaking of invisible, I can't seem to find any criticism of the defense from you? Shocking!!!!


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The offenses inability to move the ball and score points is the reason for some of the defensive struggles. They don't get a lot of rest.

 

Miami doesn't really play much in the way of press.

I think Lou Anarumo is probably in over his head, though.

 

Our defensive performance is unacceptable. It's hard to accept how bad they are considering how much we've invested on that side of the ball. I mean, many of the players were talking about being a top 5, elite defense. They're not even top 10 in the AFC.

The biggest problem is the gap between our studs(suh, wake and jones) and players like Sheppard, McCain, Aikens, Mitchell and Vernon. You need to have serviceable players to go with those top tier players to have a great defense. I don't think those 5 would start on many if any teams.

 

I think we can all agree with that given his previous experience before being promoted to DC.

I think it's also something we could have expected when the changes were made. These guys are in over their heads, both Campbell and Anarumo, it is what it is.

 

Its unacceptable but given the talent and age of some of the players, it is also not surprising.

All our linebackers are average at best, we need a leader at MLB, Zach Thomas type of linebacker.

Grimes is old, his measurables does not hold up well with his age. Being 5'7 and old and thats our best cornerback, thats just bad news for any defense.

No Wake, our pass rush was decent but not as effective.

We simply dont have the talent on defense. They looked good against terrible teams but any top offense will exploit our weak secondary and linebackers.

Just wait next week when Bradford and Ertz destroys us in the middle all game with the quick short passig game. Its going to look ugly.

 

He's referring to his pre-snap position. Grimes plays from a press position fairly often.

 

I think Miami is in quite a dilemma and it will be interesting to see how this offseason plays out.

Over the past 5 years Miami has drafted heavily toward building the offense which hasn't been too effective based on production while the defense has received little reinforcements:

4 of the 5 1st round picks on offense (defensive pick was on Dion Jordan)
3 of the 5 second round picks on offense
3 of the 5 third round picks on offense
3 of the 5 fourth round picks on offense

In total 13 of 20 picks over the past 5 years has been on the offensive side of the ball. And obviously the offense still needs helped based on lack of production. Of course, the defense does too as the cupboard is running bare. It certainly hasn't helped to let players who were play-makers on defense (guys like Davis and Dansby) move on. Our best players the past several years are on the wrong side of 30 (Wake and Grimes).

Miami has given 1 big contract to an offensive FA (Albert) and one to a defensive FA (Suh).

To balance out the defensive stats listed Miami's offense:
13th in the league in passing yards per game
19th in the league in rushing yards per game
21st in the league in points per game 21.4 (with help from defensive and ST scores)...however this stat is skewed by the Titans and Texans game. In the other 6 games Miami averages 14.8 PPG.

I think based on "age" and the defense being neglected for so long in the draft we almost have to start investing more top picks on the defensive side of the ball.

Ouch, not looking to sunny in South Beach.

Ugh...how unfortunate only 8 games into the season starting to talk about making changes so next season we will be better :sad:

 

Grimes just isn't what he was this year. He's definitely worth keeping around as a second CB next year, but we need to draft a shutdown corner. No band aide players. Bobby McCain should improve and we have yet to see what Lippet can do.
It's cornerback, linebacker, or guard in that order for me personally come draft time.

 

Fair enough, but we're still going to need a pass rusher as well. Wakes age, and recovery is likely to be a factor. OV may not re-sign. We need help there too.

There's some big problems for us on the defensive side of the ball that need addressing first and foremost.

 

I missed most of yesterdays game. Did we get any pressure from wake's position?

 

This is where Philbin really killed us by gutting the defense. If we had smith and Davis still we would still have a respectable defense. We will need at least one new db in the offseason and possibly as many as three

 

Let's analyze that.

http://www.nfl.com/teams/statistics?team=MIA

One glaring, damning stat is our 3rd down conversion rate compared to our opponents.

What's the league average? Where do we rank in third down conversions? 31st.

Source: http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/team/_/stat/downs/sort/thirdDownConvs

That's solely an issue with offense. It does affect time of possession, but so does our defense.

Our giveaway/takeaway differential is -4, 25th in the league. Our offense has given away the ball 12 times so far, giving a ranking of 15-17 along with the Jets and Panthers.

Our defense, however, has only forced 8 turnovers- a ranking of 25-28.

It's extremely difficult to win when you're losing the turnover battle. Our team offense is ranked 16th in YPG and 21st in PPG. Take away those miraculous Texans and Titans game and where are we at?

Our defense is ranked 23rd in YPG and PPG. How much of that is because of the ineptness of the offense? Hard to tell but the 3rd down conversion rate is usually the biggest indicator along with time of possession.

Our time of possession is 27:51 mpg. Do the math for our opponents. That's about 4 mpg given up, nearly a third of a quarter.

https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/average-time-of-possession-net-of-ot

We're ranked 30th in the league in time of possession. That's atrocious and so is our 3rd down conversion rate.

How much blame goes on the offense? Defense? Hard to tell with bad stats all around but I'm leaning towards offense. You can't be ranked 31st and 30th in 3rd down conversion rate and time of possession, respectively, and be mediocre (15-17) in giving the ball away and expect the defense to pick up the slack.


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Yeah we need pretty much everything on defense. 2 LBs, a DE to replace Wake maybe 2 since Vernon has come up small since that big year he had a couple seasons ago, maybe 2 CBs certainly at least one this offseason and a FS. Good lord this team is in shambles. So many holes.

