Hyde5: Are the Dolphins just beating up bad teams? | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Hyde5: Are the Dolphins just beating up bad teams?

DKphin

DKphin

Active Roster
Joined
Aug 10, 2008
Messages
14,535
Reaction score
6,353
Location
Pattaya, Thailand
1. Are the Dolphins' results just reflective of the schedule? Are they beating up mostly bad teams and losing to winning ones? This is something an AFC scout wondered after Sunday's win in Jacksonville and is interesting to ask because for the next month they'll just facing winning teams.

Let's look at their record split by the opponents.
Record of teams they beat: 10-21 (New England 6-2; Oakland 0-7; Chicago 3-5; and Jacksonville 1-7. (New England obviously would be the outlier in this idea).
Record of teams they lost to: 14-9. (Buffalo 5-3, Kansas City 4-3, Green Bay 5-3).
Let's break down some keys stats by wins and losses considering the talent difference. Consider:
Average points scored in wins/losses: 31.25/16.3.
Average opponent points in wins/losses: 15.25/30.
You expect some differences in bottom-line stats between wins and losses. but these are wild swings - roughly half the points allowed by the defense and half those scored in wins compared to losses.
Let's look at Ryan Tannehill's stats:
In wins: 7 TDs, 3 ints, 8.0 yards per pass attempt.
In losses: 4 TDs, 3 ints., 5.6 yard per pass attempt.

So now they get a good opportunity to show these stats don't tell the story. As mentioned, the Dolphins' November schedule is against four winning teams: San Diego (5-3), Detroit (6-2); Buffalo (5-3); and Denver (6-1). Throw in the playoff (and tie-breaker) implications against San Diego and Buffalo and the month has added importance.
One thing is for sure: This offense hasn't proven it can consistently play against good teams. We're about to find out if that can change.
Click to expand...
Read more: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/...ng-up-bad-teams-20141028-story.html?track=rss
 
Certainly appears that way. Got to change that this week....
 
The team needs to get on a serious roll now.

They need to start to dramatically IMPROVE with every game if they are to have any chance at all.

I don't see how they win more than 2 of the next 4 as they are playing right now.

I think the personnel on the team is good, I think with Todd Bowles as DC our defense would probably be better. The Bills are MUCH better with Orton at QB, and they have beaten us the past 3 times with crappy qbz
 
I think the pattern here is that 2 of the 3 games we lost, the offense significantly struggled, almost uncharacteristically, compared to our good games. The defense is not good enough to win singlehandedly. If not for the offense picking up the pace against the Jags in the 3rd Q, we would have left a close game for Jax to get more possession time and attempts to make a comeback.
 
Thrilling logic to note that when you win you score more than you give up and when you lose it's b/c you didn't make enough plays.
 
What is much more concerning to me is 3 of the 4 teams we face in November are top 5 defenses according to DVOA. Last year we were 1-7 against top 10 defenses. We need to go 3-1 over that stretch, we'll be lucky to go 2-2, and we could easily go 0-4 if Rivers has an amazing day on Sunday.
 
In the 4 games we have won the defense/special teams has setup the offense for 17 points against NE, 14 points against Oakland, 10 points against Chicago and 17 points against Jax.

Without the turnovers and short fields we could easily be 1-6 and are scoring less than 20 a game. When we fail to get 10 points off turnovers we have lost every game. (buffalo 0, kc 7, gb 0)
 
So freaking what. Take a look at the wins of the other teams also, including Sand Diego. We destroyed Oakland, but they put up 28 against the chargers. Buf, NE, SD...etc, all have most of their wins against garbage teams. That's a stupid stat to make an article about. In fact, every one of those other teams could have a similar article written about them.
 
In the past bad teams always gave us trouble so this is improvement. The losses to Buffalo and KC were early on while missing many players due to injury and suspension so I would say we are heading in the right direction now.
 
I guess we will get to the bottom of this mystery come week 17 after all the teams have finished playing their games.
 
If the Dolphins win vs the Chargers what excuses will we hear? The Chargers aren't really that good?

Funny how every game seems to be THE game where Dolphins needs to do something to prove something to somebody.

Raiders - Bad team. Dolphins usually play down to their opponent so they can't do that this time. Check.
Packers - Great team. Dolphins don't stand a chance - It comes down to the final play.
Bears - Offensive juggernaut, their big receivers will run all over the Dolphins - Oops, now they are a bad team.
 
Fins1971 said:
In the 4 games we have won the defense/special teams has setup the offense for 17 points against NE, 14 points against Oakland, 10 points against Chicago and 17 points against Jax.

Without the turnovers and short fields we could easily be 1-6 and are scoring less than 20 a game. When we fail to get 10 points off turnovers we have lost every game. (buffalo 0, kc 7, gb 0)
Click to expand...

You've figured out the secret to the NFL. Winning the turnover battle leads to wins.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom