This loss was especially sickening to me. It wasn't because it ended our season. Our last two playoff berths came from worse positions than our record now. There's just a couple things that have suddenly made this Dolphins team even less fun than it already was.
1. Matt Moore blew his chance- Matt Moore has had a lot of good appearances for the Dolphins but there is no escaping that he (and the entire offense) were atrocious. I know Matt is better than this, and in the last two years he has had two really good starts and Cutler has had none. Matt Moore had one shutout, Cutler practically had three, and has one actual shutout too. That doesn't matter. I had a feeling that this was going to be a terrible situation to go into. The Ravens always crush us and the score wasn't that much different than when Tannehill invested with 5 years as the starter got last year. There was only three days of preparation for a guy who has probably been getting less opportunity than usual since Gase has been trying to force Cutler to work and bring him up to speed. That's forgotten. Moore threw some picks when other QB's would have ended the game shutout too but would have thrown balls away or at their lineman's feet. I'd rather a Qb try to make something happen when down four scores, but most will only see an INT. At the end of the day, this was Moore's chance and regardless of excuses, he didn't get it done. So now we're stuck with Cutler until the next injury, which may be as soon as next Sunday. For those who have dreamed of Moore sucking this bad ever since they were worried he would start over a strong armed QB in 2011, congrats. I don't care to engage you in debate.
2. Classless. The Dolphins just looked like the Bengals while getting crushed. I haven't checked what people really think of the Kiko hit. Honestly I don't care. It didn't look like it warranted an ejection but that doesn't make it right. I want my team to play hard. I want them to punish a QB who thinks he can scramble with impunity. But I want them to do it legally. Kiko wasn't there that long after Flacco gave himself up, but he still adjusted himself to hit Flacco harder even after that happened. Maybe it's just that Flacco's helmet popped off and you can see what a guy completely dazed who just got his bell severely rung looks like, but it's terrible to me. I remember how I felt when Chris Chambers got crushed against Denver. I remember seeing Matt Moore get crushed against Pittsburgh (and that may have been legal? can't remember). I would be absolutely incensed if that were a Dolphin. Seeing him in the state he was in made me think not about the football player, but the man. Surely there are some defending Alonzo, but my classless thing has as much to do about afterwards. It did seem like there were some Raven "make-up" calls for much of the game after the hit, but there were still too many instances where the Dolphins just looked like thuggish amateurs. Suh choking a guy briefly? I'm not for that. Guys were just way too chippy to the point of being silly, and this was at a moment when you would think they be smart enough (if not classy enough) to know that this was a time they needed to be clean. I'm ashamed of the team, and it has little to do with the score.
3. Gase seems to be losing it. This game made it more clear to me than ever that Gase is just calling a terrible offense this year. Most of us wanted to believe that it was because of nursing Cutler through, just managing with the situations he had dealt with, etc., though I never entirely excused him since Cutler being here was his decision to begin with. Gase only had three short days to try and plan for Moore to be in there, but isn't this something he did last year? Player wise this offense is almost entirely the same as last year except for Thomas and a lineman. Yet Gase had no idea what he was doing and the playcalling was the most predictable I had ever seen since run Ricky left, Run Ricky right, throw to the tight end. This team tries to force the run early in the game and then forces the pass game when things get out of hand. Our line simply isn't good enough to overcome predictability, and the Ravens always crush us because they are well coached regardless of their roster and they can pinpoint our weakness and exploit it every time.
My Gase losing it though has little to do with his strategy, pathetic as it has been. He's been going off the rails in the press about the players now, and some of it looks pretty unwarranted, and on top of that it's out of character. He's blamed Ajayi for the running problems when as far as I can see he usually has defenders in his face before he gets to the LOS. He's done other things too. With this being out of character, it worries me that he might lose the team. I'm fine with him calling out players in private. Maybe when its obvious too. But he's airing out things that the public really isn't aware of and to reverse course on such things as that when he is usually so self deprecating doesn't bode well.
1. Matt Moore blew his chance- Matt Moore has had a lot of good appearances for the Dolphins but there is no escaping that he (and the entire offense) were atrocious. I know Matt is better than this, and in the last two years he has had two really good starts and Cutler has had none. Matt Moore had one shutout, Cutler practically had three, and has one actual shutout too. That doesn't matter. I had a feeling that this was going to be a terrible situation to go into. The Ravens always crush us and the score wasn't that much different than when Tannehill invested with 5 years as the starter got last year. There was only three days of preparation for a guy who has probably been getting less opportunity than usual since Gase has been trying to force Cutler to work and bring him up to speed. That's forgotten. Moore threw some picks when other QB's would have ended the game shutout too but would have thrown balls away or at their lineman's feet. I'd rather a Qb try to make something happen when down four scores, but most will only see an INT. At the end of the day, this was Moore's chance and regardless of excuses, he didn't get it done. So now we're stuck with Cutler until the next injury, which may be as soon as next Sunday. For those who have dreamed of Moore sucking this bad ever since they were worried he would start over a strong armed QB in 2011, congrats. I don't care to engage you in debate.
2. Classless. The Dolphins just looked like the Bengals while getting crushed. I haven't checked what people really think of the Kiko hit. Honestly I don't care. It didn't look like it warranted an ejection but that doesn't make it right. I want my team to play hard. I want them to punish a QB who thinks he can scramble with impunity. But I want them to do it legally. Kiko wasn't there that long after Flacco gave himself up, but he still adjusted himself to hit Flacco harder even after that happened. Maybe it's just that Flacco's helmet popped off and you can see what a guy completely dazed who just got his bell severely rung looks like, but it's terrible to me. I remember how I felt when Chris Chambers got crushed against Denver. I remember seeing Matt Moore get crushed against Pittsburgh (and that may have been legal? can't remember). I would be absolutely incensed if that were a Dolphin. Seeing him in the state he was in made me think not about the football player, but the man. Surely there are some defending Alonzo, but my classless thing has as much to do about afterwards. It did seem like there were some Raven "make-up" calls for much of the game after the hit, but there were still too many instances where the Dolphins just looked like thuggish amateurs. Suh choking a guy briefly? I'm not for that. Guys were just way too chippy to the point of being silly, and this was at a moment when you would think they be smart enough (if not classy enough) to know that this was a time they needed to be clean. I'm ashamed of the team, and it has little to do with the score.
3. Gase seems to be losing it. This game made it more clear to me than ever that Gase is just calling a terrible offense this year. Most of us wanted to believe that it was because of nursing Cutler through, just managing with the situations he had dealt with, etc., though I never entirely excused him since Cutler being here was his decision to begin with. Gase only had three short days to try and plan for Moore to be in there, but isn't this something he did last year? Player wise this offense is almost entirely the same as last year except for Thomas and a lineman. Yet Gase had no idea what he was doing and the playcalling was the most predictable I had ever seen since run Ricky left, Run Ricky right, throw to the tight end. This team tries to force the run early in the game and then forces the pass game when things get out of hand. Our line simply isn't good enough to overcome predictability, and the Ravens always crush us because they are well coached regardless of their roster and they can pinpoint our weakness and exploit it every time.
My Gase losing it though has little to do with his strategy, pathetic as it has been. He's been going off the rails in the press about the players now, and some of it looks pretty unwarranted, and on top of that it's out of character. He's blamed Ajayi for the running problems when as far as I can see he usually has defenders in his face before he gets to the LOS. He's done other things too. With this being out of character, it worries me that he might lose the team. I'm fine with him calling out players in private. Maybe when its obvious too. But he's airing out things that the public really isn't aware of and to reverse course on such things as that when he is usually so self deprecating doesn't bode well.