 

exactly my point. Defense needs work but a better offense would help the defense out a lot. Many times the defense will keep the team in it and eventually break down because they're gassed from being out their so much. And we seem to never win the field position battle with our offense not moving the ball and bad special teams play. Doesn't help the defense either. Don't get me wrong. Defense needs work but they aren't exactly getting help from other places on the team either.

 

Wow! 1st time in NFL history a defense allowed two 100 yard rushers and a 150 yrd receiver in the same game!!!! 1st time ever!...... And people feel it's time to go after RT.


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Don't get me wrong. This was definitely a whole team loss, especially on defense, but offense and special teams were to blame as well.

Tannehill was mediocre again, but he deserves some of the least blame for that loss.


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I totally agree, but can you see why people take offense at making this a Tannehill thread? That's all people are saying ...and it shouldn't be unexpected when approaches like this by the OP have responses that escalate quickly


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I find it hilarious that the Bills traded Sheppard straight up for Hughes. It's a double whammy.

 

Isn't that what I just said? Why quote me? You're simply re wording what I already said. I think we need to draft the best defensive player available in the draft when it's our turn to pick. Only other position i'd take over defense is unfortunately offensive line because it's horrendous.

 

Wait, you're upset that I agreed with you, and mentioned another position of need??? I quoted you, because you and I were the only ones actually talking about the damn defense in this thread.

Wow, maybe I should just avoid the mains for a while... Holy hell. :lol:

 

In the actual tannehill thread I said something about how everyone wants to blame tannehill because it's easier.

The harder, more truthful problem, is that the majority of this team sucks. Grimes is making a lot of money and he showed that was a mistake to keep him this long. Misi, Shepard, Michael Thomas, Walt aikens, these guys are dead weight. We've only got "talent" at Dline, jones, and Jenkins. The rest is just garbage. Bad draft picks, bad signings, bad coaching got us here, and getting out of it is much harder than "it's tannehills fault!!!"

 

Nah man, apologies on my part, i'm not upset with your reply. You're absolutely right. Following this team has just been mad frustrating. The Wake injury killed us, much like the Delmas one did last season. Please excuse me, we're all brothers of the same struggle and ALL opinions are welcomed. I don't claim to know everything, just a solid fan is all, my bad.

 

Anyway guys, Grimes is getting up there in age. Wake too. I know we can just cut Wake but how about Grimes? Can we trade him? Thoughts?


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Think about how often we've drafted bums on defense the last 5 years. Jamar Taylor sucks, Walt aikens sucks, Jordan trips already been cut. Dion Jordan likes drugs more than football and money, Will Davis traded/out for the year cause he's made of glass.

The draft obviously isn't a sure thing but you can't miss as much as we do and expect a decent product on the field.

 

Guaranteed money is done this year. He's gone at the end of the season.

 

Completely 100% agree with this post. Thing is, we may have to roll with some of these guys for at least another year. Bring Grimes back on the cheap and slide him over and replace him with a shutdown corner (one we draft). Maybe Delmas can pull a Thomas Davis, but we need a FS regardless. Guys like Sheppard and Misi can offer up depth if they want to come back. Wake, I simply don't know, the guy is Superman but his age is his kryptonite. Depth isn't a bad thing to have and if these guys want to stay in the league, they'll have to accept a reduced role. Either that or let the young guys like Hull and Virgil get a chance. If we get the right coach in here, players will respond better. I'm not blaming Campbell, but he's in over his head.

 

Let's keep things on topic. If you want to discuss the QB, there are a million other threads to do that in. No need to derail this one too.

 

Sweet. Philbin and Ireland really did us in getting rid of all the talent we used to have that we're hurting in badly now. Would be nice to have Davis and Smith now, wouldn't it? Incognito? Odrick instead of Ndoverpaid Suh.


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Unfortunately I either can't or don't know how to create a thread from the Tapatalk app on iPhone.

What's your guys take on the defense? Do you feel with the changes in personnel and coaching staff we're going to be experiencing that we're going to remain a 4-3 or will we take a hard look at a 3-4?


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No worries, I hear ya. Just a bit surprised by that reply :lol: I was just excited someone wanted to actually talk about the defense here.

The wake injury is a killer, even when he wasn't at 100% near the start of the season, he was still more effective than Shelby was yesterday IMO

Anyone who claims to know everything, likely knows nothing anyways. :up:

 

I believe in Suh. He's the building block for where we go from here.

As for everything else? Yeah trading vontae will haunt us for years. It's a move that gets worse every week. Sean smith wasn't great but leagues ahead of McCain/tAylor.

We've ruined this defense over time. Wake kept it rolling with a few amazing performances and for that I will always love him, but we have done a lot of dumb things the past few years

 

Suhs not a nose, so we will never go 3-4 while he's here.

 

How about DE? Dude is strong and quick. I think he'd be a monster 3-4 DE.


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Speaking of Grimes, I still think he's got a year or two left in him. Spray some rustoleum on him and reduce his role, draft a corner and give MCCain some more burn next season. We can fill some spots on defense, but we'll need some luck, we need to make the right signings, we need to hit in the draft, and we'll need someone to step up and improve....Aikens, Bobby McCain, Lippet, Fede...one of those guys needs to make the jump next year.
Bring Grimes and Wake back on a cheaper contract with reduced roles, they still have something to offer. Vernon can move on, but if Fede can't be a viable replacement we are in trouble. People have spoken highly of Fede so i'm fairly certain he'll get his shot next season. Can Dion Jordan become a Hollywood reclamation story??? There is hope, it's just a long shot right now. This upcoming draft which is six whole months away will be one of the more crucial ones we've had in recent years.

 

So it's your opinion that film study has nothing to do with this post?