Response: Escape from DC

[Dave Gray]

This is in response to Brian Fein's wrap-up: http://www.thedolphinsmakemecry.com/content/escape-dc

This feels like the Dolphins of the last 3 years and that worries me.  Even though we won.  The one area that felt new to me was the way we closed out the game.  I can't remember the last time that we got the ball and the lead with 2 1/2 minutes left and didn't end up having to punt. ...so that was nice.

Tannehill looked pretty bad.  I noticed he was rolled out a lot using misdirection, which is good (play-calling got guys open), but Tannehill was unable to throw accurately on the move.

I can't believe we didn't get even ONE sack.  I was disappointed with the push of our defense as well as the gaping holes in the running game.  I'm surprised that we only gave up 10 points.  This did not meet my expectations.

As someone who said that the season was over if we lost, I'm not quite in panic mode, but I do think that we need to be much, much better.  I'm willing to chalk this up to week 1 jitters....for now.

[Brian Fein]

I can't believe we didn't get even ONE sack.  I was disappointed with the push of our defense as well as the gaping holes in the running game.  I'm surprised that we only gave up 10 points.  This did not meet my expectations.

I thought there were 3 sacks...  Off to research

Edit:

1st quarter:
1-10-MIA 26
(9:40) 8-K.Cousins sacked at MIA 34 for -8 yards (97-J.Phillips).

3rd quarter:
3-2-WAS 42
(6:07) (Shotgun) 8-K.Cousins sacked at WAS 35 for -7 yards (91-C.Wake). PENALTY on MIA-22-J.Taylor, Defensive Holding, 5 yards, enforced at WAS 42 - No Play.

Officially, 1 sack - per ESPN fantasy stats.

[Phishfan]

We had exactly one sack. I think the team had the same attitude many of us did, they expected Washington to be easy. We were bullied around by a more aggressive team. I hope this was an eye opener and not a sign of things to come.

[Dave Gray]

I stand correctly.  My point remains, however.

[MikeO]

This is in response to Brian Fein's wrap-up: http://www.thedolphinsmakemecry.com/content/escape-dc

This feels like the Dolphins of the last 3 years and that worries me.  Even though we won.  The one area that felt new to me was the way we closed out the game.  I can't remember the last time that we got the ball and the lead with 2 1/2 minutes left and didn't end up having to punt. ...so that was nice.

Tannehill looked pretty bad.  I noticed he was rolled out a lot using misdirection, which is good (play-calling got guys open), but Tannehill was unable to throw accurately on the move.

I can't believe we didn't get even ONE sack.  I was disappointed with the push of our defense as well as the gaping holes in the running game.  I'm surprised that we only gave up 10 points.  This did not meet my expectations.

As someone who said that the season was over if we lost, I'm not quite in panic mode, but I do think that we need to be much, much better.  I'm willing to chalk this up to week 1 jitters....for now.

Defense was horrid in the 1st half. Then lights out in the 2nd half. Like legit lights out!

O-line was beyond awful which played part into Tannehill's poor play yesterday. Giving a QB a $100 mill contract and then ignoring 2 glaring holes at guard I will never understand, but oh well gonna be this way again for another season.

As I said yesterday, this ain't the friggin preseason. Opponents are now game-planning to stop Suh and Wake. That didn't happen in the preseason, teams just line up and block and don't care about game-planning. Suh isn't a "god" like some Fin Fans think he is. He is a great player but he isn't unblockable and not someone who is impossible to be stopped. Double him, cut him, run away from him and you can have success if you do it good enough.  Most NFL games (even when bad teams are at home) are close. This was no different. It's only Sep 14th, some Fin Fans need to chill the F' out. It was Week 1 and they won. Are some Fans ever happy? (Not directed at you Dave just in general)

Would you rather be Indy or Denver today? Indy got pushed around and rag-dolled and looked overmatched. Peyton Manning looks shot and like Marino in his final year a shell of himself. It was just 1 game, the first game of the year, on the road, and Miami won. RELAX!!

[Dolphster]

I didn't like the way the Fins looked yesterday either.  But I'm not going to read too much into it.  Let us not forget that the first game last year saw the Patriots lose to the Fins.  That was hardly a harbinger of what was to come since the Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl.  Not that I'm comparing the Fins to the Patriots.  I'm just pointing it out as a reason to not read too much into the first game of the year. 

