Dolphins game thoughts

[Keith]

Originally Posted by TheMatrix31

Playcalling was severely lacking.

I'm not one to nitpick playcalling myself, since isolating plays in general can be a bit unfair as they all fit into the overall tapestry of the game.

That said, I thought there was a combination of some uninspiring calls and some ineffective offensive execution yesterday.

First series, had 1st-and-goal from the Dolphin 8:
1-8-MIA 8 (11:17) 23-A.Foster right end pushed ob at MIA 5 for 3 yards (58-K.Dansby).
2-5-MIA 5 (10:52) 23-A.Foster left tackle to MIA 5 for no gain (58-K.Dansby).
3-5-MIA 5 (10:11) 8-M.Schaub pass incomplete short left.

Second series, 1st-and-10 from the Dolphin 12
1-10-MIA 12 (6:06) 8-M.Schaub pass incomplete short left to 81-O.Daniels.
2-10-MIA 12 (5:59) (Shotgun) 23-A.Foster right guard to MIA 6 for 6 yards (90-R.Baker).
3-4-MIA 6 (5:24) 23-A.Foster right tackle to MIA 4 for 2 yards (99-J.Taylor; 37-Y.Bell).

Both ended in field goals. Had a chance for a big early lead, instead came away ahead 6-0.

This was right before halftime.
1-10-MIA 11 (1:13) 8-M.Schaub pass short left to 80-A.Johnson to MIA 10 for 1 yard (21-V.Davis) [99-J.Taylor].
Timeout #1 by HOU at 00:40.
2-9-MIA 10 (:40) 8-M.Schaub pass short left to 44-B.Tate pushed ob at MIA 13 for -3 yards (21-V.Davis).
3-12-MIA 13 (:33) (Shotgun) 8-M.Schaub sacked at MIA 18 for -5 yards (91-C.Wake).

Not going for the throat here before getting into a third and long. Another field goal.

These three drives resulted in 9 points when 21 points were on the table. I understand not every drive will end in a touchdown, but the Texans should have won this game by halftime.

[nunusguy]

Anybody else still totally faked-out why Miami coughed up several millions dollars of guaranteed money for Reggie Bush ? He had 6 rushs for 18 yards, 1 pass reception for 3 yards and returned 0 punts, which is probably the one thing he's does fairly well ? And they signed him in FA after drafting an impressive rookie running-back in the 2nd round of Aprils Draft ? How is this guy worth a single red cent more than league minimum ?

[barrett]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

Anybody else still totally faked-out why Miami coughed up several millions dollars of guaranteed money for Reggie Bush ? He had 6 rushs for 18 yards, 1 pass reception for 3 yards and returned 0 punts, which is probably the one thing he's does fairly well ? And they signed him in FA after drafting an impressive rookie running-back in the 2nd round of Aprils Draft ? How is this guy worth a single red cent more than league minimum ?

And I'm right with you here. All I'll say is they figured out in 2 weeks what Sean Payton took years to realize.

[Nconroe]

well, we won so hate to nitpick to much, and it is a game of adjustments and early in the year so hope still improving.

one thing I noticed to improve in third quarter seemed we had several holding penalties along the OL which stopped our drives and actually had some very nice gains reversed into backwards plays.

then the last two drives and last 10 minutes we seemed to close out the win pretty well on offense and defense.

[NBT]

I lay it mostly to Kubiak's conservative playcalling which bled over to the defensive side of the ball too. At some point he is going to have to open it up some more. I though the offense underperformed. And the defense, even though constricted in their playcalling, did the lions share in the game

Bright spot was Tate continuing to play well. He is very hard to bring down AJ had his usual good game. We need more production out of the rest of the WR's.

