Reasons Why We're Doomed

[dj911]

i agree this offence is new last year everyone screamed for a change with the offence now deal with it i think aj will do better every week if you watch the game sat carefuly he was out there excited and yelling trying to modavite he wasn't just bal bal he has some fire you guys want aj then hang in there he young he will make mistakes when he does don't yell for feidler. like when brain was there this offence has to gell and i think it will with aj

 

[pigskinguy]

So tell me what YOU think about the Dolphins compared to teams like KC, Indy, NE, Denver, and Tennessee. Sure nobody's got it figured out for sure -- if they did they'd be psychic. But give me YOUR impressions of us compared to these teams from top to bottom. Tennessee beat us without even USING McNair.

OK. I will tell you what I think.
First off, About your theory that the Titans were able to beat us without even using McNair. Do you really think it's that easy, I'm sure Jeff Fisher went to McNair before the game and said this.
"You know Steve, we're only playing the Dolphins. I don't want you going out there and playing balls out. Take it easy today and just lay low, I think we can handle these guys with out USING you."
C'mon. Did you every think that maybe the Titans COULDN'T use him or that the Dolphins D wouldn't ALLOW them to use McNair the way they usually do?

Second, my impressions of Saturday's game. I came away optimistic. I am optimistic about Feeley and the way he was able to move the ball when he came in. And I am optimistic that he has been named the starter. Now he will probably be getting most of the reps with the first team this week. (This is something that should have been happening during TC and pre-season. Just another one of Wanny's blunders, IMO.) Now was Feeley all-world? No. But was he better than Feidler? Hell yes. And with the incresed reps at practice I think you will see a much improved Feeley next Sunday.
I was also impressed with Lamar Gordon. Was he great? No. But he was good considering he has been a Miami Dolphin for about a week. The question remains, can he be counted on as a feature back? I don't know yet, but I am convinced he's more likey to be one before any of Minor, Morris or Henry could've been.
The defense was good. Sure they gave up 100 yards to Brown in the first half, but a good chunk of that was on one play. I think you can trace alot of the defenses problems yesterday back to Jay Feidler. (Flame away Feidler lovers :D )But I think Feidler's inability to move the offense and sustain a drive resulted in defense being on the field WAY to much in the first half.

Now, as far as comparing us to Tennessee, New England, Denver, KC and Indy.
Tennessee - Judging by Saturday I'd say we compare pretty good. Even with all the porblems and kinks we were pretty close. In fact if it wasn't for Jay's INT in the endzone and the ref's bad call on the McMike fumble this game could very easily of had a different result. If this game was played in, say, Week 8 or 9, when Feeley and Gordon and Booker and the o-line are more comfortable, I think it could have been a win. Or at the very least a closer game.
New England - Actually, pretty similar teams. The 2 biggest differences are that they have a better coach and a better QB. (Although with Feeley the QB part could change) This why they won the division last year and not Miami. Better coaching and a better QB last year equaled winning most if not all the close games they had.
Denver - They are good. Great o-line, solid coaching, stable if not spectacular QB. It all come down what the defense does. Probably better than us right now. But we will know more when we play them latter on.
KC and Indy - I am lumping these two teams together because the comparison of these two to the Dolphins is the same. Great offenses with utterly horrid defense. Miami, on the other hand has very good defense and brutal offense. The difference here is Miami's offense SHOULD improve as new parts come togther and the season goes along. What you see on defense in KC and Indy is what you're gonna get. Pretty much the same cast of characters from last year.
That pretty much sums it up. That's what I think.
I agree with parts of your original post, I just think that your logic of the Dolphins being doomed based on Week 1 is very flawed.

 

[Shouright]

:rofl4: :blah: :crazy:

Wow -- that adds a lot to the discussion. You gotta be pretty insightful to choose the right emoticons.

 

[Shouright]

OK. I will tell you what I think.
First off, About your theory that the Titans were able to beat us without even using McNair. Do you really think it's that easy, I'm sure Jeff Fisher went to McNair before the game and said this.
"You know Steve, we're only playing the Dolphins. I don't want you going out there and playing balls out. Take it easy today and just lay low, I think we can handle these guys with out USING you."
C'mon. Did you every think that maybe the Titans COULDN'T use him or that the Dolphins D wouldn't ALLOW them to use McNair the way they usually do?

Second, my impressions of Saturday's game. I came away optimistic. I am optimistic about Feeley and the way he was able to move the ball when he came in. And I am optimistic that he has been named the starter. Now he will probably be getting most of the reps with the first team this week. (This is something that should have been happening during TC and pre-season. Just another one of Wanny's blunders, IMO.) Now was Feeley all-world? No. But was he better than Feidler? Hell yes. And with the incresed reps at practice I think you will see a much improved Feeley next Sunday.
I was also impressed with Lamar Gordon. Was he great? No. But he was good considering he has been a Miami Dolphin for about a week. The question remains, can he be counted on as a feature back? I don't know yet, but I am convinced he's more likey to be one before any of Minor, Morris or Henry could've been.
The defense was good. Sure they gave up 100 yards to Brown in the first half, but a good chunk of that was on one play. I think you can trace alot of the defenses problems yesterday back to Jay Feidler. (Flame away Feidler lovers :D )But I think Feidler's inability to move the offense and sustain a drive resulted in defense being on the field WAY to much in the first half.

