Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 17 Edition

[royalshank]

I understand it is easy to blame our coaching staff for finishing 9-8. There have been issues with clock management and penalties every week. The play calling has been suspect in critical positions.

That being said, can you imagine trying to make a gameplan for our back up QBs? Skylar’s ceiling is literally handing the ball off and not f***ing things up with stupid turnovers. He has played roughly 150 snaps this year and still can’t get through reads (or even move to his second read) and panics under pressure. He is a practice squad QB that has no business being on a NFL field. I understand he is playing because that is our only option, but he makes Cleo Lemon and John Beck look good.

I was with you until the Lemon / Beck part.

 

[royalshank]

You’re kidding, right? His arm was hit on that throw and ended up short of Tyreek. That throw wasn’t even intended for Gesicki.

Better lucky than good!!!

 

[royalshank]

I really can’t recall any “good throws” from Thompson.

There was one. A third down scramble and throw into Hill for a 1st

 

[WSE]

I understand it is easy to blame our coaching staff for finishing 9-8. There have been issues with clock management and penalties every week. The play calling has been suspect in critical positions.

That being said, can you imagine trying to make a gameplan for our back up QBs? Skylar’s ceiling is literally handing the ball off and not f***ing things up with stupid turnovers. He has played roughly 150 snaps this year and still can’t get through reads (or even move to his second read) and panics under pressure. He is a practice squad QB that has no business being on a NFL field. I understand he is playing because that is our only option, but he makes Cleo Lemon and John Beck look good.

I was actually pleased that the gameplan changed with the change at QB. I feel like McDaniel has asked for way too much from Teddy and Skylar previously.

We had to dumb down/simplify the offense to win. And we did.

 

[royalshank]

Another nice write-up, Zimm. Thank you.

Garrett Wilson is going to be a pain in the Dolphins’ neck for many years to come. Miami’s secondary did just enough to keep him from being the deciding factor in the game.

Yep. He was targeted a whopping 17 times. That’s insane

 

[ThePeopleShow13]

I was with you until the Lemon / Beck part.

Was more of a dramatic flair than truthful statement, lol. Nothing against the kid, but he should be fighting for a spot on our practice squad next year. Don’t see much point trying to develop a 25 year old rookie with non-existent upside.

 

[ForksPhin]

There was one. A third down scramble and throw into Hill for a 1st

I remember that one. It was actually a little scary. But it was a completion.

 

[ForksPhin]

Was more of a dramatic flair than truthful statement, lol. Nothing against the kid, but he should be fighting for a spot on our practice squad next year. Don’t see much point trying to develop a 25 year old rookie with non-existent upside.

No upside and no strong physical traits.

 

[royalshank]

Was more of a dramatic flair than truthful statement, lol. Nothing against the kid, but he should be fighting for a spot on our practice squad next year. Don’t see much point trying to develop a 25 year old rookie with non-existent upside.

I understood your point and I’m with you. Recalling the Beck / Lemon years is good work

 

[royalshank]

I remember that one. It was actually a little scary. But it was a completion.

Into double coverage

 

[phintim]

Hunt.

Playing Hunt at RT and Jones or Eich at RG has made sense to me all year. Shell is the best RT we have but gets hurt. Our all star LT is a walking injury also. AJ played OK as a rookie to there and somehow we ruined him. A great oline coach might bring him back. We need 2 starting LT at this point along with 2 starting QBs if Tua returns.

 

[phinsforlife]

While I definitely was one of the guys on this site that didn’t think we deserved to be in the playoffs…..We’re now in. I’m hoping Tua, Armstead and the rest of the guys that missed today are back and that we take Josh Allen’s soul like we did in week 3. The guys today did a good job in general and got us in….So…On to the grades.

QB — The Good: Thompson was 20 of 31 for 152 yards and had a QBR of 76.3. While no one is going to mistake Skylar Thompson for Dan Marino, he did have a few nice throws. Today Thompson was the ultimate game manager and it showed in his stats.

