I have been reading a lot of these preseason predictions, and no doubt, do the prognosticators recognize the talent overhaul the last few seasons. However, I know it is easy based on prior years to predict Miami will be mediocre again, and even more surprised that these prognosticators do not think we can build on last year's success. So I am left wondering, it can't be a lack of talent right? Because as a whole, we make up for the positions or units we may lack. So what is it?
I have to think it is killer instinct. It is the "IT" factor. Frankly, I don't know if we have it. I don't know if Tannehill has the ice water in his veins to put the game away when given the opportunity, or the offensive line with the key block late in a game to continue a drive, or the pass rush needed to put a team out of field goal range late or worse yet, stopping the run on third and short. I know Gase is trying to instill this in them. But I don't know if this is player-related, coach-aided (by calling certain plays) or do we lack this toughness on the roster.
I need to see a cockiness or brashness to know we have turned the corner from a fluffy team to a rugged/beat you down in the 4th quarter team. I also need it to be complimented with play calling on both sides. I don't know if we can recognize this at camp next week. However, someone or something has to turn this culture around. Jarvis and Suh are sick of losing to the Pats. But talent alone won't beat them. Someone has to suck the wind out of them, early or late in a game to make a statement. It has to be a back-breaking play, a block, or a gutsy call.
Camp is next week, and I have never anticipated a season like this in some 20 years. The talent in house maybe the best overall talent we ever have for this era. Next year you never know what you lose or gain with free agency. I also have been searching as to why we haven't signed Jarvis. And I have concluded that I think Miami wants to make him earn it even more, and if that means more money next year because of a phenomenal year, that's a gamble they want to take. A hungry Jarvis, combined with the offseason and injured players back is the exact formula I think this front office wants. I think it is all a formula and Jarvis (X) plus all the additions (Y) and coaching (Z), is the formulation they feel puts them in the best position to win. It sounds selfish and insane, but I think they believe they get more out X+Y+Z than if they tinkered with any variable.
But what do I know?
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I honestly don't think a lot of the "experts" do a deep dive on teams. Miami is stacking up nicely to be the dark horse for the season, but that really wouldn't be a surprise to most of us.
We won a lot of games off pure grit last year. The counter to that is that some of those games shouldn't have come down to the last minutes. But you have to learn to walk before you run. Confidence is a beautiful thing, and IF we start out strong our entire team is going to be busting at the seams with confidence.
With this roster, if we believe we can hang with any team, then I think we can, and that's dangerous for the team on the other side of the field. -
Well, there's no way to know whether we're going to put teams away until we start doing it. We were notoriously bad at this under previous coaches, but I truly believe that we have a much better coach in Gase now, and that he has a much better offensive mind and feel for the game than anyone we've had in ages. Wanny took teams that should have earned first round byes and had them playing in the wildcard round or missing the playoffs alltogether. Sparano and Philbin took teams that should have made it into the playoffs, and instead finished at .500 or worse. A lot of that was a failure to hang onto games that they should have won, and IMO, the psychological burnout that also came with a lot of other close wins that should have been much easier.
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IMO "IT" is an overrated term. Most people seem to use it as a catch-all for 'they won, but I don't know enough about football to say why'. Or if they don't believe in the team then "IT" changes to "LUCK". Most of the people predicting Miami to do poorly this season focus on or at least cite how Miami won many close games. Since they don't believe in the team then it must be "LUCK". If you do believe in the team then you'd look at the same result and say that this team really showed that killer instinct when the game was on the line. In reality what happened was the team was doing enough consistently well and avoiding those stupid mistakes most teams make. NE is the best right now b/c of how consistently good and mistake free they play across the board. The simplistic analysis is that it's all about Brady, but in reality it's the whole team. Brady is a great QB but he had some poor outings last year. The team still won though b/c of how well they played outside of him. And nobody notices b/c of the wins. Even the stats don't reflect it fully b/c most QB stats are heavily influenced by the team play and are really offensive stats. You could say they same about Rodgers, who I might argue is the best QB ever, but he was inconsistent last year as well. In fact, from about game 6 till the injury Tannehill played better than either of those all-time greats. But the poor analysts will still claim that Tannehill could never play on that level or be as good.
resnor, cuchulainn, EverFin and 2 others like this. -
"It"? "IT"? Allow me to answer that question.
2016 Miami Dolphins...
Start off 0-2, losing two relative close ones against Seattle (14-12) and New England (31-24), win the following week against Cleveland in overtime, only to get blown out the two following games against Cincinnati and Tennessee. The Miami Dolphins are now 1-5 and everyone has written the Dolphins off for the remainder of the season, to include MANY here, so what do we do?
We find "it" and win 6 in a row...and go 9-2 following the debacle against the Titans in October...to include winning 2 of our last 3 with Tannehill out due to injury. In fact I'm willing to go THIS far. Had Tannehill not been injured, the final game against the Patriots would have been much closer than it was (whether or not we would have won is a different matter all together) and the Miami Dolphins would have been the team that NO ONE would have wanted to play. We were THAT hot!! Everyone pulled together and played with an aggression I hadn't seen in years!
If that's not "it", I dont know what is!resnor and Ohio Fanatic like this. -
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Let's start with great but not HOF QBs for Tanny to compare too. Can he take a Ryan leap. Sure, but Ryan isn't like last year every year.
RT may be top 10 in this league next year. Brady and Rodgers may be top 2 all time. If he takes a leap to Philip Rivers, Tony Romo etc, then we're talking.Last edited: Jul 18, 2017 -
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Did we lose and lose badly to Baltimore? Sure we did but this "better" team lost to teams the likes of the Redskins, Jets and the Bengals. This "better" team lost to 3 bad teams.
Did we lose and lose badly to New England? Sure we did but this "better" team was BLOWN AWAY by the SCRUB Bills, lost to the Seahawks.
So what does that mean? Nothing either. Nothing either, that's why you play the game.
And just a bit of a footnote on the loss to Baltimore...we had just won 6 in a row. Did anyone realistically think we were going to win 7 in a row? 8 in a row? 9 in a row? 10 in a row? 11 in a row? We were going to lose at some point and seeing how upsets happen all of the time in the NFL, losing to Baltimore, badly or not, after a 6 game winning streak means nothing to me.resnor likes this. -
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