Game Thoughts: Week 5, Dolphins at Bucs

The Dolphins went to Tampa Bay today and, in a surprise to absolutely no one, got thoroughly stomped in what can only be described as an old-fashioned ass-kicking.
 
The Dolphins made some changes on offense, having OC George Godsey call plays directly to the QB and also changing up the OL.  The offense responded by playing much better today, as Jacoby Brissett looked like an actual NFL QB and the OL, believe it or not, actually played reasonably well.  Despite all that, they managed to score just 17 points.
 
I can’t talk about the defense, because the Miami D was not at the game today.  Or maybe they were, but they might as well have stayed home because they did nothing at all to slow down Tampa Bay.  In one of the worst defensive performances I’ve ever seen, the Bucs were able to do anything they wanted to do.  I'm pretty sure that, at 49 years old and with no organized football experience in my life, I could have had a 100-yard receiving game today against the Dolphins.  Nothing more to say…I’m too disgusted.
 
The biggest disappointment today was the zero turnovers forced by the Dolphins, ending their amazing streak of forcing a turnover in 26 consecutive games.
 
Anyway, as the season continues to spiral out of control, I’m feeling like I just don’t care anymore.  Once again, this team has sucked all the life out of me and I no longer care what happens.  Trade everyone, fire everyone – or don’t.  Who cares at this point?
 
Hero of the Game: Myles Gaskin, with 10 catches for 74 yards and 2 TDs, was outstanding today.
 
Goat of the Game: The entire defense, for their embarrassing, putrid, horrifically godawful lack of effort.  There are no words to adequately describe how bad this defense is - and the crazy part is, they get worse every single week.  There is no question that this Miami defense is now the worst in the entire NFL; it’s not even a question.

Humiliating loss. The Grier Flores tenure looks to be over. We know it is as soon as Ross says he supports them.

CarsonChris wrote:The Grier Flores tenure looks to be over. 

Absolutely.  Epic fails from both men.

I really thought Flores was going to be the guy.  But as it turns out, he's just another in a long line of losers.

Hire a real GM, and let him hire the new coach - that's the way to do it.

They switched to the Saints and I woke up from a nap to bull riding. Another disappointing season.

Chargers and Browns in a shootout as I type this, 42-41. We had a Hell of lot more draft capital to work with than the Chargers, just sayin'.

JMP wrote:

CarsonChris wrote:The Grier Flores tenure looks to be over. 

Absolutely.  Epic fails from both men.

I really thought Flores was going to be the guy.  But as it turns out, he's just another in a long line of losers.

Hire a real GM, and let him hire the new coach - that's the way to do it.

What I feared from the Flores hire was that he'd be yet another ex-DC whose team's offense sucked after taking over as head coach. In today's NFL I just thought it would be better to hire an offensive-minded coach for an increasingly offensive-oriented league.

The first two seasons turned me into a Flores supporter. But now all my worst fears about him have come true. He's gone through OCs and O-line coaches even faster than third world nations go through different dictatorial regimes. And now even the D has regressed, since apparently all Flores really knows how to coach is DBs--and even there Iggy is one of the worst first round picks ever, making Jamar Fletcher look like Sam Madison.

The only question is, when does Grier fire Flores to save his own ass? Because it's happening.

HalCHorn wrote:Chargers and Browns in a shootout as I type this, 42-41.  We had a Hell of lot more draft capital to work with than the Chargers, just sayin'.

Herbert over Tua is just one really long and unfunny joke at this point. SMH.

47-42 Chargers. That game was epic. Hebert has ice in his veins on 4th down. Never seen anything like what he does on 4th down.

Defensive coach that hired a good staff.

Bucs were 30th in rushing BTW before they got lucky enough to face this D. Also, they beat their season yards per carry by over a yard.

Why do I have this sick, sad feeling this team will pull a '69 Steelers and '01 Panthers and lose out after winning the opener?

DolFan 316 wrote:Bucs were 30th in rushing BTW before they got lucky enough to face this D. Also, they beat their season yards per carry by over a yard.

Why do I have this sick, sad feeling this team will pull a '69 Steelers and '01 Panthers and lose out after winning the opener?

Giving Philly the number one pick in 2022.....

