Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 14 Edition | Page 3 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 14 Edition

DZimmer000 said:
I’m gonna start off with the positives here. We are now 7 - 7 after a 1 - 7 start. Who here would have bet on that?? Certainly not me. The problem is….The “what ifs” are going to haunt us even if we do make the playoffs. “What if” we beat Jacksonville like we should have? “What if” we beat a sub-par Atlanta team? It’s enough to drive you crazy. Anyway….On to the grades:

QB — C : NOT a good game by Tua. I expected a lot better. To be honest…. Of his first 4 throws….1 was picked and 2 others should have been picked. My question is: Does he miss Waddle that much? Give the Jest credit though…. They were making him go 3 reads deep on most plays. Regardless, Tua did enough to win and that saved him from a D or an F. I’ll say this…. If Tua plays like this next week…We’ll probably lose the game.

RB — A : Duuuuuuuuke!! Where the **** was that effort all year? Yes, the Jets are not a good team. BUT….Johnson ran hard today. You gotta love the stiff arm on that kid. He looked like a pinball most of the day bouncing off guys and 22 Rushes for 107 is the kind of effort I’d like to see every week. Gaskin chipped in another 54 yards which is nice. You could feel the exhaustion of the Jest front 7 in the 4th quarter. Great to see. By the way…. I’m counting Wilkins as a FB here. Nice TD catch and a great celly afterward.

WR — C + : Parker had a decent day with 4 catches for 68 yards and a TD. He also drew a PI call in the corner of the end zone there ( I thought the ball was uncatchable and would have picked up the flag to be honest ). Isaiah Ford contributed 3 catches for 51 yards. And that was pretty much it. One thing is certain….Waddle opens thing up for everyone else. We missed him today.

TE — B - : Gesicki had 5 catches for 43 yards which is a decent effort. A couple of his catches were absolutely clutch though. Overall a good effort by him. Smythe had 1 catch for 9 yards and got crushed immediately after. Other than that nothing much to grade. However this unit gets credit for helping to open the holes for the RB’s today.

OL — B : By far the best grade this unit has earned this season. I’ve blasted them all year….And they deserved it. Not today. Tua’s bad effort could not be blamed on the OL. They gave him a pretty clean pocket today for the most part. The holes for Duke Johnson were good to great. Also, I’m actually going to give a shout out to Austin Jackson. He was noticeable today in a good way for once. I actually don’t think I’ve ever been happier to give out a grade for a particular unit . Well done by these guys and it’s nice to see what a decent OL looks like.

DL — B + : These guys were all over it today. They got gashed a little early…But they sure as hell made up for it. Constant pressure in Wilson’s face was great to see. Seiler’s strip of Wilson was clutch. Ogbah with another batted down pass. Great effort from these guys.

LB’s — B + : Baker had 2 sacks today and was very active chasing Wilson all over the place. Nice game by him. Van Ginko had a sack which was nice. Good pressure from Phillips today. This unit played well except for the first quarter.

DB — B : Just a solid if unspectacular day by this unit. Brandon Jones had a sack. Byron Jones and X had nice days with solid coverage. They only gave up 17 points to a division rival late in the season in an important game. I was very happy overall with this unit and the defense as a whole today.

ST’s — B : Palardy was good with a 53 Yard average today. Sanders hit his only field goal. The minus here was the blown fake punt which hit Van Ginko in the face. Other than that….A good effort.

Coaching — B - :This team was not ready to play in the first quarter. Against a better opponent, that might have cost us the game. I blame the coaching staff for that. However, It didn’t end up losing the game for us. We re-grouped and ended up pulling out a win against a team we should have beat. The OL played well today and I loved the play calling in general. Now on to New Orleans!!
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You asked if Tua missed Waddle that much. You later pointed out that Waddle opens up the passing game for everyone and stated that, “we missed him today”


So you answered your own question regarding Tua missing Waddle. Waddle is the one receiver on the offense that can constantly create separation. When he is on the field, Tua is able to consistently throw the slant and the other WR’s and Gesicki
are rarely double covered. Waddle is the best WR on the team and the go to receiver for Tua when he needs a first down or a quick throw into the end zone.

Until they can bring in additional Wr’s who can create separation and open up the passing game for more passes downfield. Waddle is the most important player on the Dolphins offense not named Tua.
 
1972forever said:
You asked if Tua missed Waddle that much. You later pointed out that Waddle opens up the passing game for everyone and stated that, “we missed him today”


So you answered your own question regarding Tua missing Waddle. Waddle is the one receiver on the offense that can constantly create separation. When he is on the field, Tua is able to consistently throw the slant and the other WR’s and Gesicki
are rarely double covered. Waddle is the best WR on the team and the go to receiver for Tua when he needs a first down or a quick throw into the end zone.

Until they can bring in additional Wr’s who can create separation and open up the passing game for more passes downfield. Waddle is the most important player on the Dolphins offense not named Tua.
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Also, when you suddenly remove a player that gets so many targets and so much attention, there is going to be an adjustment period.

Ideally he misses just the one game so it's a moot point, but if he was out for an extended period of time the offense as a whole would adjust.
 
CoachConrad said:
Again, don't think this was a fake punt call by Flores. Lack of reaction by anyone else involved on this unit leads me to believe the snapper himself blew the call. Could be wrong, but it sure looked that way to me.
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Snapper obviously went out on the field with instructions to fake it if they were given a certain look. You really think long snappers are out there calling their own shots on when to run a fake? If that was just the long snapper alone and not instructions from the sideline then we'd be looking for a new long snapper this week.
 
