Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 14 Edition | Page 4 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 14 Edition

laxcoach said:
Can we talk about that odd route adjustment by sanders? If he just keeps running, he might have a touchdown. Instead, he slows down, pushes off and lunges towards the now uncatchable ball?
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I thought the same thing. Just keep running and it’s a td. Go back to the bench young man. You are not ready. Terrible play
 
EasyRider said:
That’s the thing, I could handle losing if he changed things up with adjustments and planning, but he just keeps trying to push that square into that round hole
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Agree, but I want to see how he reacts after the season. He's done a lot, and what he has done with Tua gets a bit of a buy with me. Most new coaches go through this, it's how they change or not that will make them or break them.
 
TUA4MVP said:
Lmao no he won't, this is the best offense we've had in over 20 years and McDaniel is a huge reason for that.
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Hill is the biggest reason. By far. McDaniel's play calling in critical situations is horrible. Last nite it cost Miami the game.

If this team finishes 8-9 with Hill then McDaniel and this year will have been a failure.
Being a rookie coach is tough but if this is an indication of his thinking during games then he isnt the guy.
 
I respect that you do this each week, but I think it is hard to avoid knee jerk, hindsight statements so quickly after a tough loss.

I don’t know why people expect McDaniel to call a perfect game every week. The offense was rolling in the first half and WR drops killed us. In the second half on the 3 short 3rd down passes that failed the Bills sold out, stacked the box to stop the run. If we ran the ball in any of those scenarios and failed, all of the people complaining would be saying it was obvious we should have passed the ball there. The only absolutely terrible call was the 3rd and 1 that lost 2 yards.

Real talk, the reason we lost was 100% on our defense. Every time we need them to step up, they let a team score a quick, easy TD before the half. Up 8, they let the Bills walk down the field two times for 11 easy points. The unit has been giving us 1 decent quarter a week for 14 games and we expect the offense to score 30+ and win.
 
ONole1 said:
Agree, but I want to see how he reacts after the season. He's done a lot, and what he has done with Tua gets a bit of a buy with me. Most new coaches go through this, it's how they change or not that will make them or break them.
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I actually wish we had a better HC but wished McD was our QBs coach. Perfect world for me because he’s done wonders with Tua
He would show me something if he hired an NFL pro play caller and relinquished that responsibility but he’s just now cut out for it
 
Given 3 road games in a row, a short week, the injuries in the secondary....well I didn't expect a win. Then there was the weather. I felt if it started to snow we would get murdered.

Instead we are able to honestly say we should have won. A few less dropped passes, and few different calls, a defensive penalty or two less.....and the game would have been ours.
 
Russ57 said:
Given 3 road games in a row, a short week, the injuries in the secondary....well I didn't expect a win. Then there was the weather. I felt if it started to snow we would get murdered.

Instead we are able to honestly say we should have won. A few less dropped passes, and few different calls, a defensive penalty or two less.....and the game would have been ours.
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This was a bad loss. Losing games is always going to happen. SF and LA totally outplayed Miami and thats fine. There was no doubt.
Last nite was different. McDaniel's decision making cost the players a game they should have won.
You cant lose games like this with idiotic play calling on 7 or 8 3rd downs. Or the moron decision to go for 2.
 
EasyRider said:
I have zero complaints about his schemes. I love them. He doesn’t have an interest in running the ball, and he’s not correcting all the mistakes he’s been making all season. That’s a problem, it’s a character flaw. I just don’t think he’s smart enough to all of a sudden change his fundamentals and his blunderous decisions and his clock management. There are worse HCs out there. He wasn’t even smart enough to bring in his own DC
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But he is starting to change his decision making. After failing for two games, they committed to the run for three quarters yesterday. They may have abandoned it in the 4th but some of that may also be on Tua. The Bills tried to force our hand on 3rd and short yesterday by stacking the line. They may have found a tendency in our audibles where we often throw the out in those situations. Because when they did, they got physical with our receivers and played the under. Sometimes you just have to keep gashing a D no matter what their scheme is telling you to do.

I didn’t have a problem with the decision to keep the DC. He had the entire D back. McD had major flaws on the O to fix. The D has definitely regressed. Both due to injury in the back end and poor play calling in key moments. I see there being a change this off-season.
 
mnphinfan said:
But he is starting to change his decision making. After failing for two games, they committed to the run for three quarters yesterday. They may have abandoned it in the 4th but some of that may also be on Tua. The Bills tried to force our hand on 3rd and short yesterday by stacking the line. They may have found a tendency in our audibles where we often throw the out in those situations. Because when they did, they got physical with our receivers and played the under. Sometimes you just have to keep gashing a D no matter what their scheme is telling you to do.

