Thoughts on Dolphins/Jets II

"KeyFin wrote:

I don't have much to say this week since we just watched two really poor offenses waiting for someone else to win the game. At least Brock was safe and efficient; that's all you can really ask for with most of the starting offensive line out. Think about this- I counted three dropped passes by our defenders today, which means that we could have had 7 overall picks (instead of the 4 we walked away with). The defense did its job and that's why we won today.

I was a little worried though- why didn't Jones play? We didn't miss him since it was the Jets but I'm not really understanding the move.

I am guessing Jones' shoulder is bothering him again.

I didn’t see all of the game, as I was on my way back from watching Manchester City score six.:clap:

I think it was 3-0 when I put it on.

It was a very scrappy game, but a win is a win.

The defence played well and it was great to see them getting four interceptions.

Brock was God Awful! I will give him credit for not throwing a pick, but that is it. He was bad in the pocket, bad with time, bad with pressure, bad throwing balls longer than 5 yards, bad throwing balls shorter than 5 yards. This is up there with one of the worst quarterback performances I have seen. But at least he didn't throw a pick, which I guess is the main reason we won the game.

Where was this defensive performance the last few weeks? Since the second half of the Bears game, the Miami Defense has been god awful. Today they pretty much won the game. If memory serves me right, I don't want to check because that game was boring as **** to watch, both field goals were set up by interceptions and the interception for a touchdown. Heck, the defense dropped 2 interceptions and the McTyer drop could have been another touchdown.

Those street free agents helped in the defensive tackle rotation. Minus the facemask, that was probably one of the best linebacking performances of the year.

I am honestly surprised Miami won the ball game because I was waiting for the one lucky play that causes Miami to lose when the offense is putrid and the defense is playing well. I guess I don't mind if Jones took himself out, because this was one of the better secondary performances of the year as well.

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

Where was this defensive performance the last few weeks?

I think it had a lot to do with our opponent. As bad as we are the Jets are worse. And if Darnold doesn't pan out.. umm.. BUAHAHAHAHA!

"cbrad wrote:

I think it had a lot to do with our opponent. As bad as we are the Jets are worse. And if Darnold doesn't pan out.. umm.. BUAHAHAHAHA!

While I am sure the Jet's badness helped, the Dolphins of the last few weeks would have given up 450 yards of total offense to that crappy team. Miami has made terrible Jets quarterbacks look spectacular in the past.

I am not saying that Miami would have beaten the Lions or the Texans in the last two weeks, however, if the defense would have played as well as they played today, they would not have been embarrassed at least.

For the Lions, I think Matt Patricia knew the Dolphins pretty well and was able to make a good gameplan to beat the defense. The Texans game was a short week on the road which never turns out well for the traveling team.

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

Brock was God Awful! I will give him credit for not throwing a pick, but that is it. He was bad in the pocket, bad with time, bad with pressure, bad throwing balls longer than 5 yards, bad throwing balls shorter than 5 yards. This is up there with one of the worst quarterback performances I have seen. But at least he didn't throw a pick, which I guess is the main reason we won the game.

Where was this defensive performance the last few weeks? Since the second half of the Bears game, the Miami Defense has been god awful. Today they pretty much won the game. If memory serves me right, I don't want to check because that game was boring as **** to watch, both field goals were set up by interceptions and the interception for a touchdown. Heck, the defense dropped 2 interceptions and the McTyer drop could have been another touchdown.

Those street free agents helped in the defensive tackle rotation. Minus the facemask, that was probably one of the best linebacking performances of the year.

I am honestly surprised Miami won the ball game because I was waiting for the one lucky play that causes Miami to lose when the offense is putrid and the defense is playing well. I guess I don't mind if Jones took himself out, because this was one of the better secondary performances of the year as well.

You know something that shocked me today? Brock zipped a perfect pass to Amendola along the sidelines for around an 18 yard gain. At first, it looked like a stupid throw but the slow-mo replay showed a toss with awesome velocity and perfect placement...I don't think the defender could have knocked it down even if he was looking.

Anyway- that pass was an absolute rocket...where was that arm the rest of the day? How do you nail one of the tougher throws in football yet miss on everything else? You mentioned Fales in another thread and I'd honestly prefer to see him as well. I know zero about him and intentionally haven't watched his college games, but he's supposed to have excellent instincts and a very good arm. If we reach a point where the season is definitely over, I hope we give the kid a shot for a few weeks.

"cbrad wrote:

I think it had a lot to do with our opponent. As bad as we are the Jets are worse. And if Darnold doesn't pan out.. umm.. BUAHAHAHAHA!

LOL, Darnold had that "domestic violence victim" look in his eyes much of the 2nd half. The only way they moved the ball at all was the two face mask penalties- I absolutely love playing rookies because the strategy is always the same. Get after their asses! It helped that we were generating a lot of pressure with just a four man rush on most downs.

Akeem Spence!! Holy cocka! Dude was effin' awesome. He definitely deserved the game ball.

Congrats to Gase and burke. You tweaked the defense and got a spectacular performance from them. We even got sacks?!?! The defensive line actually kept gap integrity this week and didn't try to run around their blockers. Using Minkah as a CB and FS was great. The communication in the secondary looked good and the rookie linebackers did much better attacking the right gaps, though they still have a ways to go, McMillan especially.

Let’s not get too carried away with thinking our defense was that great.
3 of Darnold’s intercepted throws came when he was behind in the 4th quarter and in desperation mode, and it’s hard to believe he would have thrown the second pick if he wasn’t behind in the 4th, and the 3rd and 4th picks would have been punts if they were tied or ahead. So 3 of the 4 picks today were primarily due to the game situation, not the defense playing well. Also to note is that we would have had better field position on the last 2 interceptions if the defender had batted the ball down rather than catching them as they both were on 4th and long. On the 3rd interception we would have started with the ball on the edge of field goal range if it had been batted down. So the smart play would have been to take the turnover on downs and hope the O could make 5 or 6 yards on three plays for the field goal.

