One of my favorite things about this Dolphins team is that they've shown that they can pull away in different types of games. Since the losses to KC and Buffalo, Miami has outperformed every opponent in the 2nd half. Miami was not nearly as opportunistic against Buffalo as they had been in prior weeks. You obviously don't want the team losing the TO battle, but it's impressive to overcome a 0-2 TO differential and win by 10+.
Miami pulls away much like SF and SEA did last season. It's not a wave of offense like Denver or GB. Miami competes at every position (even when Dallas Thomas is getting his **** handed to him by Williams, he's fighting) on every play, plays top-5 D, and doesn't let negative plays affect their effort level. Against most teams, Miami proves to be too much over the course of 60 minutes.
If you can't keep Miami's D honest with the running game, you're SOL. Wake and Vernon rank near the very top of edge rushing duos, and the trio of Odrick, Starks, and Mitchell also ranks high among DT groups. As an edge rusher, Misi was below average, but as a LB, he's an above average pass rusher (felt this way about him since he was at Utah), and Jenkins has also been very good on the blitz and in space. Delmas and Jones are playing about as well as any pair of safeties (Chancellor has been hurt in Seattle), and our CB's are very good when healthy. Grimes is a top 10 CB, and Taylor and Finnegan have been playing solid, physical football.
Phil Simms nailed it when he said that Tannehill is playing well enough to become the leader of the Dolphins. Hoops nailed it when he highlighted the three penalties Tannehill affected with the hard count. He's doing the little things, and he's in the game. Prior to this season, my biggest knock on Tannehill was not the deep ball. It was his lack of instinctive play. Hoops and I had a discussion about it, but I said that Miami needed to simplify things for Tannehill so that he could play instinctive football. Lazor has done that. He's taken away some responsibilities from Tannehill (that some here have criticized), and the net result has been - by far - the best Tannehill that we've seen to date. You don't see gears grinding in his brain on every play. When he sees the play, he makes it. Lazor is also getting Tannehill on the move early. He failed to do this against Detroit, but against CHI, SD, and BUF, within the first few plays, Tannehill was on boots or running the football. You don't get extra points for making life harder on your young QB (Mike Sherman). Simplify the game, let him play instinctively, and he can take on more responsibilities in an organic fashion.
The good news is that if Miami maintains their focus, there's no way that they should lose to the Jets or Vikings. Should not be competitive games, and they have a shot against DEN and NE. I also think that Miami should handle Baltimore - especially since it's at home. In years past, I'd expect Miami to lose games they shouldn't in this situation, but this team is playing much better than any Miami team we've seen in a long time. Setting myself up for some heartache, but, as I've said recently, this is my favorite Dolphins team (not counting the teams of the 70s and 80s, because I didn't watch those seasons as they happened). Unless the team implodes, I wouldn't make any major changes in the off season.