If we hope to win against NOLA we need to play better in all aspects of the game.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by NBT

I lay it mostly to Kubiak's conservative playcalling which bled over to the defensive side of the ball too. At some point he is going to have to open it up some more. I though the offense underperformed. And the defense, even though constricted in their playcalling, did the lions share in the game

Bright spot was Tate continuing to play well. He is very hard to bring down AJ had his usual good game. We need more production out of the rest of the WR's.

If we hope to win against NOLA we need to play better in all aspects of the game.

The Victory?

And what constrictions are you talking about in the defensive play calling? Did you hear an interview about Kubiak restricting Wade's playcalling yesterday? That would be very interesting if it happened.

[cadams]

they weren't world beaters yesterday, but they had the lead from the first series, and held onto it. we will know a lot more after this week, but i think kubiak and phillips just wanted to make sure they didn't get burned by the big passing plays. they played most of the game with only 6 men in the box to keep the dolphins from anotehr 400+ yard passing day. they accomplished that. i would have loved to have seen them score another td or so and allow no tds,but that isn't realistic in the nfl. against the patriots the dolphins ahd over 400 yards in passing and scored 24 points. they scored 13 against the texans and had under 200 yards in passing i believe. the defense is causing turnovers and getting to the qb. the whole team was kind of down in the 3rd quarter, but all teams are going to have bad stretches.

even if they lost this weekend, and i think the odds are that they will, it won't be the end of the world. at the beginning of the year i think most people thought 2-2 after the first 4 games would be an acceptable (while not desirable) outcome. well, we are already at 2, so if they can win one of the next two we will be ahead of that mark.

[Fonz the Boss]

The difference between our matchup with the Dolphins vs the Patriots/Dolphins matchup is that we have a run game and a better pass rush than the Patriots. Anytime you have Brady and company going no huddle and torching opponents at will, then that means your defense will spend a considerable amount of time on the field. When our run game is effective we can control the tempo of the game just like we did in the 4th quarter yesterday. Our run game sealed the victory by taking a huge chunk of time on that last drive. This is the main reason why I think we will be able to beat the Saints. The best way to prevent Brees from beating you is to keep him on the sidelines. The saints D looked impressive with all those sacks yesterday but they havent faced a run game like ours. I believe we will be able to push them around. The less time our defense is on the field the better chance we have to win the game.... easier said than done LoL

[NBT]

Originally Posted by barrett

The Victory?

And what constrictions are you talking about in the defensive play calling? Did you hear an interview about Kubiak restricting Wade's playcalling yesterday? That would be very interesting if it happened.

Well, as I stated in another post, the Texans in the 3rd. quarter only had 25 yards total offense! Schaub wasn't getting enough protection to give him the time to Make his WR reads. He couln't get past his second read much less his 3rd., before a defender was on him. Protection schemes need to be pointed out, and improvements made.

And yes, I know we won. I just want the passing game to get better to other WR's besides just AJ.

And for the defense, I didn't see any of the exotic blitzes I thought we would have expected from Phillips, so I thought Kubiak was doing his conservative bit on him. That's all I meant there.

[barrett]

Originally Posted by NBT

Well, as I stated in another post, the Texans in the 3rd. quarter only had 25 yards total offense! Schaub wasn't getting enough protection to give him the time to Make his WR reads. He couln't get past his second read much less his 3rd., before a defender was on him. Protection schemes need to be pointed out, and improvements made.

And yes, I know we won. I just want the passing game to get better to other WR's besides just AJ.

And for the defense, I didn't see any of the exotic blitzes I thought we would have expected from Phillips, so I thought Kubiak was doing his conservative bit on him. That's all I meant there.

I thought Wade was known more as a straight forward 34 guy who plays a simple yet aggressive defense. I don't think he has ever been known for exotic blitzes.

As for the 3rd quarter, if Schuab is getting killed when he drops back to pass, I am not sure the answer is to be more aggressive in the play calling. I would love to have seen more of the screen game though. We have run very few so far this year. Maybe that is because Foster has been out. But whoever the RB is sunday we will need to screen against the saints. I also hope we see the TE screen.