phinsforlife
Active Roster
The weather was not the problem. We were the problem. 25 degrees and not much wind is not an issue. A blizzard this was not. The kickers were making long FGs. Jordan Love was driving the ball vertically. Their receivers were making one handed catches. Miami’s record in the cold is obviously not good. But I saw an interesting stat. The teams Miami has played on the road, in the cold, for whatever reason, have had much better records than the rest of the teams they played. If Miami is playing in the cold, they are on the road. We haven’t been that good for the last 25 years. It is not complicated - if you are not that good, you are going to lose on the road to good teams. Correlation is not always causation. The real causation is not the weather, but the fact that we are not good enough, and are also probably on the soft and gutless side too, thusly this is why we lose in the cold – because we have been playing teams that are better than us when it has been cold!
Most importantly, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. A win would have been nice, but it is what it is. Life goes on.
Three Up: This is really hard, so I need some help here.
The Dolphins Cheerleaders – At least they didn’t show up and embarrass themselves. In retrospect, if you are going to no show, better to no show by staying home as opposed to not competing.
Jason Sanders – Made the kicks, including the long one that didn’t count.
Jordyn Brooks – Seemed to play well until he got hurt, but at least he showed up. And he had the stones to call his own team soft, so looks like he has some leadership skills: https://nypost.com/2024/11/29/sports/jordyn-brooks-shreds-dolphins-after-packers-loss-soft/
Three Down: This is hard too, because a lot of options.
Mike McDaniel – Maybe less LOL Max-ing and more getting the team ready to go as opposed to reading their press clippings all week again after beating 3 very bad to mediocre at best teams. You just got pantsed again. The team was not ready to go, and that is on you as the coach. We looked as bad this week as the Pats looked last week. Right off the bat, all the offensive penalties. Then silly play calling. Early in the game, Sanders made the long FG after the 5 yard penalty. But then Green Bay committed an infraction on the kick. At the point where the FG was already made, I think a more mature coach leaves the points on the board, despite the fact that you were going to go for it originally. The fact that the kick was made is additional info and it changes things. But we decided to go for it again, and luckily we hit the play to Waddle and it worked out. We were way down there, and then right off the bat, one more handoff that is a backwards play, then nothing in the passing game, drive over, and back to the FG we already had. Once again too clever by half with some of the play calling. Same thing on goal to go in the 4th quarter. Sure it was a short week, on the road for us. Maybe that is part of the reason we lose, but that is not an excuse to come out like we did and look this way and lose this way.
The Offensive Line – After going back and forth on the thing, from they will stink, to they might be pretty good, to they are probably average, I am back to they are not very good. They have a really easy job in pass pro given how quickly the ball comes out, and an easy job in the running game given the opponent devotes most of their resources to taking away the pass. And this is now 4 weeks in a row where we have zero push in the running game. I called this issue out ahead of time. This is the kind of game you need to be able to do it, but we can’t. The goal to go situation was another good example. No push, then McDaniel calls 2 passes, probably because he can’t help himself and he also has no confidence in the OL. If Armstead and Brewer are really good (granted Armstead not good tonight), then the other 3 guys must really stink and be a lot worse than even PFF suggests, and it just gets covered up somehow. They seemed OK in pass pro at least. There were a few bad busts, but not all of the sacks were on the OL. On two or three of them, either nobody was open or Tua just held the ball, but there was time in those cases. Otherwise I thought the pass protection was generally decent.
Malik Washington – The fumbled punt, cannot have that. Not complicated. Having said that, the game wasn’t close, and we were embarrassed on both sides of the ball. There was still a chance to win the game after he fumbled, and we continued to implode. So I am not going to pin the loss solely on Malik. But he was certainly part of the problem.
Dishonorable mentions:
The defense – They sucked. Did they miss 100 tackles? Green Bay had 16 carries for 102 yards at the half. This is why Green Bay can win these kinds of games and we can’t. Much tougher in the trenches. Both sides. We couldn’t run, they could, right up our gut. Grier and McDaniel share blame for the roster construction and style of play.
Whoever cut Chris Brooks – power runner. He is young. Why did we let him go to keep Jeff Wilson, who is inactive every week anyway? Could use some angry running on goal to go and short situations too.
