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Describe tonight’s game in 2 words. My 2 are “Absolute Trash”. Basically, every wart that we feared would rear its ugly head in a game…Reared its ugly head. The makeup of the cream puff schedule we’ve had came off tonight and those warts were exposed. What warts am I speaking of? Read the grades and find out. On to the grades:
QB — D : Wart #1: Tua’s inability to throw outside the numbers when teams are taking away the middle of the field in umbrella coverage. This is absolutely real in all of our losses including tonight. His insistence on throwing over the middle could have gotten Waddle killed at least twice tonight. The fumble on the 5 was irresponsible. Blame the snap on whoever…But Tua should have been aware enough to just cover it. Nowhere near Tua’s best night tonight and I have removed him from any MVP conversation after that performance.
RB — C - : Wart #2: No “Big Back” option to get tough yards. It hurt us tonight for sure. I’ll say that Mostert and Achane had decent games running behind a porous OL. To be honest, the RB’s were the best unit on the team tonight along with the WR’s. Although, Achane had a chance for the first down at the end and unsuccessfully tried to go out of bounds short of the marker. Not a good decision.
WR’s — C - : Wart #3: Not having a receiver that can take over the #1 role if Hill goes down. To be fair….No one can replace Hill. But the problem is no one can play like a #1 if he goes down. Obviously, the Titans took Waddle out of the game while Hill was out. Credit to them. To me….Hill is the MVP of the league. Period. Tonight proved it.
TE’s — F : Wart # 4: No TE that is even remotely a threat in the red zone. The fact that we throw fades to a 5’6” receiver proves this one. The TE run blocking tonight was atrocious. This wart bit us big tonight. Awful performance. Hopefully, Julian Hill has a better year next year….He was terrible tonight.
OL — F : Wart # 5 & 6: Eichenberg and Jackson. After singing their praises against the weak teams on our schedule, they were horrendous tonight. Actually, so was the entire OL. Connor Williams going down hurt in a BAD way tonight. If he’s out for the year….That’s BAD news. Period. Let’s hope we get Hunt back and Armstead returns for 5 or 6 plays this year before body parts start falling off of him.
DL — D + : Wart # 7: A total lack of any quality depth behind Wilkins and Sieler. Those 2 were absolutely gassed from the 4th quarter on. The lack of depth here bit us in the ass in a big way. The inability to get to the QB in the 4th quarter was one of the reasons we lost this game. Will Levis looked like Peyton Manning tonight. That’s just disappointing.
LB’s — D + : Wart # 8: The inability or our LB’s to cover any TE or RB was apparent again. Credit Chubb for getting pressure a few times….But he was really the only consistent backer all night. Long had a play or two…But that was it. Van Ginko was invisible as well.
DB’s — F : Wart # 9: The complete inability to get off the field on 3rd down. What the **** happened here tonight? We let 1 player beat us. And he definitely beat us. D. Hopkins had a great night. Yes…He got away with an OPI. No doubt. But he had a huge game and our insistence on not double teaming him cost us. The soft coverage from 3:40 on in the 4th quarter is inexcusable….But I’ll go further into that in the coaching section.
ST’s — F : Wart # 10: Our Special Teams units. Period. A line drive kickoff. A line drive punt. A blocked field goal. Are you kidding me with this unit?? Disgusting performance. Keep in mind…They get the F even though they recovered a muffed punt that put us ahead late in the game. That’s a special kind of bad. Pun intended.
Coaching — F : Wart # 11: Mike McDaniel not getting plays in on time. This trumps Wart # 12: Mike McDaniels stupid challenges that almost NEVER win. The coaching tonight was worse than bad. Abandoning the running game in the red zone? Why? Throwing a fade to Hill? Why? The bad challenge. Why? Not running max protect on the final drive? Why? Not going after a rookie corner? Why? Not getting the plays in on time that cost us a TO? WHY??? Wart # 14: Fangio’s complete refusal to bring pressure. Why?? I’m dumbfounded. Why would you play soft zone EVERY SINGLE PLAY as the Titans walked down the field. I actually believe the Titans would have taken longer to score if we would have taken our defense completely off the field. Pathetic doesn’t really cover it.
Conclusion: The coaching tonight was incredibly bad. The players also didn’t help themselves…But I have to blame coaching for what could be one of the worst losses in Miami Dolphins history. How devastating is this loss? We’ll see. But make no mistake about it…Up 14 points with 3:00 minutes to play and to lose that game at home is really tragic. You might say I’m being hyperbolic here…But I don’t think I am. Let’s hope there is no let down…But I have a suspicion there might be a big one.
