Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 1 Edition | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 1 Edition

DZimmer000

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Ummmm….It doesn’t feel like a win. Yes, we went up to Foxboro and beat the Patriots. Yes, we’re in first place in the AFC East all by ourselves. However, we should have blown this team out. On the flip side, we did get the W. That’s what really counts. On to the grades:

QB’s — C + : We still don’t really know what we have in Tua yet. That’s unfortunate. I was hoping for a WAY better performance today. What we got was a pedestrian Tua. While it was good enough today…Will it be good enough down the road? I tend to think not. As for excuses..There were drops. The OL was awful. The Defense couldn’t get off the field. All valid. I’ll say this though…The excuse making doesn’t have long before someone has to say that maybe Tua isn’t the answer. I don’t know when that will be….But unless he starts showing me more than he did today… It’s going to be rather soon. As for inserting Brissett into the short yardage situations…It worked….Until we got a little too cute.

WR’s — B - : I thought Parker was very good today. He did have one drop that hurt…But the defender also got his hands on that ball. Waddle is a definite keeper. Damn is he quick. I liked the way he played today. Overall, the receivers were OK. I was a little concerned with the lack of separation at times…But not a bad game.

RB’s — B - : Gaskin had a very good game. Especially as a receiving back. Ahmad is Gaskin’s clone and also had a good receiving game. They both had some good runs and got some yards when it counted. Brown got some tough yards at the end as well. Overall a decent performance by this unit.

TE’s — C - : Gesicki was OK. As a whole though, this unit was kinda invisible today. They get a C- and I’m hoping for more next week.

OL — D - : Absolutely putrid. To be honest it was embarrassing. If it wasn’t that they helped get the running yards at the end that got us that last first down, this is an F. Eichenberg got run over and looked out of his league for extended periods today. The only lineman that didn’t embarrass himself today was Hunt. Chris Grier has failed miserably at finding competent linemen. Look at Deiter for instance…..He is NOT the answer at center….He’s a liability. Another failed Chris Grier experiment. This unit better step it up quickly, or this is gonna be a long season.

DL — D + : Wow. The Davis injury was crushing. I’m hoping it’s not serious. As for rest of the lot… We couldn’t stop the run. We got almost no pressure. We couldn’t get off the field on 3rd down. I mean…. You didn’t have to be Nostradamus to know the Patriots game plan. We still couldn’t stop it. Where was Wilkins all day? I’m sorry….But that wasn’t good enough.

LB’s — C - : AVG was invisible. Jaelan Phillips was invisible. Baker was decent but got beat on the loft throw by Jones to the RB for a long gainer. This probably should be a D.

DB’s — B + : Well…Howard earned his pay today. He is easily the best player on this team. Holland had a nice hit. Rowe was OK. Jones was actually good today. Not a bad game at all by this group. HOWEVER, I hate that the coaches had them playing off coverage a lot of the game. I blame the coaches.

ST’s — C + : Sanders was good as usual. The coverage units were on. Palardy was not what I expected today. He needs to pick it up.

Coaching and Front Office — D : Again….I don’t like the off coverage late in the game. But…Flo had the team ready. His defense was tired as hell and still got the turnover late. I give Flo and the coaches full marks for that. As for Chris Grier….He brings this grade WAY down. Igbo inactive? Fail. The entire OL except for Hunt? FAIL. I blast him a lot on this board…I feel like he deserves it today. This team is going to have to be a lot better next week against a pissed off Bill’s team.
 
Question...if Tua's line performed like the Patriots, would we have any doubt that he's the man? Admittedly, the interception was a bonehead play and at a crucial moment in the game. Tua, and the team, were lucky to get away with that one.

Agree, the offensive line could be problematic. There are benefits and expected growing pains when you've got such a young unit. Can they make the leap quick enough to not hold the team back? Is it lack of talent, or just getting experience and NFL reps?

New England's offensive line is good. The ability to have balance meant the Dolphins couldn't pin their ears back and attack Jones. The Patriots may be better than expected.

Agree with you on Waddle. His explosion is going to add chunk plays.

Honestly, the victory felt very New England like. Hang in there and come up with a big play at the end.
 
I appreciate your reviews Zimm, but honestly just leave the Grier stuff out for another post. There's no need week after week to do draft analysis based on the week performance. Coaching grades fine but the rest, just wait till the end of the year.

All in all not a bad review though. I don't recall even hearing Gmans name mentioned for the most part and that Waddle drop was disappointing as well.
 
not sure what you expect the way the oline played in pass pro. thats a good d. tua was running around all day. the play calling wanted to go down field alot and the oline just cant do that right now. the throw was bad but he said he was trying to throw it away.
d started off slow last year. we will get better
 
Obviously these are "Frustration based" grades and assessment.. You should wait a few days before writing reviews and giving grades to cool off.

Defense couldn’t play zone because they knew the Pats game plan was to run the ball a lot. So they chose to give up some passing plays and not let the Pats run the ball all day. I have to agree this was an ugly win but Eichenberg didn't have a bad game besides a few bad plays.
 
That punter is no Matt Haack. This is a liability. I used to count on him bailing out the offense on the multiple 3 and outs so not sure why we let him go.
 
