Grading the game: Week 5

[Fins4ever]

Would like to make this a weekly topic.

Just finished watching a terrific win against a formidable opponent in the Bengals. Without seeking stats or watching replays, this is what I saw...

QB: B-. No turnovers, made some great throws and bad decisions as well. Overall, VG game.

RB's: C-. Could put some blame on the O line, but they don't fumble the ball. Grade would have been worse if not for the play of RB catching balls out of the backfield.

O line: C. Nothing great although RT had decent protection. No holes for the running game and had a couple dumb penalties. Jerry had his 1st bad game.

D Line: A. Still the strength of the team. Shut down the run and had decent pressure on Andy

Secondary: B. Loving Smith right now. Jones had a huge pick and Clemons and Carroll held their own.

Special Teams: C+ Nice punts and coverage on kicks. Could have prevented the ball from going into the EZ late in the game and of course we had a missed FG at a crucial time.

Coaching: B-.  Best effort of the year. Applaud JP for keeping his cool when he lost what looked like sure fire challenges. Did not care for the predicable 2 runs and a pass in the 4th quarter.     

[MikeO]

With no Marshall the secondary stepped up big time and played well. I give them a B+. Tannehill converted some big 3rd downs. I give him a B+ as well.

I agree with the rest of the grades

[Fins4ever]

With no Marshall the secondary stepped up big time and played well. I give them a B+. Tannehill converted some big 3rd downs. I give him a B+ as well.

I agree with the rest of the grades

Yeah, thanks. They might be a little on the high side, but hey... I am biased. Will see what crap Armando posts. LOL

[MikeO]

best part of today. Gaffney said today he will be ready to play next week. That he is 100% and wanted to play this week but he needs 1 more week to learn the offense.

With the Rams, Jets, Colts, Titans, Bills, Seattle up next....the Fins could roll off some wins here. None of those teams have big-time offenses that will do much vs the Fins DEFENSE!!

[BigDaddyFin]

QB: B.  Tannehill didn't play great.  He didn't play poorly either.
RB: C-  I'm not thrilled with Thomas at all.  Lane had a fumble, Clay dropped an easy completion down the middle late, and then ran out of bounds with too much time on the clock.  Bush whom I realize is playing hurt didn't do himself any favors today.
OL: B-  Jerry gets blown up too many times for being as big as he is.  Had all kinds of problems running the football.
WR/TE: C.  The group wasn't spectacular but they were at least steady.

DL: B.  We got our ass ripped when the guy who wasn't BenJarvisTooManyFuckinNames was in the game.  Starks had an INT and Wake looks like an allpro the last two weeks.
LB: B. Thank christ Cincinnati doesn't really have a TE to throw to.  The unit played better than I thought it would.
DB: A.  Kept AJ Green from going batshit thereby shutting down Cincinnati's offense.  Nolan and Jimmy Wilson played well in Marshall's absence, Wilson made a key stop of a pass in the endzone.  Jones picked Dalton off to end the game and Smith played well overall.  Clemmons made a couple good tackles.

[hordman]

With no Marshall the secondary stepped up big time and played well. I give them a B+. Tannehill converted some big 3rd downs. I give him a B+ as well.

I agree with the rest of the grades

I agree with the B+.  I thought he played well, he's managing the game very well.  It doesn't seem to be too big for him, which is a big plus right now.  I thought some WRs dropped some balls they should have caught.

[Fins4ever]

best part of today. Gaffney said today he will be ready to play next week. That he is 100% and wanted to play this week but he needs 1 more week to learn the offense.

With the Rams, Jets, Colts, Titans, Bills, Seattle up next....the Fins could roll off some wins here. None of those teams have big-time offenses that will do much vs the Fins DEFENSE!!

The Rams and Seahawks concern me. Also, Luck has Indy pumped and got his 1st 4th 1/4 comeback yesterday. Jets will get sloberknockered tonight and should still be in a daze by next Sunday. Titans should also be a win.

[MikeO]

The Rams and Seahawks concern me. Also, Luck has Indy pumped and got his 1st 4th 1/4 comeback yesterday. Jets will get sloberknockered tonight and should still be in a daze by next Sunday. Titans should also be a win.

The Seahawks offense stinks. Russell Wilson should be benched by then he has been horrible. Flynn doesn't scare me. And Lynch ain't running on Miami. So I don't see them scoring. Plus a cross country trip for them and a 1pm eastern game.

Rams also I don't scare me. Who on that offense will do anything? Unless Miami mails it in on defense, I don't see the Rams scoring much.

[Pappy13]

The most encouraging thing for me in this game is that Miami actually didn't start well and really had a poor game in some ways. With all the talk of how we won the turnover battle, actually Miami didn't, not if you count turnovers by special teams. Cincy's first points were off a turnover by the special teams. Later in the game Miami had a 4th and 1 that was stuffed which is a turnover on downs. Miami also had a missed FG that gave Cincy very good field position which I won't call a turnover, but it was bad exchange of field position none the less (Cincy had one of their own).

Miami was also unlucky when it comes to the Zebra's. For all the talk of how horrible the replacement refs were, I thought the refs had a pretty bad game. I thought the punt cover team clearly stepped on the line that gave Miami the ball at their own 3 rather than at the 20 and there were a couple other close calls that went Cincy's way. To be fair the Zebra's did also call Cincy for a very bad pass interference call on the last drive by Miami that gave them a first down.

Despite all of this Miami still found a way to win the game. So it is possible to make mistakes and turnover the ball and still win because it's not whether or not you make mistakes and have turnovers that determines the outcome in my opinion, it's how you deal with those mistakes and turnovers. For the most part Miami was able to make enough plays on both sides of the ball to mitigate the mistakes and keep themselves in the game and ultimately win it. That's what a good team does. They don't focus on preventing mistakes, they focus on making plays. That's what wins games.

[MikeO]

Miami got screwed on the punt turnover as I call it. No way that Cincy guy recovered in bounds. And then on the other punt no way that ball was downed at the 1 yard line. Should have been a touch back.

Thankfully they caught a break late with the pass interference but still. Walt Coleman was terrible yesterday.

[Fins4ever]

Miami was also unlucky when it comes to the Zebra's. For all the talk of how horrible the replacement refs were, I thought the refs had a pretty bad game.

Agree. Aside from less pass interference calls and quicker reviews, I don't see much of a difference. I think the Fins really got snookered against the Bengals. Every call that could go against them...DID! Come on man!