How we failed in the 1st half - Analysis

[Dr. Phin]

Ok. So I wanted to go back and see exactly what went wrong with the offense in the first half. I am going to take a look at each play and see how things developed.

11:45 1st (1st 10) Smith walked back to Tannehill, but he gets it off to Gibson on a crossing pattern. Gain of 11. Not bad. Not much to bitch about here.

11:15 1st(1st 10) Colledge blocks down on Hughes, allowing Satele to pull left. James and Smith double Williams and then Smith releases to the second level. Both Satele and Smith get decent block and Miller gets a gain of 6. Nice play. So good so far.

10:41 1st (2nd 4) Smith gets burned badly on an inside move by Williams and Tannehill has no time. Sack. All on Smith. Loss of 5, now behind schedule.

9:55 1st (3rd 8) Blitz but Tannehill has time..tries to hit Clay, but doesn't put it where Clay has chance. Poor throw.

So, in this first series we move the ball and got a couple of firsts, and then execution issues started to rear their ugly heads. That sack by really hurt and Tannehill's throw was bad. At this point it is obvious that Smith is having issues...so, what adjustments are made?

4:47 1st (1st 10) OL fakes an outside zone left to Moreno and then throw right to Wallace. Gain of 6. Good play.

4:14 1st (2nd 4) Unbalance right. Now Smith has help and we have the numbers. James and Albert collapse down and Satele and Smith pull right for Moreno. Good play for 4 and a 1st; however, Moreno is hurt. This hurts bad, as Miller is nowhere near as good (as we shall see..)

So, at least for these plays, it looks like Lazor is compensating for our weaknesses in the line with misdirection and numbers.

3:51 1st (1st 10) They allow Mario to over-commit and then collapse down on Williams and Hughes. This leaves a nice cutback lane for Miller, but what does Miller do...he dances in the hole and tries to cut out and then back in...by that time the hole is gone. This is all on Miller. Terrible job. The play was there. Gain of 1.

3:09 1st (2nd 9) Time to go long and loosen up the defense. Let's not sugar coat this...the throw here from Tannehill as PATHETIC. All he had to do was throw the ball to the inside more and it was 7. There was no safety to the inside. IMO THIS PLAY ENDED THE GAME FOR US. THE DEFENSE NO LONGER RESPECTED THE LONG PASS AND THEY STARTED TO BRING THE SAFTIES DOWN.

3:03 1st (3rd 9) We try a bubble to Landry with a couple of blockers in front. I am not saying it is his fault, but the 4 foot nothing guy on Clay pushes him 4 yards back into the play. Not the best call on 3rd and 9. I guess you could fault Lazor on that one.

0:18 1st (1st 10) They play a zone under coverage. Good pass to Wallace. Gain of 15. All good there.

15:00 2nd (1st 10) We pass to Clay coming across behind the formation in the flat. The play is a misdirection play, where the safety is no supposed to notice Clay or get frozen by the receive on that side. No such luck. The safety barely looks at the receiver and locks in on Clay. Loss of 5. The one thing I really don't like about this play is that the TE blocked down. I think that the TE was his responsibility and by having him not go in a pattern, the safety was there for the play. It could be argued that this is on Lazor...or just a damn good play by the safety. In any case, we are now 2nd and 15 and pretty much screwed.

14:20 2nd (2nd 15) Smith gets taken to school again to the inside by Williams...sack. We are now 3rd and forever...you guys make the call.

13:36 2nd (3rd 25) Nothing to see here...what do you dial up for 3rd and 25? In any case, we have another sack. Tannehill held it too long, but he probably didn't have anywhere to go...BUT DON'T TAKE THE SACK. WE DON'T EXPECT A FIRST HERE...BUT DON'T DIG THE HOLE DEEPER!!! Get rid of it. I will take and incompletion here.

10:22 2nd (1st 10) Corner plays off off Wallace. This should be an easy throw for a quick 5 yard. There is not anyone in the throwing lane, but Tannehill puts it in the dirt. This is why Tannehill is done...and will never be more than a backup.

10:19 2nd(2nd 10) We throw a quick slant to Clay. It hits him in the chest 8 yards down-field...he bobble... and then drops it. These last plays Lazor has been trying his best to help these guys out by going to quck passes and indirection...and they are absolutely butchering it! Now we are left with 3rd and 10...AHHHH We get lucky with a penalty and a free first.

