Zim’s Grades For The Game: Week 7 Edition

[13marino13]

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 think it's a "C" IMO. He threw 2 critically-timed Ints. One in the red zone that he should have never thrown. There are all but a handful of QB's in the league that could make that throw, he's not one of them. He doesn't have the arm to squeeze that ball in there between 2 defenders, that required an Allen or Rodgers type arm. The second was a terrible and costly decision, he should have taken the sack. Those two ints at the very least took 6 points off the board and we lost by 3.
He only completed 1 pass over 20 yards the entire game, to Gesicki, and did not even attempt to throw a deep pass (40+). He had a high completion ratio because he checked down most of the game or threw short intermediate passes. His average pass play was only 7.3 yards. We'll never beat a quality team with the dink and dunk approach, at some point you have to throw it deep.
You are correct, he did leave the field with the lead but his 2 interceptions contributed to us being in the position we were in. We should have been ahead by at least 2 scores at that point. Against one of the worst pass D's in the league, you should be able to put up those kinds of stats, unfortunately, there is more to winning than stats, as we all have seen. Take away the 2 int's and I'd give him a B+. We need to start throwing the ball deep and that means getting waddle out on the edge and targeting him downfield. We're using Waddle like we did Landry and that's not good enough for a #6 pick, that falls on the O-coordinators. Bad usage of talent, the same goes for Gesicki. Just my opinion, but that's what I saw...

 

[FanEnSpain]

it would be cool to get a write up of each offensive lineman.

Eichenberg looked better than last week. Jackson is just useless. Whoever played Center looked pretty good. Hunt is ok, Davis blocked well on that interception play. Maybe Hunt needs to go back to RT, or try LG.

The way I see it, we have so many young OL right now (Hunt, Kindley, Deiter, Jackson, Eich) so we should be trying them at different positions to see where they are best. Who knows if Hunt looks good at LT, or if Eichenberg plays better at OG.

 

[AdamD13]

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.

That’s fair. I agree there were better options.

 

[cullenbigcstill]

Isn't it obvious to the casual fan that when an offense starts firing when they're down 27-13 midway through 3rd quarter, that the other team is dropping coverages protecting itself from quick 50 plus yard chunk plays and scores?

I the PW can't catch covid comment.

I disagree with talent, we have way too much young talent and no veteran talent. This team is loaded with depth, and we've never had talented depth. The problems we have is, we have no offensive superstars, and the up-in-comers we do have (Geisecki, Waddle,Tua, Gaskins [don't they know how little he ist?]) are severely underutilized or completely misused. That is all coaching and you nailed that.

 

[DOLFAN_51]

Ryan was playing 7 on 7 drills yesterday if you look at these numbers. 2.4% pressure on Ryan!!! That’s insane. F

Change that grade.

 

[Avigatorx]

What really impresses me with Tua is that he can still find completions when other teams are dropping 7 guys into coverage all day.

Our line cant block a 4 man rush, That is troubling.

 

[royalshank]

That’s fair. I agree there were better options.

Like Smythe is a lumbering TE - sending him on a route like that is weird. Just didn’t like the play design.

 

[deester11]

Am I crazy for thinking the offense is nothing. It's the Seinfeld of football. A bunch of plays about nothing.

Someone tell the OC's that Waddle can run deep routes too. Unless they know Tua wouldn't have time to hit his WR'S anyway?

 

[Marino2.0]

I think it's a "C" IMO. He threw 2 critically-timed Ints. One in the red zone that he should have never thrown. There are all but a handful of QB's in the league that could make that throw, he's not one of them. He doesn't have the arm to squeeze that ball in there between 2 defenders, that required an Allen or Rodgers type arm. The second was a terrible and costly decision, he should have taken the sack. Those two ints at the very least took 6 points off the board and we lost by 3.
He only completed 1 pass over 20 yards the entire game, to Gesicki, and did not even attempt to throw a deep pass (40+). He had a high completion ratio because he checked down most of the game or threw short intermediate passes. His average pass play was only 7.3 yards. We'll never beat a quality team with the dink and dunk approach, at some point you have to throw it deep.
You are correct, he did leave the field with the lead but his 2 interceptions contributed to us being in the position we were in. We should have been ahead by at least 2 scores at that point. Against one of the worst pass D's in the league, you should be able to put up those kinds of stats, unfortunately, there is more to winning than stats, as we all have seen. Take away the 2 int's and I'd give him a B+. We need to start throwing the ball deep and that means getting waddle out on the edge and targeting him downfield. We're using Waddle like we did Landry and that's not good enough for a #6 pick, that falls on the O-coordinators. Bad usage of talent, the same goes for Gesicki. Just my opinion, but that's what I saw...

We can’t throw deep because we can’t hold blocks long enough to throw deep. We can barely hold blocks long enough to dink and dunk. Take away the 2 INTs, and Tua had a perfect passer rating. If that’s a B+, an A does not exist.

 

[where's th'fish]

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

Ah, but then there's the very similar Billy Turner story... except Turner went to Denver, played well one year, got a big contract for the Packers and he's been starting there for the last three years. True story.

 

[Dolph N.Fan]

Well at least October almost over with

 

[13marino13]

We can’t throw deep because we can’t hold blocks long enough to throw deep. We can barely hold blocks long enough to dink and dunk. Take away the 2 INTs, and Tua had a perfect passer rating. If that’s a B+, an A does not exist.

So out of 40 passes not one person was open over 20 yards? Out of those 40 passes the line never gave him time once to throw deep? On those 40 passes, one of the worst pass defenses never had a breakdown in coverage? Sooner or later we're going to have to stop making excuses and blaming everyone else and shielding the QB. He's far from blameless, he has a part in this. Was he bad? No, but I'm not ready to anoint him the second coming of Wilson just yet either. Just keeping it real...

 

[AMakados10]

I’m a Tua fan but that’s fair. Tua needs to figure how how to take a few deep shots a game.

 

[Marino2.0]

So out of 40 passes not one person was open over 20 yards? Out of those 40 passes the line never gave him time once to throw deep? On those 40 passes, one of the worst pass defenses never had a breakdown in coverage? Sooner or later we're going to have to stop making excuses and blaming everyone else and shielding the QB. He's far from blameless, he has a part in this. Was he bad? No, but I'm not ready to anoint him the second coming of Wilson just yet either. Just keeping it real...

I guess we’re just not seeing eye to eye on the notion of whether there is “blame” in the first place. Again, without the 2 INTs, Tua has a perfect passer rating. There’s no blame for that. It’s purely good. Only one other quarterback in the history of the NFL has thrown for 290 yards and 4 TDs on 80% completion and lost. It’s a winning stat line.

Whether anyone was ever open deep is a separate issue. Tua took 1 sack in 41 dropbacks. That’s not a mistake. We’re intentionally having him get rid of the ball quickly, and with the exception of two dumb decisions, it worked. I am sure if we wanted him to hold onto the ball and scan downfield, he might find a few guys open. I’m also sure he’d take a half dozen sacks. It’s a bad trade-off.

I also think you’re kind of overstating how much he dinked and dunked. Up until Ryan hit those two deep passes on the last drive, he had thrown 38 passes for a total of 285 yards. Tua threw 40 passes for a total of 291 yards. They played basically identical games to that point from a yardage-efficiency perspective.

 

[Jamesw]

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.

Don't agree with everything (Phillips) but I always appreciate your posts!