Thoughts on Falcons vs. Dolphins game

On the plus side, Tannehill looked as good as I've ever seen him on that one TD drive. The pass to Landry was particularly good. Landry looked great on that play too...when he has space, he can eat up yards in a hurry. Looks like Tannehill has developed good chemistry with Matthews and Jennings...I expect both to start outside when the season begins; Stills appears to be well behind both. Lamar Miller also looks poised to have a big year, although he isn't getting much help from the OL.

That said, the starting offense scored just once on 6 posssessions...two of which started in Atlanta territory and led to 0 points. The Atlanta D sucks, and this was supposed to be the "dress rehearsal" game. Not good. Typical Dolphins...3 OL penalties (Thomas, Douglas, Walton), dropped passes, dink and dunk, etc. This offense really needs a lot of improvement.

The starting D was outstanding...can't ask for anything more. Earl Mitchell had the game of his life...completely unstoppable. In week one against the Skins, this D should get 5 - 10 sacks easy.

Not much to say about the backups...they continue to underwhelm.
--Matt Moore, aside from one good pass, looked absolutely lost. The guy is a fumbling machine and has no idea how to handle pressure. If anything, I'd put him behind Freeman right now...and Freeman is terrible.
--Jay Ajayi finally played, and as a runner I thought he looked very mediocre. Too much dancing, and it looks like he easily loses his balance. He definitely has good hands, though, and I think the passing game is where he'll make his mark, if he ever gets on the field.
--LaMike James looked decent on kick returns, and pretty poor on punts. I don't know why this team can never find a good return specialist.
--Good to see rookie LBs Mike Hull and Zach Vigil making some plays, but neither one looks ready to take on a bigger role right now. My guess is Vigil makes the team and Hull goes to the pracice squad.
--I don't know what happened to him, but right now Chris McCain sucks. I know he won't get cut, but IMO he should. He is useless at this point...completely lost in coverage and against the run, and has apparently lost all his pass rush ability as well.

Yeah, looks like we really coached the hell out of McCain. Once again, a player that shows talent regresses instead of getting better. Coincidence? I think not.

We still haven't solved the core issue of our offense failing to convert on distance and downs that should be running plays, so we always pass too much. It seems our running game only performs outside the red zone. Sure I'm not saying we need to go all Rex Ryan on offense, but as good as passing teams like the Packers are, they still know how and when to run the ball when that's the right call.

I'm terrified of what Coyle will do with this defense. Strong on the line, we have some elite players in the secondary, so obviously teams will attack our linebackers. I just have no faith Coyle will have an answer. If he underwhelms with this squad, he's putting the final nail in his own coffin. Probably Philbin's too.

All in all, with putting Thomas at LT and playing Tannehill as much as we planned to, I'm just happy he didn't take a vicious hit and get hurt.

Let's get to week 1 and watch this team deal with live action. I'm officially done with the preseason.

white1 wrote:Yeah, looks like we really coached the hell out of McCain.  Once again, a player that shows talent regresses instead of getting better.  Coincidence? I think not.

I've said all along that I don't think McCain is a linebacker. He should be a DE - he's got the ideal body type to be a pass-rushing DE. He is just completely lost at LB.

white1 wrote:We still haven't solved the core issue of our offense failing to convert on distance and downs that should be running plays, so we always pass too much. It seems our running game only performs outside the red zone.  Sure I'm not saying we need to go all Rex Ryan on offense, but as good as passing teams like the Packers are, they still know how and when to run the ball when that's the right call.

Yep - by far my biggest criticism of Lazor: he has no idea how and when to run the ball. I absolutely hate the way he uses the running game.

You have a zone blocking scheme with no fullback.

We will never be able to convert short down and distance, or goal line run plays with any kind of consistency. That's why we will continue to struggle in the red zone. Even if you rarely use it, you NEED to be able to move the ball on the ground two f'in yards so they will respect that they have to defend against it.

Dammit is it so hard to line up in a Power I anymore? FFS you would think a scheme could be developed for short yardage where we use a more traditional power set.

Degarmo wrote:You have a zone blocking scheme with no fullback.

We will never be able to convert short down and distance, or goal line run plays with any kind of consistency.  That's why we will continue to struggle in the red zone.  Even if you rarely use it, you NEED to be able to move the ball on the ground two f'in yards so they will respect that they have to defend against it.

Exactly! It seems like common sense to me, but these coaches just get so damn set in their ways and refuse to change.

white1 wrote:Dammit is it so hard to line up in a Power I anymore? FFS you would think a scheme could be developed for short yardage where we use a more traditional power set.

What I find strange is that Philbin came from a Packers team that relied pretty heavily on a fullback (John Kuhn) and had a tremendous amount of success. Why did Philbin choose to go away from that and completely remove not just the fullback but also power formations from his scheme???