Now, as far as comparing us to Tennessee, New England, Denver, KC and Indy.
Tennessee - Judging by Saturday I'd say we compare pretty good. Even with all the porblems and kinks we were pretty close. In fact if it wasn't for Jay's INT in the endzone and the ref's bad call on the McMike fumble this game could very easily of had a different result. If this game was played in, say, Week 8 or 9, when Feeley and Gordon and Booker and the o-line are more comfortable, I think it could have been a win. Or at the very least a closer game.
New England - Actually, pretty similar teams. The 2 biggest differences are that they have a better coach and a better QB. (Although with Feeley the QB part could change) This why they won the division last year and not Miami. Better coaching and a better QB last year equaled winning most if not all the close games they had.
Denver - They are good. Great o-line, solid coaching, stable if not spectacular QB. It all come down what the defense does. Probably better than us right now. But we will know more when we play them latter on.
KC and Indy - I am lumping these two teams together because the comparison of these two to the Dolphins is the same. Great offenses with utterly horrid defense. Miami, on the other hand has very good defense and brutal offense. The difference here is Miami's offense SHOULD improve as new parts come togther and the season goes along. What you see on defense in KC and Indy is what you're gonna get. Pretty much the same cast of characters from last year.
That pretty much sums it up. That's what I think.
I agree with parts of your original post, I just think that your logic of the Dolphins being doomed based on Week 1 is very flawed.

OK thanks. By "not using McNair" I mean not involving him in the gameplan as much as they usually do. The gameplan was centered around Brown. McNair has taken over games and won them by himself. He didn't need to do that Saturday. When opposing teams don't need to pull out all the stops to beat us, it's a bad sign.

I'm optimistic about the team too, but for NEXT year. I think the main point where we disagree is in thinking that one season is enough time to develop all the newness into something that can compete well with the best teams in the conference. I don't think it's enough time.

 

[Shouright]

How do we compare with Indy, New England, and KC?

Well let's see......

New England has 70% of their cap invested in offense.

KC has the worst defense in the league and I would imagine that their cap investment is close to that of New England.

Indianapolis has ONE player on offense accounting for over 10% of their total cap.

Why would you even attempt to compare our offense to theirs?

A more apt comparison would be to that of the Baltimore Ravens who are just as salary cap heavy on defense as we are. So why don't you go ahead and say that Kyle Boller is not the answer for the Ravens? I mean, they only scored three points versus a defense that ranked at the bottom of the entire league last year.




As for "designing" and "cohesion" as it pertains to offense.....Those are randomly used terms by people who do not possess the knowledge to pass judgement.

Norv didn't "design" this offense. His philosophy of offense has been run for over 30 years. Dan Fouts, Charlie Joiner, Chuck Muncie, and Kellen Winslow sound familiar? They were the innovators of this style. Norv Turner is running Don Coryell's offense. Would that make Norv incompetent in your eyes?

What you have witnessed is a game plan. A league leading team defense that game planned the Miami Dolphins and the short comings of our running game and Jay Fiedler. We threw short because our offense has been decimated by lack of investment and a quitter. We threw short because that is what we had game planned for zone flooding. We threw short because that is what the defense was giving us.

What you fail to realize is that Jay Fiedler's strong point is his ability to read the zones. That's why he has survived in this league. What defenses have chosen to do against Jay is to flood the zones. With a lack of accuracy and arm strength Jay cannot force a ball in deep. Most Quarterbacks can't do it neither. The result for Jay is a throw away out of bounds or a dump off. He usually doesn't make mistakes but he cannot defeat a team with his arm. In other words, he worked this league for years with his brain.

We used the short passing game out of neccessity. Presently Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, and Trent Green are using the short passing game to set up the deep pass you are looking for. They have earned the respect of defensive coordinators forcing their defense to cover the slant, curl, or out route.

Could our new QB and his receivers have more than a half to earn that same respect?

Don't get me wrong -- these guys have ALL my respect. They're out there busting thier butts trying to win. I just don't think this coaching staff can take 8 new guys on offense and make them competitive with the best teams in the conference within one season.

And Norv's system is Norv's system. He's familiar with it, and he knows the goals of each play and what players need to be doing during plays to achieve the goals. When you're using a system NEW to you (as Foerster is), how can you possibly be as familiar with it as the guy who developed it?

And with all this newness personnel-wise, the one thing we could really benefit from is continuity in the coaching staff. We don't have that. Instead we have a coach trying to learn a system AS he teaches it to NEW players.

That's a LONG way from what's happening in Indy, NE, Denver, Tennessee, and KC.

 

[pigskinguy]

OK thanks. By "not using McNair" I mean not involving him in the gameplan as much as they usually do. The gameplan was centered around Brown. McNair has taken over games and won them by himself. He didn't need to do that Saturday. When opposing teams don't need to pull out all the stops to beat us, it's a bad sign.