10:13 2nd (1st 10) We can't get the damn ball snapped after a penalty. Good job guys. 5 yard penalty.

10:11 2nd(1st 15) We almost don't get it off again. Smith over-sets and allows Williams on a 3-step drop to bat the ball down.

10:09 2nd(2nd 15) They smell blood now and are showing blitz. They know we can't protect for long...Lazor knows that too. We have two receivers left with only 1 man covering. The other DB is showing blitz. The backer will come to help, but this should be an easy 5 at least...and it was. Gain of 8. Nothing wrong with that.

9:35 2nd(3rd 7) At least manageable now. Trips right. We go with a hand-off up the gut. Not exactly what I want to see. A hole does open, but Satele misses his block. I can't say I liked this call.

7:31 2nd (1st 10) One of the wannbe zone read looks up the middle. (I don't know why they bother with it. Tannehill can't run it worth **** and his fakes are pathetic when it is really a designed run...like this on.) In any case, there is some good blocking on this play. Satele and Colledge double Hughes and James owns Williams. IF NOTHING ELSE...WATCH THE BLOCK THAT JAMES PUTS ON WILLIAMS. and Smith gets to the second level decent hole, but Miller runs right into his blockers and it he doesn't get up-field until he bounces off. Gain of 3.

6:47 2nd(2nd 7) This is just a really poor job by somebody. The Bills do an A-gap blitz. Tannehill fakes to Miller. Now Miller goes out in a pattern, but I am wondering if the blitz was his responsibility. Matthews is also there after coming around on a fake, but I don't think he is in position to block the blitzer. In any case, the blitz disrupts the whole play. Tannehill throws it to Miller who falls down due to a bat throw. Loss of 4.

6:02 2nd(3rd and 11) Showing blitz. Mario loops inside on a stunt, nobody picks him up and chases Tannehill out of the pocket. Tannehill scrambles. Gain of 3.

I won't go over the rest of the half...I'm going to give up here...LIKE PHILBIN.

SUMMARY:

Smith got owned
Because we could not hit the long ball, even when Tannehill had time, the defense no longer respected the long ball
We became limited to short passes
Lazor tried to compensate for Smith and the line issues, but the offensive execution was bad...even on easy plays
Miller has really bad vision
Our poor execution put us in positions where there was little that the OC could do (you call 3rd and 25 guys...)
Philbin gave up. That was ridiculous.

So, there is a little for everyone to bitch about. But, I think Lazor was doing the best he can with what the team was giving him to work with which isn't much. Losing Moreno will be big. Miller has very poor vision and likes to dance. He needs to hit the damn hole and go.

 

[Butterfrog 2.0]

Lazor didn't do anything special by any means, and some of the calls on O were just flat out horrific. This was truly a total team loss, Miller sucked, Tannehill sucked, the wrs not named Wallace sucked, the lbs sucked, the dbs other than Grimes sucked, special teams sucked and coaching sucked to include both coordinators and the HC.

 

[buxster07]

it's fair to also give credit where it's due to the opponent - they played with much more intensity across the board, and subsequently dominated the line of scrimmage.

from top to bottom, we just got flat out beaten.

 

[spiketex]

Dr Phin you are needed in Davie Florida. Appreciate you taking the time to analyze every play. Did you get any idea when Shelley Smith got injured? Maybe he was playing with injury, but if that's the case, he was costing the team. I'm almost at the point where we give Billy Turner his shot.

 

[SWS84]

I wonder what was going on between Satele and Tannehill. It looked like several times Tannehill wanted the ball snapped, but Satele wouldn't do it. Not sure if he was making an adjustment to the OL call or it was a designed delay to throw the defense off. But what ever it was it sure looked like it was throwing Tannehill's off his rhythm.

 

[Austin Tatious]

Good effort, Dr Phin. That must have taken a ton of time. Another throw that stood out to me was that simple screen that RT threw way over the head of Dion Sims. What the heck was that? Obviously there were a number of other throws detailed here in other threads.

At least Ju'wan James looks good.

I think a similar analysis would show that Damien Williams has better vision than Miller does and Williams can grind better with second effort. If Williams gets hit and is surrounded and on the way down, he will find a way to fight for an extra yard or two or even bounce out effectively for a few. Miller provides none of that. Williams has more juke and wiggle too. Miller is rather straight line. Williams probably would catch better too.

