After last nights game, all I read on this forum is how Gase should be fired because we lost to Oakland and it made me sick. Does anyone remember last year when he was the hero and everyone was saying he was the entire reason we were winning. Now we are losing and it seems like everyone wants to blame him and nobody else. Let's go over some facts:
- We lost our starting qb before the season even started, a qb that everyone thought was going to take the next step this season and become a borderline elite qb. In Tannehill's last 8 games in 2016, the offense average 341 yards and 24 points per game and we went 7-1 (this includes the complete ****show against baltimore and the arizona game he got hurt) That would put our offense around 13th in points for and 20th in yards. And if Tannehill were healthy, I'd expect those numbers to increase this season.
- Everyone ignores what happens to other teams when they lose their starting qb. Houston's offense looks like complete **** without Watson, Green Bay is nothing without Rodgers, Indy was absolutely terrible before they traded for Brissett and still isnt great but with Luck they look so much better. Winston has been hurt all year and Tampa's offense looks terrible. The list goes on, and dont bring up Belichick and Cassel. Bill is the best coach of all time and if you remember, the AFC East also had a ridiculously easy schedule that year. Miami and NE both were 11-5, NYJ were 9-7 and the bills were 7-9.
- Yesterday Jay Cutler was playing with two cracked ribs. I don't know about you guys but if I'm Gase my gameplan is to make sure he gets hit as little as possible. I don't care about Oakland's garbage secondary, our gameplan made complete sense and it worked. It was the most yards our offense has put up all season and we lost because of stupid penalties (some were stupid because they shouldnt be called like James' penalty but some were just dumb penalties like Landry's hold). You have a guy who has struggled to throw deep all year, starts backpedaling and throws up ducks whenever theres any pressure which was happening alot this season, and has two cracked ribs and you guys are pissed Gase didnt want him to sit in the pocket and throw deep?? The best part about this is that if that was the gameplan and Cutler gets sacked a bunch or throws interceptions (which we know he would), everyone would be calling gase an idiot for letting him throw deep. Also everyone calling for Gase's head because of the timeout, lets ignore the fact that he was clearly pissed he had to because of THE OFFENSE ****ing it up.
- The Ajayi trade. I was upset about it at the time but I get it and honestly I hope Jay kills it in Philly but again lets talk facts. Ajayi looked like an animal last year and everyone credited him with Tannehill playing well and us winning games. Has no one considered that it was the other way around? Teams respect Tannehill's mobility and also his skill as a qb. They can't afford to just play the run because Ryan has proved he can burn them deep if they do and on option plays he can also keep it and run himself while Cutler doesn't have that ability. Fast forward to this year and teams don't respect our passing game so they will sell out for the run. Combine that with the fact that our offensive line is not good at runblocking and Ajayi contributes nothing in the passing game (which Gase loves from his rbs) and you have an offense that is built to struggle unless Jay has the game of his life. Drake and Williams combined for 12 catches for 82 yards and a td last night which is two less catches, 15 more yards and 1 more td than Ajayi has ALL SEASON. Also, I could be wrong but I only remember one incompletion yesterday that was thrown to a rb which was not the case with Ajayi. Gase tried time and time again this season to run our offense through Ajayi and it wasn't working. He trades him and our offense looked the best it has all season. Now for everyone saying a fourth round pick was not enough, I agree but that's the NFL. Unless you are a QB, teams dont give up high picks for players, especially at the RB position. Dareus just went for a 6th round pick, Brandon Marshall has been traded for peanuts. Lesean Mccoy who has proven way more than Ajayi went for Kiko Alonso who at the time was coming off a bad injury and did not look good. Ajayi fits so much better with Philly then he did with us and I credit Gase for not giving a **** about "skill". Running our offense through Ajayi wasn't working, he would pout and get pissed when we didn't run it through him even if we won so trade him and work with the players that do. Even if they aren't as talented.
- One thing I do blame Gase and the front office for is the offensive line. The only thing is Gase said that his offense didn't need amazing guards to run it effectively and well he is clearly wrong about that. Our offensive line is terrible and needs to be fixed. But let's not get on Gase right away, he thought something and it didn't work, hes shown in the past that hes willing to change his approach and I wouldn't be surprised if more focus goes into the o-line in the coming years because he realized his mistake.
In the end, can we please give Gase a couple seasons with the QB that he was building his offense around before we say he is in over his head and he's garbage and needs to be fired. Nobody expected this team to do much this year after Tannehill went down and we are 4-4 and in the thick of things. Some things need to be improved and I believe he will take the steps to do that (such as trading Ajayi regardless of what anyone thinks). We are one game in with our new rb's and a bad fumble and a bunch of dumb penalties is what cost us this game, the playcalling was fine and that was a game we should have won. Gase is a 2nd year coach, other teams have a full year of tape on him and they are adapting, now we will see if he learns to adapt as well.
