***Bills/Fins Post Game***

[stillhardcore]

I haven’t read the entire thread.

Are people putting this on Tua? I don’t see how.

Maybe- MAYBE- the lob to Tyreek could have been 6 if thrown well. At least, that was according to the announcers because I could’ve sworn I saw the safety closing in over the top.

Other than that, Tua did his job & did It well.

Look, this team is soft. When push comes to shove they get pushed & shoved.

As well as we played today, we are not good enough to overcome turnovers & Mostert’s fumble was the change in the game. While he could’ve had both hands on the ball in traffic, IT WAS A GREAT PLAY BY THE DEFENDER. Hell, the SAYING is punch the ball out of there but this guy LITERALLY FIST-PUNCHED the ball. Wata yah gonna do?

And tackling… is there a stat somewhere out there that shows yards after first contact in the NFL? I’d wager a testicle that the Miami Dolphins lead the league in yards given up after first contact.

These guys are not winners & it goes far beyond stats.

In the 2 point conversion, you could feel the icy cold chill in the air of the certainty that Buffalo was going to convert.

When Josh Allen escapes on that 13 yard (or w/e it was) scramble on 3rd down to move the sticks, the moment he got by the DLine you just KNEW no one was going to stop him short of the first. You didn’t know, know but you knew (if that makes any sense).

That’s what this team’s character is: we will play you competitively until it’s time to get the first down to keep momentum, make the stop to end the winning drive, not make the mistake to cost you the game.

To relate it to baseball, we will work the pitcher to a full count. We will foul a good share at the full to work that pitcher’s arm more than what he would like. But we ALWAYS, ALWAYS strike out in the end.

We are missing the winner’s chromosome & it’s so evident that when the down/situation is a “must have”, the atmosphere is palpable with impending failure way before the ball is ever snapped.

This is a good description of what all of us see when we watch the Dolphins. I have never been able to understand the poor overall tackling, but that has gone on for years. Understand it is not every player on defense, but our DB's just look "small" and maybe that is the type of DB we go after. I thought Brooks looked good yesterday, Ogbah + Hand also disrupting play + tackling well, but that is what a DL is supposed to do. Simple fact about this season's Dolphins defense and many before it: We cannot get off the field on 3rd down!

 

[dolphan]

After sleeping on it I’ve come to be even more convinced that anyone thinking Tua needed to do more is insane. That was as good of a performance as any QB is going to have. It is 0.0 percent on him that they lost. He held up more than his end yesterday. More than you should need or expect. If Mostert doesn’t fumble…they win. If the D gets one stop in the second half…they win.

All losses aren’t equal. You can’t just throw a blanket “well…we lost so the QB had to be better”. Not always. They played a great team. You don’t have to be perfect to beat them…but you have to be very very good in all phases. QB held up his end and then some.

Flip the script for a moment. Consider…Josh Allen in the playoffs. He has one of the all time incredible stat lines in NFL playoff history for his career. And no ring to show for it. Because his defense never stops Mahomes. Remember that divisional masterpiece between the two? Allen lost it. Despite having one of the top five playoff performances in the history of the league in that game. They needed one more stop at any point in the game and it never came. Because Mahomes also had one of the top five playoff performances in the history of the league.

Tua was more than good enough yesterday. Mostert opened the door with a fumble. The defense never got that one more stop. Wouldn’t matter against many, many teams. Does against the best teams. A team that Tua played damn near flawlessly against.

Let’s normalize being able to understand that individual players who do their job well are not the ones who needed to be better when they come up short. Wins are not a QB stat no matter how much MVP voters or the media want to pretend they are.

 

[dolphan]

Also…I’m not going to read through 50 pages to find out…did we ever talk about what Waddle’s plan was on the last play? He turns around and runs to the 5…leaving him no one to pitch back to and 11 defenders and 95 yards in front of him. Set aside that for all his speed he couldn’t outrun Rousseau anyway…what does he do if he manages to shake him? He’s in no man’s land having to go the entire length of the field and he can’t lateral the ball