Zim’s Grades For The Game Week 1 Edition

[utahphinsfan]

I don't care if its scary to some to be so aggressive in play calling. I lived through the Philbin years. Losing while throwing haymakers beats losing by bending over and presenting your soft nethers to your opponent.

Don't forget the tenures of Dave & Tony.

 

[Nappy Roots]

Welcome Back Phins Fans!! The NFL schedule makers dropped a tough road game against a very good Chargers team for week 1. As usual, nothing that I thought would happen actually did. I thought the OL was going to be bad today. WRONG. I thought the DL was going to be good today: WRONG. I thought Tua would have an average day at best today. WRONG. The proper conclusion ladies and gentlemen is, I’m no Nostradamus. That is for sure. Now onto the grades:

QB - A : Tua had a great day against a good NFL defense. There is no other way to spin it other than that. 466 yards and a 110 QBR. Add in 3 TD’s and it’s a huge day by our QB when we needed it. If he didn’t fumble the ball and throw the pick….We walk away with this game easily…And Tua gets the A+. Regardless, I’ll take an A effort from our QB any day.

RB’s - B : I’m giving the RB’s a generous B grade today. We only ran for 70 yards today and 5 of that was by Tua. However, using EZ E as a back worked decently. Mostert had 37 yards today and ran hard. What earned this group the B was their pass protection. They helped the OL keep Tua upright today.

OL - A - : The much maligned OL played exceptionally today. Without Armstead, I expected to see Tua leave the stadium in hearse today. How wrong I was. Lamb played great today. My next sentence is something I never thought I would say…. Austin Jackson was VERY GOOD today. I didn’t hear Bosa’s name nor did I hear Mack’s. Great game by these guys. I am impressed.

WR’s - A + : With Halloween just around the corner, the best way to scare opposing defensive backfields is to wear a Tyreek Hill mask around town. The entire Chargers defensive backfield is going to have NIGHTMARES about Hill tonight. Waddle and the rest of the guys were clutch as well. Great game by this unit. A well deserved A +.

TE’s - B + : Smythe had a good game and came up clutch for us. 3 Catches for 44 yards is a good day.

DL - D - : Holy **** these guys got blown off the ball all day. The only thing that saved them from an F is the way they played on the last drive to save the win. Kudos for stepping up when they had to. Regardless, I’m concerned about the run defense. We’ll have to keep an eye on that all year.

LB’s - D - : Again, the last drive saved these guys from the F. David Long? Did he play? Baker? I think I saw him once. Chubb and Phillips were non factors for the most part. This unit has to improve and soon.

DB’s - C : X was flagged at least 3 times today. Not good from him today. Holland was good in run support, but that was typically 8 yards down the field. We need this unit to show up better next week.

ST’s - C : The glaring errors were a bad 38 yard punt by Bailey and a missed XP by Sanders. The missed XP could have lost us the game if not for our defense stepping up. Otherwise, Sanders made the kicks he needed to. Mediocre effort.

Coaching - B - : McDaniel gets an A for the game plan and his play calling. The offense was on fire today. Fangio gets a D. He had some well dialed up blitzes near the end….But his Defense was torn up for the most part. Added together, it’s a B-. I added a little in for the win.

Conclusion: A great start to the year. Let there be no question: Tua is a top 5 QB in this league. The future looks bright for us…..As soon as we can stop the run. On to New England!!

I was absolutely shocked to see Long out there so little. Van Ginkle played more LB than him it seemed. Baker was so bad in run fits. Literally would just run up to the line of scrimmage on run plays without even reading the play. It was pathetic. We are in trouble there.

I disagree with X having a bad day. Yes, he committed some penalties. Most of them were little yards due to being close to the endzone. Those are smart penalties. He would rather be physical and keep the ball out of the endzone and live to fight another play than give up a TD and I agree. I thought he locked down his side for most of the day besides the penalties. Thought the chargers attacked the middle(LBs) and Elliot in the passing game.

Also, I will say, I kept seeing people say that Phillips was good(not you). I couldn't disagree more. I watched him a lot. He was taken out of the play so easily in the passing game and his tackles in the run defense was him circling back around to the play with his motor. At least Chubb faced an elite tackle on his side, what was Phillips excuse?

 

[Ray R]

I still can’t believe that O line held Bosa and Mack to ZERO sacks, without Armstead. Credit also to Tua to avoiding the rush by being elite in the pocket yesterday.

I can.
You may need to change your belief system. - LOL

 

[Ray R]

Yeah, I’m not going to knock a 466 yard opening week performance capped off with a touchdown throw into a window basically the size of the football based on a few bad throws or decisions. We carved through that defense pretty much all day mostly riding his arm. An errant throw would’ve had to start a wild fire to bring that down from an A.

The game was in California. - LOL

 

[BSQ]

1st and 2nd downs were throwing downs, and both were incomplete (although I though Tua could have ran that 1st down in). We used 12 seconds in 2 plays. You can't do that there. Yes, you want to score, but you need to be smart. If you score on 1st down, fine. Let your defense win the game. But, you need to run on 1 of those 2 downs, if not both. I'm not saying you don't score, but a great coach uses more clock there.

I watched almost all of Don Shula's 325 wins. He would have mixed in some runs before scoring so that the clock was down to nothing. Herbert would have had something like under a minute with zero time outs. We needed to force them to use those last 2 time outs in the end. We help the other team with those incompletes. There's a way to be smarter, we got away with it, this time.

 

[laxcoach]

I watched almost all of Don Shula's 325 wins. He would have mixed in some runs before scoring so that the clock was down to nothing. Herbert would have had something like under a minute with zero time outs. We needed to force them to use those last 2 time outs in the end. We help the other team with those incompletes. There's a way to be smarter, we got away with it, this time.

Mostert should have stayed inbounds on the wheel.

 

[McDolphins]

The game was in California. - LOL

Glad you picked up on that reference, Ray.

 

[Ray R]

Glad you picked up on that reference, Ray.

Ray was Right, again, - LOL
I just can't help myself.

 

[Jssanto]

The Offensive Line deserves a game ball. Tua had lots of time, inspite of the 13 pressures the line gave up.

Tua, was fantastic. But he needs to learn to stop throwing into coverage. He got burnt once again, on the interception he threw in the endzone.

Agree.
But two things.
1. More experience May yield even better decisions.
2. He needs a bit of a gunslinger mind set or some of those completions aren’t made.