Rocket Science!

[NBP81]

I think its a chicken/egg thing. I think the only reason a lot of the teams with elite QBs end up more in the middle is because there is a tipping point where defenses sell out to stop the pass and there is too much value in the running game to pass it up. That and when they build leads they pound the clock with the running game. It is interesting if you look through the years that Sean Payton seems to be the only coach that never deviates from passing at such a high percentage. Personally, I think besides Payton most coaches with elite QBs are still too nitty and they should just keep passing at around 65% regardless of the defense shown.

I agree with everything you are saying. But when you compare the Dolphins to the Dolphins, they seem to be more successful when they are balanced. It doesnt make any sense to be in the top 5 of pass attemps year after year when your passing game is mediocre... Does it?

 

[AFCMiamiEast]

"... and made with bits of real panther."

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

I agree with everything you are saying. But when you compare the Dolphins to the Dolphins, they seem to be more successful when they are balanced. It doesnt make any sense to be in the top 5 of pass attemps year after year when your passing game is mediocre... Does it?

If we could not run the ball at all (like in several games last season) and we were able to get yards through the air, then I'm fine with play-calling that skews heavily toward the pass. Sometimes you have to go with what is working best.

Not the case vs KC.

 

[Sons Of Shula]

Rocket science eh? More like jumping to conclusions. If you look through this list you should notice rushing percentage does not automatically mean great team. The great teams are scattered throughout the list from the top right to the bottom. What I notice is all the great teams have great QBs and rushing percentage does not correlate with winning at all.

http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/team-rushing-play-percentage/2013/

It is really bizarre that we have almost as many rushing yards as passing yards while rushing at such a low frequency. I believe we're actually second in terms of rushing yard percentage behind only Dallas who rushes at a much higher frequency.

Rocket science for me: Great QBs make great teams. Period.

I'm not even sure you took the time to evaluate your own link. Let's take a look at that list again and how it correlates to last's years playoff teams.

SE #1
SF #2
CA #5
PH #6
SD #7
CI #11
KC #13
GB#14
NE #16
IN #19
DE #23
NO #28

9 of the 12 playoff teams we're in the top half of the league in rushing percentages. 5 were in the top 10, 3 in the top 5 and the top 2 were in the NFC championship game. The team #1 in rushing percentage won the Super Bowl. In contrast, there were only 3 playoff teams in the bottom half of the league in rush %.

Great QB's can carry a team but that does not signify automatic wins let alone a championship caliber team. Depending on the argument, roughly 15% (approx 5/32) of the NFL teams have an elite QB that can do so. The rest rely on a more balanced offensive attack which can be seen by the chart you posted.

Great QB's may make for better teams, but great teams win championships, not great QB's.

*Pop Quiz: Name one significant record breaking QB (yards, TDs) to win a championship in the year he broke those records.

 

[NBP81]

If we could not run the ball at all (like in several games last season) and we were able to get yards through the air, then I'm fine with play-calling that skews heavily toward the pass. Sometimes you have to go with what is working best.

Not the case vs KC.

Yes of course, go with the flow... And then I realize who our HC is and go back to hopeless state... And the reason I put this more on Philbin than Lazor is simple, he`s now had two OCs and the ratio is the same. Lazor actually comes from the most balanced team last year where he had alot of success offensively, he now gets to be the man and decides the run is worthless in the NFL? it doesnt make any sense to me. On the flip side, Philbin comes from GB where they had alot of success throwing the ball all over the place, but it wasnt his system nor was he even calling the plays. That screams to me that he s trying to duplicate something he doesnt fully understand in a tottally different environement.

 

[fishfanmiami]

I agree with if the running game is working stick with it but most of the good teams today pass to score quickly and get a decent lead and then pound the running game to finish off the opponent. This results in a balanced attack when you look at the stats.
Problem is our offense seldom gets a decent lead and is usually playing from behind so the running game gets shelved way too early and we pass , pass , pass.

 

[Zounds]

Rocket Science: When you are down by at least 2 scores in the 4th quarter, you don't waste time running the ball and will almost always end up with more passing plays.

In games where a team is losing in the same fashion as we did at Buffalo and against KC, you will almost always see more passes than runs. Having more runs than passes is usually a byproduct of winning, not the reason we win.

 

[roy_miami]

23 pass to 12 rushes first half of the KC game. But we passed 7 rushed 1 on the final and our best drive of the half, and that one run definitely should have been a pass. And it looks like whats happening is the sacks and penalties gets us way behind on the down and distance. We had 4 plays of 17+ yards and still ran on one of them (losing yards). Plus we ran on that 3rd and 10 which I thought was dumb. Thats the thing, we all clamor for more rushing attempts but still complain when we seemingly run at dumb times. If you're trying to force things to stay balanced more of those 3rd and 10 rushing attempts will happen, not less.

15 pass to 12 runs first half at Buffalo this time with 6 straight runs to close the half. Once again getting behind in the down and distance several times via sacks and negative plays. Again we had 4 plays with 15+ yards to go and passed on them all.

 

[NBP81]

Rocket Science: When you are down by at least 2 scores in the 4th quarter, you don't waste time running the ball and will almost always end up with more passing plays.

