Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 7 Edition

[phin1984!]

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 think it’s not necessarily ‘not opening up the playbook’ but could be the defense playing soft and prevent?

 

[GRYPHONK]

At least he tried to play injured. That’s more than can be said for some of the high priced prima donna’s on this team. Waddle‘s leg also was bent backwards but he was back on the field a few plays later.

Certain WR’s would be out a month or more if their leg was bent like that.

Agreed. Also, with legs bent like that, probably 2 or 3 of our players would have strangely encountered a groin injury flaring up late Wednesday afternoon

 

[Andyman]

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.

Because he had a bad ankle and they held him back.

 

[fansinceGWilson]

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!

To me, TT gets blame for INT #1. He locked In on the receiver early and stayed with him. Not smart

 

[Marino2.0]

Good grades for the most part.

But very hard for me to understand a C+ grade for Tua. He had a 109.5 passer rating. He threw a touchdown pass to take the lead with less than 3 minutes left in the game. Only one other QB in NFL history has ever thrown for 290 yards with 80% completion and 4 TDs in a game and lost. And he did it with an awful OL, Malcolm Brown at RB, and guys like Preston Williams/Isaiah Ford/Mack Hollins getting snaps at WR. The interceptions were bad (one much more so than the other), but turnovers happen with young quarterbacks. Matt Ryan had the same number of turnovers. I’d give Tua a B+, and even that feels harsh.

I also think the DL played better than you give them credit for. I blame most of our failures to stop the run or force pressure on the LBs, not the DL. But it’s probably a joint effort.

 

[Marino2.0]

To me, TT gets blame for INT #1. He locked In on the receiver early and stayed with him. Not smart

I agree it wasn’t smart. I think it’s kind of to-may-to, to-mah-to who you blame for the first pick. Tua forced a throw he shouldn’t have, but it still could’ve been a touchdown—and should’ve been no worse than an incompletion—if Smythe runs his route properly. Same type of play happened in the third quarter and Gesicki caught it for a TD.

That being said, it was a mistake for Tua to throw it. You don’t need to squeeze a pass in there, and you certainly don’t want to be squeezing passes to guys like Smythe. You can make that pass to Gesicki, maybe. In the future, that’s got to be a check down. I’d imagine he knows that now. This is how young QBs learn.

 

[AvogadrosNumber]

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...

Agreed 100%

Every team in the NFL wins games by blowouts, we're trying to win games by last minute field goals

Flores is toast, too stubborn to change

 

[SF Dolphin Fan]

Didn't see the game, so really appreciate all the feedback.

I think Miami should give Merritt and Doaks a chance. What do they have to lose?

 

[Manning]

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?

Wow watching that angle I can see what happen. It’s not as bad as I originally thought. Just miscommunication. Tua thought waddle was going to stay put and waddle ran to his left. Still way too risky a throw under that pressure (AJ) but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Jmo

 

[royalshank]

I would give Tua a "B+" ... watching the replay on the 1st interception it looked more like a poorly run route by Smythe. Tua referred to it as miscommunication. The second interception was obviously all on Tua. The OL (Jackson) was piss poor on protection that play, but that is when Tua should just live with the sack. Besides that, Tua was money all day. His ball placement overall was terrific. His leadership in the 4th quarter outstanding...80% completion to go with 4 TD passes, 28 points plus a blocked FG, a "B" at a minimum.

I agree with this statement:

Preston Williams...can’t catch anything

Even if the first INT was a miscommunication, my issue is we’re in the RZ - why are we getting cute trying to get a TD w our blocking TE? I get it if we were on the 2 or something and we do PA etc but Smythe on like a corner / fade whatever that was is a joke. Of course he was going to look lost out in space like that. SMH.

 

[royalshank]

Wow watching that angle I can see what happen. It’s not as bad as I originally thought. Just miscommunication. Tua thought waddle was going to stay put and waddle ran to his left. Still way too risky a throw under that pressure (AJ) but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Jmo

It was still awful. Thanks to Austin Jackson but he can’t throw that after the timing is all blown up and he is getting blown up.

 

[ANUFan]

Qb C+…stop reading!

 

[ForksPhin]

Wow watching that angle I can see what happen. It’s not as bad as I originally thought. Just miscommunication. Tua thought waddle was going to stay put and waddle ran to his left. Still way too risky a throw under that pressure (AJ) but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Jmo

I can’t watch that video and focus on the throw.

All I see is Austin Jackson looking like a fan won a contest to spend one snap on the Dolphins offensive line.

 

[TraderJoe]

I can’t watch that video and focus on the throw.

All I see is Austin Jackson looking like a fan won a contest to spend one snap on the Dolphins offensive line.

It’s shocking how consistently bad he is in pass pro, I’m no oline expert but everything about his technique just looks wrong. His feet just aren’t in sync with his hands (which are usually too wide).

He isn’t that bad in the run game and I really love the passion he plays with. On run plays he almost always is looking for someone to hit downfield.

 

[zucca]

It’s shocking how consistently bad he is in pass pro, I’m no oline expert but everything about his technique just looks wrong. His feet just aren’t in sync with his hands (which are usually too wide).

He isn’t that bad in the run game and I really love the passion he plays with. On run plays he almost always is looking for someone to hit downfield.

He actually had a great block on a screen play but he gets beat too easily and quickly on too many occasions. Then the play turns into a fire drill where plays like int 2 happen.