Game 1 thoughts: Titans at Dolphins

First, let me just say that a game that takes 7 hours to finish (aided by two lightning delays totaling 4 hours) totally SUCKS. By the time play resumed, I didn’t even care about the game. But I did stick with it and watched the entire game.

Always great to get a win, especially a conference win. But, as is usually the case when the Dolphins win a game, they made a ton of mistakes and played a very sloppy game that almost certainly would have been a loss had they played a better team. I thought the coaching was terrible and I came away unimpressed overall.

On offense, Ryan Tannehill’s return to action was hit and miss – which has been the story his entire career. He moved well and showed command of the offense and made a couple of great throws…but he also made too many mistakes. Tannehill had a completion percentage of over 70%, which is great – but the vast majority of those completions were safe throws of the dink and dunk variety. So despite the new Dolphin narrative that the short passing game was all Jarvis Landry’s fault, the truth is this is the way Gase wants to run his offense. (Landry, by the way, had over 100 yards and averaged over 15 yards a catch in his Browns’ debut.) The 75-yard TD to Kenny Stills was a gorgeous pass – easily in the top 3 of Tannehill’s career. But that throw occurred in the 4th quarter, and prior to that Tannehill spent most of the day throwing short passes to his smurf receivers. Tannehill threw two INTs – one a horribly misplaced ball to Grant, and one an awful attempt at a fade to Gesicki in the endzone. Tannehill also threw several passes behind his receivers that made it nearly impossible for yards after the catch. Tannhill averaged 8.2 yards per attempt, which is excellent…but the Stills TD greatly inflated that number, as he averaged well under 6 yards an attempt on all other passes. Overall, it was a decent effort by Tannehill, with some great moments and some terrible moments – in other words, a typical day at the office for Tannehill.

The Phins continued to throw short of the sticks in nearly every third down situation, and it is beyond frustrating at this point. The Phins converted just 20 percent of their third down opportunities (2 of 10), and that’s just not good enough for a playcaller that is labeled (incorrectly) as an “offensive guru”. I don’t understand why Gase is afraid to throw passed the first down marker, but it has to change if this offense is ever going to become more than average. The Pins were also an abysmal 1 of 5 in red zone opportunities. Not good enough.

In addition to the lack of deep passes, I was very frustrated with the way Gase handled the running game and the TEs. Frank Gore ran like a man possessed, averaging almost 7 yards a carry and looking unstoppable all day – yet he got just 9 carries. By my count he had just 4 carries in the second half – including zero in the 4th quarter. Look, I understand that Gore is old and the coaches want to protect him – but it is inexcusable to not use him when the opponent can’t stop him and game is in the balance. As for the TEs, they were a complete non-factor. Gesicki was targeted just twice, and I don’t think Derby and Smythe were targeted at all. This is a stale offense that desperately needs a spark, and that spark can and should be provided by Gesicki. Take the training wheels off and let the man play.

Kenny Stills had a fantastic game, with two TDs. But he only got 5 targets. He’s clearly the biggest weapon and best receiver on the team, but yesterday the Dolphins constantly worked to instead force the ball to their tiny receivers, who really did nothing of note. Grant inexplicably led the team with 7 targets, despite averaging a paltry 7.6 yards per catch. Amendola was second on the team with 6 targets, and he averaged an embarrassingly low 6.5 yards a catch. Albert Wilson was supposed to make us forget about Landry, but he managed just 3 catches for 31 yards. Moving forward, this passing offense needs to throw more intermediate and deep passes Stills and Gesicki – and fewer short passes to the smurf crew of Grant, Amendola and Wilson. (And here’s where I mention again that Landry had over 100 yards and averaged over 15 yards a catch in his Browns’ debut.)

The biggest bright spot on offense was the OL. They protected Tannehill well all day and only gave up one sack. The run blocking was decent overall, with a couple of huge holes for Gore to run through. But this is the Dolphins’ OL we are talking about, so there were problems – especially the three penalties called on the OL – no surprise that 2 were called on Tunsil and the other on James. The Titans have no pass rush at all so it wasn’t much of a test for the OL, but you have to pleased with the performance.

I do have to mention the Dolphins’ 98-yard scoring drive in the second quarter…definitely an impressive drive that led to the only points scored in an otherwise lame first half.

