Not much to say this week since this was an embarrassing loss that never should have happened. We dominated the 1st half but stayed super conservative, and Indy's only points came off MASSIVE Dolphins mistakes or penalties. We flat out gave Indy the win and there's nobody to blame but ourselves. Miami was CLEARLY the better team all afternoon.
Let's try to find some takeaways though-
There is some massive dysfunction in the coaching/front office because we actually had to work pretty hard to lose today- Grant's dropped punt and two ridiculous defensive penalties accounted for 21 of Indy's 27 points.
- Needham played excellent today; really developing into an elite shutdown corner
- Our offensive line played better than last week, but not good enough overall
- We didn't throw a pass to Parker or Gisecki until the last drive of the 3rd quarter, then we never threw to anyone else- even when Parker or Gisecki were well-covered. Do none of our new coordinators know that neither of them can be covered 1:1?!?
- Jakeem muffed yet another punt- time for him to go. Love the guy, great story, but enough is enough and I've finally turned on him
- Waddle in space is electrifying. Really glad we went to him twice on little slants for 1st downs....only to never go back to him again. He might have scored if either pass was accurate.
- The defense as a whole was solid- the offense and special teams just kept screwing them over.
How the heck do you jump offsides on a punt...again!?! It's just mind-blowing and I also caught where we laid out Indy's punter on that one where they kicked from the back of the endzone (which was the series after we decide not to kick the field goal). That should have been another flag and an automatic 1st down.
Then on the flip side, we decide for the 2nd week in a row not to have Sanders kick the field goal from 55 out- when's the last time he's missed from 50+? It was like watching Sparano coach this offense...only with fist pumps being banned. I just don't get what the heck we were doing out there. Indy's whole secondary was out and we're throwing screen passes- I'm literally at a loss for words here.
At this point, I'd be firing an offensive coordinator....which is okay since we have two of them and neither one calls the plays (seriously- it's a 3rd guy for that). Folks, this is an organizational problem from top to bottom- something has to give. And although many of you will say, "It's not Flores," I'll counter that by saying Flores hired those coordinators and hasn't fired one of them yet. Flores needs to man up and take control of his team.
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btw.. we're on track to be the 2nd worst offense in the league after week 4. Jets are the only ones worse, and they actually did relatively well today. They'll have 47 points in 4 games while we'll have 62 points in 4 games. Even Chicago leapfrogged us and now have 64 lol.
It's also amazing how little confidence our own coaches have in our offense. The play calling is just bad. -
Essentially, every single individual thing that we thought might have a chance to go wrong... Has.
And that's not just bad luck, it's bad team building and drafting, talent eval, staff building, coaching and individual execution and injury.
Literally every damn thing. It's impressive how badly we are playing. How bad this team is. Shockingly impressive. Almost intentionally impressively bad. -
Nice post, Key.
-I 100% agree on Grant. He needs to go.
-I think Austin Jackson should be benched and should have to earn his way back into the line up.
-We need to make getting Parker passes a priority. He feasts on those slant routes.
-I still think Flo is the answer, but we need to save him from himself. I think we need to get an established OC and just hand him the offense. I legitimately think that if we had an OC of Norv Turner caliber, we would be 3-1 or 2-2.
-The problem - I do not trust Grier at all to get Flo the help he needs. I think a lot of our problems fall on Grier and canning him in season brings all new problems. -
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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHHHHAHAHAH -
In my mind, I think we should take a step back then take a step forward. I don't wanna give up on him or ruin him. -
I have seen a lot of defensive HCs lose their jobs because of the offense. Maybe admitting you do don't know what you don't know might be the answer. I think there are guys out there that I really think could handle the offense - Doug Peterson, Charlie Weis, Norv Turner, and Gary Kubiak all come to mind.
I think these guys are all more than capable of producing an average offense which is really all we need.KeyFin likes this. -
Puka-head My2nd Fav team:___vs Jets Club Member
My thoughts
Special teams players and coaches, Mack Hollins should get a pass but he's on special teams so, should have to ride home on the short bus, with their helmets on. Sorry Grant, bus is full, we called your mom to come get you.
If I was a Defensive player on this team I would be plotting a coup de tat and forcibly making an OC coaching change, pick one you like or chase em all out of town but enough of this bull. Let the players play, stop with all the cutsie ego trip ****. Not until you can convert a 3rd and 2 running the ball any time you want to. Or complete a pass more then 10 yds downfield 2 or 3 times a drive not 2-3 times a game.
Quit playing footsie with Watson rumors and go find a Center. How many years? Never mind the tackles, yes Jackson ,blocks like he's in a high school cheerleader cafeteria slap fight instead of a NFL Left Tackle, but he's not bad at run blocking so he can move inside and be good. But that young line needs a Captain, do whatever you've got to, trade whatever, pay whatever, get a vet, a good one to anchor the line, Do it NOW!
