Game 1 thoughts: Dolphins at Patriots

I fully expected a Dolphins win today, but as usual I end the day disappointed.  Behind a lackluster effort on both sides of the ball, the Phins lost 21-11 to the Tom Brady-less Patriots.

Neither team looked particularly good, and the difference in the game was new Patriots QB, Cam Newton.  The Patriots ran a ton of QB option plays, and the Phins were completely bewildered by it.  By keying so much on Cam, and guessing wrong nearly every time, the Dolphin D allowed over 200 yards on the ground.  The Patriots had well under 200 yards passing, but they were able to throw at will when they needed to.  It was a familiar story for the Dolphins defense: no pass rush, awful run defense.

That said, the Dolphin defense did keep the team in the game right till the end.  Unfortunately, the offense was completely ineffective, scoring just one TD behind an ugly 3 INT performance by Ryan Fitzpatrick.  Fitz has always been a Jekyll and Hyde player, and today we saw his dark side.  You just can’t win when your QB can’t protect the ball.

The Phins tried to establish a running game by using a committee approach, with Myles Gaskin, Jordan Howard and Matt Breida sharing 22 carries and Patrick Laird adding a couple of receptions.  The running game was good at times, with Gaskin surprisingly leading the group in carries and gaining 40 yards on the ground and catching 4 passes.  The backs combined for under 70 rushing yards, which just isn’t good enough.

The D was very good at times, but again, just couldn’t stop Cam Newton and the running attack.  I found it interesting that the Patriots chose to essentially ignore Dolphins’ top corners Xavien Howard and Byron Jones, rarely throwing against them at all.  The other Dolphin DBs struggled to win their matchups.  DT Christian Wilkins had a strong game, and Jerome Baker made some plays (EDIT - including a great forced fumble in the end zone).

Overall, a disappointing loss in a game that easily could have been won.  One defensive stop at the end, and better ball protection by Fitz, and the Phins would have walked away with a victory.  But instead, it was another ugly loss.  The Phins “only” lost by 10, so I guess that’s an improvement over last season’s start, but it’s still a loss.

Hero of the Game: No one is really deserving, but I do want to acknowledge the offensive line.  The OL appeared much improved, allowing just one sack (late in the game) and doing a decent job in the run game.  Definitely a performance to build on, and very encouraging moving forward.

Goat of the Game: Ryan Fitzpatrick, for throwing 3 INTs – two of which occurred with the Phins in field goal range.

Beer of the Game: Zombie Dust undead pale ale (3 Floyds Brewery).  This has been on my “need to try it” list forever, and it is finally available in NY.  This beer is ranked the #1 pale ale on Beer Advocate, and I can see why.  Excellent, excellent beer…very smooth, great taste and hoppy enough to be an IPA.

A couple more games like this from Fitz, and it will be Tua Time sooner than anyone expected.

Fitz was horrible today. I can see Tua starting soon as well. Hope he gets this hip issue together

This is Fitz to a T. He had a nice year, got the start again, and now he will suck, except for a few games. Now we just wait for the kid to be ready and write off another year of our football lives.

rightchea wrote:Fitz was horrible today. I can see Tua starting soon as well. Hope he gets this hip issue together

The hip is fine. He's 100% and not limited at all. Just a matter of time till he gets the call!

Thinking back on the game, other than Fitz, there was a lot to be encouraged about on offense.

The new OL looked good - and figures to get better as the rookies gain experience and the starters gel.

I liked Gailey's playcalling overall. He didn't abandon the running game, he showed a lot of different looks and personnel, and if not for Fitz's miscues he had us in position to score some points. A work in progress for sure, but signs of life.

It was cool to see 4 different RBs contributing. We went from essentially nothing at the position to a quality group of players. Gaskin and Breida both did some good things and Howard scored a TD.

Preston Williams made some plays, although he fell a couple of times - one of which led to an INT. But he looks like he is healthy and ready to produce.

