Week 6 Game Thoughts: Panthers at Dolphins

This is going to be a VERY abbreviated post...I was traveling all day and only got to watch the second half...on my phone in a car. I did actually see some plays in the first half while eating lunch, but not much. Anyway, here we go...

The winless Panthers came to Miami and gave the home team all it could handle...for about a quarter. After that brief period of sleepwalking through the early part of the game, the Dolphins erupted and blew the doors off the Panthers, finishing with a dominant 42-21 victory.

The defense gave up 14 quick points and looked completely lost and ineffective to start the game. I don't really know what happened, but after that point the defense pulled a 180 and pitched a shutout the rest of the way. Forcing 0 turnovers against a rookie QB on a winless team is cause for concern, but in the end the D allowed under 300 yards and just 14 points, and got 4 sacks and tons of QB hits.

The Miami offense was...the Miami offense. Tua and the rest of the offensive players are simply a joy to watch. They started slow, but once they got going they were like an enormous boulder rolling downhill: unstoppable. Tua didn't throw for 300 yards, but had 3 TDs and was excellent throughout the day. Tyreek put on another show, with 6 catches for over 160 yards and a TD. He did a backflip and took a selfie with the cameraman after the score - dude is having fun and destroying the competition every week. The running game was again excellent, racking up over 160 yards. Raheem Mostert led the way with 115 yards and 2 TDs, and had another TD on a reception. Unfortunately, backup RB Chris Brooks, who has become a key part of the offense, appeared to suffer a serious leg injury in garbage time. And speaking of garbage time, Mike White closed out the game and threw a horrendous pick 6 on a lazy pass. The OL was fantastic again today, even with Liam Eichenberg at center. The OL allowed 0 sacks and dominated in the run game.

And there you have it - the Dolphins sit at 5-1 for the first time in 21 years, and are firing on all cylinders. A very tough matchup looms next week at Philadelphia, in what will be a real good measuring stick for this Dolphins team.


Hero of the Game: Gotta go with Mostert, the NFL's leader in rushing TDs. Mostert is playing out of his mind this season!

Goat of the Game: Yeah, Carolina's pick 6 in garbage time meant nothing - but that godawful pass from Mike White was inexcusable. The pass had nothing on it and was just a lazy throw by a QB who should know better. Horrible.

Hey, I'll take any version of your Game Thoughts I can get!

BTW after seeing the Browns and Jets knock off the mighty 49ers and Eagles with backup QBs, I won't accept any excuse as to why even Mike White can't win at least one game if he starts. I'm hoping and praying with every fiber of my being it never comes to that of course, I'm just sayin'. Hell, SKYLAR FREAKING THOMPSON even managed to win ONCE as a starter!

I absolutely hate what happened to Brooks. Wilson damn well better get back soon or else Grier might end up throwing away picks for a RB after all!

the Dolphins only played 3 quarters today - thankfully it was the last 3 quarters and the Panthers decided to only play the first quarter before quitting. Miami demolished an inferior opponent as they should have - nothing to complain about. a win is a win is a win - and in convincing fashion.

yes, i would like to see the defense show up a little (well, a lot) sooner. but honestly, even down 14-0, i don't believe this game was really ever in doubt. the Tua to Mostert backward pass fumble was stupid. that's a case of trying to be too cute cause Miami isn't confident in their short yardage game - hopefully Jeff Wilson's return changes that. but i was otherwise very happy that Tua threw the ball well and did not toss any interceptions. Mike White on the other hand - well, let's just hope he stays on the bench.

i agree that Mostert was a monster and the player of the game - and hung on to the ball despite some tough hits. Tyreek is still just lights out.

not a whole lot more to say about this game. the Dolphins won in convincing fashion. that is always a good thing.

Two things: any O-line that gives up a sack to CHUBB of all people and TWO sacks to Wilkins--the first 2-sack game of his career BTW--is definitely the league's worst. I thought the Giants' O-line held that title but even THEY were able to keep the aforementioned players from reaching the QB even with all their injuries. So congrats Panthers...I guess?

Also, I honestly and truly do feel for Panthers fans. They don't even have the faint, forlorn hope of tanking for a QB with the top pick because their team got it completely backwards and took a QB #1 BEFORE starting 0 and whatever. I really have no idea what the point of the rest of their season is now. Maybe they can trade the top pick for a bunch of others this time around? At least they have a bye and NFL history has shown time and time again over a 30-plus year period that a bye can totally reverse a team's momentum good or bad. I've gone over this before. So IMO the Panthers will win a game or three soon.

