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Breakdown: Ravens vs Dolphins

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67Stang

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Some what sarcastic here

The field was pathetic and I am glad no one was hurt because of it!

Cutler looked pretty good, but nothing materialized due to stupid penalties

This game was hard to watch, it was just really bad and hard to evaluate in any area. We had our butts handed to us in every phase. Special Teams was horrible, D couldn't get off the field, and the O had a lot of 3 and outs.

The only thing to evaluate is which QB sucked worse....I give the slight edge to Doughty as Foles at least tried to go with some throws that were off. Doughty once again looked completely lost. They both looked like crap, but Doughty had a higher suck factor and Fales did lead us to our only score.

The entire team was flat and I know it is only preseason, but that was not only embarrassing and hard to watch.....the field conditions were completely unacceptable! Shades of the hall of Fame game that was called off. I think last year.
 
I thought there were a few positives from this evening.
(1) Cutler looked pretty good and I like the fast no huddle tempo that he apparently enjoys. He has a different skillset to Tannehill and don't underestimate his command of the huddle. Cutler looked like an experienced NFL QB. (I'm more concerned about the O-line than I am about Cutler).
(2) I thought the Defensive starters looked pretty good in the first quarter.
(3) Xavien Howard took a good interception. Don't be surprised if X lifts his game significantly. Lots of reports that his improvement is significant. Maxwell and Tankersley had some good moments too.
 
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I also gave Tankersly a thumbs up for his interception. He's still not ready, but his coverage and tackling have been better than some expected on draft day. RIght now I see him as a 4th corner, not really ready to be a top 3 or slot corner yet. The team still needs a vet to play behind Howard and Maxwell.
 
Tankersly was the only player worth watching in the 2nd half.

Phillips...Yeesh!

Rizzi had yet another near aneurysm scare.
 
There was some good ... some being the operative word. I'll just stick with defense because the O offered nothing.

Hull looked decent in the middle. Fought through blocks and sniffed out ball carriers. A nice play or 2 in the passing game. Definitely worth another look or two.

Allen looked good until about halfway through the third. He needs to do a better Job of locating the ball instead of just flinging himself into the pile ... looked like he was so amped that he wore himself out by the 2nd half ... needs to slow down and breathe a bit ... but mostly correctable rookie stuff like that. At least he knows how to throw his weight around. I saw reason to be optimistic there. I don't need to tell anyone how nice it would be if he could step into the SAM role right away ... wishful thinking at this point though.

X is living up to expectations. Kudos on the scouts for that one. Evaluating DBs from teams that give up 300+ passing yards a game in a gimmick conference is no easy task.

Tank looked really good. Big, aggressive, good ball awareness ... would also be nice if he could step in for Lippett.

Both rookie DTs looked excellent. I hated the Godchaux pick but he hasn't been the player I've seen underperform at LSU the past few years. Still think Taylor is better, though. We could use a few consistent, downhill, penetrating DTs in the worst way ... could light a fire under Phillips as well.

Besides that ... pretty brutal.
 
Maxwell was a huge positive, as well. Two forced fumbles in just a few series. Xavien Howard has the big pick, and Tankersly had another. The first couple series on D were positive.

I don't like the no huddle. It didn't work last year, and just like last year we were out of sync when running it,and made so many mistakes.

I also was disappointed no 2nd string LB stepped up.
 
xSxPxHx said:
I didnt see the game, but how was Hull?
Click to expand...

As normal for me with Hull, I don't look for him to make plays, just don't get blown out or exposed all the time. Righ now Hull is a starting linebacker that would be lucky to make the 53 man roster on many teams. He's in over his head, but it hasn't showed yet because the starters haven't played a full two quarters of football yet.
 
xSxPxHx said:
IS it me or does Cutler have better pocket awareness then RT?

#justsaying
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Likely he does, but he's played twice as long too so he should. I would say in general pocket awareness Cutler has a slight edge, but place him under the same pressure Tannehill has seen in the past and Cutler will make twice as many forced errors than Tannehill. Truct me Cutler under consistent heavy pressure is not something you want to see.
 
This game really upset me as this was the first game where I don't think Gase had his guys ready to play. We looked underprepared, slow, and lethargic. I know it's only preseason but it really reminded me of Philbin and left a bad taste in my mouth.

It wasn't easy but I did find a couple players who shined.

Maxwell and Howard each created and opportunity for a turnover. Seemed to be in better position than the DB's were last week.

Jay Cutler looked aggressive, threw a dart to Parker then stepped up and made another nice throw under severe pressure.

The rookie DT's looked great and stiffed the run rally well. Very encouraging!

A couple of dishonorable mentions also go to:

Sam young- his reaction time was slow and his footwork looked sloppy. Back to back holding my calls killed a promising drive. Eric smith may be closing the gap??

Lacey- 1 week after he accidentally ended McMillian's season I thought that was the worst he could do. Man did he prove my wrong! He was consistently out of position and his effort tackling that tight end should get him cut...tonight

McTyer- the guy is slow and an unwilling tackler. He also has no vision or noticeable intelligence and should not be returning kicks.

Rizzi- not only did you're siecisl teams lack any semblance of execution, you couldn't even get the right personnel out there at times. I for one am getting tired of special teams being a persistent issue with this team.

Finally every single interior lineman- you were absolutely destroyed. Enough said.
 
gregorygrant83 said:
Likely he does, but he's played twice as long too so he should. I would say in general pocket awareness Cutler has a slight edge, but place him under the same pressure Tannehill has seen in the past and Cutler will make twice as many forced errors than Tannehill. Truct me Cutler under consistent heavy pressure is not something you want to see.
Click to expand...

Triple coverage is almost open, baby.
 
All good points above! I am just glad noone was injured, on either side actually. That field was a groin pull waiting to happen and COMPLETELY unacceptable! Also in another post today I eluded our home field advantage being lost and this was a night game and the Ravens were gassed. It is what it is though. It was a preseason game that you would have liked to see better effort from.....but the whole game had a weird vibe and I honestly feel people were just trying not to get hurt on our side of the ball after the rash of bad luck we have had. Cutler does give me hope though!
 
To be honest between this game and the way the team closed out camp this week it felt like a team that was more concerned about avoiding more injuries than how they played or if they won or lost. I would suspect that to change come regular season. However, there was a feeling that the team didn't really care about this game and if they didn't have to play it they would have prefered to just take the night off. Even the 6 passes for Cutler and even only 6 for Moore in backup duty gave it a we don't really care feel. I bet Miami will lead the league through two weeks of preseason in fewest snaps by a quarterback that will actually be on an NFL roster come September.

By my count Miami only has 12 pass attempts by a qb that will be on an active roster in 2017. And on top of that their top three running backs have a combined total of 16 carries through 2 games.
 
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