Post Game Thoughts

[SF Dolphin Fan]

I think Thomas was more concerned with stopping the clock and saving as much time as possible. If he goes for the 1st and gets tackled inbounds, Dolphins lose 35-45 more seconds on the clock.

The bigger killer was the timeout they had to use on the 2-point conversion...what the freak was that about?

Yeah, good point. It's easy to say from the couch, but looked like he could have easily made that. Even though he had a real strong game, Thomas still looks really slow to me. Agree? I think tight end is a huge need for how Gase wants to run the offense.

 

[SF Dolphin Fan]

Oh and one other thing...did anyone catch Cutler screaming at the top of his lungs at Landry cause he lined up on the wrong side of the formation....and Thomas on the same play. They had to switch sides.

I love Landry's passion but the kid is dumb as rocks.

It's looking more and more like Landry won't be here long-term. Hope I'm wrong because I love Landry.

 

[SF Dolphin Fan]

Cutler looked his best so far but damn, dink and dunk city last night. How many passes did we throw past 10yds? 2-3? Oakland has all these backup CB's in and all we do is throw short crap to the RB's. This is fine if there's no confidence in the QB, but at least chuck it out there once a quarter or something, try to get a PI on a backshoulder. D wasnt threatened at all.

Cutler had adequate protection the majority of the game and yet nothing downfield. The ball to Devante was horrible. The one he caught in garbage, Devante had to make a superman grab. Not one ball to Stills downfield from what I remember.

The O skill players seemed to show up, but hindered by OLINE and their penalties.

The D got ZERO pressure the majority of the game. I watch a lot of football (other teams) and why is it when Miami has the opposing O at 3rd and long they always rip us for a long pass. These completions arent even contested most of the time, WR is wide open sipping tea in the zone. I mean 1st and 25 last night in their own territory leads to a TD within a few plays. Embarrassing.

Penalties were unacceptable. Field sucked. In front of a home crowd in primetime.


WHY DO WE ALWAYS SUCK IN PRIMETIME GAMES. SO EMBARRASSING. THIS IS WHY THE MEDIA NEVER EVEN TALKS ABOUT US.


Get RT back. Fix the ENTIRE interior OLINE.

Gase doesn't want to get the quarterback killed, which is why the offense is regulated to a short passing game. I also believe Miami is the only team without a rushing touchdown this year. The glaring weakness on the offensive line is killing this team, although pass blocking was mostly really good last night.

 

[FinfanInBuffalo]

Also have to add to “post game thoughts”....Jakeem Grant is useless. And I have to question Gase & Rizzi for continuing to use him on punts and kickoff returns. This guy just doesn’t understand that the NFL changed the rules and a touchback starts at the 25 yard line. On punt returns, he refuses to understand that running straight ahead and picking up an easy 10 yards is much better than running sideways or backwards.

He has done nothing positive in 8 games. When is enough enough, Gase?

Grant is the slowest "fast guy" we've had since Ted Ginn. Too much indecision.

 

[Travis34]

I think Thomas was more concerned with stopping the clock and saving as much time as possible. If he goes for the 1st and gets tackled inbounds, Dolphins lose 35-45 more seconds on the clock.

The bigger killer was the timeout they had to use on the 2-point conversion...what the freak was that about?

That was a real wtf moment. Just take the delay of game and get pushed back a little, save the timeout

 

[Aqua and Orange]

Some really great points in this thread. Good job, ladies and gentlemen.

My thoughts watching this one:

-It could not have been more obvious that the game was a team that had offensive big play ability vs one that just didn't. You got the feeling Carr could bomb it for a big play any moment, while the Dolphins DIDN'T WANT TO. -Not that they couldn't, but that there was no thought towards even attacking deep. Cutler almost immediately checked down. That is a huge advantage for an opposing defense, especially this one that had backups in the secondary.

-Kudos to Suh. He NEEDS to be on this team next year.

-The bonehead players on this team are plentiful. Pouncey chief among them. I don't care that he is tough and has a good reputation. He sets the tone for a line that has been mediocre as long as I can remember.

-That Jarvis Landry screen pass doesn't work. How is it that it the Dolphins keep trying it?

-The D on this team is really good, but for the most part lacks quality depth. When a player goes out, their backup is often tested and fails.

-The offensive line is a trainwreck. Pretty sure I saw Cutler complaining about them to Gase at the end of the game. There is just no light at the end of that tunnel this season.