1972forever said:
You asked if Tua missed Waddle that much. You later pointed out that Waddle opens up the passing game for everyone and stated that, “we missed him today”


So you answered your own question regarding Tua missing Waddle. Waddle is the one receiver on the offense that can constantly create separation. When he is on the field, Tua is able to consistently throw the slant and the other WR’s and Gesicki
are rarely double covered. Waddle is the best WR on the team and the go to receiver for Tua when he needs a first down or a quick throw into the end zone.

Until they can bring in additional Wr’s who can create separation and open up the passing game for more passes downfield. Waddle is the most important player on the Dolphins offense not named Tua.
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Waddle opens everything up in the offense and it's impossible to not miss him. The first few plays where Tua was way off though, I mean it wasn't because Waddle was there that he was throwing some balls 4 feet over the receiver's heads.

I think it was just a culmination of his top guy being out, some rust and jitters coming back from the bye week (which this team ALWAYS seems to get) and also- a very underrated thing - the running back seeing the bulk of the carries being a guy who he's had very few exchanges with, while those exchanges themselves are way more complicated on RPOs.
 
Sirspud said:
Snapper obviously went out on the field with instructions to fake it if they were given a certain look. You really think long snappers are out there calling their own shots on when to run a fake? If that was just the long snapper alone and not instructions from the sideline then we'd be looking for
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Sirspud said:
Snapper obviously went out on the field with instructions to fake it if they were given a certain look. You really think long snappers are out there calling their own shots on when to run a fake? If that was just the long snapper alone and not instructions from the sideline then we'd be looking for a new long snapper this week.
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Wrong. Not the snapper's call to make, if a hot fake is on in case the defense gives a certain look. The upback Fej would make that call, after being given the go ahead from the sideline. He sure as hell didn't as he didn't even know the ball was coming. When I said he blew the call, I mean the snapper misinterpreted the call from Fej. Ergo the snapper screwed up. I never said the snapper calls the shots on the fake. Merely that he screwed up.
 
Thanks for doing this every game.

My favorite play might have been Tua running over a defensive back. I think he was making a statement there as Miami was fighting to come back.

More than anything, I like that the offensive is sticking with the run. It's starting to pay dividends and will be needed down the stretch.

Haven't looked at the stats yet, but Wilson started something like 6 for 6 and finished with just 13 completions.
 
Mach2 said:
That fake punt call was just plain dumb in a 4th and 1 situation.

Either line up and go for it hat on hat, or punt the damn thing. No excuse for that at this level, TBH.
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When I saw that we weren't going to simply go for it I was shocked. We only needed like 6 inches. Sneak it or give it to Duke and it's an easy conversion in the 4th quarter of a vitally important game. You want to punt it and play defense that's one option or blast Duke into the line is another option, so you have 2 safe tried and true options. But, that's not the call!! In just a spectacular exhibition of stupidity he tries to outsmart everybody and go for a fake punt. I watched Don Shula's entire career, he wouldn't have tried a fake punt leading by 7 in the 4th quarter. NO DAMN WAY!!!! That really should have cost us the game. It was that bad of a move. It was an effort to prove how smart he is. Gase had this problem of always trying to be the smartest guy in the room. Flo needs to address that he has a problem and fix it before his ego hurts the team. The running game has been rock solid the whole second half and the defense is playing lights out and Flo risks the whole game on some Special Teams Trickery that instantly backfired in his face! I hope he felt stupid because he sure looked stupid!! We're lucky Tua is awesome in the 4th quarter!! He saved Flo's butt!!
 
BSQ said:
When I saw that we weren't going to simply go for it I was shocked. We only needed like 6 inches. Sneak it or give it to Duke and it's an easy conversion in the 4th quarter of a vitally important game. You want to punt it and play defense that's one option or blast Duke into the line is another option, so you have 2 safe tried and true options. But, that's not the call!! In just a spectacular exhibition of stupidity he tries to outsmart everybody and go for a fake punt. I watched Don Shula's entire career, he wouldn't have tried a fake punt leading by 7 in the 4th quarter. NO DAMN WAY!!!! That really should have cost us the game. It was that bad of a move. It was an effort to prove how smart he is. Gase had this problem of always trying to be the smartest guy in the room. Flo needs to address that he has a problem and fix it before his ego hurts the team. The running game has been rock solid the whole second half and the defense is playing lights out and Flo risks the whole game on some Special Teams Trickery that instantly backfired in his face! I hope he felt stupid because he sure looked stupid!! We're lucky Tua is awesome in the 4th quarter!! He saved Flo's butt!!
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How do you know that was Flo's call?
 
By no means am I someone that fails to see the mistakes Tua makes and he made several in that game, but what I take away from that is how he bounced back. How many QBs have we seen both in Miami and on other teams that would have folded? Countless. Tua's a young QB and will make mistakes but he learns from them. He didn't set his feet going across the middle and that often leads to the ball taking off and the end result being an interception. His was a tad late on the pick 6 no doubt. Not one rookie or vet QB out there that doesn't make mistakes. I think we're fortunate that we have one that shakes it off and gets right back to work.

Respect your opinion with a C but I'd give him a B+ factoring in his resiliency.
 
Mach2 said:
Even if it worked, It still would have been a bad call if you are using any basic statistical analysis.
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Flores goes for it near the 50 more often then not. I can’t remember if they’ve had successful fake punt attempts this year but I can recall they did it at least twice successfully last year in that situation.

For the season though the team is 11 of 18 on 4th down conversion. I’ll take 61%, they’ve been really good at it this year
 
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