The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I'll come back to this, but I have a hard time thinking of anyone.

The only turnover was a guy that was hit really hard by two guys at once.  I can't fault him.  The offense was great all day.

The defense was terrible in the first half, so I was prepared to go d-coordinator, but then shut the Lions down for the 2nd half.

I can't come up with someone....interested to see if anyone saw something I didn't.

The special teams for allowing that fake punt

This was a sloppy game in a lot of ways and I hope the coaching tightens up a little bit.

Defense lined up in the neutral zone a billion times.

Waddle and Hill both on the sideline on strange plays, like on second and 13. I mean, what?

Passing game is firing on all cylinders and suddenly you get the "Edmonds Itch" again? Running him outside, twice in a row, and that's the only Dolphins' punt of the day. I'm willing to bet I can go back in the play-by-play and find NO GOOD comes of running Edmonds twice in a row.

Not challenging Sherfield's touchdown. Yes, you got a first down at the 1, but it was a touchdown and someone needs to constantly supervise these plays and immediately tell McDaniel to throw the flag. He's got "analytics people" in his ear, he can have a "challenge person" as well. Never needs to say anything unless there's a challenge to be called.

Our special teams are really, really bad. Return game is non-existent, we've allowed big returns (not this game, though), missed long field goals (obviously not this game, either), and now allowed a fake punt to convert.

I'm giving my SotG to the one unit (coach) that isn't also contributing to wins: Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman. He's actually a holdover from the previous regime, so I wouldn't be shocked to see a change in that role next season. I'm not saying it's all on him and the players do need to execute better, but at least with SotG, unit bad --> coach gets the blame.

Coach said they addressed the mental pre-snap mistakes last week and it obviously didn't fix it. Hopefully he figures it out because we aren't good enough to keep beating ourselves up and then overcoming it time and time again.

Dishonorable mention to Alex Kemp and his crew for being the most flag-happy crew in the NFL. They throw 2 more flags a game than the #2 crew and TWICE the number of flags that Bill Vinovich's crew does. The gap between Kemp's crew and #2 is bigger than any other gap. They actually throw so many flags  that they are 2 standard deviations above the mean. That means a random crew would be 97.5% likely to throw fewer flags than Kemp and Co.

EDIT: And lest you think that is a coincidence, he was about 1 standard deviations above the mean last year (only good for 4th), but had made up for it the year before where he finished the season > 2 standard deviations above the mean in an obvious first place.

The Defense obviously

Good call D4L,

I don't think special teams were bad, but that was definitely a bit play that they failed to sniff out at all.

Were the calls actually bad?  I couldn't tell if Miami got away with a penalty on the fourth and two play

That's a bad question. You can find something to call on EVERY SINGLE PLAY. Someone is always grabbing someone or standing ever so slightly in the way or a foot too far down field or not disengaging with the receiver quite quickly enough or...

When you have a crew that consistently calls more penalties than everyone else, that's not exactly what you want.

(As for actually bad flags, sure, there were some pretty iffy ones like where Hunter Long, I think it was, got called for OPI.)

Also, on a key third and fifteen in the second quarter, there was a TON of movement by both sides, but no flag was thrown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMdGq5ovdNw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMdGq5ovdNw)

It's at the 5:34 mark.

The Running back goes in motion

The Center moves his head.

The Right Guard adjusts his position.

The Lions move forward.

The ball is snapped.

No penalty is called.

Is that even possible? 

None of what you cite is a penalty, so good no-call. Defensive players can do whatever they want, with the exception of "simulating a snap". They can even move over the into the neutral zone, as long as they get back out before the offense reacts.

Offensive players are allowed to go into motion. They're not supposed to "explode" into motion, simulating a release, but even that I've seen the refs not flag. The center can bob his head, but like the player going into motion, the movement isn't supposed to be used to draw defenders off sides, so there's a limit to how "explosive" refs will allow the bob to be. This one wasn't even close, though.

Offensive linemen can move, although not abruptly. Anything that could reasonably draw a defender offsides is illegal.

Are offensive linemen (besides the center) allowed to turn their head and look to the side without getting a false start?

Yes, providing the movement is not quick and abrupt.

False start is one of those rules where the rule interpretations are somewhat different from the letter of the rule. For instance, the rules clearly say:

(Rule 7, Section 4, Article 2, Item 5)
"Attempt to Draw Offside. Any obvious attempt by the quarterback or other player in position to receive the snap to draw an opponent offside is a False Start."

That's clearly what every quarterback does on those annoying plays where everyone knows the ball isn't going to be snapped. The word "obvious" in the rule opens it up to interpretation and thus it becomes a question of how it is enforced as much as how it is written. We all have a feeling for it, but sometimes quarterbacks do get called for False Start under those situations, but usually not.

The item preceding the above (Item 4) actually specifically disallows a quarterback in shotgun formation "thrusting his hands forwards when there is not a simultaneous snap". That's pretty much a tossup as well in terms of actual rulings on the field.

As for offensive linemen, the rules prohibit changing stance if you're in a 3-point stance, even if it's done slowly - you cannot move the down hand at all. If you're in a 2-point stance, you can move around (non-abruptly) as long as you "set" before the snap (doesn't have to be 1 second like for shifts).

^ Can't really tell.

We were getting flagged for all kinds of stuff, but specifically on offense: illegal shift and defense: neutral zone infraction.

That play I showed appears to be a textbook false start on the right guard?  Has anybody watched it and disagreed with me?

^ That just looks like a guy getting set to me.

False start is reacting to the snap or else pulling the defense with movement.  Moving in itself isn't necessarily a false start.

^ I'm with Dave. I can't tell from the angle whether he's set, but I'll give you 3 good reasons it almost certainly wasn't a false start:

1. Wasn't an abrupt movement intended to provoke the defense.
2. The defense didn't react in any way.
3. The ref whose ONLY job it is to look for false starts didn't throw a flag, despite the movement being very, very noticeable.