-While the playcalling was good this game, there were some very strange moments that I think Gase was over-thinking player configurations. Case in point, I saw a play where Fasano was split out wide. Why? He isn't fast, he is our best blocking tight end, and it wasn't like him being wide was going to occupy a safety's attention.

-People are calling Tunsil a bust, and while I agree that he isn't good right now, I am FAR more disappointed in Devante Parker. The guy is just a no show until garbage time, when he DOES play.

-The only player I really see fighting for balls that are up in the air and making plays is Kenny Stills...yet he seems to be the least included in the offense of all of the WRs, RBs, and even TEs. I get that it may be a byproduct of him stretching the field, but the team needs to get him more involved.

-I am extremely happy basketball is back.

 

[datruth55]

Also have to add to “post game thoughts”....Jakeem Grant is useless. And I have to question Gase & Rizzi for continuing to use him on punts and kickoff returns. This guy just doesn’t understand that the NFL changed the rules and a touchback starts at the 25 yard line. On punt returns, he refuses to understand that running straight ahead and picking up an easy 10 yards is much better than running sideways or backwards.

He has done nothing positive in 8 games. When is enough enough, Gase?

The return game in general has been awful this year. Absolutely no benefit in field position from Grant or Drake. Most of the time we start well short of the 25 yard line. We've had no big returns in the punt game, none in the kickoff game...we've been through half a dozen kickers and our punter has been inconsistent...but we still have Darren Rizzi.

 

[dirkey]

I decided to take some time to digest this performance before responding. Some great points brought up on this thread already.

1: Grant - what's the point of him? As someone said, he runs it out from deep in the end zone numerous times - has he EVER got beyond the 25 when he does that? Heck, the 15? I'm TERRIFIED every time I see the ball in the air and know it's him underneath it. That should say something to the "brain" trust.
2: Landry - like I said in another thread, like the guy, but get rid this summer. He's brave, he's passionate ... but he clearly doesn't invest enough time in his playbook - Cutler screaming at him as mentioned etc. He's also not enough of a game changer in my own personal opinion.
3: Gase - too conservative, both early in the game and early on individual drives.
4: Gase - coaching has to be looked at when this many boneheaded penalties are costing us.
5: James goes out. Young comes in, and we don't give him any help against Mack on a passing down? Surely that's pass offense 101! Terrible decision.
6: Front office ... everyone and their mother knew this OL was pants before the season started. What do the front office do about it? Not a whole pile. Wake up. Team is going nowhere far until this is sorted out. I know lots of people are down on Tunsil, I'd give him more time. I'd potentially keep James around (though after his comments last week about Ajayi going on to bigger and better things, I'm less sure about that) as long as he doesn't want to break the bank. The rest must go. Simple as. Keep the young lads who are backing up, but Bushrod, Pouncey and presumably Larson need to go.
7: Officiating - appalling. Will anything be done about it? Who knows.
8: Suh - he's fantastic. But it's just far too much money to have invested in a DT in my opinion.

I can't help but feel we're heading for 7-9, 8-8 at best. So frustrating. We'd be better off completely sucking and getting a higher draft pick. Although that imbecile Tannenbaum and Chris "No really, I'm the GM, honestly" Grier will no doubt draft something else useless.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what they do in the offseason regarding talent acquisition, but it's hard to expect much, given how glaring the problem was in the summer and they did nothing to rectify it. Obviously draft picks were at a premium, but there was plenty of OG talent out there in FA that they didn't even look at. Stupid.

The only thing that gives me minor hope is that they seem to have done some good work on defense. So let's see if they can cop on and do it on offense also.

 

[Travis34]

Grant is the slowest "fast guy" we've had since Ted Ginn. Too much indecision.

Grant wishes he was on the level of Ted Ginn. He was a damn fine returner for us

 

[datruth55]

-While the playcalling was good this game, there were some very strange moments that I think Gase was over-thinking player configurations. Case in point, I saw a play where Fasano was split out wide. Why? He isn't fast, he is our best blocking tight end, and it wasn't like him being wide was going to occupy a safety's attention.

-People are calling Tunsil a bust, and while I agree that he isn't good right now, I am FAR more disappointed in Devante Parker. The guy is just a no show until garbage time, when he DOES play.

-The only player I really see fighting for balls that are up in the air and making plays is Kenny Stills...yet he seems to be the least included in the offense of all of the WRs, RBs, and even TEs. I get that it may be a byproduct of him stretching the field, but the team needs to get him more involved.

-I am extremely happy basketball is back.