From a glass half full standpoint, the Fins won on the road (and even beat the spread).  I will take an ugly win over a beautiful loss any day.  The real key is whether the team can identify what went wrong yesterday and address those things so that they do not recur. 

[fyo]

Tannehill made some nice throws on the move and missed others, not too concerned about that.

What worries me about his play against the Skins is that he got tricked into throwing at guys on the outisde who appeared to be (somewhat) open but had coverage coming from the middle of the field. He needs to be able to see that sort of stuff. He also made several other really bad decisions that really made me cringe.

[masterfins]

The Philbin Era seems to continue this season with the Dolphins playing flat in the first half, and much better in the second half, just like last year.  We would all like to see the Dolphins play great for sixty minutes, but I'll take playing great for the last 30 if it results in a win.  Unlike the Sparano years were the Dolphins would play great the first 30 minutes, and lose in the second half.

[Pappy13]

We spend too much time critiquing Miami and not enough time talking about the opponent. The Redskins played about as well as they possibly can and still lost by a touchdown. I'm sure we were not the only ones reading all week about how Washington had no chance against Miami. If I'm Redskin's player I'm thinking, "It's freakin' Miami and it's in OUR house, I'll show them who has no chance".

It was pretty clear to me that Washington was having none of it and played a damn near perfect game in the first half other than maybe the Grimes interception but even that play you have to give a lot of credit to Grimes who basically baited Cousins into throwing that way and then broke on the ball. They game planned Miami to perfection, run the ball to keep Tannehill off the field, cut Suh when you pass to keep him off your QB and it worked great for about a quarter and a half and then Miami started to catch on and the better team won in the second half. Sure Miami could have played better, but they didn't play bad, just got a much better game then they bargained for. I'll tell you this much too, I think the Redskins ARE better off with Cousins then RGIII. He played great in my opinion. There may have been 1 or 2 bad passes, but the rest were spot on and were either caught or broken up by good defense.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Season isn't over, but you really want to see a far better performance next week against Jacksonville, who is also a bad team but a bit better than Washington. Tanny has to be sharper and hopefully the O-Line starts gelling a bit more. It was their first real game together so they get a small amount of slack, but they're doomed unless Albert returns to form.

[dolphins4life]

Defense was horrid in the 1st half. Then lights out in the 2nd half. Like legit lights out!

O-line was beyond awful which played part into Tannehill's poor play yesterday. Giving a QB a $100 mill contract and then ignoring 2 glaring holes at guard I will never understand, but oh well gonna be this way again for another season.

As I said yesterday, this ain't the friggin preseason. Opponents are now game-planning to stop Suh and Wake. That didn't happen in the preseason, teams just line up and block and don't care about game-planning. Suh isn't a "god" like some Fin Fans think he is. He is a great player but he isn't unblockable and not someone who is impossible to be stopped. Double him, cut him, run away from him and you can have success if you do it good enough.  Most NFL games (even when bad teams are at home) are close. This was no different. It's only Sep 14th, some Fin Fans need to chill the F' out. It was Week 1 and they won. Are some Fans ever happy? (Not directed at you Dave just in general)

Would you rather be Indy or Denver today? Indy got pushed around and rag-dolled and looked overmatched. Peyton Manning looks shot and like Marino in his final year a shell of himself. It was just 1 game, the first game of the year, on the road, and Miami won. RELAX!!

I can answer one of your questions Mike.  I will be happy when they clinch a playoff spot.

[MikeO]

I can answer one of your questions Mike.  I will be happy when they clinch a playoff spot.

Can't do that in September.

[hordman]

This feels like the Dolphins of the last 3 years and that worries me.  Even though we won.  The one area that felt new to me was the way we closed out the game.  I can't remember the last time that we got the ball and the lead with 2 1/2 minutes left and didn't end up having to punt. ...so that was nice.

Funny you say that, when WAS failed to convert and the 4 and short, the fans immediately got up and left around us.  I turned to my boy and said, where are they going?  MIA still has to run out the clock, I really thought WAS would have a chance to get the ball back with a 30-60 sec.

I was pleasantly surprised they were able to get 1st downs and run out the clock.  Was nice to see.