So...baby steps. Next week will be a tough one against the Bills, who demolished the Jets today, but hopefully we'll continue to see some progress on offense.

new year. same Dolphins.

the Phins lost this game because they couldn't stop the run, turned the ball over and made ill-timed, stupid mistakes.

yes, the Patriots unveiled a creative run/pass scheme which was mostly effective based on Cam's ability to run and a few burst plays by other players set up by Cam's ability. but the really disappointing aspect was that the things NE was doing in the first half was exactly the same things they were doing in the second half - and Miami had no answers or adjustments to counter. it was as if Miami's D just sat there and watched the slow bleed all game long. i thought E. Roberts seemed particularly lost at some of the worst times. you think Allen and the Bills might do the exact same thing next week too?

the interceptions killed drives for sure, but you know how many point the turnovers resulted in - ZERO. but still, why did Fitz look less than capable? well, Parker got hurt...again. he left in the second quarter and was still Miami's leading receiver being targeted 4 times and catching all 4. Preston Williams? he only caught 2 balls in 7 targets and was responsible for 2 INT. Fitz had a completion percentage of 78% when throwing to anyone not named Preston Williams. And why did Mr. Williams have to be targeted so much? cause Mr. Parker was hurt...again. and while these are not excuses for Fitz turning the ball over, these are facts of what happened.

your star WR is out, you are throwing interceptions and your D is getting churned (despite only being down by 4 at the half). what do you do? run the damn ball. lean on that running game. but despite both Gaskins and Brieda averaging 4.4. per carry they only had a combined 14 carries...and only 5 of those were in the 2nd half. go with those hot hands and ride them. instead of the supposed bell-cow Howard who amassed a paltry 7 yards on 8 carries. the Dolphins most effective weapon in the second half? pass interference calls against NE. the Phins' offense required 2 PI calls to gift them 28 yards on their lone TD drive.

finally a sign of life from Miami. and what does NE do? do they panic? no, they keep doing the same thing...over and over again. how does Miami's D respond. giving up a 23 yard run to Edelman and being nice enough slap on another 15 via a stupid, stupid penalty (Baker) at just the wrong time. back breaker.

yes, Fitz is the goat of this game, but the seeds for this loss were planted by poor coaching decisions. abandoning the hot hands in the run game despite an injury depleted passing game and no apparent adjustments for the slow bleed on D. the good news is that it is just one game, but the bad news is that Buffalo played better than NE. and unless Parker makes a miraculous recovery and Boyer schemes up some thing on D, i'm not sure the Phins will have much more to counter them.

The frustrating part about the defense is that they had to know Cam was going to run options all day - it's what he's done his entire career - yet the Phins just couldn't seem to figure it out. I know it's not easy to defend against, but they just guessed wrong every single time. Cam was reading Van Noy like a book, and the LB just couldn't get it right. Those option plays really set everything up for the Pats - it enabled the passing game to succeed and the other backs to gain easy yardage on the ground.

My guess is that the Phins' D will look MUCH better against a more 'traditional' offense, where they can just read and react instead of having to guess on every play. But unfortunately, next week the Bills can and will do a lot of the things the Pats did yesterday. We'll see if Flores and his staff can come up with any answers.

On offense, the lack of a middle threat really hurt. We desperately need someone to step up in the slot. Hopefully that can be Bowden, but when will he be ready? It will also help to use Gesicki more on short and mid-range routes...seemed to me like he was running deep a lot, which is fine, but some higher-percentage routes would help. I'd also like to see Breida used more in the passing game.

The good news is, IMO a lot of the negatives we saw yesterday are correctable. The lack of reps in preseason really hurts a young, rebuilding team like the Phins, so we'll see what happens as the season progresses.

I didn’t watch but the game went pretty much as I expected. It was all about the linebackers and containing Cam on designed and broken plays. There should have been a spy on every play with sole responsibility of containing Cam. Me with my limited knowledge of football knew this but apparently our coaching staff didn’t? Cam 1-0 against Dolphins coaching.

The Ol of the Pats just pushed our DL around from the Very First Drive, Only Remember about one or two Tackles made behind the Line. I kept waiting for a Outside Running Play for Brieda so he could Use His speed instead of Slamming up the Middle. Need this Next Game or Tua might takeover after the Jags where there will be 10 days to prepare Him, Hopefully Parker can get the Hamstring right , He looked Good in First Half and was giving Gilmore Problems again. I hope we come out throwing in the Next Game and Run behind the Passing Game and see if some Holes open up that Way.

With the first pick in the 2021 draft the Miami Dolphins select Trevor Lawrence.

JEGnj wrote:With the first pick in the 2021 draft the Miami Dolphins select Trevor Lawrence.

Can he play linebacker?

