Evaluating Jax game.

[Dave Gray]

Tommy just wrote me an IM that said "The offense did everything they could to lose that game, but the defense would not allow it".  At first, I agreed with him, but then I thought for a second, and I think that our team as a whole, even the offense, played really well.

You had 5 individual moments that were bad:

Ricky's fumble
Bess's fumble
Carpenter's missed FG
Henne's INT
Wilson's blown coverage on Holt

All of these were individual issues, and not large scale problems.  And even with these 5 large mistakes, and losing the turnover battle by 3, this is a game where we never trailed.

The good far outweighed the bad, including:

- A really good day by Henne (Fins record for consecutive pass completions)
- Fantastic protection from the O-line
- Good overall pressure and penetration from our D-line
- Good tackling
- No bonehead coaching decisions, time management problems, confusion
- Not a lot of drops by our receiving corps

I think that we have a lot of positives to take away from this game.

I'd much rather have this kind of thing happen, rather than a game where your O-line, in general, can't provide adequate time for your QB, or your D-line gives the other team all day to pick us apart.  This is a good step for us.  We can work on the individual mistakes.  When our units are playing well, I'm happy.

[dolfan13]

at this point right now i think that tennessee is playing a whole lot better than jax, and the environment will be much more of an away game than the 30 or so jax fans that showed up last week.

that kind of performance isn't going to cut it against the titans. maybe if vince is out they will revert back to their early year form, but this is shaping up to be the toughest road game challenge they've been up against for sure.

[Phishfan]

I can see optimisim in this game, but to say that only having 5 major mistake in a game is acceptable means low standards in my book. Successful teams don't have 5 major mistakes usually.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

Tommy just wrote me an IM that said "The offense did everything they could to lose that game, but the defense would not allow it".  At first, I agreed with him, but then I thought for a second, and I think that our team as a whole, even the offense, played really well.

The problem with the offense has been the same thing that has plagued them all year.  They move the ball and they can't score. 

If not for Bess's drop on the Dolphins first drive, and his fumble on the end around (what the fuck was Dan Henning thinking calling an end around to Bess??), the Dolphins go into that locker room with a 28-7 lead.

Then the Ricky fumble, the Henne pick, the missed FG by Carpenter from only 38 yards out, all contributed to the Dolphins laying a goose egg in the second half.  When you're moving the ball like the Dolphins did yesterday, to come away with 14 points is unacceptable.  We should have pounded this team into submission and instead we eeked out a 14-10 win. 

Like dolfan13 said, we play like that against Tennessee, we're in for a long day.

[Dave Gray]

I can see optimisim in this game, but to say that only having 5 major mistake in a game is acceptable means low standards in my book. Successful teams don't have 5 major mistakes usually.

I'm not saying that they're acceptable, but I'm saying that they're individual problems to work on.

For example, Ricky fumbled.  But Ricky didn't fumble because the O-line caved and were in on his ass on every play.

Henne threw a pick, but it was only because of his own bad choice.  It wasn't because he was forcing balls because our receivers weren't running clean routes.

...an so on.

My point is that our units played well as a whole.  If we can cut down on the individual mistakes, we'll be in good shape.

[dolfan13]

i think you can't overlook a couple of other large mistakes as well:

- 1st and 10 miami at jax 21, garner has a holding penalty
- same series, vernon carey getting beat bad for a sack on henne when the fins still had real good field position
- in a game of field position, punter kicks a terrible 30 yard kick giving jax much better field position than they should've had.

i think that when you have a team that lacks big playmaking ability on both sides of the ball, these seemingly few major individual mistakes are way more magnified. they have nothing in big plays to offset these mistakes.

[Doc-phin]

I think you are correct Dave.  I can also see Tommy's original point as it was our 3 key offensive players who had our 3 most crucial mistakes.  When it is your key offensive players making the mistakes, it feels more like it is your whole offense.