NO EXCUSES!!!

The Herberts have a point differential of -37 on the season. The 3-9 Broncos have a point differential of -38.

There are no excuses for losing this game. Even if the NFL tries to rig it like a midterm election. I have spoken typed!!!

And if the Fins do lose then IMO they are losing out. It'll be '93 all over again.

Add to that: the Chargers defense is near the bottom of the NFL with just 22 sacks, near the bottom of the NFL at 7 yards per pass attempt allowed, near the bottom of the NFL in first down percentage - and they are dead last in yards per carry allowed at a massive 5.4.

If ever there was a week for Mike McDaniel to call running plays, this is it. Against this trash run defense, we better have 20+ carries. And of course, establishing the run will make the pass game even more deadly against this team.

Seriously, only 2 games are keeping the Herberts from being right there with the Broncos at the bottom of the AFC. They had no business beating the Falcons and Cards.

Again, my biggest fear is that the NFL rigs the game to at least keep Herbert in the playoff race for...reasons. That's really the only path to victory they should have. Remember, I called the Raiders beating them.

Pretty close to a “must win”.

I believe this will be our finest hour

white1 wrote:Pretty close to a “must win”.

I believe this will be our finest hour

I'm expecting you, Jmp and Merc to all be here at midnight CST after the game win or lose because I'm going to be

DolFan 316 wrote:

white1 wrote:Pretty close to a “must win”.

I believe this will be our finest hour

I'm expecting you, Jmp and Merc to all be here at midnight CST after the game win or lose because I'm going to be

Heck no! Set it to record and go to bed.

Old guys like me a JMP can't stay up late like when we were young!!

I agree.  This is a must win for many reasons.

Chargers' rankings in YPP: offense:  passing 19th, rushing 30th.  Defense:  passing 25th, rushing 32nd--dead ass last.

Maybe Herbert really is the modern Marino.  He is single handedly piggybacking a team into contention that ranks in the bottom half of the league in all four categories and has them in contention at 6-6.  All jokes aside he's proving his worth.  It's hard for me to say that any of the 3 teams that took top 6 QB's in 2020 made a mistake at this point.

Chargers' defense is abysmal based on these ratings, a 1986-89, 91 Dolphins defense all over again only worse.  Miami has some issues but is clearly the better team.

Miami is 6-0 against teams not currently in the playoffs, 2-4 against current playoff teams (yup, every loss is to a team that would currently be in).  Chargers?  0-4 vs. teams currently in, 6-2 against non playoff teams.  Not one quality win to be found.

Hill and Waddle should have a field day against this defense.  Granted, Herbert will do a lot of damage to ours, but I'd still see this as a 42-34 type Dolphins win even with our road woes on "D".

More on the Chargers. After facing the Dolphins and Titans, they get Indy, the Rams and Broncos to close out the season so they are all but guaranteed 9 wins, 10 if they can beat Tennessee at home. If we lose this game it could really come back to bite us in head to head.

Tua has to get the mojo going.

finfanatic wrote:

DolFan 316 wrote:

white1 wrote:Pretty close to a “must win”.

I believe this will be our finest hour

I'm expecting you, Jmp and Merc to all be here at midnight CST after the game win or lose because I'm going to be

Heck no! Set it to record and go to bed.

Old guys like me a JMP can't stay up late like when we were young!!

That's why I didn't include you. I just assume you'll be conked out before halftime

Jmp hung out well after midnight last year when they beat the Ravens so I know he can go the distance

Love that song!

I am definitely a night person. I can't go to sleep early.

I wouldnt make excuses for this team. I wouldnt make excuses for Tua neither. I think the world is so Tua hating that good, bad or different, He's gonna get criticism from all angles.