I'm only curious about one thing: on a scale of 10, how much communist propaganda was forced down everyone's throats? Was the NFL logo replaced with the Antifa one? Were all players wearing BLM patches and armbands? Have any of them started wiping their ass with the American flag on camera yet? Do any end zone celebrations involved one of the players posing as a cop while the others pretend to shoot him? This stuff matters now.

Disheartening for sure. On the bright side, I only saw the first 30 minutes I had to take my son to a flag football game.

We spent huge $$$ on defense in free agency this offseason, and also a 1st round pick on a CB and a 2nd round pick on R Davis and we still can't stop the run. I also saw a huge pass down the seam to NE tight end, so apparently we haven't figured that out either.

These are problems that must be solved, and Flores proved last year he can correct problems. Our defense MUST be stout - we cannot have this kind of performance.

Totally agree on Fitz. I love the guy, most fans do and he won over the team and coaches. It seems like when he's the annointed starter, suddenly he can't play anymore. It has to be a mental issue. We are just as likely to see him light up the field this week against Buff, so buckle up for the ride.

I like the report on the offensive line, backed up by reports out of the Herald and Flores himself. That bodes very well for the team. Wilkins playing great is also a bright spot, we need first round picks that are stars and he could become one. If we have to draft more defensive linemen next year that's fine. We just need to see some of our own to develop to give confidence we can find more in the draft. If Ogbah and Lawson are busts who cares, we need rookies who will beat them out for jobs and make them depth players.

finskev wrote:The Ol of the Pats just pushed our DL around from the Very First Drive, Only Remember about one or two Tackles made behind the Line.

I don't know, kev - I don't think the DL got pushed around as much as they just couldn't correctly diagnose the play. There were probably at least 10 times when a DL or LB had Cam in his sights and Cam either faked a handoff or actually did hand it off...and on almost every one of those times the Phins' player guessed wrong and it resulted in a big play. If the defenders had read correctly, all of those plays would have been losses.

So yes, we did get our asses kicked - but it was more mental than physical in my opinion.

DolFan 316 wrote:I'm only curious about one thing: on a scale of 10, how much communist propaganda was forced down everyone's throats? Was the NFL logo replaced with the Antifa one? Were all players wearing BLM patches and armbands? Have any of them started wiping their ass with the American flag on camera yet? Do any end zone celebrations involved one of the players posing as a cop while the others pretend to shoot him? This stuff matters now.

Other than the Phins staying in the locker room for the national anthem, I didn't see anything like that.

The Phins had a really cool Shula patch on their unis...I hope they sell them because I'd love to add one to my Tua jersey.

Miami better get themselves together when it comes to contain because Josh Allen is running like crazy yesterday with 57 yards and a TD. He lead the team actually, so Miami needs to do better.

My biggest issue is that we spent lots of money on defense this offseason. Guys like Ogbah, VanNoy, Lawson, Roberts and some others and we got pushed around all day. cam was just toying with us. I hate that MF too, but he owned us. Yes, I guess we did have 2 sacks, but no consistent pass rush. VanNoy and Roberts looked lost. Honestly, I didn't even see VanNoy until cam faked him out of his shoes on one run.

I know it is just one game and we had no preseason games and all, but still, a very lackluster job from all.

Underwhelmed with the coaching. And I like Flores, but bellacheat ate his lunch today. He came out and said we are going to shove broke-down-crippled-68 year old cam down your throats and just try and stop us. And we could not. Where was the adjustments? Where was the spy on cam?

Last year, I didn't pounce on Flores for half-time adjustments, or lack there of because of our severe lack of talent. Basically, the other team's dominant talent just took over, no matter what we may have tried to do. But this year, we got all this SUPPOSED talent on the defensive side, and we come out and give up 200+ yards on the ground.

As for Fitz. Not too good yesterday. A couple more games like this and it will be Tua time. Ready or not.

mercury22nathan wrote:but the really disappointing aspect was that the things NE was doing in the first half was exactly the same things they were doing in the second half - and Miami had no answers or adjustments to counter.

glad to see the writers over at the Herald are mining ideas for a column here...or is it just so obvious that the coaches blew this game on defense that everyone saw it.

The problem is that after halftime, when Dolphins coaches had more than ample time to get with their players to make adjustments after initially doing some of that on the bench in the first half, things got worse.

The Patriots were more effective running the ball in the second half than they were in the first half.

