Midseason Record Expectations

[fansinceGWilson]

Right before the season began. I seen a bunch of Dolphins fans give out their expectations of what our record should be before the bye week…

I don’t recall anyone expecting 7-2 or better. If anything I recall more people expecting 5-4 or 6-3 especially when factoring in Ramsey’s injury…




Now we are officially 6-3 heading into our bye week but there’s a bunch of fans already giving up on this team because of our losses to legit teams on the road…..

Basically every fan hoped we would be in this situation before the season began but now since we are here. A bunch of fans seem to be overreacting and acting like the sky is falling

WARNING: I'm going to start out cynical and pessimistic to make a point. To date, Miami has won every game played against a D 24th or worse in PPG allowed. They have lost every game against teams ranking above 24th. THAT is the problem. Just for fun, the remaining teams rank 1, 5, 6, 7, 11, 19, and 30 (WAS).
There can be no more expectations of 40+ ppg unless this team changes the philosophy on O. No more sloppy play can be tolerated. Have an answer when the D tries to disrupt timing - every team will try that til Miami counters successfully.
The good news is the D seems to have arrived and the talent on O is exceptional. I'm optimistic those changes are possible. Not so optimistic they will happen. Mcd has to adjust. Those drive-killing penalties have to stop.

 

[bdizzle00]

WIlkins and the rest of thje defense held the Chiefs to 14 offensive points. His play may not have flashed on the screen or showed up in the box score, but he and the defense as a whole had a good game.

They played great. I believe the Dolphins held the Chiefs to season-lows in total yards and passing yards. The game I watched showed me the Dolphins are every bit as good as KC, just not good enough to spot them 7 points (and take away at least 3 from yourselves at the same time).

 

[tay0365]

Of those that are complaining, and having fits of us being 6-3, I am sure not one had us being 6-3 and leading the East at this point, but in worst shape.

Miami is on pace to finish 11-6 or 12-5, if anyone had predicted we could finish 11-6 or better and in 1st place in the off season, most would be ecstatic, whole most of the Debbie Downers would have been laughing how very doubtful that would be.

If you consider if there had been a healthier Dolphins team in the Eagles team and Chiefs game with more consistent Refing, Miami could have just as easily won either of those games.

Right now the mission is to get healthy, win the East, get a bye in the playoffs, and become more consistent in our offense and Defense. We do all that, Miami has a great shot in the playoffs to do anything and everything we hope for.

 

[fish_fan]

6-3 and on top of the division. Sprinkle in all the injuries and its not a bad spot to be in.

Negative naratives are easy to create and lock into. Yes there are concerns with all three losses coming from good teams... but then there would be concerns if we lost to all bad teams too. "McD can't keep the guys focused" or what not. Losses suck and will make people complain one way or the other.

I just want to see improvement after losses and so far we have. Buffalo blew us out. Next the Eagles were in charge of most of the game but it was respectable. Now with a little better execution we could have beat the Chiefs 24-14.

Just keep getting better. 6-3 is not a bad place to be.

 

[njFinsForever]

To your point, I don’t care who made what predictions, it’s the style of play on the field. It hasn’t been good against good physical teams. It’s the same mistakes over over and over again and not correcting them. So, based on our personnel and what they’ve showed early in the season I expect better. This team gets a C grade as far as I’m concerned. There are some great things that have happened and Tua has grown but still they are playing below their potential. Coaching needs to improve greatly

I agree the lack of physicality on offense is a concern, if our receivers get jammed at the line, it disrupts the passing game immensely. Is it just me or was Hill not in motion as much as usual yesterday? KC D completely neutered our passing attack. Have to do better if we want to compete with the upper echelon teams in this league.

 

[bdizzle00]

Another thing people aren't talking about is that no-look shuffle pass play. If Ahmed breaks that tackle he's taking that to the house. It was a great call by McDaniel, and a great play by the KC defender, but Achane probably breaks that tackle and scores. It always amazes me how true it is that football is a game of inches.

 

[Fins1971]

We were 6-3 last year and eventually made it to 8-3 before losing streak started. Sure we can win the next 2 and match last seasons record after 11 games. But that 8-3 had wins against Baltimore and Buffalo and put us as top seed. I expected to win at least 1 of these 3 games and be 7-2. We can still make it right in 2nd half of season but first half is a bit disappointing to me. A game and tiebreaker behind KC is going to be tough to overcome.

