Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 6 Edition | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 6 Edition

DZimmer000

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Another winnable game……Another disappointing loss. There is way more than enough blame to go around and I’m about to start passing it out. Trigger Warning: A lot of you aren’t going to like this.

QB — The Good: Thompson looked confident and was actually moving the offense despite the inept OL. He had some nice throws and if it wasn’t for a series of 5 penalties and 2 dropped passes in a 7 play span, he would have had us in the lead. The other good news is the injury that knocked him out of the game was his thumb and not his head.

The Bad: Teddy Bridgewater is a below average QB. Today showed that. Admittedly, he got little help from his OL and his Head Coach. But let’s not fool ourselves….He will never lead an NFL a team to the playoffs again. The 2 picks hurt and I highly doubt he and his inconsistent ways are back next year.

The Grade: D -. The offensive line definitely contributes to the bad grade here….. But Teddy Bridgewater is below average and definitely didn’t look ready to play today.

RB’s — The Good: Mostert had 49 yards rushing with a 3.5 yard average, which isn’t horrible. Edmonds had 2 catches for 28 yards to contribute.

The Bad: Edmonds is not running the ball well at all. I cringe every time I see Mostert leave the field to be honest. Ingold is below average as a runner and a blocker. Again, our horrible OL hurts this group… However, we have 4 speed backs on the roster and only Ingold that can get any tough yards….And he’s not that good at it.

The Grade: C - . This is a position that must be addressed in the off season. Today was not great. Mostert is really the only guy I’d keep. He keeps running hard behind a putrid OL…. But we need a guy that can bang it in there and consistently get the tough yards.

WR’s — The Good: Hill again proves how good he is with 12 Catches for 177 yards. Waddle gets 129 yards on 6 catches for a decent game.

The Bad: Sherfield was the only other receiver with a catch. He had 1 for 6 yards. Waddle with an incredibly ill timed fumble. We are a 2 receiver team. That’s it.

The Grade: C +. We need our other receivers to take some pressure off Hill and Waddle. Thank God for Tyreek Hill or this wouldn’t have been a close game.

TE’s — The Good: GESICKI!! The square peg of the offense finally gets put into the square hole. Nice game from him. 6 catches for 69 yards and 2 TD’s. I’m a Gesicki fan. Period.

The Bad: Much like the receivers, not one other TE caught a ball. The Run blocking was not good either.

The Grade: C . This grade is 100% attributable to Mike Gesicki’s efforts.

OL — The Good: 😐

The Bad: Well…. History repeats itself again. This OL’s effort today was PATHETIC. Little should retire right now. Grier’s buddy Eichenberg should consider being a shoe salesman and Brandon Shell??? Where the **** did we find this clown? Someone remind me. Pass Blocking was an actual joke today. Our OL made the Vikings look like the 85 Bears today. 6 total sacks and 14 QB hits?? That’s 20 plays where our QB was crushed. 20 PLAYS!! Pathetic.

The Grade: F . Again. This is getting really annoying.

DL — The Good: Nice sack at a great time for Raekwon Davis. Wilkins was good all day. This unit played winning football for 90% of the day…….

The Bad: The 10% that they didn’t play great came at the end of the game when we needed stops. Our DL got moved on 2 crucial plays that allowed Cook to go for 6 and then 53 yards and crushed us.

The Grade: B - . This unit got no help from the offense really. Sad. They played well all day. This loss is not really this unit’s fault.

LB’s — The Good: Phillips had half a sack and some good pressure. Ingram had a couple pressures. Roberts had 1.5 sacks. Not bad.

The Bad: Ingram cannot cover anyone. Baker with a missed tackle on Cook’s 53 Yarder.

The Grade: C . Some Good today and some bad. Regardless, this unit along with the rest of the defense deserved better. Our offense let them down.

DB’s — The Good: Noah Iggy…A guy I typically despise, played well when pressed into service today. Holland had a couple huge hits.

The Bad: X is no longer the Pro Bowler we got used to. Not A great game for him. Needham being lost for the season hurts.

The Grade: C . It would be nice to see a pick again this year. I hope Jones comes back soon.

ST’s — The Good: Morstead averaged 51.2 yards on 6 punts. Including a 63 yard bomb. That’s all.

The Bad: Sanders has become very average very fast. Missing kicks seems to be his thing now. Our coverage units SUCK. Bad day for ST’s.

The Grade: C -. This grade belongs to Morstead. Sanders and the rest of our Coverage guys would have rated an F today.

Coaching — The Good: NOT APPLICABLE.

The Bad: This is where I might piss some people off.

Mike McDaniel a genius? I think not. This loss is on him and his very average staff. You know your 2 starting tackles are out, so do you:

Throw quick slants to help your QB get the ball out of his hands quick? Nope. No slants thrown today.

Move the pocket to keep the opposing DL guessing?? Nope. Didn’t happen by design once.

How about a Jet Sweep or 2 to keep the defense honest?? Nope. Not once.

How about the RPO with either Skyler or Teddy? Nope.

What did we get? WR Bubble screens. Wasn’t there another “Genius” coach that liked to call WR Bubble screens a lot? Oh yeah….Adam Gase.

See what I’m getting at? 2 point conversion try after the late touchdown?? Really?? I don’t agree with anyone that says McDaniel is a genius. I just haven’t seen evidence of it. Boyer isn’t much better….He insists on dropping Ingram into coverage and that worked not once in 5 tries that I saw. Stupid. Danny Crossman’s Special Teams unit? Average would be a good day. How about Matt Applebaum’s OL? Easily one of the worst in this league.