The Bad: Thompson missed more than a few wide-open receivers today. I understand that Thompson is a rookie but he didn’t come off his first look multiple times and it definitely held us back. It seemed to me Thompson was processing really slowly. If he plays next week, hopefully, he processes a little faster and moves to a second and third progression quicker.

The Grade: C + . We didn’t win the game because of Skyler Thompson but that’s OK. He did enough managing the offense to get us the win and that’s all we needed.

RB’s — The Good: 143 yards on the ground against the Jets defense is a good day. Wilson had 72 yards and Mostert had 71. Not a bad day at all especially against the Jets defense. I do want to point out a couple great blocks by Ingold. On one of Mostert’s longer runs, Ingold destroyed a linebacker in the hole. Props to Ingold for a good day even though he didn’t show up on the stat sheet.

The Bad: Not much bad today, the RB’s did their job for the most part. Against a good defense, the running backs performed as well as could be expected.

The Grade: B . While not a perfect day they definitely pulled their own weight to help with the win. Solid B effort.

WR’s — The Good: Obviously, with your QB position in game management mode, no one’s stats are going to jump off the board. However, I thought Waddle had a very good game, even though his stats didn’t show it. I thought Hill also had a good game and again, his stats were absent. It was also nice to see EE get into a game.

The Bad: Not sure if I should ding the receivers too much even though the QB was extremely limited today. Gardner also got the best of Hill on a lot of plays today. That kid has a future.

The Grade: B - . Waddle making the Jets horse-collar him on the last drive was a huge play. I actually thought that was a bad call, but will take it.

TE’s — The Good: Gesicki Sighting!! 4 nice catches for 46 yards when we needed it most. Smythe had 3 more for 39 yards. A good day for our TE’s on the receiving end.

The Bad: as decent as the day was on the receiving end of it, the blocking end of it wasn’t so good. A couple of miscommunications and a couple missed blocks hurts this grade.

The Grade: C + . If not for the missed blocks and the miscommunication this grade is a B +. Regardless, not a bad day for this group.

OL — The Good: 162 yards rushing against the Jets is a nice day. This unit scrapped all day and it was nice to see. Mostert and Wilson had some huge holes today and it showed in the stats.

The Bad: Against the Jets athletic front, the line didn’t hold up as well as they did in the running game. The Jets were only credited for one sack but these guys gave up a lot of pressure. This unit is going to have to play a lot better next week if we hope to be competitive in that game.

The Grade: C - . These guys did a good job today, but definitely were a little too soft in the passing game. Let’s hope for more next week.


DL — The Good: Wilkins in Seiler were maniacs today. Against a banged up Jet offensive line, these two were masterful. They did it all, stopping the run, rushing the passer, handing out Gatorade and even cleaning the toilets after the game. Awesome effort. The great part about this is that every defensive Lineman was noticeable today.

The Bad: Yes, they went against a very banged up offense of line, but it doesn’t matter. There was very little that you could point to today that was bad.

The Grade: B + . When you hold a division opponent to six points, you’re doing something right. This group was a huge part of that. Well Done.

LB’s — The Good: Phillips and Chubb were in the office of backfield most of the day. Phillips has really improved as the season has gone on. I actually noticed Chubb today on more than one occasion. Baker and Roberts also contributed and this group probably had its best day of the year.

The Bad: While we applied a lot of pressure to Flacco today, it’s gonna take more than that next week against Josh Allen. That’s about all I can say bad about this group today..

The Grade: B + . Very good Day by this group today. My only wish is that we had gotten a couple more sacks.

DB’s — The Good: After a very tough start to his day, Xavien Howard finished in style. Two great pass break ups at the end of the game help seal it. Kohou was noticeable today in a good way. This group only gave up 149 yards passing to Flacco. I’ll take that any day.

The Bad: While Howard finished the day strong, he definitely didn’t start that way. Garrett Wilson owned him for most of the day. There is little doubt Howard’s skills are declining. Hopefully, it’s just a byproduct of his injuries. We definitely need him at full strength next week.

The Grade: B . When you hold a division foe to 149 yards passing, I’d say you had a good day.