Discounting the last interception that was made, which came as time ran out, the O was only able to generate 3 points from the 2 drives which followed the interceptions. Without the pick 6 it’s a tied game.

Even then the Jets generated more yards/passing attempt and more yards/rush than the phins.

So it is great to beat the jets, but the Pats, KC or the Rams would have dropped 50 on us today.

PS Keyfin, I know it can be tough after a week like this, but I have really enjoyed your post game write-ups this season.

"KeyFin wrote:

You know something that shocked me today? Brock zipped a perfect pass to Amendola along the sidelines for around an 18 yard gain. At first, it looked like a stupid throw but the slow-mo replay showed a toss with awesome velocity and perfect placement...I don't think the defender could have knocked it down even if he was looking.

Anyway- that pass was an absolute rocket...where was that arm the rest of the day? How do you nail one of the tougher throws in football yet miss on everything else? You mentioned Fales in another thread and I'd honestly prefer to see him as well. I know zero about him and intentionally haven't watched his college games, but he's supposed to have excellent instincts and a very good arm. If we reach a point where the season is definitely over, I hope we give the kid a shot for a few weeks.

LOL! As I was scrolling down the posts, I was thinking the same thing. He had one perfect pass all day.
On a different note: I know I have been hard on Parker, but his numbers would have been better if Brock's passes were more accurate.

"Pauly wrote:

PS Keyfin, I know it can be tough after a week like this, but I have really enjoyed your post game write-ups this season.

Thanks, I've always enjoyed writing them and try to remain unbiased based on what the tape shows! There just wasn't a lot to say this week since both teams were so stinking bad. I thought the same thing on the last two picks but I guess if you're in the NFL, you want that on your stat record regardless so you make the dumb pick. Kiko's was a great read/play though and Baker looked like his heart was going to pump out of his chest from excitement...it's always awesome seeing a rookie make a big play to change the game.

I think Osweiler played as well as possible under the circumstances- it's a shame he's not accurate deep. Unlike others here, I like him as a QB because of his poise and how he reads the field...he's just not reliable past about 10-15 yards though. He sort of reminds me of Pennington and that magical season and I think we can win with him now; it's just a different type of game plan that works against what we're really built to do (chunk yards).

By the way, do we still have Fales? I remember some great deep balls from him over the past few preseasons. I'd give him a chance to throw the rock if RT can't go this Sunday. Green Bay is really a must-win game if we want a shot at the post-season. I know it's silly to even think about that at this point but anything can happen in the NFL.

Fales is still on the roster. I think Gase will still stick with Osweiler for now though.

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

While I am sure the Jet's badness helped, the Dolphins of the last few weeks would have given up 450 yards of total offense to that crappy team. Miami has made terrible Jets quarterbacks look spectacular in the past.

I am not saying that Miami would have beaten the Lions or the Texans in the last two weeks, however, if the defense would have played as well as they played today, they would not have been embarrassed at least.

I don't think you understand how bad the Jets are..a high school team could put up a stiff challenge to the Jets

"jeremy2020 wrote:

I don't think you understand how bad the Jets are..a high school team could put up a stiff challenge to the Jets

I don't think you understand how bad the defense played since the 2nd half of the Bears game.

"jeremy2020 wrote:

I don't think you understand how bad the Jets are..a high school team could put up a stiff challenge to the Jets

The Jets have put up 42 against the Colts, 34 against the Broncos, and 48 against the Lions.

The Dolphins defense is supposed to be historically bad right now and yet they held the Jets to their lowest output of the season.

I, for one, am not going to say this win, as ugly as it was, was pure luck or only because the Jets are bad.

Why is it do difficult for some to state that the defense played a good game.

Even more impressive is that they had little help from the offense.

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

Why is it do difficult for some to state that the defense played a good game.

Even more impressive is that they had little help from the offense.

^ That

"Dol-Fan Dupree wrote:

Why is it do difficult for some to state that the defense played a good game.

Even more impressive is that they had little help from the offense.

I wasn’t saying the defense did not have a good game. I think that the D did not have a great game because the headline stat “4 INTs” is less impressive than the reality. Then pair it with the offense only managing to put up 3 points by themselves (7 points from the return, 3 points from good field position following Kiko’s INT) makes it hard to feel excited about the D when the O did so little.

As long as we're just taking things away, let's add in the other 3 picks that they dropped. That's not just a QB being bad.

"Pauly wrote:

I wasn’t saying the defense did not have a good game. I think that the D did not have a great game because the headline stat “4 INTs” is less impressive than the reality. Then pair it with the offense only managing to put up 3 points by themselves (7 points from the return, 3 points from good field position following Kiko’s INT) makes it hard to feel excited about the D when the O did so little.

I don't know about feeling excited about the defense, but that just makes it more impressive.

"KeyFin wrote:

You know something that shocked me today? Brock zipped a perfect pass to Amendola along the sidelines for around an 18 yard gain. At first, it looked like a stupid throw but the slow-mo replay showed a toss with awesome velocity and perfect placement...I don't think the defender could have knocked it down even if he was looking.

Anyway- that pass was an absolute rocket...where was that arm the rest of the day? How do you nail one of the tougher throws in football yet miss on everything else?

Not sure which one it was, but my first thought is body mechanics. Was it a pure arm talent throw or did he manage to get his full body involved? The difference between two 'identical' throws can be dramatic when one uses only the arm and one is thrown using good body mechanics bring in the legs, core etc. Could be he threw that pass perfectly, but then relied only on his less-than-stellar arm at other times?