Surprisingly enjoyable football game. I predicted 23-20 Miami, which looked very likely in the last minute of the game, but then we got 23-20 Jax. My thoughts:
- We just watched two really good young quarterbacks playing for two really bad football teams. Trevor Lawrence is going to be an All-Pro, and I thought Tua looked great, too. The interception was a fine decision, he just botched the throw. It happens sometimes, and I can live with that.
- Outside of the quarterbacks, I thought the play of basically everyone in this football game was unremarkable. Gesicki had a couple of nice chunk plays, but also reinforced my opinion of him as the Ted Ginn Jr. of tight ends. You've got one guy ahead of you, he's a much smaller guy, and you run for the sideline instead of trying to cut in on him or trucking him? Would rather avoid contact than try to make a play? NGMI - Not Gonna Make It.
- Dolphins gameplan was to throw the football, which is fine, Jacksonville has the worst pass defense in the NFL and the Dolphins basically can't run the ball. Unfortunately, you still have to at least TRY to run the ball, in order to take pressure off of the pass protection, push the opposing DL and LB, and maintain the credibility of your offense. Bad coaching.
- Legitimately happy for that Jacksonville kicker. Kid gets picked up off the street, flies to London, kicks a couple of moon shots to give a floundering team its first win of the season.
- Urban Meyer made a huge coaching blunder and tried to give this game away to the Dolphins by going for it in chip shot FG range, up by 4 points late. I really can't fathom why you wouldn't take the field goal attempt there. If you're desperate for a win, you make the call that makes you much more likely to win. I almost feel like he was trying to get fired.
- Brian Flores saved Urban Meyer from his own stupidity by being about ten times more stupid. The 4th and 1 call late in the game from the Dolphins was, I thought, really terrible. You call a rushing play when you've struggled to even get the ball back to the line of scrimmage on rushing attempts during the game, when Tua is red and is the kind of guy who can run RPO ? Absolutely boneheaded and gutless to not put the ball in Tua's hands there.
- Brian Flores with a couple of bad challenges trying to overturn calls on the field that there's absolutely no good replay angle to call otherwise. On the punt play, they gave the Dolphins plenty of time to think about it, and just when it became really obvious that there was absolutely no replay angle that would overturn the call, Flores throws the flag. Because he's dumb.
- Brian Flores again with the dumbass decision. Jacksonville has two timeouts remaining and is facing 4th and long from outside of field goal range. The game is tied. The clock is ticking down, twenty seconds to play... and instead of using your last time-out, you wait and let Jacksonville run it down to 5 seconds? This is a tactical error.
Let me explain: If Jacksonville has to run a play on 4th down with 20 seconds left on the clock, they will probably punt the football! Because failing to convert -- or missing a field goal -- means Miami will get the ball back with a little bit of time left near midfield. If you call your timeout immediately, you force overtime. The Jaguars are the team that wants to take time off the clock, because they are about to take a last ditch effort to win the game on 4th down at midfield. Jacksonville is the team that wants time to run down. If they decide to run a Hail Mary, they want it to be the last play of the game. If they decide to attempt a field goal, they want it to be the last play of the game. And if they are going to attempt to convert on a quick pass, they want there to be one second left on that clock at the most. Bad timeout strategy.
- The Dolphins seemed unprepared for the quick conversion attempt with 5 seconds left on the clock at the end of the game. Why? Conversions like that are possible, and have happened before. Dolphins were caught off-guard. Coaching.
- Urban Meyer blundered badly and yet still outcoached Brian Flores by a pretty wide margin. I think that sums it up for this game.
- Not having what is right now possibly the first overall pick in the NFL draft stings. Seeing Jaylen Waddle used like Devone Bess doubly stings.
House cleaning is in order and is surely coming. Signed, sealed, and soon to be delivered. George Costanza is gonna have to find a new job.