Tua – This one is complicated. To be honest, I almost put him as an up. Not because I thought he was great, but because I needed 3 ups, so there is a relative argument to be made that he didn’t suck as badly as everyone else, which is true. You can also look at the box score, and say Tua was really good. But really, nothing good happened until Miami was down 27-3, and Green Bay fell asleep. The game was never close and nothing happened when it mattered. Two-of-10 on on third downs. One-of-three TD conversions in the red zone. 3 points at halftime (and down 24-3 and not possessing the ball much either). You do not get credit for garbage time production. When there was still an actual football game, Tua was just kind of there, and we were getting killed and embarrassed. Tua didn’t do anything awful, but didn’t do anything good. It just looked flat and uninspired. He missed some throws, and there were some other ones where I felt like he floated the ball too much. Tua was not the problem, but he was not part of the solution. This was one of those games where you need the QB to elevate the rest of the team, and do it on their own and carry the team. Tua wasn’t able to do that, and I am not sure he has the toolkit to do it in this kind of situation. 4th and goal plays were another good example – and it would also be nice to have a QB that can run it in those situations (although it really didn’t matter at the end in this game it would have been just more empty points). Also, to the degree that they came out flat, and I am blaming McDaniel, Tua as the QB and leader of the team also has a role in their preparation and attitude. I am starting to worry the combination of Tua and McDaniel is not a good thing from a team toughness perspective – neither one of them is a hard-ass. End of day, if you are going to talk about changing narratives, you have to be better when it matters. And if you want to be considered elite, you also have to be better in games like this, at the point when it matters, not just in garbage time. It is wild too, because Tua looks great in the box score. But those might be the emptiest stats in the history of the NFL, and I am not kidding. We only had 17 points, and 14 of them were in garbage time, despite the 365 passing yards, 114 QB rating, and 80pct completion rate. Enough with the nerd stats. They are often not meaningful. This game was a perfect example of how nerd stats and box scores can miss the point, even though I am sure Tua will be the best looking QB this week on somebody’s chart that will make it into a thread.
The Refs – They sucked and hosed us too. But it is a losers lament to whine about the refs when you get your face punched in. Lose by 3 complain about the refs, get your face kicked in, the refs were not the problem.
Jonnu Smith - Two costly stupid penalties early in the game, and then also a fumble, but he got lucky and it went OB. Yup he looked great in the box score too, but you cannot ignore the negatives that don’t show up in the box score, and you can’t give him too much credit for garbage time positives. Interestingly, his game sort of went as Tua’s game went – not good to start, really good when it was too late. Less meaningful though given the role he plays, his position, and how little cap space he takes up – you just don’t have the same expectations.
Most importantly, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. A win would have been nice, but it is what it is. Life goes on.
Three Up: This is really hard, so I need some help here.
The Dolphins Cheerleaders – At least they didn’t show up and embarrass themselves. In retrospect, if you are going to no show, better to no show by staying home as opposed to not competing.
Jason Sanders – Made the kicks, including the long one that didn’t count.
Jordyn Brooks – Seemed to play well until he got hurt, but at least he showed up. And he had the stones to call his own team soft, so looks like he has some leadership skills: https://nypost.com/2024/11/29/sports/jordyn-brooks-shreds-dolphins-after-packers-loss-soft/
Three Down: This is hard too, because a lot of options.
Mike McDaniel – Maybe less LOL Max-ing and more getting the team ready to go as opposed to reading their press clippings all week again after beating 3 very bad to mediocre at best teams. You just got pantsed again. The team was not ready to go, and that is on you as the coach. We looked as bad this week as the Pats looked last week. Right off the bat, all the offensive penalties. Then silly play calling. Early in the game, Sanders made the long FG after the 5 yard penalty. But then Green Bay committed an infraction on the kick. At the point where the FG was already made, I think a more mature coach leaves the points on the board, despite the fact that you were going to go for it originally. The fact that the kick was made is additional info and it changes things. But we decided to go for it again, and luckily we hit the play to Waddle and it worked out. We were way down there, and then right off the bat, one more handoff that is a backwards play, then nothing in the passing game, drive over, and back to the FG we already had. Once again too clever by half with some of the play calling. Same thing on goal to go in the 4th quarter. Sure it was a short week, on the road for us. Maybe that is part of the reason we lose, but that is not an excuse to come out like we did and look this way and lose this way.