ST’s — The Good: Sanders with a clutch 50 yard kick was huge. The great news is he didn’t miss all day. Morestead was solid today as well.

The Bad: Our coverage teams weren’t good as usual. We’re going to need Sanders to kick the ball out of the end zone on every kick off next week. That is a certainty.

The Grade: B + . It was nice to see Sanders be clutch when needed. Now we have to figure out how to cover punts and kick offs, and we’ll be OK.

Coaching — The Good: I can’t believe it, but we actually saw jet sweep today. I almost fell off the couch. McDaniel had one very good series of playcalling that I can recall. I pretty much agreed with everything he called in that series. I’ll take small improvement anytime. I also like the idea of putting Hill and Waddle on the return teams.

The Bad: Unfortunately, I didn’t agree with a lot of playcalling by McDaniel today. But I can’t complain too much because we got the win. I’ll leave it at that.

The Grade: C - . Hopefully, McDaniel has saved his best coaching day for next week against Buffalo.

Conclusion: We are in the playoffs now. If the right guys get healthy, we can do some damage. I know that’s a big if but that’s my hope. And as the old saying goes crazier things have happened.

Time for the Chiropractors To Offer Their Medical Opinion on Tua Via Twitter

This is going to be so annoying.

Tua has to be medically able to play.

He finished the GB game, didn’t even know he had a concussion. Had to be minor.

It has been two weeks.

Technically he should be fine and playing.

But will he?

The whole thing will turn into another PR fiasco.

NFL may beg the Dolphins not to play him for the same reason.
Every idiot that knows nothing will chime in.

What will happen? Who knows?

But if Tua doesn’t play, and they don’t play him for these kind of reasons, how can you ever rely on him to be your starting QB? It is like relying on Terron Armstead on your starting LT. You know how it is going to go. It does not work. He gets hurt much too often. His whole career. The other problem is they have to design such a specific offense for him because his skills are so unique, a backup cannot even blend in well behind him. It is too bad, but it also is what it is.

Wouldn’t be an issue if we drafted Herbert, or tanked properly and had Burrow, but this franchise being able to steal defeat from the jaws of victory is also a recurring theme, sadly.

 

[bane]

Would always rather win
always have to make the playoffs
dont feel good about next week unless we have Tua, Terron, Hill, Mostert and Waddle.

We are not getting tua back next week. But just try to enjoy team getting n playoffs. It doesn’t happen often. You said you errr fan since 79. So you got a lot of playoffs till 2002 then hardly any. Just try to be hslot they fought through the odds that most dolphins teams have not. It’s a playoff year. I get it they will be out next week. But they persevered and got in. I am shocked and you probably are too

 

[bane]

I really can’t recall any “good throws” from Thompson.

There wasn’t any. Still we got in. That is what this season is for getting in. It’s. It like we get in playoffs all the time. But you are right Skylar was game manger. No really good throws

 

[phintim]

Time for the Chiropractors To Offer Their Medical Opinion on Tua Via Twitter

This is going to be so annoying.

Tua has to be medically able to play.

He finished the GB game, didn’t even know he had a concussion. Had to be minor.

It has been two weeks.

Technically he should be fine and playing.

But will he?

The whole thing will turn into another PR fiasco.

NFL may beg the Dolphins not to play him for the same reason.
Every idiot that knows nothing will chime in.

What will happen? Who knows?

But if Tua doesn’t play, and they don’t play him for these kind of reasons, how can you ever rely on him to be your starting QB? It is like relying on Terron Armstead on your starting LT. You know how it is going to go. It does not work. He gets hurt much too often. His whole career. The other problem is they have to design such a specific offense for him because his skills are so unique, a backup cannot even blend in well behind him. It is too bad, but it also is what it is.

Wouldn’t be an issue if we drafted Herbert, or tanked properly and had Burrow, but this franchise being able to steal defeat from the jaws of victory is also a recurring theme, sadly.

Yea no Tua at the game even in the stands tells us his career is up in the air and like u said both he Armstead require us to have a backup type starter at both positions. Not going to work this is not college where we have 90 roster spots.