This is where I blame Grier as well. How many times do we have to see our OL a look like they have no idea how to play football before something gets done.

The Grade: F!! 2 games in a row that I blame our coaching staff.

The Conclusion: We cannot keep our QB’s healthy. It’s beyond pathetic at this point. As of right now, I highly doubt we make the playoffs. I mean…..We’re now 2 games behind the Bills, 1.5 games behind the Jets and we’re tied for last place in our division with the Patriots. It’s getting harder and harder to see the light at the end of the tunnel and our “Genius” HC isn’t helping.
 
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Yikes. Our D forced 7, 3 and outs. Held Minny to 234 TOTAL yards. That’s an A game, A- at worst from them. Play like that every week and you win 15 games minimum on the year.

The offense - puke. 10 penalties, 3 turnovers and an oline that offered no protection. It’s actually amazing that they’ve gotten our no 1, 2 and 3 QBs knocked out in just 6 games.

This is easy for me:

Offense: F
Defense: A-
Coaching: F (and yea the dumb 2 point try plays a small role here; but mostly continuing to try airing it out in a tight game when your QB is getting drilled on every play.
Special Teams: F - Sanders - **** You, you suck. Holland sucks at fielding punts. That’s 2 muffs going back to last season and he hadn’t fielded many. Find someone else to do that job. And our punt coverage sucks.
 
The 2-point conversion is just good math. Let's assume you have a 50% chance of converting. Case A: You convert. If you score another TD, you kick the PA and now you're winning. Case B: You miss. If you score another TD, you go for 2 again. You have a 50% chance again. If you make it, you're tied, so nothing lost. If you miss, then you're screwed.

Totals: 50% of the time you're winning. 25% you're tied. 25% you're losing.

Like I said, good math.
 
Nice write-up, but I think you were too kind to McDaniel and Grier! They went into the off-season with a historically bad o-line that IMO only had one guy who was close to being a starting caliber lineman. Fixing this line should have been their top priority, but they were too busy gathering WRs, TEs and RBs. What little they did, getting an injury prone LT with a history of missing games, and a LG playing Center who likes committing penalties and thinks he's snapping the ball to a 7 foot tall QB wasn't nearly good enough. And, the depth players they found don't even belong in the league. IMO, this team could be 6-0 right now if they had a decent o-line.
 
Will add Zim
OL grade Z - streak of pen's holding, illegal down field stoped at least a FG attempt or two early.
Could really of helped the D by putting score board pressure early on the Vikes.
S/T grade E - yes Morstead played ok but we need to find some returners real quick. Don't like the idea of using Hill/Holland back there and Hill nearly fumbled early.
Coaching yes poor at times but do give some credit to MM with the fake fumble, if Figjam could hold onto the ball we get a 1st down. Guts again on 4th and 5 and getting it.
I give Roberts a bit more credit with 1.5 sacks that no one saw coming but also solidified a very good run D until the 53 yarder.
 
The 2-point conversion is just good math. Let's assume you have a 50% chance of converting. Case A: You convert. If you score another TD, you kick the PA and now you're winning. Case B: You miss. If you score another TD, you go for 2 again. You have a 50% chance again. If you make it, you're tied, so nothing lost. If you miss, then you're screwed.

Totals: 50% of the time you're winning. 25% you're tied. 25% you're losing.

Like I said, good math.
Or, kick the PAT there and when you score the 2nd TD decide if you want to take a shot at the win or go to OT. I don’t like reaching for points.
 
Who would have thunk it, the God damn Jets looking brighter than us...sad times, oh I forgot it the usual Ground Hog thing here in Finsville.
Someone pointed out that their young players are making an impact immediately. We’re still waiting for the class of 2020 to show up
 
The 2-point conversion is just good math. Let's assume you have a 50% chance of converting. Case A: You convert. If you score another TD, you kick the PA and now you're winning. Case B: You miss. If you score another TD, you go for 2 again. You have a 50% chance again. If you make it, you're tied, so nothing lost. If you miss, then you're screwed.

Totals: 50% of the time you're winning. 25% you're tied. 25% you're losing.

Like I said, good math.

Good comment and also changed momentum if we had got the ball back chasing only 6 point lead there is extra pressure on the Vikes knowing if we score a TD most likely they lose no chance of O/T.
 
I didn't like the attempt but can live with it. Regression is what we're seeing here, not McD progression he often speaks about.
 
I know Howard gave up the big gain on the wheel route to Jefferson, but I thought outside of that play Howard and the secondary overall did a great job. I think they held the Viks to 19 receptions for 135 yards aside from the long gain. That one play, which seems like we're saying often this season about Howard and the defense tainted the entire performance. If Howard doesn't give up that play he likely gets an A or B at least for keep Jefferson in check.
 
Buncha goddamn “i told ya so” folks. Claiming we only have one starter at lineman going into the season? **** off. Youre not being honest.

Sometimes things fall apart. Quarterback is the most important/irreplaceable position in all of sports next to Indy car driver. And we have one of the most surprisingly shitty backups in the league - Bridgewater. He’s atrocious.
 
I know Howard gave up the big gain on the wheel route to Jefferson, but I thought outside of that play Howard and the secondary overall did a great job. I think they held the Viks to 19 receptions for 135 yards aside from the long gain. That one play, which seems like we're saying often this season about Howard and the defense tainted the entire performance. If Howard doesn't give up that play he likely gets an A or B at least for keep Jefferson in check.
He erased him for most of the game. He had 2 fantastic PBUs - one on him and one on Thielen. As a whole we only gave up 234 yards. That’s a great day
 
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