The Offensive Line – After going back and forth on the thing, from they will stink, to they might be pretty good, to they are probably average, I am back to they are not very good. They have a really easy job in pass pro given how quickly the ball comes out, and an easy job in the running game given the opponent devotes most of their resources to taking away the pass. And this is now 4 weeks in a row where we have zero push in the running game. I called this issue out ahead of time. This is the kind of game you need to be able to do it, but we can’t. The goal to go situation was another good example. No push, then McDaniel calls 2 passes, probably because he can’t help himself and he also has no confidence in the OL. If Armstead and Brewer are really good (granted Armstead not good tonight), then the other 3 guys must really stink and be a lot worse than even PFF suggests, and it just gets covered up somehow. They seemed OK in pass pro at least. There were a few bad busts, but not all of the sacks were on the OL. On two or three of them, either nobody was open or Tua just held the ball, but there was time in those cases. Otherwise I thought the pass protection was generally decent.
Malik Washington – The fumbled punt, cannot have that. Not complicated. Having said that, the game wasn’t close, and we were embarrassed on both sides of the ball. There was still a chance to win the game after he fumbled, and we continued to implode. So I am not going to pin the loss solely on Malik. But he was certainly part of the problem.
Dishonorable mentions:
The defense – They sucked. Did they miss 100 tackles? Green Bay had 16 carries for 102 yards at the half. This is why Green Bay can win these kinds of games and we can’t. Much tougher in the trenches. Both sides. We couldn’t run, they could, right up our gut. Grier and McDaniel share blame for the roster construction and style of play.
Whoever cut Chris Brooks – power runner. He is young. Why did we let him go to keep Jeff Wilson, who is inactive every week anyway? Could use some angry running on goal to go and short situations too.
Tua – This one is complicated. To be honest, I almost put him as an up. Not because I thought he was great, but because I needed 3 ups, so there is a relative argument to be made that he didn’t suck as badly as everyone else, which is true. You can also look at the box score, and say Tua was really good. But really, nothing good happened until Miami was down 27-3, and Green Bay fell asleep. The game was never close and nothing happened when it mattered. Two-of-10 on on third downs. One-of-three TD conversions in the red zone. 3 points at halftime (and down 24-3 and not possessing the ball much either). You do not get credit for garbage time production. When there was still an actual football game, Tua was just kind of there, and we were getting killed and embarrassed. Tua didn’t do anything awful, but didn’t do anything good. It just looked flat and uninspired. He missed some throws, and there were some other ones where I felt like he floated the ball too much. Tua was not the problem, but he was not part of the solution. This was one of those games where you need the QB to elevate the rest of the team, and do it on their own and carry the team. Tua wasn’t able to do that, and I am not sure he has the toolkit to do it in this kind of situation. 4th and goal plays were another good example – and it would also be nice to have a QB that can run it in those situations (although it really didn’t matter at the end in this game it would have been just more empty points). Also, to the degree that they came out flat, and I am blaming McDaniel, Tua as the QB and leader of the team also has a role in their preparation and attitude. I am starting to worry the combination of Tua and McDaniel is not a good thing from a team toughness perspective – neither one of them is a hard-ass. End of day, if you are going to talk about changing narratives, you have to be better when it matters. And if you want to be considered elite, you also have to be better in games like this, at the point when it matters, not just in garbage time. It is wild too, because Tua looks great in the box score. But those might be the emptiest stats in the history of the NFL, and I am not kidding. We only had 17 points, and 14 of them were in garbage time, despite the 365 passing yards, 114 QB rating, and 80pct completion rate. Enough with the nerd stats. They are often not meaningful. This game was a perfect example of how nerd stats and box scores can miss the point, even though I am sure Tua will be the best looking QB this week on somebody’s chart that will make it into a thread.
The Refs – They sucked and hosed us too. But it is a losers lament to whine about the refs when you get your face punched in. Lose by 3 complain about the refs, get your face kicked in, the refs were not the problem.
Jonnu Smith - Two costly stupid penalties early in the game, and then also a fumble, but he got lucky and it went OB. Yup he looked great in the box score too, but you cannot ignore the negatives that don’t show up in the box score, and you can’t give him too much credit for garbage time positives. Interestingly, his game sort of went as Tua’s game went – not good to start, really good when it was too late. Less meaningful though given the role he plays, his position, and how little cap space he takes up – you just don’t have the same expectations.
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