QB — D : Wart #1: Tua’s inability to throw outside the numbers when teams are taking away the middle of the field in umbrella coverage. This is absolutely real in all of our losses including tonight. His insistence on throwing over the middle could have gotten Waddle killed at least twice tonight. The fumble on the 5 was irresponsible. Blame the snap on whoever…But Tua should have been aware enough to just cover it. Nowhere near Tua’s best night tonight and I have removed him from any MVP conversation after that performance.
RB — C - : Wart #2: No “Big Back” option to get tough yards. It hurt us tonight for sure. I’ll say that Mostert and Achane had decent games running behind a porous OL. To be honest, the RB’s were the best unit on the team tonight along with the WR’s. Although, Achane had a chance for the first down at the end and unsuccessfully tried to go out of bounds short of the marker. Not a good decision.
WR’s — C - : Wart #3: Not having a receiver that can take over the #1 role if Hill goes down. To be fair….No one can replace Hill. But the problem is no one can play like a #1 if he goes down. Obviously, the Titans took Waddle out of the game while Hill was out. Credit to them. To me….Hill is the MVP of the league. Period. Tonight proved it.
TE’s — F : Wart # 4: No TE that is even remotely a threat in the red zone. The fact that we throw fades to a 5’6” receiver proves this one. The TE run blocking tonight was atrocious. This wart bit us big tonight. Awful performance. Hopefully, Julian Hill has a better year next year….He was terrible tonight.
OL — F : Wart # 5 & 6: Eichenberg and Jackson. After singing their praises against the weak teams on our schedule, they were horrendous tonight. Actually, so was the entire OL. Connor Williams going down hurt in a BAD way tonight. If he’s out for the year….That’s BAD news. Period. Let’s hope we get Hunt back and Armstead returns for 5 or 6 plays this year before body parts start falling off of him.
DL — D + : Wart # 7: A total lack of any quality depth behind Wilkins and Sieler. Those 2 were absolutely gassed from the 4th quarter on. The lack of depth here bit us in the ass in a big way. The inability to get to the QB in the 4th quarter was one of the reasons we lost this game. Will Levis looked like Peyton Manning tonight. That’s just disappointing.
LB’s — D + : Wart # 8: The inability or our LB’s to cover any TE or RB was apparent again. Credit Chubb for getting pressure a few times….But he was really the only consistent backer all night. Long had a play or two…But that was it. Van Ginko was invisible as well.
DB’s — F : Wart # 9: The complete inability to get off the field on 3rd down. What the **** happened here tonight? We let 1 player beat us. And he definitely beat us. D. Hopkins had a great night. Yes…He got away with an OPI. No doubt. But he had a huge game and our insistence on not double teaming him cost us. The soft coverage from 3:40 on in the 4th quarter is inexcusable….But I’ll go further into that in the coaching section.
ST’s — F : Wart # 10: Our Special Teams units. Period. A line drive kickoff. A line drive punt. A blocked field goal. Are you kidding me with this unit?? Disgusting performance. Keep in mind…They get the F even though they recovered a muffed punt that put us ahead late in the game. That’s a special kind of bad. Pun intended.
Coaching — F : Wart # 11: Mike McDaniel not getting plays in on time. This trumps Wart # 12: Mike McDaniels stupid challenges that almost NEVER win. The coaching tonight was worse than bad. Abandoning the running game in the red zone? Why? Throwing a fade to Hill? Why? The bad challenge. Why? Not running max protect on the final drive? Why? Not going after a rookie corner? Why? Not getting the plays in on time that cost us a TO? WHY??? Wart # 14: Fangio’s complete refusal to bring pressure. Why?? I’m dumbfounded. Why would you play soft zone EVERY SINGLE PLAY as the Titans walked down the field. I actually believe the Titans would have taken longer to score if we would have taken our defense completely off the field. Pathetic doesn’t really cover it.
Conclusion: The coaching tonight was incredibly bad. The players also didn’t help themselves…But I have to blame coaching for what could be one of the worst losses in Miami Dolphins history. How devastating is this loss? We’ll see. But make no mistake about it…Up 14 points with 3:00 minutes to play and to lose that game at home is really tragic. You might say I’m being hyperbolic here…But I don’t think I am. Let’s hope there is no let down…But I have a suspicion there might be a big one.