The defense only allowed 13 points, so I can’t kill them. But it wasn’t exactly a dominant performance. I feel like the inept Titans’ offense was the main reason the defense looked good. The pass rush was completely non-existent, registering zero sacks and very little pressure. Quinn was surprisingly good against the run, but he and the rest of the DL couldn’t get near the QB. Both he and Wake faced backup tackles most of the day and got stoned on every down. Charles Harris was once again hidden by a cloak of invisibility. The DTs did not impress, though in my view Vince Taylor continues to look like the best of a mediocre group. The LBs were terrible, especially in coverage. Titan TEs combined for 101 yards on 7 catches, most coming against Miami LBs. Alonso did have an INT, but was awful in coverage and missed a bunch of tackles - and got carried for 5 yards by tiny Dion Lewis for a first down on one particularly ugly play. McMillan looks like he’s running through molasses…dude is sllllooooooowwwww. Baker was active, but made no impact plays. The run defense could have been worse, but was not good…allowing 116 yards at 4 yards a clip – with Dion Lewis leading the way for Tennessee at 4.7 yards a carry for 75 yards.

The secondary fared much better, no doubt helped by the Titans QBs: Mariota doesn’t know this new offense at all and he left the game with an injury, and their backup is Blaine Gabbert – ‘nuff said. Still, I’m happy with the results. Titans receivers had just 7 catches on the day…6 of those to Corey Davis who averaged under 10.5 yards a catch. Xavien Howard was shutdown all day, and Bobby McCain looked good on the other side. Minkah Fitzpatrick was excellent in the slot, in particular with a TD-saving tackle on a Titans 4th down play early in the game. Reshad Jones came up with two excellent INTs, and also had a couple of tackles for loss. TJ McDonald led the team in tackles with 8, but missed a bunch of tackles and looked bad in coverage against the TEs. He had a terrible game.

Special teams were pretty awful, with one exception: Jakeem Grant’s 102-yard kick return for a TD in the 4th. Excellent blocking on that play, and Grant really turned on the jets. The coverage teams were abysmal, allowing a couple of huge returns – including a 94-yard kick return for a TD in the 4th. Brutal.

So there you have it…a never-ending game that was mostly boring, and featuring many of the same problems we’ve seen throughout Gase’s tenure: slow start on offense, terrible third-down offense, OL penalties, poor run defense, inability to cover TEs. But – it was a victory, and I’ll take that every time. Fortunately for the Dolphins, their next two opponents are very beatable and feature defenses that, like the Titans, lack a legit pass rush. One game at a time, but we stand at 1-0 and I’ll take it.



Beer of the Day: A whole bunch of Founder’s All Day IPAs

Hero of the Game: Reshad Jones- his second INT, in particular, was a thing of beauty and really highlighted his athleticism.

Goat of the Game: I’ll give it to Adam Gase, for calling a crappy conservative game and once again putting together a weak offensive gameplan that started the game with a three-and-out, looked awful in key situations and managed just 20 points.

JMP wrote:Charles Harris was once again hidden by a cloak of invisibility.

LMAO!!! Yes, that deserved the big red letters version    

Hero of the Game: Reshad Jones- his second INT, in particular, was a thing of beauty and really highlighted his athleticism.

You're wrong. The Hero Of The Game was you for not only watching through it all, but posting about it  

Seriously, I'm so glad it's back      

Degarmo wrote:I think at this stage, Tannehill's deep ball is very similar, but I'm 100 percent with you, Deberg was absolutely amazing at the play action pass.

I heard Peyton studied Deberg to perfect his play-action technique. Seriously.

Deberg was the best I've seen. Manning was excellent at it too, as was Boomer Esiason.

Anyway...

The Jets looked AWESOME last night. That game next week suddenly looks a lot tougher...

IKR? Gase wouldn't even let the legendary Eric Hipple throw past the marker on third down more than twice a game if he played today

BTW the last time the Jets won their opener by more than 30, they lost the next two games, so there is *some* hope

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyj/1997.htm

That stadium is going to be rocking Sunday...INSANELY loud. The Phins better be practicing silent counts and other "tricks" to deal with crowd noise.

So, how many false starts will Tunsil have in this game? I'm going with 3. 2 as a result of the crowd noise, and 1 due to the fact that he gets one almost every game.

Also, here's a critique of Tannehill's performance by Football Outsiders, who had him as the 17th best QB this week (only a maximum of 16 QBs can be on the winning end in any given week BTW).

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/quick-reads/2018/week-1-quick-reads

Tannehill threw seven passes that traveled at least 13 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. He completed only two of them -- one to his team (for a 75-yard touchdown), one to the Titans.