 

[Ryan1973]

6-3 is a good record. I think that there are two side here, those who live in fantasy land and those who live in the real world. In the 3 loses McD looked clueless and the team was unprepared. Miami had gotten to Germany on Monday whereas the Chiefs got there on Friday. If anyone was going to be jet lagged it should have been KC. Yet Miami comes out looking clueless. Defense stepped up after the first drive and then shutdown KC. However, the offense never looked good. McD’s play calling vs KC and other winning teams is questionable. He gets way too “cute” and there seems to be issues getting the play in.

Tua is a completely different QB against teams with winning records now. Against loser teams, I’m pretty confident Tua will convert a 3 and even 15. But when he plays teams that actually have a good DC, he seems to panic out there. I saw him on multiple occasions look around in a panic and almost threw a pick 6 when he passed to Mostert. Whereas is you watch other QBs like Joe B, last night vs Buffalo, a team that wrecked us, Joe was always calm and got it done. I saw on several occasions where the refs would backup Cinnci on 3rd but Joe was calm and made the play and ran for the first when there was no one open.

Now, the fantasy land fans will continue to live in the clouds and say, we’ll play KC again in the AFC championship and then go on to win the Superbowl. They will be on their knees for McD and Tua, the so called greatest duo ever. Look, it’s time to wake up, if this team can’t beat teams with records >.500 what makes you think think will get a playoff win? Everyone in the playoffs has a winning record therefore Miami will be a first round elimination. Miami’s weaknesses will be exposed even more wildcard round.

You nailed it! The bottom line is McDaniel and Tua continuously wet the bed against the better teams in the league. When the going gets tough they seem to fold like a deck of cards. They are a finesse team so they easily get manhandled by physical teams. Since McDaniel has been here he hasn't figured out how to attack those type of teams when they take away what he likes to do. It's becoming a big problem!

 

[NY8123]

The D is starting to gel and Ramsey's presence on the field as had an immediate impact. People are back to their normal positions like Kohu playing the slot and not edge is huge. Chubb is playing to his potential and Phillips is fast, faster than Mahomes anyway.

The Offense is still a sight to behold, they need to make adjustments faster on the fly and clean a few things up but overall heading into the bye week at 6-3 and getting healthier is a good thing, we lost to both Super Bowl teams and the AFC Championship team, the sky is not falling, it is ascending.

 

[bdizzle00]

You nailed it! The bottom line is McDaniel and Tua continuously wet the bed against the better teams in the league. When the going gets tough they seem to fold like a deck of cards. They are a finesse team so they easily get manhandled by physical teams. Since McDaniel has been here he hasn't figured out how to attack those type of teams when they take away what he likes to do. It's becoming a big problem!

I don't think you can generalize it like that. The 3 losses were all different and Miami did not get "easily manhandled". There was not a common theme other than the Dolphins' opponents had winning records and the games were on the road.

Against the Bills, Buffalo only outgained Miami by 21 yards, and Miami outrushed Buffalo by 38 yards. Buffalo's leading rusher only gained 32 yards. The primary issue was Miami's pass D giving up 4 TDs.

Against the Eagles, both teams averaged the same yards per play, obviously, penalties against the Dolphins and non-penalties against Philadelphia impacted the game greatly. One could argue that the Dolphins' D-line manhandled the Eagle O-line as the D-line was getting blatantly held the entire game.

Against the Chiefs, it was obviously a tale of 2 halves, and the Hill fumble was at least a 10-point swing. Overall it was a hard-fought, mostly defensive struggle, but at least IMO, I did not see a theme of Miami getting "manhandled" on either side of the ball. Miami had 2 chances to tie the champs in the 4th quarter and didn't execute. That can be corrected.

Miami is close, but they aren't good enough yet to overcome giving elite teams like KC 7 points or having 10 penalties to Philly's zero.

I think Miami will go at least 6-2 the rest of the way and have one or more home games in the Playoffs.

 

[Bob512]

Those aren't fans. Most are just people who find some sort of emotional fulfillment by bitching about everything. Place these keyboard warriors in any real action and they are curled up in fetal position whimpering for mommy. The others (some I respect) seemed to be extremely drunk when they posted.

And you are correct that pre-season, all of us would have been thrilled to have our record.

Preach brother!

