What will be the Phins' Achilles Heel this Season? | Page 3 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

What will be the Phins' Achilles Heel this Season?

phatmatt said:
Actually I think DW was thouroughly outcoached in the 2nd game vs NE in the cold, wind and snow. I may be the minority here, but I believe Ricky should have had more carries than Fiedler did pass attempts....which he did not. DW insisted on throwing the ball with Rubber arm Feidler despite the weather conditions. If ever there were a game when RW should have been a workhorse.
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I could see your point if Ricky had 15-20 carries but he carried the ball 25 times that game for only 68 yards. Miami had to get some passing going to open up the running game. Unfortunately the wind and snow was not allowing any passing that day. The main reason NE won that game is because they won the field position battle.
 
DolFinatic718 said:
Glad to see atleast somebodies crystal ball works...

Too bad you can't forsee the future to make a bold prediction like that.
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Well somebodies don't need a crystal ball, just alittle bit- of logic. A better #2 WR will improve the passing gm. IF AJ beats out Jay, it will be because he's better and that will improve the passing game as well...

It's really not that bold I don't think.

--Ross
 
Spinelord said:
hey SkapePhin-is that Wayne on the way to the office this offseason? Good One !!! The Achilles heel, as in the last 3-4 years, will be the coaching
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I disagree with you there, the coaching has been pretty solid, the execution by the players has been the problem the last couple of years. I biggest point, did Wanny miss those FG's against NE last year or did a player miss them? I can site more, but I think you get the point. This team has been well coached for a long time, that's why they haven't had losing seasons.
 
Muck said:
What the heck are you talking about?? I said Jay isn't accurate and the line couldn't block for squat. And somehow you got "it's all Jay's fault" out of that?? Dude, teach me that trick. :tongue:



Which games were those?? I agree that we needed to be more aggressive with what we had when we were up. But offensive conservatism didn't contribute to many if any comebacks by the opposition in '02. Defensive collapses and lack of talent offensively contributed to that. Hate to say it, but we didn't have a lot of ammo as far as putting your foot on another team's throat. We could run Ricky down some teams' throats and that's about it. A little more creativity certainly wouldn't have hurt. But the fact is this OL couldn't pass block in '02 either.
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And what good does a couple of 25 yd. rips by Ricky do for you, when what you are really trying to do is run time off the clock?
 
Man over and over it is the same thing. You even have the rest of the leauge saying, Miami is predictable. Some people will have to agree to disagree. I mean we all know what Muck and others state is a players problem. Many more of us realize it is the coach's responsibility to teach his players to play well and exicute. Call plays that will allow them success. Not leave a defense on the field all day. Replace aging olinemen with young guys on the bench that can play better. Ethier way we will never agree on this matter. Simply put we know Wanny sucks. The players can not be all bad to allow us a winning record dispite the plian simple gameplans we run. So Like i have said all year if we win it all i will admit i am wrong. Till then Wanny has allot to prove.
 
It's obvious that the QB position and OL play will decide whether this team is good or great. I'm less worried about the OL. For some reason I think the youth movement will pay dividends this year.

QB on the other hand is what worries me the most.
I'm hoping Feeley continues to progress and wins the starting spot outright.
If not I'll buckle down for another year of Fiedler.

Another potential problem is the offensive coaching staff.
Does Forrester, Sullivan and Trestman even know there roles?
How much say does each have in tweaking the final changes in the offense for this year?
Have they all even come to a consensus as to the scheme of the offense this year and does Wanny have enough leadership ability to force these 3 guys to stay on course without question?

These are huge questions that we'll only get answers to in time.
 
Muck said:
Sounds great in theory. But the fact is, it's hard when your QB can't make teams pay for daring him to burn them. Double whammy when the OL can't sustain a block, open a whole, or form a pocket.

Being aggressive is the easy part. Having the horses to follow thru makes things dicey.
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Muck.... are you Norv Turner.....

Because your post is exactly what I bet Norv was grumbling all last year and the year before. A lot of people ripped this poor guy but my god I don't know how they could. The guy had NOTHING to work with except for Ricky Williams and I think 9 out of 11 defenders were keyed on him every single play!
 
I'm afraid it will be the offensive play calling. That's the thing that scares me the most
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A jewel of a thought here. I look at the OC situation and I get more than a bit queasy about it. We say it will be ok, they are just running Norv's playbook, but they are doing it with an inexperienced play-caller and that was one of Norv's strengths (believe it or not, Norv just tanked because he didn't have the talent to call what he needed to call...eventually he got so frustrated he bought into just run-ricky-run and offensive ineptitude). Read reports from offensive players and there is definite confusion about who is calling the shots, and what the playbook is. In fact, one report I read, said there IS no playbook at this time...no Bible, so to speak, just an amalgamation of Norv's old playbook and new play ideas from Trestman, Collier, and now Foerster. These new offensive players (Feeley, Boston, Carey, etc) are trying to learn and buy into an offense that as of right now, has no identity other than "running, play-action based" Right now our offensive coordinator position is like that of a former OC who is now head coach, and he puts a care-taker under him to call plays and form game plans because the head coach is too busy to do those things. But the catch is, we've got a Norv Turner care-taker in without a Norv Turner head coach, and even worst with a head coach whose only coordinating experience is defense.