EDIT: Whoops, Panthers don't even HAVE a first next year because they stupidly gave it up to take a QB at #1 who likely would've been around at #3. So now I feel even WORSE for their fans than before!

Gotta give credit to Eich. He started at center and I didn't see any miscues at all. I also didn't see any pressure coming up the middle. All in all, seemed like he had a great game as far as I could tell. I really hope Williams comes back soon, but if we can get that type of play from Eich when he steps in that would really be a big boost to the OL.

I have watched the first half now.

One play that stood out that I didn't see mentioned anywhere was the fake punt by Carolina. Elijah Campbell diagnosed the fake immediately and cut off the angle of the ball-carrier. But even with that, it would have been a first down - but then Duke Riley came in like a heat-seeking missile and stopped the forward momentum and nudged the guy sideways so that his foot went out of bounds. Really a spectacular play by Riley there.

JMP wrote:Gotta give credit to Eich.  He started at center and I didn't see any miscues at all.  I also didn't see any pressure coming up the middle.  All in all, seemed like he had a great game as far as I could tell.  I really hope Williams comes back soon, but if we can get that type of play from Eich when he steps in that would really be a big boost to the OL.

After I praised Eich, I'm going to step back a bit. Watching the first half of yesterday's game I saw that the Panthers batted down 2 of Tua's passes at the line. That is something that almost never happens to Tua. Unless I saw it wrong, it looked like both passes were knocked down by the player Eich was blocking. I don't know enough about OL technique to know exactly how to prevent a defender from knocking down a pass, but I do know this: batted passes are rare for Tua, and it happened multiple times against the Panthers with Eich in the starting lineup.

It may not be an Eich problem, but it is something to keep an eye on when he's playing.

Yeah, in pass blocking, if you see the guy is watching the QB and about to go for the block, you are supposed to punch him hard in the gut so he doesn't stick his hands up.

Good D-linemen will stay in contact and not give an indication they are going for the pass knockdown until it is too late though, so...

Well, the Phins must have thought they could throw their helmets on the field and the Panthers would run screaming into the hot afternoon. They looks gosh-awful to start the game.

Let's hope this attitude doesn't bite them in the Phin!!!

finfanatic wrote:Yeah, in pass blocking, if you see the guy is watching the QB and about to go for the block, you are supposed to punch him hard in the gut so he doesn't stick his hands up.

Literally every coach I've ever heard talk about this says the same thing, only a couple prefer him punched a bit lower than the gut if ya know what I mean

I should've known Eich couldn't have done THAT good a job. All is right with the universe again Shy Tuttle is the player who kept blocking the passes BTW.

Thanks for the OL lesson, guys!

After watching the entire game on a TV with sound, one of my biggest takeaways is: holy crap, Julian Hill is an OUTSTANDING blocker. This guy has a key block on every single running play - it's unbelievable. I've never seen blocking like this from an undrafted rookie - especially one from a school like Campbell. He is representing the Fighting Camels well! LOL

And Durham Smythe is no slouch, either - his blocking has improved by leaps and bounds this season.

Williams is supposed to be back this week, I actually called the Fake Punt out before it happened just because of where they were at on the Field and there Coach loves to try stuff like that.

finskev wrote:Williams is supposed to be back this week, I actually called the Fake Punt out before it happened just because of where they were at on the Field and there Coach loves to try stuff like that.

Yeah, it seemed like a few of the Dolphins players expected the fake too.

Speaking of Williams, I heard that PFF gave Eich the highest grade of any Dolphin player this week! That's awesome if true, even though their grades are often wacky, but I still want Williams back against the Eagles' D.

Why do other teams always try ST BS on the Fins?

JEGnj wrote:Why do other teams always try ST BS on the Fins?

cause it usually works.

JMP wrote:I heard that PFF gave Eich the highest grade of any Dolphin player this week!  

partially true. Eich wasn't among the top 5 highest Dolphins overall on offense (no o-linemen were), but was the highest graded o-lineman in both pass and run blocking.

https://dolphinswire.usatoday.com/lists/dolphins-pff-grades-panthers-2023/

Per Barry Jackson, Chris Brooks did not suffer a broken ankle. There is swelling, but for now he is listed as day to day.

20 teams in the NFL have not had a 40-yard run this season. The Dolphins have 7.