Ummmm….It doesn’t feel like a win. Yes, we went up to Foxboro and beat the Patriots. Yes, we’re in first place in the AFC East all by ourselves. However, we should have blown this team out. On the flip side, we did get the W. That’s what really counts. On to the grades:

QB’s — C + : We still don’t really know what we have in Tua yet. That’s unfortunate. I was hoping for a WAY better performance today. What we got was a pedestrian Tua. While it was good enough today…Will it be good enough down the road? I tend to think not. As for excuses..There were drops. The OL was awful. The Defense couldn’t get off the field. All valid. I’ll say this though…The excuse making doesn’t have long before someone has to say that maybe Tua isn’t the answer. I don’t know when that will be….But unless he starts showing me more than he did today… It’s going to be rather soon. As for inserting Brissett into the short yardage situations…It worked….Until we got a little too cute.

WR’s — B - : I thought Parker was very good today. He did have one drop that hurt…But the defender also got his hands on that ball. Waddle is a definite keeper. Damn is he quick. I liked the way he played today. Overall, the receivers were OK. I was a little concerned with the lack of separation at times…But not a bad game.

RB’s — B - : Gaskin had a very good game. Especially as a receiving back. Ahmad is Gaskin’s clone and also had a good receiving game. They both had some good runs and got some yards when it counted. Brown got some tough yards at the end as well. Overall a decent performance by this unit.

TE’s — C - : Gesicki was OK. As a whole though, this unit was kinda invisible today. They get a C- and I’m hoping for more next week.

OL — D - : Absolutely putrid. To be honest it was embarrassing. If it wasn’t that they helped get the running yards at the end that got us that last first down, this is an F. Eichenberg got run over and looked out of his league for extended periods today. The only lineman that didn’t embarrass himself today was Hunt. Chris Grier has failed miserably at finding competent linemen. Look at Deiter for instance…..He is NOT the answer at center….He’s a liability. Another failed Chris Grier experiment. This unit better step it up quickly, or this is gonna be a long season.

DL — D + : Wow. The Davis injury was crushing. I’m hoping it’s not serious. As for rest of the lot… We couldn’t stop the run. We got almost no pressure. We couldn’t get off the field on 3rd down. I mean…. You didn’t have to be Nostradamus to know the Patriots game plan. We still couldn’t stop it. Where was Wilkins all day? I’m sorry….But that wasn’t good enough.

LB’s — C - : AVG was invisible. Jaelan Phillips was invisible. Baker was decent but got beat on the loft throw by Jones to the RB for a long gainer. This probably should be a D.

DB’s — B + : Well…Howard earned his pay today. He is easily the best player on this team. Holland had a nice hit. Rowe was OK. Jones was actually good today. Not a bad game at all by this group. HOWEVER, I hate that the coaches had them playing off coverage a lot of the game. I blame the coaches.

ST’s — C + : Sanders was good as usual. The coverage units were on. Palardy was not what I expected today. He needs to pick it up.

Coaching and Front Office — D : Again….I don’t like the off coverage late in the game. But…Flo had the team ready. His defense was tired as hell and still got the turnover late. I give Flo and the coaches full marks for that. As for Chris Grier….He brings this grade WAY down. Igbo inactive? Fail. The entire OL except for Hunt? FAIL. I blast him a lot on this board…I feel like he deserves it today. This team is going to have to be a lot better next week against a pissed off Bill’s team.
You grade too hard…

that’s a tough win!

NE is excellent and well coached!

we struggled all the way for a tough win - did NOT give them the ball back at the end…
 
That punter is no Matt Haack. This is a liability. I used to count on him bailing out the offense on the multiple 3 and outs so not sure why we let him go.
Haack had plenty of weak punts.

I admit, I had higher hopes for Palardy after his camp performance, maybe he had an off day. He did have one nice punt to the 10 yard line that our gunner gave up on and let it go in the endzone.
 
Tua threw for 7.5 yards per attempt. This was better than most of the young QBs today.

This was the main knock on him last year, "he doesn't throw it down field." Well he did today. It's just he didn't throw it alot because of the Patriots run game/TOP.
 
I’ve said it before this team has no pass rush they did nothing to upgrade it . Need offensive lineman and pass rushers
 
I think the grading was too hard to be honest. Parker and Waddle were terrific and made several huge plays.

Tua’s performance was indeed pedestrian, BUT, that clutch slant to Parker w 2:30 to go when backed up to our own 4 yard line and needing 14 for a first was the offensive play of the game. He made some clutch plays.

The DBs get an A from me. They didn’t give up anything deep and forced 3 fumbles. They were active as hell and didn’t have much pass rush to assist them.

The O-line is still a hot mess but there were moments where I though Eich looked good and how about Davis’ block where he collapsed the entire side of the D line that let Gaskin scamper around the corner for a long gain?

Week 1 is always hard to judge things. It was a high character win. A lot to be optimistic about.

Several years ago, when we opened at Washington- the game where Landry returned a punt for a TD in a 17-13 game (I think) felt like a loss - and the entire train ride back to northern NJ I just knew we were going to stink that year. And we did. Today wasn’t like that - at all. We’re a good team. We can be fantastic if our QB develops into a top tier guy.
 
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