The thing that makes me upset is that "teams" have bad games. "Teams" win but, Tua loses. Again, not saying he had a good game, but Waddle drops, Wilson dropped, Gesicki dropped, Sherfield dropped and a couple high balls that could have been caught could have improved the offensive situation at that point in the game. Not saying we would have scored but it would have given us a different look from the D. Did the 49ers win? Or did Miiami lose? We were spoiled by Tua's accuracy from this point but in the end he's the same kid with the same arm with the same humbleness who decided to shoulder the blame for everyone's failure including his Coach who mentions nothing of the lack of a running game. Which IMHO, would have eased the pressure and gave the RPO game a little more sizzle.

Umix10 wrote:I wouldnt make excuses for this team.  I wouldnt make excuses for Tua neither.  I think the world is so Tua hating that good, bad or different, He's gonna get criticism from all angles.  

The thing that makes me upset is that "teams" have bad games.  "Teams" win but, Tua loses.  Again, not saying he had a good game, but Waddle drops, Wilson dropped, Gesicki dropped, Sherfield dropped and a couple high balls that could have been caught could have improved the offensive situation at that point in the game.  Not saying we would have scored but it would have given us a different look from the D.  Did the 49ers win?  Or did Miiami lose?  We were spoiled by Tua's accuracy from this point but in the end he's the same kid with the same arm with the same humbleness who decided to shoulder the blame for everyone's failure including his Coach who mentions nothing of the lack of a running game. Which IMHO, would have eased the pressure and gave the RPO game a little more sizzle.

Excellent post. The more I think about that game, the more I think its exactly like you said: the Dolphins lost, but the Niners didn't win - especially on offense. We left so many big plays on the field on offense, its not even funny. Connect on just a few of those passes, and we easily score 30 if not 40. And the missed passes weren't because of anything the 49ers did...it was either drops or overthrown passes. Defensively...yes, they beat us - but they did it by doing nothing special at all, just short passes that our defensive scheme was ill-equipped to stop.

I walked away from that game very unimpressed with the Niners. They don't look like Super Bowl contenders to me. I think Philly, Dallas and Minnesota would destroy that overrated defense.

How funny...Chris Simms, of all people, agrees with Umix and me:

Chris Simms

Dec 7, 2022
@CSimmsQB
On paper it might've looked like the 49ers D shut down the Dolphins O. Definitely not the case. Walked away thinking better of the Dolphins than I had before. Mike McDaniel had guys wide open all day. Havent seen the SF defense exposed like that in a long time

...

It wasn't pressure. Niners really didn't get in Tua's face a ton within the normal flow of the game. He just missed a lot of throws that he's been hitting all year. If these teams played again, Dolphins would feel good about a rematch I bet

Umix10 wrote:I wouldnt make excuses for this team.  I wouldnt make excuses for Tua neither.  I think the world is so Tua hating that good, bad or different, He's gonna get criticism from all angles.  

The thing that makes me upset is that "teams" have bad games.  "Teams" win but, Tua loses.  Again, not saying he had a good game, but Waddle drops, Wilson dropped, Gesicki dropped, Sherfield dropped and a couple high balls that could have been caught could have improved the offensive situation at that point in the game.  Not saying we would have scored but it would have given us a different look from the D.  Did the 49ers win?  Or did Miiami lose?  We were spoiled by Tua's accuracy from this point but in the end he's the same kid with the same arm with the same humbleness who decided to shoulder the blame for everyone's failure including his Coach who mentions nothing of the lack of a running game. Which IMHO, would have eased the pressure and gave the RPO game a little more sizzle.

I've really been thinking about all the people playing the "woulda coulda shoulda" game this week. I could even see it if, say, the Fins scored the winning TD but it was called back, or the winning/tying FG was missed, or if the Niners drove to the winning score only because of an egregiously horrible call. But not when a team is literally outscored almost 2 to 1. IMO this level of hubris can bring nothing but trouble, and I damn sure hope the team's not thinking that way.

JMP wrote:I walked away from that game very unimpressed with the Niners.  They don't look like Super Bowl contenders to me.  I think Philly, Dallas and Minnesota would destroy that overrated defense.

The Vikings? No. They're the flimsiest 10-2 team ever. Dallas? Not in the playoffs where they constantly choke. In fact they did just that against the 49ers just last postseason. The Eagles? We'll see. The last unbeaten team to lose rarely wins a title these days. I can only see them going downhill from here.

