It starts up front

The key to the rest of the season are the lines. The only way this team will become a winner is if it fixes the offensive line and the defense manages to get pressure without Wake.

Denver showed what a good running game can do to a great passing team. It leaves them on the sideline. Until Miami can dominate upfront we will be mediocre or below.

Pats had what, 5 yards rushing VS the Jets and beat them? Fins kept Peyton off the field over 45 minutes and somehow lost anyway. The lines are just part of it, it's about passing and defending the pass. PERIOD. (BTW I heard Peyton actually didn't look old last night for once and passed it pretty well.)

Besides, each team gets the same number of possessions. The Packers had literally as many chances as Denver to do something with the ball, and they just couldn't.

Our franchise QB is no Tom Brady. We need a dominant line to protect him. Aaron Rodgers is either the #1 or #2 QB in the NFL. He had a net yardage of 50 yards. Total yardage of 77 passing. His offensive line was manhandled. He looked like Tannehill last night. Dazed and confused.

Denver is a run first team. Green Bay was 50/50 run and pass with the running game outperforming the passing game. Last night defense and running determined the outcome of the game.

What is shows me is that a truly great defense really can compete - and win - against a great offense. For all the rules changes and advantages, it's still possible to stop a powerful offense with the right scheme, game plan and talent.

Denver has a very good defense. I did not expect them to shut down Green Bay, but what they did to Rodgers and Co yesterday is nothing short of championship caliber defensive football. Truly an impressive feat to totally shutdown a team like the Packers, would like to see if they can have similar success against Brady.

Clearly the lines are important, but it's not just about the lines. And even if it was, it's too late for the Dolphins to do anything about it.

On defense:
- If the DL does it's job on a running play, then the LBs need to make plays. We have the worst LB corps in the league, so even if the DL is spot-on, the LBs ruin the play. I've seen it time and time again with this defense.
- Against the pass, yes, you need a pass rush. Problem is, Miami has just two legit pass rushers: Wake and Suh. Wake is on IR, and Suh has shown very little pass rush ability in this scheme. And if there's no pass rush, our horrible secondary isn't able to consistently defend the pass.

On offense:
- Even when the OL does it's job in pass pro, Tannehill often holds the ball too long or (at Lazor's command) only throws the ball within 3 yards of the line of scrimmage.
- The guards (especially Thomas) simply aren't good enough in pass pro or run blocking. The problem is even worse with the James injury.

I agree that we need a dominant OL. We also need a dominant RB and dominant WRs. Why do we need all that? Because Tannehill just isn't good enough. He needs everything to be absolutely perfect in order to succeed, and the talent-level on this offense is far from perfect.

With Wake out, I would love to see this team Blitz more, Sheppard & Jenkins seem to be better at it than the Lb's we had before, The sooner we can the Ball out of Taylor Hands this week the Better, Especially since Taylor is a Fan of Tannehill and can only play good 50% of the time.

finskev wrote:With Wake out, I would love to see this team Blitz more, Sheppard & Jenkins seem to be better at it than the Lb's we had before, The sooner we can the Ball out of Taylor Hands this week the Better, Especially since Taylor is a Fan of Tannehill and can only play good 50% of the time.

The problem with blitzing is that we do not have any blitzers capable of getting to the QB, and that's been true for years. Our LBs and DBs can't blitz effectively - they never get to the QB on time. The holes created by blitzing are just too easy for opposing QBs to exploit.

Bottom line - we have far too many garbage players on defense. Without Wake, the front 4 is pretty much just Suh and a bunch of inconsistent players, and in the back 7 we have Grimes, Jones and a whole lot of crap. It's ugly, and it's not going to change this season.

The bottom line for me is Tannehill isn't talented enough to will this team to victory. This team needs to be a run first offense because the two guards can run block but can't pass protect. The offense needs to eat clock so the defense is off the field if we have any chance of being more than 8-8.
This off season needs to see a complete shake up of everything from coaches, to players, to front office. Campbell sparked the team for two games but it's clear we need more than a spark. We need a fire. Fire the scouts and the medical staff to start. Fire everyone involved with the decision to keep Thomas a starter or that advocated on his behalf. Miami has a handful of good players and that's it.

CarsonChris wrote:The bottom line for me is Tannehill isn't talented enough to will this team to victory. This team needs to be a run first offense because the two guards can run block but can't pass protect. The offense needs to eat clock so the defense is off the field if we have any chance of being more than 8-8.
This off season needs to see a complete shake up of everything from coaches, to players, to front office. Campbell sparked the team for two games but it's clear we need more than a spark. We need a fire. Fire the scouts and the medical staff to start. Fire everyone involved with the decision to keep Thomas a starter or that advocated on his behalf.  Miami has a handful of good players and that's it.

Yep, that about sums it up. The players suck, the coaches suck, the front office sucks, the owner sucks, the scouts suck...this team is a mess. I'll tell you what though - get a real GM and two real coordinators and have a strong draft - and we can begin to head in the right direction immedaitely. It won't get us a championship overnight, but step one is building a strong foundation. Until that happens, we're just pissing in the wind.

ALL of these issues stem from the Burial Ground Curse. We've been talking about how this team needs a complete overhaul for how many years now? Ten? Twelve? Fifteen? And yet despite cycling through hundreds of players as well as different coaches, GMs and even an owner change, this team keeps making the same mistakes for the same reasons.

The curse has to somehow be ended for ANY progress to be made, otherwise it'll just be the same sort of mess over and over and over again.