Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 7 Edition

[ForksPhin]

While I agree with you about the second pick that he should have just taken the sack.

After I watched this though I definitely started wondering what the heck Waddle was thinking?

Austin Jackson is abysmal. Add to this highlight both his ”block” on the Sanders FG attempt and his holding call ruining a promising possession and then explain to me how this guy is in the lineup?

Heads need to roll just because they refuse to bench this guy.

 

[AdamD13]

While I agree with you about the second pick that he should have just taken the sack.

After I watched this though I definitely started wondering what the heck Waddle was thinking?

If I were to caption Waddle on that, “Oh crap, Tua’s in trouble and he might try to throw that to me. I am surrounded by Falcons. I’m gonna get the hell out of here!”

 

[HarryBagpipe]

Austin Jackson is abysmal. Add to this highlight both his ”block” on the Sanders FG attempt and his holding call ruining a promising possession and then explain to me how this guy is in the lineup?

Heads need to roll just because they refuse to bench this guy.

Remember how we kept wondering how they could continue to keep starting Dallas Thomas and they did year after year. Here we are again

 

[NBP81]

There's no way to evaluate anyone on this team until this team stops trying to protect 1st QTR leads... They're playing conservative football on offense until they're 2 scores behind. This just wont work. You watch this game again and their strategy seems to be long 10+ plays drives that grind the clock, as always. This is non-sense, you dont have the experience to go 15 plays without mistakes and you dont have the defense to prenvent the other team from doing exactly what your trying to do.

Then they suddently wake the **** up when 2 scores behind. This flat out wont work, the concerning part about this is they're still trying to do that **** in a lost season. Im afraid its all said and done. Flores will die on that outdated strategy and that is that. Sucks that the Fins might trade the QB before they get rid of the real problem here...

 

[Penthos]

Zim The Great had an epiphany yesterday. From my seat at Hard Rock stadium I noticed something. All of the problems with the team can come down to two words. Those 2 words? Talent and Coaching. Now, I know a ton of the guys on this board will say “Zim….We all Know this already”. Yes, we all really do. But it became CRYSTAL clear yesterday that the problem of coaching is affecting the talent. I’ll explain in my grades below.

QB — C + : How do you grade Tua? The Bad: The 2 interceptions were terrible…..and at the WORST time. If Tua avoids throwing those picks, we win this game going away. All hope was lost. The Good: Tua doesn’t hang his head. He drives the offense down and we take the lead late in the 4th quarter only to have our defense lose the game for us.

If I was to grade Tua from the 2nd interception on….He gets an A+. As a matter of fact, he looked great when we started opening up the offense. Keep in mind, he looked that good without his #1 and #2 receivers and with Preston Williams benched because he was dropping everything he could. So, here is where coaching comes in. WHY DID WE WAIT UNTIL WE ARE LOSING TO OPEN UP THE OFFENSE? The play calling up until the middle of the 3rd quarter was horrible as usual. It’s now painfully obvious that the “2 OC Method” doesn’t work. Bad news for all of the “Watson Guys” on this board….But we have our QB on the roster. Our coaching staff does not use him correctly except for a quarter and a half yesterday.

RB’s — C + : Actually a nice game from Gasking and Ahmed. They played well overall. They picked up blitzes, they ran hard. Not their fault we lost this game. again, when we opened it up, they were a lot more effective. I say again, with small backs, why are we trying to force the ball between the tackles all the time? We need to run outside….Run more screens and wheel routes. The coaching is also holding this group back.

WR’s — F : Here is where the lack of talent hurts us. Parker and Fuller were out (again). Preston Williams is safe from Covid because he can’t catch anything anymore. Albert Wilson has lost everything. No speed, No quickness….Nothing. We have 1 receiver on this team…Waddle. That’s it. The fact that Tua did what he did with the cast of receivers we have is ridiculous. This was supposed to be the strength of the team. Why not try Kirk Merritt?? He has to be better than Wilson or Williams.

TE’s — B + : By far, the best unit on the field for us Yesterday. They should have given Gesicki his contract extension in the shower immediately after this game. Shaheen and Smythe had nice plays yesterday as well.

