Sherman Costs ‘Fins Another Victory, Possibly Playoffs

[Shouright]

Look at the teams we lost to, five of them are top ten in defense DVOA, the Panthers, the Bills x2, Tampa Bay and Baltimore, and the Saints is just outside at 11. The only team we beat with a top defense was the Bengals and it took OT to do it with Dalton playing like total garbage and they lost their best defensive player during the game, and we had to rely on our defense to get our points for us..

Clearly our offense doesn't match up well against top defenses. Another thing that stands out is we've been completely shut out for several halves vs the above teams.

This is the main problem in my opinion. It's a passing league, the team doesn't yet have the kind of passing offense to play competitively against the better defenses in the league, the players themselves know it, and it limits the goals they set for themselves for the season (if only perhaps unconsciously), hence the emotional flatness in games such as the one yesterday.

This team is still functioning with a developmental quarterback folks. Unless and until that quarterback plays well enough to make the other players themselves believe they have a chance to be competitive at a high level in the league, the team itself is going to feel limited and be prone to emotional lows. Couple that with an offensive coordinator who does a poor job of mitigating for that insufficient and not-fully-developed talent, and you get the kind of physical and emotional valleys we saw yesterday.

You have an offensive coordinator who's putting the offense on the shoulders of a not-fully-developed player, and the rest of the team is affected by that both physically and emotionally in my opinion.

 

[roy_miami]

Bills a top defense? Yes defensive line and top pass rush. But if you've seen the Bills games, they've allowed 20 something pts per game. For a top defense, the bills sure allow a lot of points scored on them from offenses. The problem is, the Bills secondary is not that good, but their pass rush is great. Teams that can actually block a damn, have taken advantage of that and when their qb has time to throw they do damage to bills secondary. However, teams like fins who have a bad o line and get manhandled by bills pass rush, they don't score on the Bills becausee their qb gets pressued or sacked all game and they can't take advantage agains the bills secondary, because the bills pass rush does their job and allows their secondary to not have to cover the Wrs that long before the bills d line is in the qbs face or tackling the runningback behind the line of scrimmage.

I don't pretend to know how they calculate DVOA but the rankings don't seem too out of line to me and the Bills are ranked 4th (though that might have something to do with getting to play us and the Jets twice), the Panthers are 3rd, Arizona 2nd and the Seahawks are first.

Its also interesting to note that the Chargers were ranked last in run DVOA, the team we just happened to run all over for one of our best rushing performances.

 

[cltchperf]

I don't pretend to know how they calculate DVOA but the rankings don't seem too out of line to me and the Bills are ranked 4th (though that might have something to do with getting to play us and the Jets twice), the Panthers are 3rd, Arizona 2nd and the Seahawks are first.

Its also interesting to note that the Chargers were ranked last in run DVOA, the team we just happened to run all over for one of our best rushing performances.

Defensive Rankings can be misleading though. If team doesn't allow much pass yards or rush yards for their average and are top ranked in that. But they allow 24 ppg, that means, they don't allow times to drive much, but when a team does drive on them, it ends up in TDs instead of fgs or that defense is bad in the redzone. I look at ppg and stopping teams on third downs as true indicators of a defense. I don't look at forced turnovers, because a defense can't always force them and if that's what they rely on, it will cost a defense as they won't stop a team from converting third downs and driving and scoring on them.

 

[whizafriz]

Put this lost on the players were it belongs...this is the same guy who called the game against the Pats, Indy, chargers and Steelers.....we praise the players when we win and want to fire the OC when we lose....the players play the game, it wasn't him missing blocks, dropping passing and making errand throws.....it was the Players, they lost this game and its time we fans hold them accountable, stop looking for the somebody other than them to blame...this one is on RT for making bad throws, the OL for not protecting him, WR for dropping balls and not getting open....the D for not getting turnovers or making plays against this rookie QB

The team win and loses together....now if this was a close game and he called a ridiculous play that cost us the game then you blame him, don't blame him in a shut out when the team gains all of 120 yards in 4 quarters.....

Too much passing and not enough running on a day of inclement weather. We only had 9 rushes I think? the whole game?
I don't fault Tannehill for making errant throws in freezing rain. I can definitely fault Sherman for making him do so a majority of the game, and on crucial downs.