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/armando-salguero/article245720580.html

and what was with some of the coaching decisions on playing time? Davis starting over Wilkins. Van Ginkel over Van Noy (who didn't play much until mid-way through the 1st qtr). Jones over Rowe.

Ogbah and Lawson both struggled mightily against the run and now there are questions about their use and scheme fit...

And started veteran Emmanuel Ogbah as something of a 3-4 end, which he didn’t seem comfortable playing most of the day.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ogbah, a solid pass rusher and more a 4-3 defensive end, plays less on early downs in Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills as perhaps Miami goes to a more accomplished run defender.

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/armando-salguero/article245740475.html

Hmm, a 4-3 pass rusher being used as a 3-4 run stopper - looks like Miami is still in square peg in round hole mode.

Scot and Merc - again, I think ALL the issues we saw are directly related to the QB option that the Pats ran over and over, and over. The Phins just weren't ready for it (for some unknown reason) and had no answers, despite the fact that they were often in position to make plays. I definitely question the Dolphins preparation, gameplan and scheme in the game, and lack of adjustments - no argument there, and that's all on coaching. But I don't think it is a lack of talent...I just think the Phins got thoroughly outcoached. We'll see how the coaches adjust for a Buffalo offense that could be very similar.

The thing to keep in mind too is that despite all the issues we had, we lost by just 10 points and were still very much in the game late in the 4th. Last year's team would have lost 45-3 or something like that. So it is progress of a sort, and there were positives: I saw that the new OL only allowed 4-5 pressures and the D only had 2 missed tackles.

I remain optimistic about this season...but we need to see progress next week.

JMP wrote:The Phins just weren't ready for it (for some unknown reason) and had no answers, despite the fact that they were often in position to make plays.  I definitely question the Dolphins preparation, gameplan and scheme in the game, and lack of adjustments - no argument there, and that's all on coaching.

i agree. and that is what is troubling. maybe we can chalk it down to Boyer's first time as a DC and he over-thought it and tried to get too cute (kind of like our OC last year). but if we see more of the same in week 2, it might be time to get worried.

mercury22nathan wrote:

JMP wrote:The Phins just weren't ready for it (for some unknown reason) and had no answers, despite the fact that they were often in position to make plays.  I definitely question the Dolphins preparation, gameplan and scheme in the game, and lack of adjustments - no argument there, and that's all on coaching.

i agree.  and that is what is troubling.  maybe we can chalk it down to Boyer's first time as a DC and he over-thought it and tried to get too cute (kind of like our OC last year).  but if we see more of the same in week 2, it might be time to get worried.

I'd love to place some blame on the shortened preseason, and that may be true to an extent - especially with a new DC. But the Patriots certainly seemed well-prepared.

The Bills game will be interesting - we'll face a similar QB and a somewhat similar running game, but the Bills have MUCH better receivers. IMHO they have one of the best 3-receiver groups in the NFL with Diggs, Brown and Beasley. So that will present a big challenge. Let's see what these coaches are made of here.

I have to agree. The Bills, even though they didn't slaughter the Jets, beat them in the air. Allen had most of the yards but it definitely going to be interesting to see if the Bills will run the ball more against the Fins.

rightchea wrote:I have to agree. The Bills, even though they didn't slaughter the Jets, beat them in the air. Allen had most of the yards but it definitely going to be interesting to see if the Bills will run the ball more against the Fins.

Actually, the Bills completely destroyed the Jets. The game was never close - nowhere near as close as the final score. The Jets couldn't do anything at all on offense till garbage time. Obviously Gase abandoned the running game early 'cause that's what he does, but the Jets' longest run of the day was just 8 yards. They didn't do much better in the passing game aside from the long Crowder TD when the game was already decided. That Bills defense is pretty awesome.

You're right that the Bills didn't run much. Their two RBs only had 9 carries each and averaged well under 2.5 yards a carry. Allen did most of the damage in the run game, but they still had just 98 yards on the ground. Allen shredded the Jets secondary with 33 (!!!) completions and 2 TDs. So, we have to really focus on containing Allen on the ground and not letting him go wild in the passing game. I think this will be another close game.

Everyone sees some false hope Miami will be good. They have no superstars and are mostly young players that need to gel. I am watching to just enjoy football and hope Tua is the answer. Need a star LB and DE next year.