The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

It needs to be aired out. I am rather upset and disappointed. Really believe they gave it away. Here is just a couple of things that frosts my nuts.

1. Inability to run out the clock. D was playing great, running game average or better. 2 or 3 series in a row was 3 and out with pass plays. It let the jets back in the game and our D got no rest.

2. Conservative O. I am not liking Sherman too much today. The run over LT was as predictable as the sun coming up. When Revis went out I kept waiting for them to pick on his replacement...still waiting.

3. Use of timeouts. The last 2 minutes of the 1st 1/2 is a blur. Why did we call timeout when we are trying to run out the clock?   

To answer your question, they wanted the ball back.

What I don't get is they had 3 time outs at the end of the half with just under 2 minutes left. Why didn't they try to work the middle of the field and call a time out? What kind of crappy game plan was that? Teams would kill for all three time outs in a 2 minute drill.

So many "interesting" play calls in the 2nd half and OT.  I'm not pleased with Mike Sherman and the offense right now.

I would have liked to see an attempt at winning the game in the 4th instead of settling for the FG late.  They had timeouts and instead wanted to throw long down the sideline...but I don't know if that was a rookie QB thing or play calling errors.

How many games have we gotten in to FG range and ran three straight times up the middle only to have everyone scream about shutting it down. They let Ryan air it out down the side to one of our very few offensive options. We don't have Wes Welker or Randy Moss. I'm not sure what you guys think we could have done but that's about as aggressive as we can get.

Overall, I was fairly satisfied with the play-calling. Like CF said, how many times have we screamed in frustration at three conservative runs up the middle once remotely in field goal range?

There are always plays where you wish the call was different, but I was much less frustrated than usual ;)

I'm on the complete other side of this argument.  I'll take the coaching staff playing to WIN and continuing to be aggressive over trying to run the clock out any day.  We played to win, the staff and our QB put us in a position TWICE to do that, and we just didn't execute to come through on the kicks.

Over the long run, I'll take those odds EVERY TIME.

It's so much better than the slow bleed out of watching your lead disappear and have the other team drive to win the game with a last second field goal because you just tried to burn time.

If Hartline catches any of the three passes at the end of regulation, no one is discussing play calling today.

Problem was in execution, not play calling.

I disagree with this. I think Sherman was too aggressive at the end of the game. Miami had the lead and wasn't milking the clock at all in the 4th quarter. The clock was our friend and on 2 drives Miami was throwing out of our own endzone instead of just running and working the clock.  Then, after we get in FG range in overtime, instead of trying to throw 2 out of 3 downs we should have ran 3 out of 3 downs to get as close as possible. The Jets couldn't stop us on the ground and were dog tired. Maybe we get that FG attempt inside 40 yards and its much easier.

I don't mind Sherman being aggressive like this....IF we had the players. We clearly don't at the WR position (and especially when Bush is OUT.) We should have gone ultra conservative late. When we go get some WR's next year and such, I wouldn't mind this playcalling. But not this year when we don't have the guys to make it work.

And the running to the LEFT I have no problem with, because they couldn't stop it. If it's working (and it was) keep doing it. Don't out think yourself. I got no problem with that.

Those teams had more offensive weapons than this team does though. This team has nothing at WR so playing it safe might have been the smart play.

no excuse to be calling a passing play when in FG position in OT - inexcusable.

I find it funny that one point is that they threw too much, and the other point is they were too conservative. 

Didnt most of us agree that this year was about developing our rookie QB? Did that change?  When my wife was freaking out I informed her that his development was more important than a win. Under no circumstances can you recreate that scenario for him to practice. The same with him throwing under unfavorable circumstances deep in our territory. He has to do it if he is ever going to learn from it and if he doesn't learn then he's not who we need him to be.

Agree. If you go conservative and put the game on the leg of the kicker, ya get what ya get, and we got what we got.

I have been waiting for someone to criticize Carpenter. I looked at his numbers and he has been solid, esp. in 2009. Here is his stats.

 http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/players/9032/index.html

Carpenter seems to be consistent when the kicks are low pressure. Anyone have any stats on 4th quarter or game winning kicks? Is it just me or does he seem to miss more of those? Either way, I agree you can't blame your kicker for "losing" the game. Do a better job of putting yourself in a position to win and it's a moot point. -EK

Good point on the pressure kicks. I can't answer your question, but would like to know myself. If I remember correctly he hit some game winners in 2009, his best year.

What, if anything, that bothers me about the 2 misses Sunday is they were both identical misses. If you miss to the right, don't you make a slight adjustment???

Oddly enough, the Fins got rid of Olindo Mare because of his short kickoffs (or so I have read), and now the NFL moved the KO spot up 5 yards. lol

Look, the simple thing is you can't expect a kicker to make a 48-yard field goal. You'd like to, and kickers today hit those over half the time, but the plain truth is that about one in seven games, even a good kicker is going to miss TWO of those kicks.

As for Mare... he was just beyond awful. Look at his hit rate compared to league average (by distance): http://www.advancednflstats.com/2008/02/2007-kicker-ranking.html

2007 was his first year NOT playing for the Dolphins... and he was (by a huge margin) the worst kicker in the league. And his replacement just happened to be the best (by a small margin).

Considering that Carpenter had no problems booming kicks out of the end zone, bringing up Mare just seems misplaced.

They didn't get rid of Olindo Mare because of his short kickoffs.  They got rid of him because he suddenly wasn't making field goals anymore.

I expect a kicker to make a 48 yard FG 8 times out of 10, at least on the conditions from Sunday.. Distance was not the problem.....plenty of leg, no wind (I saw the flags on the GP). Missed both the same way, no adjustment. 

Except kickers in the NFL aren't as accurate as that (on average, anyway -- there are way too few kicks for each individual kicker to give any certain statistics). That's what I'm saying. We, and that includes me, have an inflated belief in what they hit. What kicks are about 50 yards, kickers today miss around 40% of the time.

^^Actually I think Carpenter would pretty much agree that he should make 8 out 10 from 40-50 in good field conditions. That doesn't mean he's going to do it, it just means that he believes he can. Go look at his comments following the game, he knows that he let the team down, but that's how NFL go. It's not like Tannehill doesn't believe he shouldn't have thrown a pick 6 and Armstrong doesn't think he shouldn't have dropped a couple passes, etc etc. And if he makes 7 out 7 from 40-50 from here on out he can still do it, but he'll never get those 2 kicks back. Nothing you can do but move on.

Kickers make about 50% of their kicks between 45 and 50 yards, better than 80% of their kicks inside the 40

Wannstadt and Tony Sparano (a.k.a. Wannstadt II) loved to get down to the 30, in long FG range, then hand the ball off to the RB right into the line. I don't think Philbin wants to be mentioned in same breath with those guys.

You play to win, you want to get closer than a 48 yard FG.