 

[JBinSD]

At least you admit it.

You believe this BS because you play madden and you can run 400 different plays.

Have you ever considered the fact that what we go with is what our players strengths are? You simply cant call whatever and expect a group of 11 men who havent practiced doing that **** or it simply dosent fit their skill sets and expect them to execute it. Its not a video game. Its REAL FOOTBALL.

"Get creative" herp derp. Yea....... as soon as Sherman gets Peyton Manning at QB, he will get real ****ing creative for you. And he will look like a god damned genius in your eyes.

I can't say I'm fully on board the "FIRE SHERMAN" wagon WV -- but seriously, you have some blinders on or something.

Madden or not, the man doesn't call plays to exploit another defense. We tend to stick to our bread 'n butter plays, come hell or high water.

You'll note how a coach like BB changes his plan VASTLY based on who he is playing. The Patriots knew we would be in Tom's face. So what did he do? He ran a ton of plays which required 3 step quick drops got rid of the ball immediately.

As a few others have noted, if we are going to throw a long ball, why are we standing in a pocket that isn't there? A bootleg would have been nice.

And why the heck wouldn't we TRY a screen? NOTHING else was working. We HAVE to call plays that at least slow down a pass rush. Instead, we just did more of the same, and they were able to just dig in more!

You saying that he calls plays to a player's strength is BS... Why would he have such a knack for trying to run Daniel Thomas OUTSIDE on 3rd or 4th and inches? We made a habit of that earlier in the year and suffered because of it. You have Pouncey in front of you, and a 6'4'' QB with speed and agility. Maybe sneak for 6''? NO WAY!

He has done a great job here and there, but the consistent thing is this: Sherman bases his play-calling too much on what WE have in our players, instead of a combination of what WE have and THEY are doing as a defense.

 

[rvz1020]

I would think the same way they looked when the Bills successfully ran them over and over again.

Definitely. And we are the ones who needed the screen plays to slow down bills dline. I would have thrown a screen on every second and third downs until bills dline slowed down a little. Sherman is a putz and better be gone after this season. Lets get a young innovative OC next year.

 

[madmic21]

At least you admit it.

You believe this BS because you play madden and you can run 400 different plays.

Have you ever considered the fact that what we go with is what our players strengths are? You simply cant call whatever and expect a group of 11 men who havent practiced doing that **** or it simply dosent fit their skill sets and expect them to execute it. Its not a video game. Its REAL FOOTBALL.

"Get creative" herp derp. Yea....... as soon as Sherman gets Peyton Manning at QB, he will get real ****ing creative for you. And he will look like a god damned genius in your eyes.

Yeah its also called a week to set a game plan that has the best chance at exploiting an opponents weaknesses and avoiding its strengths. We played the team once before and this was what he came up with? I game plan as a pitching coach and if I have a dead red hitter matched up with a dead red pitcher I am not going to completely against my pitchers strengths but you can bet that in the late innings with runners on I am going to have my breaking ball specialist ready to go in the bullpen to matchup.

What Sherman did yesterday was not good enough and cannot be defended regardless of how we matchup or what our talent allows. It was almost like the issue was completely ignored.

 

[roy_miami]

Defensive Rankings can be misleading though. If team doesn't allow much pass yards or rush yards for their average and are top ranked in that. But they allow 24 ppg, that means, they don't allow times to drive much, but when a team does drive on them, it ends up in TDs instead of fgs or that defense is bad in the redzone. I look at ppg and stopping teams on third downs as true indicators of a defense. I don't look at forced turnovers, because a defense can't always force them and if that's what they rely on, it will cost a defense as they won't stop a team from converting third downs and driving and scoring on them.

I don't know where they should be I just find it interesting the only team that beat us without a top defense (according to DVOA) was the Patriots, and we split with them.

 

[jvw]

Too much passing and not enough running on a day of inclement weather. We only had 9 rushes I think? the whole game?
I don't fault Tannehill for making errant throws in freezing rain. I can definitely fault Sherman for making him do so a majority of the game, and on crucial downs.