Chris Simms

Dec 7, 2022
@CSimmsQB
On paper it might've looked like the 49ers D shut down the Dolphins O. Definitely not the case. Walked away thinking better of the Dolphins than I had before. Mike McDaniel had guys wide open all day. Havent seen the SF defense exposed like that in a long time

...

It wasn't pressure. Niners really didn't get in Tua's face a ton within the normal flow of the game. He just missed a lot of throws that he's been hitting all year. If these teams played again, Dolphins would feel good about a rematch I bet

In every single Super Bowl rematch of a regular season game in which Team A has won by 8 or more, Team A won again.

1977: Cowboys beat Broncos 14-6, won SB rematch 27-10.

1981: 49ers beat Bengals 21-3, won SB rematch 26-21 (after leading 20-0).

1985: Bears beat Patriots 20-7, won SB rematch 46-10.

1994: 49ers beat Chargers 38-15, won SB rematch 49-26.

So...no. If anything it could be even WORSE.

[quote="DolFan 316"]

In every single Super Bowl rematch of a regular season game in which Team A has won by 8 or more, Team A won again.



1977: Cowboys beat Broncos 14-6, won SB rematch 27-10.

1981: 49ers beat Bengals 21-3, won SB rematch 26-21 (after leading 20-0).

1985: Bears beat Patriots 20-7, won SB rematch 46-10.

1994: 49ers beat Chargers 38-15, won SB rematch 49-26.

So...no. If anything it could be even WORSE.

And if the 1985 Dolphins had just taken care of business against the Patriots, they would have drummed the Bears again! :-)

HalCHorn wrote:And if the 1985 Dolphins had just taken care of business against the Patriots, they would have drummed the Bears again! :-)

Not sure about "drummed" but they definitely would've won, I am convinced of this and not a day goes by with that wound on my soul re-opening.

I hate to say this, but it's a damn shame that AFC title game didn't happen in the 2020s because then the NFL would've done their best to rig it in the Fins' favor knowing that a Fins-Bears Super Bowl would've been the single highest rated TV show in human history to this day.

Dangit! Hal and Df316 just love to re-open old wounds and pore the salt in 'em!!

finfanatic wrote:Dangit! Hal and Df316 just love to re-open old wounds and pore the salt in 'em!!

We're NFL historians, that's kinda what we do

DolFan 316 wrote:

Umix10 wrote:I wouldnt make excuses for this team.  I wouldnt make excuses for Tua neither.  I think the world is so Tua hating that good, bad or different, He's gonna get criticism from all angles.  

The thing that makes me upset is that "teams" have bad games.  "Teams" win but, Tua loses.  Again, not saying he had a good game, but Waddle drops, Wilson dropped, Gesicki dropped, Sherfield dropped and a couple high balls that could have been caught could have improved the offensive situation at that point in the game.  Not saying we would have scored but it would have given us a different look from the D.  Did the 49ers win?  Or did Miiami lose?  We were spoiled by Tua's accuracy from this point but in the end he's the same kid with the same arm with the same humbleness who decided to shoulder the blame for everyone's failure including his Coach who mentions nothing of the lack of a running game. Which IMHO, would have eased the pressure and gave the RPO game a little more sizzle.

I've really been thinking about all the people playing the "woulda coulda shoulda" game this week. I could even see it if, say, the Fins scored the winning TD but it was called back, or the winning/tying FG was missed, or if the Niners drove to the winning score only because of an egregiously horrible call. But not when a team is literally outscored almost 2 to 1. IMO this level of hubris can bring nothing but trouble, and I damn sure hope the team's not thinking that way.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda is never good! I totally agree. I didnt intend the post to state that. I am commenting on the narrative that the 49ers exposed Miami's offense. It seems to everyone in the media that Tua was rattled and excited and had a bad game. He threw for 296 and 2 td's, but they aren't talking about that part of the stat. Because everyone's eyes are connected to the Tua Superpower stat 18 for 33. That stat is where everyone is saying he got rattled. But again did he? Say that stat was 22 of 33 at 66% would they be having this "off" conversation? Just 4 passes more. The Sherfield 1st Down deep out, Jeff Wilson wheel route, Waddle's high drop, Gesicki's out. Again not talking about the poorly thrown balls but throws that were more catchable than not.

