Bears v Dolphins

Some thoughts on players from the game:

Tua - I thought Tua played great. He showed good arm strength and mobility, and looked very confident. He threw a pass to Hollins, who was completely blanketed by a DB, that had pinpoint accuracy - just perfect ball placement to allow Hollins to make the play. Tua had two big third down completions - I think a 3rd and 6 and a 3rd and 8. He threw a sweet pass to Gesicki that the TE turned into a 50-yard play. The only mistake was the endzone INT. That pass looked to be his third or fourth read, and as a result was thrown way too late. I thought he had a RB open early underneath, but he didn't see him. Overall, great game and I can't wait to see Tua play with his starting receivers.

OL - Very good in pass pro, very poor in run game. Tua had plenty of time to pass, so no complaints there. But the line could not run block, with backs usually taking first contact behind the line. Austin Jackson had a rough game, getting abused in run blocking. I thought both centers - Dieter and Skura - played very well.

Salvon Ahmed - I've been critical of Ahmed because he can't pass block, but his skills as a runner and receiver are too good to dismiss. He looked really quick yesterday and looked like a playmaker, scoring on a pass from Brissett.

Speaking of Jacoby Brissett, he did a good job as a backup and I am confident that he was a really good signing.

Mack Hollins has made this team. Period. He seems to have chemistry with Tua and he makes the tough plays in traffic.

Defense - the first team defense was completely shutdown - and that's without Howard, Jones and Ogbah. Loved everything I saw...they may be even better than last season. Nik Needham played out of his mind, and Christian Wilkins made some plays.

I thought LB Duke Riley stood out with the backups. He did give up some plays, but he's like an Energizer Bunny out there - full effort every down and always around the ball. Dude looks very fast, too - as shown by one play where he ran down a RB.

Iggy - strong game from the much-maligned corner. He gave up one pass where he had absolutely perfect positioning but the receiver made a great play. He also had a nice pass break-up on a deep ball, and another big play where he came off his receiver to make an excellent open-field tackle to prevent a first down. I was impressed, and this is a performance Iggy can build on.

Punt return - Waddle, Grant and Perry all had big punt returns. The Bears' special teams look awful, but even with that I think we will see some explosive plays in the punt return game from the Phins. Waddle's ability to change direction on a dime with no loss of speed is special.

Overall, I thought the Dolphins looked good for the first time out, especially with a lot of starters not playing and a very vanilla gameplan on both O and D. Looking forward to see the team continue to make progress.

JEGnj wrote:They keep throwing crazy money at players but will not extend Gesicki who seems to be a top target. So stupid.
Due to all the injures and missing starters hard to judge.
When Brisset was on the field it looked like the entire team was playing in slow-motion in quick sand.

I think the Phins plan on keeping Gesicki...but we'll see. Remember, it takes two sides....he may just be hoping to cash in on a free agent deal and not sign an extension for less money now. But the good news is that if the Phins do want to keep him and can't extend him before next offseason, they can use the franchise tag on him. Personally, I think he's going to have a monster season and I hope he's a Dolphins for years to come.

Yes, things did slow down with Brisset - but he was playing with a back-up OL and bottom-of-the-roster receivers. But I liked Brissett's decision-making and I liked how he extended plays with his legs when necessary.

Degarmo wrote:I did not see Tua play a great game.  In fact, I thought he was rather average.  He hit a wide-open Gesicki (nice touch, although Gesicki had to wait a little - nothing major) for 50 yards, and then had 49 yards in 7 more completions.  That's fine, but the bottom line is TDs.  In his two chances to get 6, he failed.  This is what Tannehill was absolutely roasted for.

The pass in the end zone was abysmal.  

He did have a couple really nice passes into traffic in the middle of the field which was encouraging.

I'm not saying he can't improve with more first stringers, but I don't feel he played a great game at all.  He was average to just above.  I'm not seeing anything yet.  It's only Week 1 of preseason though, but I feel like saying he had a great game is reaching.

Fair enough. I saw a great decision-maker and accurate passer who moved well in the pocket. Keep in mind this was not the offensive scheme we'll see in the regular season (of course there wasn't actual "playcalling") and Tua was playing without his (likely) top 4 WRs. Those two third down completions were huge. I also think the INT could have been a TD if Gesicki or Hollins was the intended target, but that's a moot point.

I would also argue that game 1 of preseason is not about scoring TDs...it's about getting the rust off, facing an actual opponent in real action, evaluating the roster, etc.

Hell, most teams didn't even play their starting QBs this weekend. In fact, by my count 14 teams played their expected starters for at least one series this weekend. Of those 14 teams, only 2 teams had expected starting QBs throw TD passes - Saints (Winston had 1) and Broncos (Locke and Bridgewater combined for 3).

DolFan 316 wrote:I'm moving towards seeing Tua not as a bad QB, but as a not great QB who doesn't have much help around him. You can't expect even the best QBs to succeed with the O-line Grier's assembled, their best WRs all hurt, and no running game. Hell, in Brady's last year as a Patriot people were making excuses for him for not having anyone half-decent to throw to.

And I think that if he doesn't get better help than this, Tua's ceiling is limited no matter how hard he works or how much he improves.

Even Tannehill's gotten much better since escaping the Fins. I never thought he'd win a playoff game his entire career but he did. I certainly never thought he had the kind of season in him he put up last year.

I think you're reading way too much into a preseason game...and the first preseason game, at that. Things are going to look very different when the team is playing real games.

This receiving corps is loaded with speed and playmakers - a significant improvement over last year. We haven't seen Fuller yet, but all through camp Tua was connecting on huge plays to Waddle, Wilson and Parker.

The OL is young and will improve as the season goes on. Fortunately, pass pro was one of the biggest positive takeaways from Saturday, and hopefully that continues.

As I've been saying all along, my main concern is the running game. The OL did struggle mightily in run blocking in game one. Again, I expect that to improve as the young guys get more experience and continue to gel, and it will also help when the team is actually scheming/gameplanning and calling plays. I do expect the coaches to exploit the speed of the receivers by calling jet sweeps, end arounds and things like that - plays that will soften up the opposing defense and open holes for the run game.

Time will tell what Tua is, but what I'm seeing this offseason leads me to believe that great things are ahead for both him and the team.

Degarmo wrote:What really concerns me right now is Running back crew. They look lost in the open field, And I don't think we have anyone of real merit back there.  I haven't seen any flashes yet, and that is concerning to me.  I don't think Gaskin is really the answer to anything

I'm more concerned with the OL. We certainly don't have the league's best backs, but Gaskin/Ahmed/Brown is a solid enough group and they can do some damage if the OL is able to consistently open holes for them. I think Gaskin is going to surprise a lot of people this season, but I think a RB-by-committee is the way to go, at least early on.

CarsonChris wrote:Tua looked much better than last season.  It will be exciting to see what the offense is like with all the receivers in the game.

If these receivers can stay healthy, we might finally have a dynamic, fast, big play offense.

I expect the offense to continue to be vanilla throughout the preseason - but we'll open things up against New England in week 1!