2018 Preseason Week 1 - Game Thoughts | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

2018 Preseason Week 1 - Game Thoughts

J. David Wannyheimer

J. David Wannyheimer

Writing in pencil on laminated cards since 2011
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Without any preamble:

- It's preseason football, who cares?

- I'm going to miss Bob Griese when he retires from this.

- I like the changes they made to the uniforms. The orange highlights are an improvement.

- I don't mind the interview with Tom Garfinkel, but do we really need to see them standing around in the booth? You can let him talk and ask him about the parking situation while still showing us the awful third quarter pre-season football action that only psychos like me will sit down and watch.


DEFENSE

- The guys whose starting positions are secure looked bored and sluggish out there.

- Mike Hull injury looked bad. I hate this ****. Nothing kills my enjoyment of football being back more than seeing a guy get his knee shredded in a damn preseason game.

- Minkah Fitzpatrick flying across the screen like he was shot out of a cannon on a couple of back to back plays early in the game to break up passes was nice to see. Looked good when he was asked to play free safety, and then switched in at nickel CB later in the first half.

- Jerome Baker looked unsure of himself and like he was struggling to learn his assignments (often appeared confused between plays), but made two very nice open field tackles. Just need to see him show better understanding of the defense / what he needs to do in the play.

- Jonathan Woodard showed both a good motor and some playmaking ability. Vincent Taylor also looked very disruptive.

- Cameron Malveaux made the roster last season because he played hard and flashed in the preseason. Tonight, the only time I noticed him was when he was being completely blown off of his spot. Especially on that Bucs touchdown.

- I am unimpressed by our secondary depth. Walt Aikens is a really good special teams player -- a leader on that unit -- but he is a dreadful safety. Likewise, Mo Smith didn't impress me.

- #40 Calhoun got absolutely WORKED in the second half.



OFFENSE

- Looks like we are finally getting the no huddle / uptempo offense various coaches have been talking about for years.

- Mike Gesicki makes even horribly thrown incomplete passes exciting. If this guy fails, I won't be able to explain it.

- How often do you draft a big, physical, and extremely fast running back with soft hands, and come away most impressed... by his pass blocking? Well, Kalen Ballage impressed me with that tonight in the Dolphins' first series. He then very much failed to impress me by fumbling and also missing some wide open running lanes.

- Ryan Tannehill's movement with the ball / mobility in the pocket looked fine. Good, even. Now to get the accuracy back.

- I like Senorise Perry. He's competent depth and he's a physical runner. On a team that looks like it wants to run a finesse offense, and that just lost a very physical player in Jarvis Landry, I think there is a real need for someone like that.

- I also saw some good things from backup RB Buddy Howell... but he also needs to not put the football on the ground.

- I think the enigmatic Thomas Duarte has about a zero point one percent chance to make the roster, but I liked what I saw from him tonight. He was smooth as a receiving target and he made a couple of nice blocks.

- Albert Wilson and Jakeem Grant on the field together with two TEs. Pretty interesting.

- Eric Smith, our backup RT, is a good football player. I hope he stays healthy this year. Sam Young struggled a little bit at LT, but I thought he was mostly okay. Isaac Asiata DESTROYED somebody on a run in the second half. That one stood out.

- I will not dogpile on Brock Osweiler. I ragged on the guy a lot before he was a Dolphin. Now that he is a Dolphin, I will let you guys do it. I will just say ONE THING in defense of Brock Osweiler, and I can't believe I'm going to do this. When you are stupidly tall -- six foot eight -- your windup throwing the football is going to take just a split second longer than a guy who is a few inches shorter. And that is absolutely going to make it just a little bit easier for defensive linemen to get their hands up to block the football. And it doesn't matter if you're 6'4" or 6'8", these big guys with long arms can still get their hands up in the passing lanes.

- 6th receiver: Isaiah Ford. Francis Owusu also showed up well tonight. Leonte Carroo? Polish that resume.


SPECIAL TEAMS

- I'm concerned about our kicking situation.

- Our return teams also didn't look particularly great. Penalties.


And that's all I got, folks.
 