I didn’t have a problem with the decision to keep the DC. He had the entire D back. McD had major flaws on the O to fix. The D has definitely regressed. Both due to injury in the back end and poor play calling in key moments. I see there being a change this off-season.
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I loved that we started the run to start but then he went right back to what he does not too well, call games. We needed the run in those critical short yardage situations and seemed to forget they were working
 
DZimmer000 said:
We were facing an uphill battle coming into this game. 3rd week in a row on the road (What the **** is that by the way???), the weather, Tua’s cold streak etc…. However, we could have and should have won this game. This loss is, without a doubt, on the coaches. On to the grades:

QB — The Good: 17 of 30 for 234 and 2 TD’s isn’t a bad game at all. Should have been much better but our WR corp had a few drops.

The Bad: While not a bad game, Tua wasn’t great either. A few questionable throws in there that could have gone for picks.

The Grade: C +. The drops didn’t help but neither did the play calling. Overall a good effort by Tua….But I was hoping for great.

RB’s — The Good: Wow. Mostert came to play. Great game by him. 17 rushes for 136. That’s an 8.0 ypc. Very well done. Ahmed had 43 more and our backs totaled 181 yards with Ingold’s 2 yard input.

The Bad: With a performance like that, there wasn’t much bad with these guys.

The Grade: A . Almost put up 200 on Buffalo. This group deserves the A. Spoiler Alert: It’ll be the only A given out today.

TE’s — The Good: The TE’s held up well in the running game. That’s all.

The Bad: Gesicki with 1 catch for 5 yards. And he stopped running after he caught it. Smythe with 1 catch for minus 2 yards. Awful.

The Grade: D . The only reason this group gets the D is because of the running game. They are being woefully underutilized and this coaching staff deserves the F for that alone. Meanwhile Buffalo’s TE had a career game tonight.

WR’s — The Good: Waddle was very good tonight as was Hill. 9 catches for Hill for 69 and a TD. Waddle with 3 for 114 and a TD.

The Bad: Wilson was the only other receiver with a catch. Ridiculous. Also too many drops in the first half that were costly.

The Grade: C -. Again….Hill and Waddle make this a C -. No one else did anything.

OL — The Good: Opening enough holes to hang almost 200 rushing on Buffalo is a good game. Tua, in general, had time to throw. A good effort by these guys.

The Bad: A few blown assignments when it counted hurt us. However, not a bad game by this unit.

The Grade: B - . How often do I ever say we should run more in a Dolphins game? Rarely. But McDaniel should have trusted them and we would have won this game. Awful coaching. Period.

DL — The Good: Wilkins with a Fumble recovery. Seller with a sack. Not much else.

The Bad: No pass rush to speak of. We have up 153 on the ground. And of course, we folded when we need a stop in the last 3 minutes.

The Grade: F . They played well for the 3rd quarter. That’s it. I’m sorry….That doesn’t cut it for me.

LB’s — The Good: Great Strip Sack by Phillips. That’s all.

The Bad: Anybody seen Jerome Baker? Actually….Anyone seen any of our MLB’s? I haven’t. Where is the pash rush from this group? Awful first half. Decent 3rd Qtr. Awful 4th qtr.

The Grade: F. I’m sorry….But they did not play well at all.

DB’s — The Good: N/A

The Bad: Open receivers everywhere tonight. If Noah Iggy isn’t cut on January 9th, I’m going to be pissed. He is awful. X wasn’t much better tonight. Admittedly, there was no lash rush to help them out. But they let way too many receivers get way too open.

The Grade: F . Folded like a Walmart Lawn chair when we needed them. Awful.

Coaching — The Good: Offensively we rang up 29 on the Bills. Defensively, we shut out the Bills the entire 3rd qtr. That’s it.

The Bad: Where do I start? McDaniel refusing to run the ball on 3rd and short? Or refusing to run the ball 4 time on first and goal from the 4 and settling for a FG? How about not ever running a rub route or anything of the sort on 3rd and short? Terrible. Wait! Then there’s Boyer….He has absolutely Zero feel for the game. Rushing 4 on 3rd and 17 and letting the Bills convert? How about the last 8 seconds of the first half? How do you give any NFL QB 9 seconds to throw the ball? Honestly, does Boyer know what a delayed blitz is? Awful.

The Grade: F. Again.

Conclusion: We have 3 games left and in my mind we have to win all 3 of them. The division is Buffalo’s. That’s all but official. 10 wins might get us in, but we have to rely on help for that. The problem is, Our defense has fallen apart. Our play calling is suspect. The coaching, quite frankly, is not peaking when we need it to. Nor is this team. It’s an up hill battle from here on out. I would say we’re going to find out what we’re made of in the next 3 weeks, but I think we just found out in the last 3. To be honest, I don’t like what we found.
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Nailed it this week! Coaching was AGAIN awful this week and it’s now a trend!
 
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