Think of former offensive coordinator Sean Payton up in Giants land, except without offensive "guru" Jim Fassel as the head coach. Thats what we're looking at.

This could be the worst offensive play-calling we've seen since Kippy Brown.
 
Muck said:
I think coaching is just fine and has been for awhile. Remember, this staff has yet to be outcoached by the best staff in the league (New England). Their players have simply been out-executed.

Can't blame the woeful OL, inconsistency at QB, and non-existent #2 WR on Wanny the coach.
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Of course you can! Up until this year he was in charge of personnel, not to mention we drafted a LB w/our first pick last year despite having these needs. He blatantly over looked our Oline last year, banking on the fact that Dixon was gonna play despite every analyzer in the NFL saying he might be done and that our Oline was extremely thin and not the most talented group. We have had inconsistency at QB since Fiedler got here 4 years ago and he is still here! I'm not a Fiedler hater but I think the guy has layed it all out there and he's just not gonna cut it. He's IMO the best backup QB in the league. I can't rip him for the WR play because I thought DT was gonna be an upgrade also. It's too bad he turned out to be a huge bust for us last year. By the same token though, why didn't Wanny sit him down and let ne1 else get a chance? Anyway, I'm not trying to rip Wanny or anything I just think he's partly accountable for what went wrong last year. He's prolly one of the best preperation coaches and things like that but he's not to good on Sundays IMO.
 
MDFINFAN said:
I disagree with you there, the coaching has been pretty solid, the execution by the players has been the problem the last couple of years. I biggest point, did Wanny miss those FG's against NE last year or did a player miss them? I can site more, but I think you get the point. This team has been well coached for a long time, that's why they haven't had losing seasons.
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Sure, but in that game we missed 2 FG's from almost the same exact spot (on the dirt) and if I recall correctly we kicked the second one on third down or we decided to run like three times in a row after getting in FG range. That is pretty stupid gameday coaching, and I think that is what everybody means by that non aggresive style that we have. Any other team in the NFL tries to score a TD when it's 1 and 10 from about the 30(specially when your kicker just missed from that distance).....us we try to predictably run Ricky 3 times and kick a FG.
 
Muck said:
So you're saying there was a better QB on the bench?? That's a tough sell. Brian Griese and Sage Rosenfels over Jay Fiedler. I don't think that's really true.

While it's debatable whether or not Thompson deserved to start over McKnight in 2003, McKnight still seemed to struggle starting opposite Chambers in 2002.



Sounds like the GM misjudged the talent level of the WR he aquired.



Aquiring healthy, able-bodied men. That sounds an awful lot like the GM's job.

This is why Wanny now coaches the players and Rick decides who Wanny will coach.
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First a groan. Next is the fact that even though DW is now only the coach, is the coach not the person who uses the talent on the field to win??????? Is he not the guy most responsible to ensure our players give 100% each and every game???? Is he not the guy responsible for deviseing a game plan that allows our team the best chance of victory? Isn't he responsible for adjusting that game plan to the ever changing complexities of opposition gameplans during the game????? There is no reason that a defense this talented doesn't have the juice to close out games. No reason except for how they are coached. The country club atmosphere of this team is DW's responsibility.
 
darkoak said:
First a groan. Next is the fact that even though DW is now only the coach, is the coach not the person who uses the talent on the field to win??????? Is he not the guy most responsible to ensure our players give 100% each and every game???? Is he not the guy responsible for deviseing a game plan that allows our team the best chance of victory? Isn't he responsible for adjusting that game plan to the ever changing complexities of opposition gameplans during the game????? There is no reason that a defense this talented doesn't have the juice to close out games. No reason except for how they are coached. The country club atmosphere of this team is DW's responsibility.
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OOOH, well put !! ;)
 
DoLpHiNz34 said:
Sure, but in that game we missed 2 FG's from almost the same exact spot (on the dirt) and if I recall correctly we kicked the second one on third down or we decided to run like three times in a row after getting in FG range. That is pretty stupid gameday coaching, and I think that is what everybody means by that non aggresive style that we have. Any other team in the NFL tries to score a TD when it's 1 and 10 from about the 30(specially when your kicker just missed from that distance).....us we try to predictably run Ricky 3 times and kick a FG.
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You're playing a quality team, ie, they ended up winning the SB. duh..so why try and be aggressive and do something stupid like fumble or int, as you guys say Jay is known for..you're within FG range..why would you be aggressive in that situation, Don't take this wrong, but I'm glad you're not coaching the fins. I think Muck has documented the limitations of this O pretty well in this thread, please read them, I think he hit the nail on the horse. CK also mentions the other potential limitation of this year's O. that's the only coaching problem that may be a problem..other than that, this coaching staff in the pass has been great and played within the players limitations. In the NE game of course the predictable thing was to run Ricky, that's exactly what should have been done, do you remember 2 years ago when we try to pass and surprise NE???? 11 points in less than 5 minutes went up in smoke..with that fresh in a coach's mind, would you be aggressive?
 
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