I would also like to point out that the Int to Wilson wasnt really anyone's fault. Wilson simply lost his footing and didn't make a break on the ball.

The second to Tyreek isn't his fault either, but I didn't learn that in all honesty until after watching the tape again and again. I aslo watched a ton of tape on Tyreek with the dolphins as well. Tyreek is the best receiver in the NFL hands down. He makes the most of his smaller stature and continues to play big. He consistently is looking for cracks, creases, crevices to squirt through to get the YAC. The interesting thing is he will set himself to do it by flipping his hips just as the ball arrives so he can see whats coming simultaneously. I've never seen any receiver in this modern area do it. If you slow down the INT to Tyreek. You'll see Tyreek bend his route back as if he was about to flip his hips open to turn, catch, and run. Tua threw him up field making it look like it was a bad ball, but more miscommunication than anything which he mentioned in his presser the other day.

DolFan 316 wrote:

JMP wrote:I walked away from that game very unimpressed with the Niners.  They don't look like Super Bowl contenders to me.  I think Philly, Dallas and Minnesota would destroy that overrated defense.

The Vikings? No. They're the flimsiest 10-2 team ever. Dallas? Not in the playoffs where they constantly choke. In fact they did just that against the 49ers just last postseason. The Eagles? We'll see. The last unbeaten team to lose rarely wins a title these days. I can only see them going downhill from here.

I just mean that I think the Vikes offense would dominate the San Fran D. We had receivers open on every single down, and I doubt they could cover Jefferson, Thielen, Hockenson and Cook either. I agree the Vikes are not as good as their record, but that offense is loaded.

JMP wrote:I just mean that I think the Vikes offense would dominate the San Fran D. We had receivers open on every single down, and I doubt they could cover Jefferson, Thielen, Hockenson and Cook either. I agree the Vikes are not as good as their record, but that offense is loaded.

Strange how the Fins managed to hold this loaded offense to just 234 yards in Miami--the Vikings' second-lowest total of the season and lower than what the mighty Eagles allowed them

See how I brought this back full circle to the home/road D disparity?

https://stathead.com/tiny/DnVfN

DolFan 316 wrote:

JMP wrote:I just mean that I think the Vikes offense would dominate the San Fran D. We had receivers open on every single down, and I doubt they could cover Jefferson, Thielen, Hockenson and Cook either. I agree the Vikes are not as good as their record, but that offense is loaded.

Strange how the Fins managed to hold this loaded offense to just 234 yards in Miami--the Vikings' second-lowest total of the season and lower than what the mighty Eagles allowed them

See how I brought this back full circle to the home/road D disparity?

https://stathead.com/tiny/DnVfN

Yep - Dolphins D at home is unstoppable! LOL

And...the Lions are hammering the Vikes 21-7 as I type this!

Other game notes...

Ravens down to their third string QB, somebody named Anthony Brown I've never heard of, and yet he somehow managed to play better than Skylar has this season!

Bills getting praised by ESPN for overcoming...their own home region's weather I kid you not. But I really don't like how this game turned out. Not because the Bills won, but because Mike White still threw for almost 270 yards with no picks which IMO is the worst of all worlds. Also, Bills have shown the ability to still win even when their offense does very little, which is the main thing separating them from the Fins.

Cowboys actually had to rally to scrape past the Texans, which IMO should technically count as a loss. Why isn't the NFL investigating the Texans for tanking, I wonder? Being the only team without even 3 wins is making it really obvious.

Right after firing their GM the Titans respond by...letting the Jags whip them??? Okay...

Wouldn't be surprised to see the Vikings go on a losing streak and maybe even lose out.