OL — F : Hear me out on this one. They were putrid for 2 1/2 quarters yesterday. The usual missing blocks, allowing pressure….ETC. All of a sudden, in the late 3rd quarter, they start looking like the 83 Washington Redskin Hogs?? (I exaggerate to make a point). Why?? We opened up the playbook…And Boom. We start moving the ball. Amazing. Bad coaching is affecting this unit. BIG TIME. Now….No one will ever tell me that Austin Jackson is an NFL quality football player. BUT….If we can scheme things up like we should be doing…This unit could be an Average NFL OL. One more thing….Jessie Davis is bad at football.

DL — D : 30 points. No pressure. Can’t stop a converted WR from rushing the ball. Bad. Wilkins and Davis were OK. Ogbah with a clutch hit causing the fumble saved this from being an F. The problem was….This unit didn’t step up when we needed it wit 3 minutes left. They weren’t the only ones.

LB’s — D - : I hate to say this…But Phillips is looking like he’s heading down the BUST path. No stats from him at all yesterday. Baker had a nice play or 2. Van Ginko is a fraction of what he was last year. I believe the way these guys are being used is affecting their play. A lot of guys are going to disagree with me on this…..But when we had KVN on the field…The defense overall was more effective. I believe the stats will bear that out.

DB’s — D : This was not a good showing by this group. X did have a nice pick though. When he wants to play….He’s a very good DB. McCourty and Rowe got roasted by Pitts for 163 yards.

ST’s — F : Nice field goal try. That was almost comical. Sanders never had a chance. Palardy needs to go.

Coaching and Front Office — F : This coaching staff is terrible. I am now on the Fire Flores Bandwagon. We let a rookie TE beat us for 163 yards. We didn’t open up the Offensive playbook until basically the 4th quarter. I don’t think Flores has what it takes and I want him and this entire staff gone. I’m really not sure they’re using anyone on this team the right way. Yesterday’s loss was a new low for this entire organization.

I agree with most of this accept for Tua. You say his picks were at the WORST time, but that's not true. The worst time would have been on our last drive.. But instead of throwing a pick he threw a TD and we took the lead. The facts are his TD to INT ratio was 2:1, he completed 80% of his passes and he threw for almost 300 yards... all on a team with 1 good (rookie) WR, 1 good pass catching TE and a horrible OL. I'll take that performance any day... B+

 

[lynx]

There's no way to evaluate anyone on this team until this team stops trying to protect 1st QTR leads... They're playing conservative football on offense until they're 2 scores behind. This just wont work. You watch this game again and their strategy seems to be long 10+ plays drives that grind the clock, as always. This is non-sense, you dont have the experience to go 15 plays without mistakes and you dont have the defense to prenvent the other team from doing exactly what your trying to do.

Then they suddently wake the **** up when 2 scores behind. This flat out wont work, the concerning part about this is they're still trying to do that **** in a lost season. Im afraid its all said and done. Flores will die on that outdated strategy and that is that. Sucks that the Fins might trade the QB before they get rid of the real problem here...

Yeah I don't know the actual numbers but it's weird how many times the offense has driven down the field on the 1st drive and then come out flat the very next series

 

[bigchub22]

My problem is…. Why is he only playing 15 snaps??? He was drafted at #18 overall. He should be all over the place…..Instead….He got 15 snaps and wasn’t particularly effective in any of them.

I know it’s early but I’ve keyed on him a lot. I just don’t see anything that excites me. Cant shed, can’t get to QB, looks like he has a magnet on him that sucks him into his blocker and then can’t get off him. Not excited by what I’ve seen!

 

[NBP81]

Yeah I don't know the actual numbers but it's weird how many times the offense has driven down the field on the 1st drive and then come out flat the very next series

Flores takes a lead, and then plays the game around that lead... Plain and simple. He doesnt think beyond the actual score. If the Fins main goal in every game this year was not winning the game but actually trying to score more than 30 points. The Fins might have a winning record right now.

 

[zucca]

Very interesting to see that Tua didn't just throw that pick up for anyone. Idiot LG gave him less than a second. He threw it right at Waddle. Waddle didn't see it because of the mass of linemen so he moved hoping to get a line of sight with the QB. Still bad decision to throw it but he had something in mind there.

