The same crew who overreacted at 3-0 are overreacting now. I don't hang around this site all day and don't post when I'm playing golf. Otherwise nothing has changed. I still worry that Tannehill's upside is maybe 12th in the league, which is what I posted before we drafted him. I never said he would be awful. It's the same concern I had with Matt Ryan, that we would align ourselves with a guy who was a little bit overmatched against the cream of the league. Very difficult to win big with a guy like that. For the record, I absolutely prefer Tannehill over Matt Ryan and his popgun arm.
For all the hoopla, it really hasn't been that great. An upside stretch of games should be far beyond what Tannehill has delivered in the past 5 or 7, however you want to capsule it. Five teams lost with 30+ points on Sunday. We have gone beyond 24 points only once in those 7 games. It was the same at Texas A&M. Tannehill's skill set was always more impressive than the results he delivered. At some point there should be a run of 30+ games and 7.7+ yards per attempt. It has yet to show up.
Maybe he's warming to it. I will say that our offense is really looking dangerous now. That's been underrated, the designs of our offense as long as the running game is active. Gaps everywhere. We looked markedly more diverse than New England on Sunday. Without Gronkowski or the receivers they were clinging to tunnel screens in the first half, and when we rotated forward to take those away the Patriots defaulted to quick slants in the second half. That's basically all they had. With our designs we had the entire field. Tannehill needs to raise his athletic arrogance and seize all the openings. Some of the other teams in the league have laughable concepts, in comparison. Like the Lions, for example, and their ridiculous 4 and 5 wide empty set looks on 3rd and short. They've been doing that all season.
As always, there's no guarantee it repeats next season, once every opponent gets a look on film throughout the offseason. You can't happily multiply by 1.40 and announce we're on our way to riches in 2014. If we win the next 2 games and finish 10-6, that puts us in the likely regress mode next season, the one reserved for teams that either won or lost 3 more games than the prior year. That's why I'd actually prefer to sneak into the playoffs at 9-7.
BTW, I was more than annoyed when we again backed off the receiver and allowed a line drive dart for a first down on their 4th down play, no different than Cam Newton to Steve Smith in the Panthers game. You've got to crowd the receivers on those plays and force the quarterback to lob something downfield, a lower percentage play even if it might gain a big chunk if it connects.