And dang I wish Mariners pitching would have had a sinker like Brissets going today.
Is Gaskin hurt? Cuz the only reason he doesn't have more yards is because they won't give him the ball. Gaskin getting 15-18 runs and 5-7 passes is winning Dolphin football. Like slants to Waddle and Parker and seam routes to Gesicki. Criminal misuse of young talent by these Offensive UnCoordinators. I'd say Gase bad, even Bill Lazor bad, but honestly they would have to get better to be that bad.
Flores you better fix this ****. Squarely on you.KeyFin likes this. -
Outside of that; the only other thoughts I have after this game are as follows:
- Grant needs to go. He's not adding anything to this team.
- Wilson can go too for all I care.
- Parker, Fuller and Gesicki needs more looks on offense. Open the playbook up earlier.
- Our 2 or 3, or whatever it is OC system is a complete and utter failure IMO. This needs to be addressed ASAP by Flores
- Grier needs to go; he's massively failed this organization.
On Grier; that report that was floated by LaConfora (IIRC) that Flores wanted Herbert and Grier wanted and ultimately drafted Tua to me further concludes that the finger pointing is starting to begin as I speculated it may last week.KeyFin likes this. -
To me there's one common denominator here through all these GM/HC pairings that have failed and it's Chris Grier. He's been part of that FO staff for what; 20 years roughly? Situations like this are all he's known; poor selections, struggling teams, poor results and power struggles.
As for Flores; I don't mind the look honestly. He's the head coach. His preferences in building the roster should take precedence. It's his team; it's his schemes we're running here. So if his preference was Herbert over Tua and Grier went with Tua anyways then yeah; I'd be pretty ticked off if I was him and I'd be wanting to make that point if my seat was getting hot. -
They are getting the absolute minimum out of every single offense player even the ones we know can play. -
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So I think we're all on the same page- Jackson could be really good in time, but he's just not there yet. For now, it should be Eichenberg's position to lose....even though he's not fully there yet either. -
We are getting the absolute minimum out of ever single offensive player at this point because we have a shaky OL yet again due to Grier's inability to address it properly, and due to the fact we don't have a QB currently capable of running an NFL offense. Maybe Tua can be that guy when he comes back; but week 1 didn't really inspire confidence in that being the case; but it was just that; week one. To me; it starts with the OL failing to provide our QB's time and failing to provide a running game. -
And Brissett is not very good. Nobody would have claimed he was but would we have really viewed him as an absolute disaster of a QB before putting on a Dolphin uniform? He has plenty of experience and has had good games. You certainly don't want him to be your starter but he should be a competent backup. Instead he looks like he has no business watching football let alone starting. -
Here is an absolute head scratcher from the Indy game…
Gaskin only played 23% of our offensive snaps. 23%!!
Malcolm Brown sucks, it’s as simple as that. Slow plodder, who can’t even bulldoze 1 yard in a short yardage situation. Even with the Rams his short yardage metrics were awful.
Also why is McCourtey playing in front of Rowe? Rowe was probably our 4th best defender last season. Yes they both got beat for TDs against Indy… but atleast Rowe was right there contesting his. McCourtey wasn’t even in the same frame as the reciever! Rowe is bigger, younger and better against the run. And we’ve all seen he can make a play on the ball in coverage.
Something positive. Yes Needham was great yesterday and continues to prove himself to be a star player mixed into this trash heap.KeyFin likes this. -
As for the offense; I think a QB can certainly help fix some of the issues but I'm with you re: scheme. It's non-existant it seems. Seems like they're just making it up as they go along. There's no effort to get our "playmakers" aside from Waddle the ball. No committment to a run game; and I get it we can't run block, but you've got to do something. Then there's the playcalling, that goal line series this week? Wow. The one last week against the Raiders with the wildcat? Wow. I mean I get it; wildcat gives us that extra blocker but it didn't make a difference. Everyone and their mother knew it was going to be a run into the line so why bother when you get no push up front? It's just a complete mess of an offense and seems like the things we saw under Philbin and the even GAse. You just sit back, watch, and scratch your head trying to figure out what the hell they're doing. There's no identity. No run game. No pass game. Nobody you have to gameplan against as an opposing defense. You don't have to play to stop the run, because we simply can't and don't run. You don't have to play much against the pass either; we have nobody that warrants double coverage or dictates matchups and we don't have a competent QB running the show. You're absolutely right though IMO re: the offense. They're just.. there.
It will be the downfall of Flores IMO; his lack of offense on his teams and his lack of a plan or ability to form a good staff of assistants that are qualified beyond being a close contact of his from his past.
Either way all the assumptions re: flores/grier are meaningless because there's nothing factual out there but this "report" from LaConfora now and we all know his track record. Just makes me wonder though...