 

[Penthos]

While I agree with you about the second pick that he should have just taken the sack.

After I watched this though I definitely started wondering what the heck Waddle was thinking?

Exactly. Tua starts his throw to the spot Waddle is located but as Tua is throwing, Waddle slides to his left. If Waddle just stays put, that ball is AT LEAST contested, likely not a Pick and possibly a short completion. Should Tua have even thrown it? Probably not, but he DID have Waddle right in front of him.

 

[HarryBagpipe]

Flores takes a lead, and then plays the game around that lead... Plain and simple. He doesnt think beyond the actual score. If the Fins main goal in every game this year was not winning the game but actually trying to score more than 30 points. The Fins might have a winning record right now.

falcons on the other come out with a lead in the second half and look deep straight away....hopefully we wont have to worry about flos game management much longer

 

[PASQUALE]

Tua 32-40 291 yards 4 TD's 80% completions (A+) so given on the #2 I will drop it to A-

(Int #1 was on Smythe that was a corner route and he did not complete his route he stopped and the Safety stepped in front, if he would have ran faster and completed his route its a TD) This is not on Tua even though INT are the QB's stat.

(Int #2 Tua saw Waddle coming to his right thinking he was going to move towards the ball but he stopped when he got hit from behind the the ball continued to where Waddle was supposed to be. So who is to blame? They both were at fault here because Waddle did not come across and Tua feeling the pressure and getting hit should have eaten it for the sack). So this a 50-50

We now have only 2 RB's on the roster as Malcolm Brown was injured badly with a Quadriceps and placed on IR. We will be bringing up Doaks.
We are now short at Safety as we lost Jason McCourty with a foot injury and he is in now on IR. We only have Holland, Jones, and Fedjelem as true safeties. Plus, we lost Baker to a knee injury so defense will be even worse. Redwine can be brought up if he learns the playbook from PS.

This nightmare will not end any time soon too.

Just felt QB should be an A-

All we can ask for is a good hard fought divisional game versus the JiLLLLs and play with moxy and fire and and if we can get another great performance from Tua maybe we can make it a competitive game.

Thanks Zim!

 

[KingHydra]

I had no idea he was injured….If that’s the case….. Then I’m wrong on him. I watched him up close yesterday….I didn’t see anything that thrilled me. However, I didn’t know he was banged up.

Gotta check the injury reports pregame. Phillips was listed as "Questionable" with Ankle injury.

 

[DZimmer000]

Gotta check the injury reports pregame. Phillips was listed as "Questionable" with Ankle injury.

I was tailgating at Hard Rock….So I missed all the pre-game info due to “Beers”. That’s all I’ll say about that.

 

[laxcoach]

I would give a Tua no worse than a B. The first interception was not a great pass but it was not as awful as some posters made it out to be. The second interception is the reason his grade was a B instead of an A. It was an awful decision and there is no way to defend that pass.

Otherwise he made the plays to bring his team back from 2 scores down in the 4th quarter and when he left the field for the last time yesterday, the Dolphins were leading the game.

Considering he was playing with only one of his top 4 WR’s and Gesicki, he did an excellent job overall. I really don’t see how he only rates a C plus considering his 4 TD passes and his play in the 4th quarter after the game appeared over once the Falcons took a 12 point lead.

I would like to piggyback on this train of thought.

In the last (forever) few years, when has there ever been a 3rd and 10+ where you thought "we can convert this?" Tua made some good plays at the end of the game to keep the team alive.

Another similar thought, in the last (forever) few years, how many times have we been 1st and goal at the 5 yard line and you thought "we are going to get a TD" with confidence? Tua is starting to give me that vibe that his ball placement makes him hard to defend down there.

And Zim -- I agree about opening up the offense. It's crazy how conservative they are until they can't.

Flores has a fundamental decision to make: Stick with what he considers to be conservative game planning (bend but don't break D, and happy to score 17 per game on O) OR go down swinging. If you are going to give up 30 per game to Atlanta, you might as well go down swinging, IMO.