I'm optimistic about the team too, but for NEXT year. I think the main point where we disagree is in thinking that one season is enough time to develop all the newness into something that can compete well with the best teams in the conference. I don't think it's enough time.

The point I am trying to make is that you can't tell after Week 1 whether or not this team is ready to compete.

 

[Superself]

C'mon. Did you every think that maybe the Titans COULDN'T use him or that the Dolphins D wouldn't ALLOW them to use McNair the way they usually do?

McNair is one of the BEST QBs in the league. If you come away with the conclusion that the Titans "couldn't" use him to defeat Miami....I totally disagree.

It is obvious that the Titans attack our weakness at defending the run....hence the 170 yards rushing.
I'd have to disagree to think that a seasoned and accomplished veteran top 5 QB would find it overly difficult to put it in the air and defeat us.

Jeff Fisher's gameplan worked and therefore McNair's arm wasn't needed.

 

[LtDan]

OK -- I've now watched a full weekend of NFL football, including our game, and here's why we're doomed this year:

1) We have absolutely no cohesion on offense. Watching the Chiefs versus the Broncos and Indy versus NE should show you that. Part of the reason is that we have an offensive coordinator who is teaching a playbook he didn't design. Everybody knows that cohesion on offense develops in PRACTICE, not in games (think Bill Walsh).

When you have an offensive coordinator who's being forced to teach plays he didn't design, your practices can't possibly be as effective as when your OC is teaching his own plays -- the players have more familiarity with the playbook than the coordinator! How can that be a good scenario?

And don't think Ricky's walking out had nothing to do with that. He was being cast in the role of the battering ram on an offense that was clearly going nowhere. I'm sure it looked like the blind leading the blind during the mini-camps (especially with 4 new offensive linemen out there), and when you're the guy who's gonna feel the pain the most (Ricky), you either want out or you want more money to make the pain WORTH something.

The problem here is that Wannstedt has effectively made himself the defensive AND offensive coordinator. He's made it so that the power he has over the offensive philosophy and play-calling is totally out of proportion with his offensive knowledge base. It's like the bagboy running the cash register.

And of course this is problem #1, and it all stems from DW's anxiety and his fear of being fired during or after the "do or die" year Huizenga has given him (which of course was a mistake).

2) We have no leaders and no coach who knows how to develop them. Mike Shanahan called a play last night where Jake Plummer ran a designed QB keeper around the end for a 1st down in a clutch situation. When plays like that are successful, leaders are developed. The team will look up to Plummer as a leader when he consistently makes plays like those, and Shanahan is smart enough to know that (unlike DW).

We not only have no leaders, we have no coach who knows how to develop them. Do you honestly think DW knows how to handle Feeley? Do you think he'll put him in position to become a leader on offense? I don't, and when you have no leaders, you have no team. There has never been a Super Bowl winning team that had no leaders. And even if you think Zach and JT are good leaders (which I don't), that's still only one side of the ball.

3) We're WAY too new on offense. Look at the Chiefs and NE by contrast. They're both using offensive schemes they've used for at least the past 3 or 4 years, and they still have the players executing them that they've had all along. When McIntosh is healthy, we'll have EIGHT new players on offense. There's no way you can develop cohesion with that in one season. We might get SOME cohesion by the end of the season, but we'll be NOWHERE NEAR as good as teams like NE, KC, Denver, Indy, and Tennessee. Let's be honest here.

4) The best teams in the AFC have strengths that make us have poor matchups against them. When Chris Brown runs for 100 yards in a half against us, what do you think the CHIEFS are gonna do? What do you think the BRONCOS are gonna do? These are teams with DOMINANT offensive lines and DOMINANT running backs. We stand no chance against those teams -- they'll have their way with us, and we'll have no answer because we can't score (see above). Again, let's be honest.

You might be thinking the team will develop over the course of the year and eventually be pretty good. That may happen. But when you look at the teams we have to get through to get anywhere and think about what they have going on, it's clear we're headed nowhere this year. With all the newness on offense, even the best coaching staff in the world would get this team only to 10-6/11-5.

What do you think DW and company are gonna do with it? :shakeno:

My reasons we're doomed:

1) Fans like you
2)...???...GUESS THATS IT!

 

[Finsfan13]

We will obviously try to rectify the problem on Defense - running on the Left side of the line. That should be addressed all week in practice.

One game does not make a season. Indy lost - are they going nowhere?

There's many months left ahead on the schedule.

We had a bunch of holes on the starting offense that were being filled with a temporary patch.

K.C.'s D is not any good. Neither is Denver. See what happens when they go up against a real defense.

 

[Superself]

One game does not make a season. Indy lost - are they going nowhere?

:rolleyes2

Indy isn't in the same precarious situation as our beloved Dolphins.
We have mountains to tackle....while they have speed bumps.

 

[BleedinGreenNY]

[ See what happens when they go up against a real defense.[/QUOTE]So how do you think that your defense will stop someone with a dominant o-line, Chris Brown decimated your d-line, what do you think a back like Tomlinson or Holmes is going to do to your,"real defense"?