Our running game sucks, the only time we are able to run is when we have success threw the air, RT completed 10 passes for 82 yds for the game.......this team is not built to run when they can't pass.....not to mention we couldn't get a first down, to many 3 and outs....what happened yesterday happens sometimes, play calling wasn't going to change it.....

 

[WVDolphan]

I can't say I'm fully on board the "FIRE SHERMAN" wagon WV -- but seriously, you have some blinders on or something.

Madden or not, the man doesn't call plays to exploit another defense. We tend to stick to our bread 'n butter plays, come hell or high water.

You'll note how a coach like BB changes his plan VASTLY based on who he is playing. The Patriots knew we would be in Tom's face. So what did he do? He ran a ton of plays which required 3 step quick drops got rid of the ball immediately.

As a few others have noted, if we are going to throw a long ball, why are we standing in a pocket that isn't there? A bootleg would have been nice.

And why the heck wouldn't we TRY a screen? NOTHING else was working. We HAVE to call plays that at least slow down a pass rush. Instead, we just did more of the same, and they were able to just dig in more!

You saying that he calls plays to a player's strength is BS... Why would he have such a knack for trying to run Daniel Thomas OUTSIDE on 3rd or 4th and inches? We made a habit of that earlier in the year and suffered because of it. You have Pouncey in front of you, and a 6'4'' QB with speed and agility. Maybe sneak for 6''? NO WAY!

He has done a great job here and there, but the consistent thing is this: Sherman bases his play-calling too much on what WE have in our players, instead of a combination of what WE have and THEY are doing as a defense.

Look at the bolded parts and tell me WHY you think this may be the case?

---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:35 PM ----------

Yeah its also called a week to set a game plan that has the best chance at exploiting an opponents weaknesses and avoiding its strengths. We played the team once before and this was what he came up with? I game plan as a pitching coach and if I have a dead red hitter matched up with a dead red pitcher I am not going to completely against my pitchers strengths but you can bet that in the late innings with runners on I am going to have my breaking ball specialist ready to go in the bullpen to matchup.

What Sherman did yesterday was not good enough and cannot be defended regardless of how we matchup or what our talent allows. It was almost like the issue was completely ignored.

Are you suggesting we wouldve been better off playing Matt Moore this week?

 

[Milksteak]

At least you admit it.

You believe this BS because you play madden and you can run 400 different plays.

Have you ever considered the fact that what we go with is what our players strengths are? You simply cant call whatever and expect a group of 11 men who havent practiced doing that **** or it simply dosent fit their skill sets and expect them to execute it. Its not a video game. Its REAL FOOTBALL.

"Get creative" herp derp. Yea....... as soon as Sherman gets Peyton Manning at QB, he will get real ****ing creative for you. And he will look like a god damned genius in your eyes.

Do you think, especially after this game, he doesn't know how to evaluate our strengths? Because we looked like total **** out there. If we are consistently being beat by top 10 defenses I think a change in perspective is in order. We did nothing to adjust to the pass rush period.

 

[madmic21]

Look at the bolded parts and tell me WHY you think this may be the case?

---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:35 PM ----------



Are you suggesting we wouldve been better off playing Matt Moore this week?

LOL! Man you will go to great lengths. I am suggesting some draw plays, RB Screens, quick throws to the flat out of a bunch formation. Pretty simple. But as you know Sherman has forgot as much about football as I have ever known. Just wish he had not forgot how to combat an aggressive front four...

 

[joeylats]

the players are responsible for loss but the play calling was a joke,no screens,why not roll R.T. OUT USE HIS ATHLETICISM! We played to bills strengths.Take advantage of bills aggressiveness use screens,misdirection.reversesetc

 

[dolphintodd]

worked well for buffalo :)

What nobody is talking about..is the F'ng wind. It was blowing the ball off the field. What do you think a screen pass would have looked at?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[cltchperf]

I don't know where they should be I just find it interesting the only team that beat us without a top defense (according to DVOA) was the Patriots, and we split with them.

The fins did beat the Bengals though. I looked up the stats. The Bills are strong against the pass and 6th for passing yards allowed, but weak against the run at 23rd. The Bills are 7th with forced turnovers but 18th for pts allowed. And it's probably 18, because of the games against the dolphins here and the jets, otherwise the rest of the teams averaged 20 something pts.