 

[hoops]

i would start damien williams this week...lamar miller has ZERO vision...if they think williams can hold up in pass pro and not blow assignments i'd start him...just dont fumble the damn ball son

millers been better in pass pro so far this year than last and there's some more fall forward to his game than we saw prior but i still struggle with the lack of vision...that and he may be down or limited anyways with an ankle...he got nicked up in the bills game

 

[FinfanInBuffalo]

LMAO that one missed deep pass ended the game.....

 

[hoops]

i didnt like the dion sims throw back play call...catchable or not there was 3 guys waiting on it ready to pounce

we had a nice rb screen set up for big yardage but the bills player lawson tipped it...had a convoy out in front would have been a huge gain...another possible scoring play although miller probably would have run to contact in the open field

 

[MD]

LMAO that one missed deep pass ended the game.....

It's an exaggeration but let's not pretend this isn't a trend. Your blowing it off is equally as short sighted as the thought that one deep ball ended the game.

 

[FinfanInBuffalo]

It's an exaggeration but let's not pretend this isn't a trend. Your blowing it off is equally as short sighted as the thought that one deep ball ended the game.

Not even close. If missed deep passes "ended" games, teams would stop trying them, because they are completed at a very low rate.

 

[Fins1971]

We did not try a deep pass again until late in the 3rd quarter. I noticed on the tv telecast that 9 buffalo defenders were within 15 yards on almost every play.

They were playing the short passing and running game because they didn't respect our long passing ability.

It makes a huge difference being able to connect on those plays at least a quarter of the time (25%)

We tried 2 more late in the game when it was over and ended up 0-4 on long pass attempts.

 

[Dr. Phin]

it's fair to also give credit where it's due to the opponent - they played with much more intensity across the board, and subsequently dominated the line of scrimmage.

from top to bottom, we just got flat out beaten.

But they didn't dominate across the board. Albert and James did not get dominated at all. There were a couple players that could not handle their assignments, and they tried to help them the best they could...but as you can see, many times it was just flat out bad execution.

---------- Post added at 07:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:32 AM ----------

Dr Phin you are needed in Davie Florida. Appreciate you taking the time to analyze every play. Did you get any idea when Shelley Smith got injured? Maybe he was playing with injury, but if that's the case, he was costing the team. I'm almost at the point where we give Billy Turner his shot.

I only ddi first half, and I didn't notice anything before halftime.

---------- Post added at 07:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 AM ----------

I wonder what was going on between Satele and Tannehill. It looked like several times Tannehill wanted the ball snapped, but Satele wouldn't do it. Not sure if he was making an adjustment to the OL call or it was a designed delay to throw the defense off. But what ever it was it sure looked like it was throwing Tannehill's off his rhythm.

That one is a mystery to me also. That happened coming out of a timeout also that cost us a penalty on 1st down. If someone else has an idea on this, I am all ears.

 

[Dr. Phin]

Good effort, Dr Phin. That must have taken a ton of time. Another throw that stood out to me was that simple screen that RT threw way over the head of Dion Sims. What the heck was that? Obviously there were a number of other throws detailed here in other threads.

At least Ju'wan James looks good.

I think a similar analysis would show that Damien Williams has better vision than Miller does and Williams can grind better with second effort. If Williams gets hit and is surrounded and on the way down, he will find a way to fight for an extra yard or two or even bounce out effectively for a few. Miller provides none of that. Williams has more juke and wiggle too. Miller is rather straight line. Williams probably would catch better too.

yeah, that screen was bad. There were a number of simple throws where Tannehill flat out misses. And yes, so far James is looking like a good pick.

Williams didn't get a lot of carries, bit I'm sure he'll get more time now. It will be interesting to see how his vision is. What I want in a zone scheme is someone who makes one cut and goes! Miller just doesn't do that, he tends to dance too much.

 

[Dr. Phin]

i would start damien williams this week...lamar miller has ZERO vision...if they think williams can hold up in pass pro and not blow assignments i'd start him...just dont fumble the damn ball son

millers been better in pass pro so far this year than last and there's some more fall forward to his game than we saw prior but i still struggle with the lack of vision...that and he may be down or limited anyways with an ankle...he got nicked up in the bills game

I agree with you completely. I just don't see good vision or "one cut and go" with Miller. Hopefully, we will get to see Williams more and see what he has.