Some people mentioned interest in seeing this before so here it is.

http://www.finsnation.com/fins_nati...weekly-all-22-breakdown-raiders-dolphins.html

 

I thought they did make some coaching mistakes against Houston...but they had them corrected by the Oakland game. Changing Tannehill's launch points made a difference as far as the tipped passes are concerned.

We had some sound schemes, for sure...but it was the coaching of the players in how they execute in those schemes that was more important, I thought.

 

I thought the last set were actually pretty good teachers to be honest. The players were very execution oriented under Sparano, just not talented enough nor were the schemes any good (on offense).

 

Greater than 0 and less than 100?

 

I don't know that you can distinguish. You don't know what's running through his brain. Either way, normally speaking, he's not reading the quarterback and pulling the trigger. And then suddenly the game is out of reach and there's nothing to lose by gambling a bit, and suddenly he does it.

 

I just have to think the run defense is so good right now we have to be able to borrow from it a little bit in order to get better pass rush. And Shelby's not even necessarily a good pass rusher, he's just not a total blank. Nor is Shelby bad versus the run, actually he's more of a run defender than pass rusher. He made a great play to force Darren McFadden to cut back on a stretch play, and really Darren should've been taken down in the backfield by the help but instead he did something fruity and reversed field completely, made a bunch more people miss, and ended up with like a 3 yard gain.

 

No question about it, it was a key block. If he whiffs on that block completely or just doesn't make it, then yes I think McClain continues along at speed and prevents that run from being a 60+ yard touchdown. The reason I don't praise Pouncey for it too much is just that this is his job (in this particular scheme) and it's what we should expect him to do. The block he made I think it was last week where he got WAAAAY out and torpedoed someone on a screen, that was above-board. This block though, he's sprinting out to the left in the zone very usually, the strong side linebacker clamps down to the line and so he can't perform a cutoff block on him, and so he goes to his second option who is Rolando McClain. If Pouncey had somehow managed to execute a cutoff block on the Sam then that to me would've been noteworthy. He really only gave McClain a bit of a speed bump...but it was enough.

If I'm giving a gold star out to a player on that run (sort of like I gave a gold star to Olivier Vernon last week for what I felt was a hard, key block on Thigpen's return touchdown), then it would be to Anthony Fasano. He's manned up on a defensive end with minimal to no help, and he seals the guy perfectly keeping the hole open for what takes (in football time) an age for both the fullback and tailback to get out there. That effort, to me, produced that play. Without that effort then any number of bad things could have happened that would have blown the integrity of the play apart. If Reggie has to hesitate, the play is dead. If Reggie has to flatten out more, it's dead. If Jorvorskie has to steer off and take care of business instead of leading Reggie through the hole, it's dead. The sombrero was on Fasano on that play and he got the job done.

 

LOL.

It's so hard to say because from a pure blocking standpoint I don't think they will get the job done. But Reggie be Reggie. This is Reggie Bush, not Freddie Poon. I was clearly wrong about that. He could do something ridiculous at any time and then a 21 run for 56 yard day turns into a 22 run for 108 yards and a TD kind of day.

 

And the other thing I didn't mention is, yes it's true that Fasano gets a gold star on that 60 yard touchdown run from Reggie, but Reggie still deserves the credit. Fasano had a tough job but not an impossible one. Nobody did anything herculean. Reggie made that happen because once he got out to the hole, he turned on his 4.37 or whatever speed, and it was over. MOST other backs are caught on that play, don't have the speed to make it a house play. That's one reason I praise him so much.

 

This screen thing really has me concerned. I'm surprised the Raiders didn't just keep doing it after it had so much success. The Dolphins have quite literally through two games yet to show they can even LIMIT the success of a screen to the back. And what's bad is I know Kevin Coyle right now is scrambling trying to figure out how to close that opening before everyone else exploits it, yet it begs the question what are you giving up in order to do that? Cameron Wake can't do everything. He can't be the ONLY guy that gets consistent pass rush on the quarterback, and then oh by the way we need you to keep your eye on the tailback when he jumps outside your shoulder. There's only so much he can do.

The other way to shut it down would be to have Koa Misi be more aware of it but even then, does that mean you're giving up pass coverage to do that? Even if he's aware will he run into a blocker and get blocked and that's it?

 

That's really not true.

 

No I'm really not concerned with that. I think we're getting like 10 steps ahead if we're concerned about that.

I don't necessarily see a problem yet diagnosing and working the middle of the field. He had a cover two look against the Raiders and he hit Davone on a seam route, placing it low and outside so that he could adjust to it, and it worked perfectly. When the time comes we'll be able to do that with our tight ends as well. Fasano versus McClain was not a good matchup for that. But I mean, if you want a middle read, how about that touchdown to Fasano. How quickly did he diagnose that Tampa Two type look with the safeties widening and McClain dropping beck to depth before he could fully engage Fasano? That play worked because Tannehill diagnosed it in a split second.

 

I just don't see a problem there yet but we'll see. As he throws the football more we'll start to get a sense for it.

 

I'm in no hurry to re-sign. The franchise tag is only $7.7 million. At that position, he could take an injury tomorrow and suddenly you're like whew thankfully we didn't give him $16 million guaranteed.

 

You ever hear about when a player gets "caught trying to do too much"?

It's when they're caught trying to do exactly as you're suggesting, assuming that none of their teammates are going to do their jobs, and so they get out of gap position.

Fact of the matter is if you're going to assign blame on who blew their containment on that play, it's Koa Misi and Nolan Carroll not Karlos Dansby and Chris Clemons.