I have no issues with Fasano lining up wide. If he lined up outside of the tackle every time we'd be tipping off the formation and allowing the defense to set it's personnel package just by the personnel we sent out on to the field. Defense has to respect Fasano...he may not be fast but he can still catch and has reliable hands.

We threw deep to Parker earlier in the game but Cutler doesn't exactly throw an accurate deep ball. Really the WRs in this game, Stills, Landry and Parker, were not involved much in the passing game. Cutler seemed content to throw to the RBs and to Thomas most of this game. Might have been by design because of his ribs and them not wanting him to take any shots (hits or sacks) in the game. Parker played well, he's just not getting many targets and neither is Stills.

 

[Phinatic8u]

Parker’s only “accurate” deep ball he had to OBJ it.

 

[Bowzer]

Here are my post game thoughts, in no particular order:

- The Dolphins lost the football game.

- Michael Thomas is a nice special teams player, but an absolutely dreadful safety. Any time that our defense is forced to rely on Michael Thomas, our defense stinks. Memo to Mike Tannenbaum, safety is an important position.

- Reshad Jones should not be asked to do the job of a free safety. He is a great strong safety, but he is not a good free safety. Maybe we should just go get a free safety? Trader Mike? Hello? I'd slit a nun's throat for Brock Marion back there right now.

- The personal foul called on Jones that led to Oakland's last touchdown was truly one of the most pitiful calls I have ever seen in any sport at any level of competition. I see people calling for cuts and jobs to be had over stuff on this board all the time, well how about for that? One of those zebras needs to lose his job, and also be publicly flogged for that call.

- Mike Pouncey needs to be the first cap casualty of the off-season. Do I even need to explain why?

- Devante Parker, nice highlight reel catch in garbage time. How about taking your 3rd down route to the sticks and then coming down with a contested football?

- Donkey Kong Suh is a great football player and if this team cuts him for 3.9 million dollars in cap savings, we are the dumbest morons on the entire planet.

- Bobby McCain has quietly developed into a competent slot corner. Credit to DBs coach Lou Anarumo for developing yet another young cornerback who needed a lot of work, who will now surely leave the team in free agency after we've spent three-plus years making him respectable.

- Jay Cutler and Julius Thomas were the two best players on offense tonight.

- Kenyan Drake, it is better to have died as a small boy than to put that football on the ground.

- Tunsil's a bust until he proves otherwise. Sorry, he's been that bad that I have to use the B word until he makes me look stupid for using it. Please make me look stupid, Laremy.

- Hey Matt Burke, maybe you should take some time off from moonlighting as an extra on Duck Dynasty and call some coverages that account for #87. Just a thought.

- Ultimately, the biggest thing I notice with the Miami Dolphins -- and this is ever since Jeff Ireland took over as General Manager -- is that we are just chock full of football players who are both dumb and can't handle pressure. That's a bad combination. I know this might seem like an overreaction, but I would look closely at every single player who committed an egregiously stupid penalty tonight and start thinking about how quickly they can be replaced.

- Play-calling was good tonight. You can't blame the coach for the same group of stupid, choke-prone players for stupidly choking yet again. They did it under the old coaching staff and they'd do it under a brand new one, too. They're just stupid chokers.

- The Dolphins lost the football game.

And those are my thoughts on the game. Some people are really mad about the result, some people are renouncing their fandom, some people are crying about Jay Ajayi, and some people think the NFL is rigged. I don't know. It was a football game. Some things were good, and some things were bad. It wasn't a bad football game, and that's far more than I can say for every other Dolphins game we've seen in primetime lately.

I guess I'll take it.

I agree with everything except that the team chokes all the time. The past two seasons with Gase I would argue the team had been clutch in close games. Lost this one though. Penalties are tough on this team. Gotta stay on schedule for this offense to work.

 

[LDaniel7]

Yes, Miami has a number of needs, BUT Tannehill and 2 above average OGs and this team is 6-2.

Too true.

LD

 

[andyahs]

Parker’s only “accurate” deep ball he had to OBJ it.

Why are people forgetting he's coming off cracked ribs? That had to limit his deep throws last night.

 

[<O>]

That's a really fair point. More than anything i was thinking about why we're so godawful in primetime games, especially with committing such an insane number of penalties. I can't imagine that our preparation for a Sunday night game is any different than it is for a Sunday afternoon game, so the only thing I can think of is that the players themselves just can't handle the pressure of being on that stage.

I'd love to hear some other potential explanations for it.

I suspect that's a function of the fact that Miami is one of the weaker teams that gets chosen to play during prime-time, and so they're likely to be facing better teams the vast majority of the time in those games.