Did Philbin Just Bamboozle Everyone?

[Finland]

He must be still bamboozling because he has stated the remarks were not to be motivational. This is simply a dull coach that doesn't have a great management mind.

 

[finfan54]

well he certainly dragged it through the entire week. circumstancial.

but has some gravitas.

But like someone else said, it doesnt change how good Tannehill has played for the last 35 games.

Lazor needs to make it easier for him.

 

[z926538]

Ya, they were so ready to play the Jets to end the season last year...

Don't forget a winless Tampa Bay after the bye week.

 

[Danny]

When you're a great HC you don't need to play mind games and Philbin is not a great HC.

Ozzy rules!!

 

[nerfball]

Here is an interesting take from a Packers fan. Its taken from a reddit thread:

Here me out Phins fans.

Joe Philbin actually knows what he is doing.

I've seen a great deal of consternation about how Philbin is handling this team, and how he is bizarrely acting around Tannehill's status as the starter on Sunday.

I can provide a brief amount of context into Philbin's history with the Packers, and why I think this is the exact kind of thing Philbin does, and why it should help the Dolphins improve.

Philbin is not an X's an O's coach. He is not a playcaller. His a facilitative coach who prepares teams for games. In Green Bay, Philbin did not call offensive plays. He did not teach players. He prepared game plans with Mike McCarthy, and he led the offense in building them into a team. Philbin is a motivator, often by uniting the team against an antagonist. In Green Bay, it was often by spinning the offense against the defense, or by using "bulletin board material" in divisional games. The Packers lost to the Giants after their 15-1 season, largely because Philbin's son had tragically died right before the week of the game. Philbin was gone and the team had lost their main motivator, who himself was grieving. The entire team lost its poise because the non-play calling OC lost his son. That's how important Philbin was to Green Bay. (That and the Giants played great).

Do you know who he is using as the antagonist right now? The Miami Dolphins, represented by himself.

This is a team of players who has let Ryan Tannehill down. Sure he isn't the best QB in the league, but play for play, he is suffering from more duress, more WR drops, and more blown protections than any other QB in the league. The team has not put forth the effort to have Tannehill's back.

They will now.

For whatever reason, the players on the Dolphins have not yet performed the way that Philbin expects them to. Thus, he is left with the difficult position of having to get his team to unite against a common enemy, when the team has shown an inherent inability to do so when facing an actual opponent like the Bills or the Chiefs.

Will this plan work? I honestly doubt it. It worked in Green Bay, but here you had Aaron Rodgers and an incredibly well-knit team on the defensive side. I am not sure if the Dolphins have the players with the mental toughness that the Packers had under Philbin. Will they wither under the pressure and unite? Or will they crumble? Maybe this tactic is unwise for a team like the Dolphins, who showed that they will not rise to the occasion when challenged (see all of 2013).

TL;DR: Philbin is trying to get the rest of the team to stand up for their quarterback through their performance on Sunday. Tannehill isn't the problem and Philbin knows it.

UPDATE EDIT - So this /r/nfl thread and link just confirms what I'm thinking. Philbin is intentionally letting himself be the bad guy for awhile with the team to motivate them to back Tannehill (which is exactly what they did). http://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/comments/2hg91y/report_philbin_told_players_he_regretted/

Predictably, the comments don't really seem to get the nuance of this, although Lobo_Marino has a great comment in there. I expect the Dolphins to come out and just crush the Raiders.

 

[SkapePhin]

Here is an interesting take from a Packers fan. Its taken from a reddit thread:

Lmao, what a ridiculous conspiracy theory. So a head coach willfully wants all his players to hate him and fight AGAINST him? Good coaches, true leaders usually motivate players to fight FOR them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[123phins]

Its only a big story cause no body like philban. If Lazor were to have said it everybody on here would start to praise him.

I havent seen that kind of emotion from Tannehill since he got here, i could care less if it made a distraction, it got Tannehills attention and hopefully can bring him back into form because he is better than he has been playing.

 

[Regulus]

Hilarious what fans talk themselves into believing. Philbin is in over his head as a head coach in the NFL.

 

[rent this space]

Lmao, what a ridiculous conspiracy theory. So a head coach willfully wants all his players to hate him and fight AGAINST him? Good coaches, true leaders usually motivate players to fight FOR them.


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imo, getting them to fight against anything would be progress.
This team has been flat, playing with little emotion. Moreno energized everyone in the opener and they played like a playoff team. When he went down, it literally took the wind out of their sails.
They needed to unite and get mad at something, we saw the benefits of that last year and I think Philbin was trying it again.
As I said before, it wasn't executed very well and we will see if it worked but there was emotion from Tannehill and teammates did stand up for him.

 

[Sons Of Shula]

Lmao, what a ridiculous conspiracy theory. So a head coach willfully wants all his players to hate him and fight AGAINST him? Good coaches, true leaders usually motivate players to fight FOR them.

You only see what you are prepared to comprehend. Kinda foolish to dismiss every point of view, especially one of interest from a fan of a different team.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

Here is an interesting take from a Packers fan. Its taken from a reddit thread:

I want to believe this is true. I want to believe that our head coach is fed up with the team coming out flat and lifeless against marginal or bad teams, and is desperately trying to get them to come out and play with some passion.

I don't believe it, but I want to.

 

[nerfball]

I want to believe this is true. I want to believe that our head coach is fed up with the team coming out flat and lifeless against marginal or bad teams, and is desperately trying to get them to come out and play with some passion.

I don't believe it, but I want to.

hey, I was just posting something that was relevant to the thread, not claiming it was true. I always have trouble blaming coaches when professional ball players don't seem motivated. really? you need someone to motivate you? they didn't get to the NFL without some ability to self motivate. stop it. the only motivation a head coach should be leveling is cutting or benching some guy who isn't performing. if that doesn't send a message to everyone else, well then they aren't paying much attention or don't care.

 

[dlockz]

I want to believe this is true. I want to believe that our head coach is fed up with the team coming out flat and lifeless against marginal or bad teams, and is desperately trying to get them to come out and play with some passion.

I don't believe it, but I want to.

I think some people give coaches and GM way too much credit on how clever they are. Remember when we had this masterful plan to somehow look like we want a qb so we could draft Ted Ginn. Never mind that most people felt Quinn would be gone or that no team was going to trade ahead us to get Ginn. never bought that theory

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

hey, I was just posting something that was relevant to the thread, not claiming it was true. I always have trouble blaming coaches when professional ball players don't seem motivated. really? you need someone to motivate you? they didn't get to the NFL without some ability to self motivate. stop it. the only motivation a head coach should be leveling is cutting or benching some guy who isn't performing. if that doesn't send a message to everyone else, well then they aren't paying much attention or don't care.

Well, it's not so much motivation as it is emotion. The Dolphins under Philbin too often just look completely flat. Bored. Uninterested in the game.

 

[JoeFin]

Will this in any way teach Tannehill to throw a ball with touch? If not, it's useless. Tannehill doesn't need more fire. He needs more touch and more accuracy - two things that can only be learned to a very small degree.