 

[phinman1]

Right before the season began. I seen a bunch of Dolphins fans give out their expectations of what our record should be before the bye week…

I don’t recall anyone expecting 7-2 or better. If anything I recall more people expecting 5-4 or 6-3 especially when factoring in Ramsey’s injury…




Now we are officially 6-3 heading into our bye week but there’s a bunch of fans already giving up on this team because of our losses to legit teams on the road…..

Basically every fan hoped we would be in this situation before the season began but now since we are here. A bunch of fans seem to be overreacting and acting like the sky is falling

You make a good point. Before the season I would’ve taken 6-3. But seeing how this 6-3 has played out has changed things for me. It’s the same ole s***.

I’m very disappointed in loss yesterday, and now think Tua isn’t good enough to win a SB bc he can’t beat a good D in hostile conditions on the road. It’s becoming crystal clear. So yeah, we’ll prob take care of business at home and get into playoffs. Then we will eventually lose on the road to a good defense.

 

[Ryan1973]

I don't think you can generalize it like that. The 3 losses were all different and Miami did not get "easily manhandled". There was not a common theme other than the Dolphins' opponents had winning records and the games were on the road.

Against the Bills, Buffalo only outgained Miami by 21 yards, and Miami outrushed Buffalo by 38 yards. Buffalo's leading rusher only gained 32 yards. The primary issue was Miami's pass D giving up 4 TDs.

Against the Eagles, both teams averaged the same yards per play, obviously, penalties against the Dolphins and non-penalties against Philadelphia impacted the game greatly. One could argue that the Dolphins' D-line manhandled the Eagle O-line as the D-line was getting blatantly held the entire game.

Against the Chiefs, it was obviously a tale of 2 halves, and the Hill fumble was at least a 10-point swing. Overall it was a hard-fought, mostly defensive struggle, but at least IMO, I did not see a theme of Miami getting "manhandled" on either side of the ball. Miami had 2 chances to tie the champs in the 4th quarter and didn't execute. That can be corrected.

Miami is close, but they aren't good enough yet to overcome giving elite teams like KC 7 points or having 10 penalties to Philly's zero.

I think Miami will go at least 6-2 the rest of the way and have one or more home games in the Playoffs.

Their offense seems to struggle against the more physical teams in the league. It's been a problem since McDaniel has been here. Even going back to the Bills game they won at home in Week 3 last year it's not like their offense lit it up. They won in a defensive struggle. The last two good teams they played against the Eagles and Chiefs they scored 17 and 14 points. That's not good enough. I have no faith that they can score the points they need to win games against teams like that.

 

[tggeorge]

So OP, originally seeing the schedule preseason, I was optimistically looking for a 6-3 start at the bye week, if I'm being honest.
My assessment was we would probably split against the Pats (respecting the divisional aspect), hopefully grab one of the bills/chiefs/eagles game and avoid stumbling out the gate against the Chargers. Even tho I thought the Chargers posed a significant challenge.
Well we swept instead against the Pats, and went winless in the other three and didn't fall victim in LA. My other assumption was the bills would be 7-2 and we'd be within striking distance with our week 18 match up.
So all in all, I'd say we faired pretty damn well first half of the season especially with the bills looking like ass.
Oh and the other biggest worry was TUAS HEALTH which is still intact! Defense coming around and we have everything still in front of us that we want this team to accomplish. Some of that offensive output was also a pleasant surprise!
Can't believe folks are this down but with a historical offensive pace early, I think rapidly shifted expectations but everything is still attainable!

 

[ForksPhin]

Of those that are complaining, and having fits of us being 6-3, I am sure not one had us being 6-3 and leading the East at this point, but in worst shape.

Miami is on pace to finish 11-6 or 12-5, if anyone had predicted we could finish 11-6 or better and in 1st place in the off season, most would be ecstatic, whole most of the Debbie Downers would have been laughing how very doubtful that would be.

If you consider if there had been a healthier Dolphins team in the Eagles team and Chiefs game with more consistent Refing, Miami could have just as easily won either of those games.

Right now the mission is to get healthy, win the East, get a bye in the playoffs, and become more consistent in our offense and Defense. We do all that, Miami has a great shot in the playoffs to do anything and everything we hope for.

You’re not getting a bye with 5-6 losses. And we’re now two games behind the Chiefs for that bye. And also behind the Ravens and Jaguars. We play the Ravens and they have a battle on their hands with intra-division games, but it is going to be extremely difficult (and unlikely) to pass the Chiefs for the bye.