Only a quarter of his throws even traveled 13 yards in the air. That's...not good. Only completing one of them to a Fins player is downright horrifying

Damn, merc, those stats exist in a vacuum and don't show the real picture at all. Hell, Peterman had one of the worst games in the history of the NFL but somehow rates high in some made-up stat called "aggressiveness"? Huh?

As you point out, Tannehill's stats are completely skewed by the one 75-yard completion. His yards per attempt were about 5.7 if you remove that one pass. Obviously you can't just throw that pass out, but the fact remains that on 27 pass attempts Tannehill averaged well under 6 yards an attempt - and that is evidenced by the extremely low yards per catch of his top 2 targets (Grant and Amendola). And 316 already showed us that just a quarter of Tannehill's throws even traveled 13 yards in the air.

As for "a quick and decisive Tannehill getting rid of the ball the quickest in the league"...that's part of the problem. Tannehill consistently looks for the quick easy play - which is a short pass. Yeah, that works for Brady...but Tannehill isn't Brady, and Gase's offense isn't New England's. The Miami OL has supposedly improved, so in theory Tannehill should have more time to look downfield and try to get chunk yardage instead of throwing 3 yards and hoping that a tiny receiver breaks 3 tackles. Let's hope Gase allows him to open it up and start ripping multiple passes to Stills downfield - not just one a game.

By the way...I'm completely ignoring the fact that we lined up in a wildcat formation on Sunday. The Phins called a timeout so the play never happened, but even that little glimpse made be a bit nauseous.

Degarmo wrote:

DolFan 316 wrote:IKR? Gase wouldn't even let the legendary Eric Hipple throw past the marker on third down more than twice a game if he played today

God is going to treat you right for throwing me that Hipple reference

WOW!!! I thought Pat White getting clobbered VS the Steelers was brutal

And Hipple actually tries to get up, unlike the wimps and wusses of today who would just lay there milking it. If that play happens today, the announcers would've been screaming for Brantley to be permabanned from the league, and it might not have even been an illegal hit at all. It doesn't get flagged, and you can only see on the last replay that Hipple's left toe was *probably* out of bounds right beforehand, but back then you couldn't expect it to be reviewed like the Zapruder film.

Meanwhile Branch lightly bumps Taylor Lewan from the side on an INT return and Lewan pretends to be knocked out before suddenly jumping up, and the announcers beg the league to eject Branch and act like it's the dirtiest thing they ever saw in the history of sports Yes, I saw that play on Youtube

Umix10 wrote:The delay really messed up directv so i wasn’t able to catch most of the game but, ithe playcalling was night and day from last year.  It’s encouraging that Gase is willing to be more pro active with this group than he’s shown in the past.  The dazzle dazzle plays are evident with his willingness to move wilson to spots that he ca really utilize his speed in open space.  The roster is certainly faster, but the correlation between that and wins remains to be seen.  I am excited more about the fact that there are possibilities that exist with THIS offense that weren’t there last year.  I am also optimistic that as the season progresses and Tannehill gets more legs under, he will make better reads downfield instead of being pidgin held by Landry’s demand for the ball.  Again, they won the game, in the end that’s all that matters!

Yep, the W is all that matters, but this offense isn't going to win a lot of games playing like that.

Sooner or later, Gase is going to have to stop being cute and start playing football. Putting Wilson in the backfield at a point in the game where Gore was averaging about 9 yards a carry was stupid. Using a wildcat formation on a drive when we were actually moving the ball was stupid. Trying a low-percentage fade to Gesicki when everyone in the world knew it was coming and we were running the ball successfully was stupid. Using Grant - the fastest guy on the team - on 3-yard routes is stupid. I want to see the Dolphins line up and beat the team in front of them, not constantly try to trick them with cute, gadget-y plays.

I'd say this offense looks exactly the same as it did last year so far. The difference is, instead of constantly throwing short passes to Landry, we're constantly throwing short passes to the smurf trio of Grant/Amendola/Wilson. Different players, same results - an offense that sucks on third down and struggles to score points.

The thid down and red zone inefficiency will lead to losses when we play better teams, unless Gase can figure it out. The Titan defense isn't exactly strong, and if we can't produce against them, how are we going to beat teams like the Patriots, Jets, Vikings, Jaguars, etc.?

I see a lot of people praising the games that Grant and Wilson had, but they combined for 8 catches for 69 yards and no TDs. That's below mediocre, and it simply isn't enough to consistently win on offense. Gase is going to have to learn how to get production out of these guys, because what we saw on Sunday is going to lead to a losing season. Let's see what he can come up with against the Jets, a much stronger opponent than the Titans.