In games where a team is losing in the same fashion as we did at Buffalo and against KC, you will almost always see more passes than runs. Having more runs than passes is usually a byproduct of winning, not the reason we win.

score was 21-15 entering the 4th quarter against KC... Maybe we actually lost because we STOPPED running?

---------- Post added at 03:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:57 PM ----------

23 pass to 12 rushes first half of the KC game. But we passed 7 rushed 1 on the final and our best drive of the half, and that one run definitely should have been a pass. And it looks like whats happening is the sacks and penalties gets us way behind on the down and distance. We had 4 plays of 17+ yards and still ran on one of them (losing yards). Plus we ran on that 3rd and ten which I thought was dumb. Thats the thing, we all clamor for more rushing attempts but still complain when we seemingly run at dumb times. If you're trying to force things to stay balanced more of those 3rd and 10 rushing attempts will happen, not less.

15 pass to 12 runs first half at Buffalo this time with 6 straight runs to close the half. Once again getting behind in the down and distance several times via sacks and negative plays. Again we had 4 plays with 15+ yards to go and passed on them all.

Id wager we`d have less 3rd and 10s if we ran more on 1st and 2nd down...

 

[roy_miami]

I'm not even sure you took the time to evaluate your own link. Let's take a look at that list again and how it correlates to last's years playoff teams.

SE #1
SF #2
CA #5
PH #6
SD #7
CI #11
KC #13
GB#14
NE #16
IN #19
DE #23
NO #28

9 of the 12 playoff teams we're in the top half of the league in rushing percentages. 5 were in the top 10, 3 in the top 5 and the top 2 were in the NFC championship game. The team #1 in rushing percentage won the Super Bowl. In contrast, there were only 3 playoff teams in the bottom half of the league in rush %.

Great QB's can carry a team but that does not signify automatic wins let alone a championship caliber team. Depending on the argument, roughly 15% (approx 5/32) of the NFL teams have an elite QB that can do so. The rest rely on a more balanced offensive attack which can be seen by the chart you posted.

Great QB's may make for better teams, but great teams win championships, not great QB's.

*Pop Quiz: Name one significant record breaking QB (yards, TDs) to win a championship in the year he broke those records.

The only "bad" QB I see there would be Alex Smith and even he had an 89 passer rating which is very respectable, actually its pretty good.

 

[psfign]

Rocket Science: When you are down by at least 2 scores in the 4th quarter, you don't waste time running the ball and will almost always end up with more passing plays.

In games where a team is losing in the same fashion as we did at Buffalo and against KC, you will almost always see more passes than runs. Having more runs than passes is usually a byproduct of winning, not the reason we win.

I agree with that, but against KC..we abandoned the run only down by 6 in the 3rd Q.

 

[whizafriz]

Agreed but Miller was doing great against KC.

Yup. This is what I don't get. Moreno obviously was huge in the NE win, but Miller also played really, really well against KC, and it's regarded as a "poor game".
I think the real culprit for the losses were Lazor's 3rd down playcalls, Tannehill not executing properly (plus WR drops), and Philbin playing too conservative, especially going into halftime. Those dead drives and reluctance to attack killed our momentum.

 

[roy_miami]

I agree with everything you are saying. But when you compare the Dolphins to the Dolphins, they seem to be more successful when they are balanced. It doesnt make any sense to be in the top 5 of pass attemps year after year when your passing game is mediocre... Does it?

I don't know. But I do know I appreciate Philbin's approach, its unconventional but very logical.

-You need an elite QB to win: True
-Our team is built to win with an elite QB: True
-We have an elite QB: False

If any of those statements would be false its not going to work anyway. It probably doesn't do you any good to *****foot around with building a team to win with a crappy QB regardless, you're just wasting time. The Jets almost pulled it off with Sanchez but that was a once in a generation type run, and they ended up not realizing that Sanchez really did suck.

 

[NBP81]

I don't know. But I do know I appreciate Philbin's approach, its unconventional but very logical.

-You need an elite QB to win: True
-Our team is built to win with an elite QB: True
-We have an elite QB: False

If any of those statements would be false its not going to work anyway. It probably doesn't do you any good to *****foot around with building a team to win with a crappy QB regardless, you're just wasting time. The Jets almost pulled it off with Sanchez but that was a once in a generation type run, and they ended up not realizing that Sanchez really did suck.

The word Elite suggests that they are very rare... So what you are suggesting is to keep playing as if we have one of the top 5 QBs in the league even if we dont, until we get one??? Philbin is very stupid if he beleives he has that kind of time to work with...

 

[Zounds]

score was 21-15 entering the 4th quarter against KC... Maybe we actually lost because we STOPPED running?

I agree with that, but against KC..we abandoned the run only down by 6 in the 3rd Q.

You guys need to rewatch the game. During the 3rd and 4th quarters when we were only down by 6 points, we did not abandon the run. We called exactly 4 running plays and 6 passing plays during that time, and 2 of those pass plays were sacks that put us in long position.

It was only after the Chiefs went up 27-15 with 4 minutes left in the game that we abandoned the run and went with 13 consecutive pass plays.