Game thoughts: Week 8, Dolphins at Lions

mercury22nathan wrote:a few curious notes...  Kohou coming of injury got 95% of the snaps (57) opposite Howard while last week's hero Iggy was relegated back to playing only a third of the defensive snaps.  i don't how Iggy's 19 snaps were distributing (1st half vs 2nd - or all throughout), but i can't help but wonder if they played into the 1st half miscues that got pinned on Holland.  Crossen got nearly as many snaps at 14, but i'd have to go back and see who was playing when.

Just from this I'm almost certain Iggy was stinking it up in the first half and got replaced in the 2nd. Oh well, he at least had *one* shining moment, right? (Sighs.)

McKinley played 80% of the snaps in relief of the injured Brandon Jones, but interestingly enough, the staff had so much faith in him that they deactivated a healthy Rowe.

IMO Rowe was held out because he's about to be traded. There's no way he's fetching much of anything by himself, so he'll be part of a package deal. I'm also seeing rumors that Cedric Wilson will also be traded...to the Cowboys, the team he just left in FA! If either or both these things happen, remember where you read it first, just sayin'

all we've heard is that Ezukanma isn't being activated because its hard to learn more than one WR position.  but then how come PS player Sanders was able to be activated over him?  my initial though that it must be for ST prowess, but low and behold, Sanders got 14 offensive snaps (same as Wilson) with 2 targets (rewarding the confidence with a fumble) and played zero (as in none) ST snaps.  so clearly this staff felt better about a PS player that Ezukanma.  that seems a little curious to me.

Meanwhile, Romeo Doubs--the very next WR taken seven picks after Ezukanma--is currently one of just four rookies with 30-plus receptions, and is tied for second in the class in receiving TDs. I guess he's just a much faster learner BTW I now have a *severe* problem with Welker as a coach. He's either a massive hypocrite or his standards are absurdly high or both.

While I hate the Boyer zone, the first half problems were more a case of the players not executing the zone correctly IMO. Just a little out of place, a little late in shifting... And Goff had some EXCELLENT on-target throws. That's the thing about zone, an accurate QB who is on time and target can beat it like a drum!

The Phins D really needs a big time pass rusher to make this defense move up from good to great I think.

I think the main problem with the offense, other then the Oline of course, is the penalties. All the motion is messing up the timing of the offense it seems, or the offense is not getting to the line in time to let the motion work?

And the defense... How in heck is Wilkins lining up offsides??? He is over the ball almost!!!

Also, Shell got away with holding on Hutch a couple of times. I was really surprised they didn't get called. Welcome to the NFL, rook!!

And Armstead... I have bashed Grier for paying so much for an oft-injured player, but dadgum, the whole O-line takes a step up from miserable to suspect/passable with him in the lineup! It is just amazing what a great LT can do. We have to hope he stays healthy like Tua!!

I still have some mighty big doubts about Grier's drafting, but there is no doubt the trade for Hill was worth it. (besides, Grier would have bungled the draft anyway... ) As Lofton kept saying, "Hill changes the way the defense has to play the Dolphins." And even when they tried to cover him, they couldn't.

I still think the lack of quality depth is going to cost the Phins this season, but this team is a refreshing change from what we have seen when ToxicTeamKiller Flores was running things (into the ground!!).

In the aftermath of the getting torched by Tua, Hill and Waddle, the Lions fired defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant today!

JMP wrote:In the aftermath of the getting torched by Tua, Hill and Waddle, the Lions fired defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant today!  

I hate it, but if things don't turn around, Dan Campbell is liable to be kicked to the curb also.

finfanatic wrote:

JMP wrote:In the aftermath of the getting torched by Tua, Hill and Waddle, the Lions fired defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant today!  

I hate it, but if things don't turn around, Dan Campbell is liable to be kicked to the curb also.

Yeah, I hate to see coaches get fired midseason as well and one of the first things I thought of was Campbell. I kept telling everyone not to be fooled my the throwback manly persona and that as a coach he was nothing special, but I never had anything personally against the guy. A gutless, cowardly move to throw the DB coach under the bus though

Supposedly Campbell is safe this season, if the rumors are to be believed. But who knows...he'll probably need to win a couple at some point.

I give Campbell some credit. With the exception of that awful Pats game, the Lions have been competitive every single week, throwing a scare into us, and Minnesota, and Philly even. They don't know how to win yet, but they aren't the easy mark that the record makes them seem.

HalCHorn wrote:I give Campbell some credit.  With the exception of that awful Pats game, the Lions have been competitive every single week, throwing a scare into us, and Minnesota, and Philly even.  They don't know how to win yet, but they aren't the easy mark that the record makes them seem.

Their offense is scary good, with a good OL, St. Brown and the 2-headed rushing attack of Swift and Williams. If they can find a better QB and fix the D, they could compete right away IMO, especially in a weak NFC.

The Eich knee injury wasn't as serious as it first appeared. He will miss some time, but will be back this season.

Austin Jackson should return to practice this week. I'd keep Shell at RT, but Jackson gives us decent depth.

The offensive explosion could be attributed to the communication issues that McDaniel and Tua were having.

Has any one noticed the play clock as Tua is getting lined up?  i think all the offensive problems is the playcalling. Specifically the time it takes for the play to come in to Tua.  Remember, that the Dolphins use motion and shifts on 80% of their offensive plays.  Then you have to consider it takes Tua 3-5 seconds to read what he see's.  They should be pre set with at least 10-12 seconds on the play clock.  That just wasnt happening prior to Sunday.

Which poses the question.  Is McDaniels verbiage a little too much?  Tua has admitted that McDaniel did a better job calling plays.  I really really really firmly believe he was talking about how much quicker he called the plays.  Which caused them to line up faster, shift and motion quicker and allowed to Tua enough time to make his pre snap read.  

What did you guys think?

That's a great point, Umix. All season, the plays arrive late and Tua and Williams have to hurry just to get the ball off on time. It disrupts the flow of the offense and leads to all the pre-snap penalties. But it did seem smoother in Detroit. Hopefully they are on track and the earlier issues were just related to a rookie head coach learning the ropes.

If the same thing happens Sunday, we'll know the answer. The biggest flaw I see in all these modern day 30 and 40something offensive savants is that they love to make everything more complicated than it needs to be. If your IQ is, say, 150 it does no good to design a playbook for other 150 IQ guys when the ones actually executing it have an average IQ of 100.

DolFan 316 wrote:If the same thing happens Sunday, we'll know the answer. The biggest flaw I see in all these modern day 30 and 40something offensive savants is that they love to make everything more complicated than it needs to be. If your IQ is, say, 150 it does no good to design a playbook for other 150 IQ guys when the ones actually executing it have an average IQ of 100.

I definitely agree, but McDaniel had the offense firing on all cylinders Sunday. It is obvious that the players are buying in and know their assignments. From the outside, the issue seems to be much more basic than that: literally, getting the proper play called in time. It could be that McDaniel needs to simplify the verbiage to make it quicker to communicate...I don't know. But I have faith in him to get it fixed.

I did my best to listen to some of the game. Sounded like Tua and the offense were clicking. Based on Tua's play the 1st round pick we had became expendable. Now we got Chubb!

CarsonChris wrote:Based on Tua's play the 1st round pick we had became expendable.

Yep, I think the Chubb trade served a dual purpose: adding a legit pass rusher of course, but also sending a huge vote of confidence to Tua. This organization is behind him 100%. And the cool thing is, we're starting to see some swagger from Tua both on and off the field. I think he's getting more confident by the day, and that is going to cause a lot of problems for the rest of the teams on our schedule!