Well stated and I agree. Lets hope the cream rises, penalties stay down as do slow starts. I don't care about wins or losses in preseason but improvement on areas where we lacked is what I'm looking at. Oh, and i wont miss Griese if he retires
 
I agree on all fronts

We need to see better results from the starting D. Or is it just a Fitzpatrick thing? Dude owns us

Carroo is gone for sure. Owusu or Ford would be solid to keep

Perry ran hard i thought also
 
Our d-line better wake up and start playing the run better. We don't need to suffer through another season of watching our line get shredded every week on the ground.
 
Presaeason or no preseason - the offense cannot score points or maintain momentum. It has been an ongoing problem for years, does anyone think this will change game 1 etc?.

The defense cannot defend the middle of the field, it’s a simple throw and catch, again an ongoing problem.

Minkah played well I thought, have the LB’s improved? Incomplete.

Rizi better get his unit and players straightened out.

Nice to see the tempo, would have liked to see Ryan get one more series.
 
Uniform adjustments were the highlight, along with the announcing crew.

It's indeed going to be numbing when Bob Griese decides he can't do this anymore. It will be like breaking the connection to the beginnings of the franchise. Griese and those guys allow just the proper amount of focus and significance to a preseason game, while mostly not insulting intelligence toward what you are looking at, which is the equivalent of a Monday practice round.

I hope the washed out uniforms are gone forever. I was amazed at how well the darker aqua returned so much toward the classic scheme that the motion sickness and dark stripe and other new garbage wasn't as noticeable.

Not many special players out there on defense. Get used to it, although there will be the occasional situation uptick game in which the energy level will overwhelm the opponent and the defense look much better than it is. Overall without Suh it reminded me of how much the Canes suffered once the long string of great defensive tackles ended when Vince Wilfork turned pro.

Minkah Fitzpatrick would mean so much more if the preceding first round pick were similar caliber, and not someone like Charles Harris. That's what makes the college season openers so much more interesting than these pro debut games. The premier college programs have all those elite 4 and 5 star recruits and they jump off the screen doing one thing or another, even if it's merely against Bethune Cookman. But with the pros and only a handful of top picks legitimately eligible to star, it's slim pickings and always kind of disappointing, unless you somehow stack one gem on top of another. Gesicki has rare traits in a meaningful area and should be very intriguing.

Trivia question was cupcakes. Of course, it helps that Ottis Anderson is my all time favorite Cane.
 
Albert Romano said:
Presaeason or no preseason - the offense cannot score points or maintain momentum. It has been an ongoing problem for years, does anyone think this will change game 1 etc?.

The defense cannot defend the middle of the field, it’s a simple throw and catch, again an ongoing problem.

Minkah played well I thought, have the LB’s improved? Incomplete.

Rizi better get his unit and players straightened out.

Nice to see the tempo, would have liked to see Ryan get one more series.
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These correlate directly. Hard to know if A will happen this year until B happens
 
Phinatic8u said:
Bob Griese makes these games so enjoyable.
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Really? From my perspective I heard guys stumbling over their words and struggling to pronounce names and it got kind of annoying. I get he's a Dolphins great, but as far as broadcasting is concerned, that group is not good.
 
SCLSU Mud Dogs said:
Really? From my perspective I heard guys stumbling over their words and struggling to pronounce names and it got kind of annoying. I get he's a Dolphins great, but as far as broadcasting is concerned, that group is not good.
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Me laughing at him is what makes them enjoyable lol.
 
SCLSU Mud Dogs said:
Really? From my perspective I heard guys stumbling over their words and struggling to pronounce names and it got kind of annoying. I get he's a Dolphins great, but as far as broadcasting is concerned, that group is not good.
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My sentiments exactly. It was an awful crew imo, him saying Gesicki was to blame on that awful throw from Fales was icing on the cake really.
 
The only point I add is that the defensive scheme seemed too simplistic. it is concerning based on last year's performance. I do believe we are holding a lot of our personnel packages for the regular season. We simply invested too much on new coaches in order to improve and progress the defense. Matt Burke needs to show us in week 1 that he is adapting to the new NFL. If we run that base cover 2 trash in week 1 then we need to panic
 
I thought this was like every other recent preseason where the D was dominant in camp and when we got to live action we stunk up the joint. Is that the failure of the D or is our O so bad that our D is impressive against them? You be the judge.
 
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