Thoughts on game 3 - Bills at Phins

Beer: Lagunitas IPA

Player of the Day: Rishard Matthews

Goats of the Day: the entire OL, the entire defense and the entire coaching staff

Yesterday we witnessed the worst loss of the Joe Philbin era, and one of the worst losses in Dolphins’ history. In their home opener, the Dolphins were thoroughly embarrassed by the Bills from start to finish. The Dolphins were uninspired and unprepared and outcoached, and had absolutely no answers for anything the Bills did.

I am not going to get into too many specifics, but I do want to address coaching issues on both sides of the ball.

Let’s start on the offensive side, where it seemed like the Dolphins had never seen tape of a Rex Ryan defense. As even the most casual NFL fan knows, Ryan specializes in blitzing, and he frequently sends a variety of players from a variety of positions to attack the QB. This is common knowledge. So why did it seem like Bill Lazor and his staff had no idea of what they were facing? As expected, Ryan blitzed, blitzed, blitzed and blitzed some more…sending LBs, DBs, hell I think I even saw the waterboy in on a few blitzes. The Dolphins responded by letting all these blitzers run right through the OL to pound Tannehill. There were no in-game adjustments whatsoever…no extra blockers kept in, no pre-snap recognition, nothing. It was literally just blitzers running free and smashing into Tannehill, over and over and over. To his credit, Tannehill kept getting up with a “thank you sir, may I have another” attitude, and continued to play hard. So did receivers Jarvis Landry and Rishard Matthews. Matthews, by the way, is quickly emerging as a star in this otherwise-putrid offense. Aside from those three players, the offense was absolutely terrible. Every offensive linemen was simply horrid…I’ve never seen such a poor effort in my life. And the other receivers, RBs and TEs were completely invisible. I’d love to know what the offense did all week leading up to the game, because they sure didn’t spend any time preparing for the Bills.

On defense, Kevin Coyle put together a half-assed gameplan that allowed the Bills to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Run or pass – whatever the Bills tried, it worked. Dolphin defenders were frequently out of position and looked completely unprepared for what they saw. QB Tyrod Taylor played at an All Pro level, while rookie RB Karlos Williams cut through the defense over and over with little to no resistance. And to add insult to injury, former Dolphins’ Charles Clay, Richie Incognito, and yes, even Chris “7-11” Hogan, all had fantastic games. Just like Lazor on the offense, Coyle made no in-game adjustments, as the Bills continually dominated the Phins’ D. I pointed out three players on offense that played hard and did their jobs as well as they could under the circumstance. But, sadly, I can’t come up with one defender that gave good effort yesterday – not one. Really not much more to say – zero pass rush, zero impact plays, terrible tackling…pathetic.

OK, here’s where I get controversial. I’m just a guy sitting on a couch drinking beers while watching the game, so it’s easy for me to say this. But I have to call it like I see it: yesterday, in the first half of the game, the players on defense flat –out quit. They gave up. They stopped trying. I saw players jogging instead of playing at full speed, and I saw players letting Bills run by them without even lifting an arm to try to stop them. It was ugly. It’s pretty clear that the coaching staff has lost the team, at least on defense.

Finally, I want to point out a major difference between Joe Philbin and Rex Ryan. Toward the end of the game, long after the outcome had been decided, I watched Rex Ryan yell, scream and literally seethe because his defense was not playing at the level he wanted. He looked like he was going to blow a gasket, as they say. This, despite the fact that his defense had completely shut down the Dolphins’ offense all day long. In contrast, on the opposite sideline, from start to finish, Joe Philbin stood there…and stood there…and stood there, doing little more than stare into space. Now, we don’t need a rah-rah Tony Sparano fist-pumper – but we do need a coach with a pulse. Hell, at least Nero fiddled while Rome burned…Philbin just stands there like a corpse while his team crumbles around him.

Sadly, I think yesterday was just the beginning of the end. Things can always get worse, and I think they will next week in London.

As a nice little postscript, Brent Grimes’ annoying-as-all-hell wife Miko was arrested after the game for disorderly conduct and “resisting with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer.”
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/miami-dolphins/fl-miko-grimes-arrested-20150927-story.html

I was guzzling Goose Island IPA. At least we had good beer. Can not argue with you about Miami. They have given up. What the fuck. One and one still plenty to play for. Fucking quitters. Pathetic. Shameful. Dolfan said Miami should pay people to go to games. You could not pay me enough to sit through that trash in person.

Depressing part is you think Miami can hire right coach next year? They might want the best but the best do not want any part of this shithouse.

I am thinking of rooting for better franchise. Do I pick Browns or Raiders? Maybe Lions.

No, I don't think the Phins will hire the right head coach. Until Ross sells the team, we'll continue to get it wrong.

That's a great article by Armando. Nailed it.

Thank God I was at Church and Only saw the Last Two Plays of the Game when Tanny was practicing Jump Ball Passes to Parker during an actual game.

Also with the Jets game at 9:30 which is the same time I'm teaching Sunday School, I will miss that beatdown also. What is the earliest You can Fire a Whole Coaching at one time. This Team wouldn't miss a Beat if they named a Player Coach and just did it by themselves.