At -78 this team now has the 4th worst point differential after 5 games in franchise history BTW. They still have a ways to go before catching up to the '19 team's -188 for a full season, but I'm sure they'll give it their best effort. And they have an extra game to do it, too! Oh, boy!

https://stathead.com/football/tgl_finder.cgi?request=1&match=single&order_by_asc=1&order_by=points_diff&year_min=1966&year_max=2020&game_type=R&game_num_min=1&game_num_max=5&week_num_min=0&week_num_max=99&temperature_gtlt=lt&team_id=mia

Oh, and then there's this mind blowing tidbit I just found out...

https://www.espn.com/nfl/recap?gameId=401326402

Brady threw for more 400 yards with five TDs in the same game for the first time in his 22-year career.

I checked it out on PFR and yes, it's true. Only THIS team could allow a historically great performance from a historically great QB at age 44. And keep in mind, the first round CB from two years ago is not good enough to even play for THESE guys!

DolFan 316 wrote:

JMP wrote:

CarsonChris wrote:The Grier Flores tenure looks to be over. 

Absolutely.  Epic fails from both men.

I really thought Flores was going to be the guy.  But as it turns out, he's just another in a long line of losers.

Hire a real GM, and let him hire the new coach - that's the way to do it.

What I feared from the Flores hire was that he'd be yet another ex-DC whose team's offense sucked after taking over as head coach. In today's NFL I just thought it would be better to hire an offensive-minded coach for an increasingly offensive-oriented league.

The first two seasons turned me into a Flores supporter. But now all my worst fears about him have come true. He's gone through OCs and O-line coaches even faster than third world nations go through different dictatorial regimes. And now even the D has regressed, since apparently all Flores really knows how to coach is DBs--and even there Iggy is one of the worst first round picks ever, making Jamar Fletcher look like Sam Madison.

The only question is, when does Grier fire Flores to save his own ass? Because it's happening.

The worst part about this season is that we're at least supposed to have a great defense.  Instead, we have the worst defense in the league.  If Flores can no longer produce a quality defense, then what good is he?

Yeah, when you look at the state of the Phins, and all the missed draft picks, the brain-goobered free agent decisions, and the draft pick lollapaloozas, I agree with the Dingbat NFL "Expert" who says he doesn't know how Grier still has a job.

If they hit 1-16 after a 10-6 record last year, Ross does need to clean house.

That would have EPIC FAIL written all over it.

JMP wrote:The worst part about this season is that we're at least supposed to have a great defense.  Instead, we have the worst defense in the league.  If Flores can no longer produce a quality defense, then what good is he?

yep, i'm not sure how to explain the precipitous fall of the defense. i think maybe Flores/Grier went a little too far with keeping "team first, good attitude, hard worker" types and actually jettisoned/bypassed the guys with actual talent. all the running to the "takes no talent wall" can not replace actual talent.

i think we are seeing that Jerome Baker was fine as a supporting LB, but when you make him the actual key to your LB core, he's just not up to the task.

Linebacker Jerome Baker: The Dolphins, optimistic he would take the step from good to great, gave him him a three-year, $39 million extension in June.

But he has begun this season with a troubling five-game stretch in which he has missed multiple tackles, been a step slow in pass coverage and too often been sealed off by blockers in the running game.

https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/barry-jackson/article254924292.html#storylink=mainstage_card

and perhaps Miami has learned that after you've pissed someone off, even if you then bend over backwards to pay them, they're still gonna get lazy.

Xavien Howard: His struggles have been the most mystifying element of this Dolphins collapse, because no cornerback in the league was better than Howard a year ago.

On Sunday, he was targeted nine times and allowed six catches for 123 yards and three touchdowns, according to PFF’s evaluation.

For the season, he has allowed a bloated 124.6 passer rating in his coverage area: 20 completions in 32 targets for 327 yards, with one interception and five touchdowns yielded.

No NFL cornerback has permitted as many touchdowns as Howard this season.

last year Miami couldn't stop the run and was inconsistent rushing the passer, but they kept people out of the endzone and caused turnovers. Miami still can't stop the run and got rid of most of the people responsible for rushing the passer last year.

Great thoughts as always, merc.

One thing that has really killed the defense this year is the LB play. As you pointed out, Baker is probably best in a supporting role. But Van Ginkel looked like an emerging star last season and is now invisible. Elandon Roberts is good for an impact play a game but spends the rest of the time playing below average. Sam Eguavoen is a non-factor. Free agent pickups Duke Riley and Brennan Scarlett have done nothing. Jae Phillips gets a little better each game and looks like a future impact player - maybe even big-time impact player - but from what I can tell he has been playing a lot of DE lately.

So, yeah...the LB position has been a huge gaping hole. None of the guys mentioned above are terrible, so I don't see how we're getting almost zero production from them.