Alright Dolphins fans, relaxed, reserved, nonchalant Mike E. is gone! It’s 2023, and our time is NOW!! This is undeniably the most talented roster we have had here in Miami since the mid 90’s. and our last playoff victory was 23 years ago against the Indianapolis Colts when RB Lamar Smith put the team on his back and ran his heart out for 209 yards on 40 carries and 2 TD’s, one of them in OT for the win, a 17 yard power run carrying defenders in the end zone. It’s time to reclaim that kind of glory. We have drafted, traded for, and signed the type of roster that should take us into the playoffs and beyond. Don’t discount the fact that RB Raheem Mostert is now rippling with 215 lbs of speed and muscle. Don’t discount the fact that we actually gave a pretty big contract to a FB, one Alec Ingold. Also, don’t discount that the Miami TE room is filled with guys who block, and make space for RB’s. Sure, no Dolphins TE jumps off the page as a pass catcher, but all of them block, and block well. I know we have Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, one of the most formidable WR duos in the NFL, but this team was built for the long haul, and if you want to be a playoff contender, you have to be able to run the football, and that’s why we have all those blocking TE’s, one expensive FB, a speedy RB (Mostert) that put on 10 pounds of muscle, and a guy who I believe has a bigger impact than some believe, RB Chris Brooks, undrafted from BYU, a big bodied RB at 6’1 223. We wanted Jonathan Taylor because he’s a big back, different than anyone else on our roster, a finisher. That’s what Chris Brooks will be for us in time.
If you’ve realized, I spent an entire dialogue on the offense and now, in the 2nd paragraph, I’m going to finally talk about our defense. This is a defense just ready to climb to the top of the NFL. It would have been wonderful if we had signed DT Christian Wilkins, but both he, and the team remain committed to getting a deal done, and I don’t think for a minute that a person of Wilkin’s character needed a reason to play hard and have a great season, but the fact that he wants a huge contract doesn’t hurt any in incentivizing him to have a great season. We brought in DC Vic Fangio to finally unleash what this defense is capable of. OK, it wasn’t ideal that one of the key guys we traded for is out till most likely November at the earliest, Jalen Ramsey, but we have so much talent on this defense, including the secondary, that Ramsey will end up being a pleasant boost when he’s healthy. CB Xavien seems healthy, and 2nd year rising star Kader Kohou looks like may start opposite Howard, just going by the depth chart on the Dolphins home page. I won’t be surprised, because most of the time when I imagine Eli Apple, I see WR’s running by him and see the back of his jersey. If that’s the case, either rookie Cam Smith could be the nickel, or maybe if he’s not healthy enough, Apple or newly acquired CB Kelvin Joseph will play nickel back. At safety, Brandon Jones returns from injury, and he was having a great season before his injury in Game 7. Jevon Holland is poised to have an All Pro type season at the other safety spot.
Third paragraph in and I still haven’t yet mentioned the defensive line and linebackers, the creme de al creme. Christian Wilkins at LE, Raekwon Davis in the middle and Zach Sieler at the other end spot, who just got a nice contract extension. At LB, definitely our best unit in quite some time, with Jalen Phillips at LOLB, the unheralded LILB Jerome Baker, David Long who came over from Tennesee and will be big player in our defense, and then Bradley Chubb at ROLB. DE/OLB Emmanuel Ogbah will be getting a fair amount of reps both hand in the ground and standing up. We have nice depth at LB with familiar faces Andrew Van Ginkel, Duke Riley, 2nd year LB Channing Tindall and the aforementioned Emmanuel Ogbah who will play both DE/DT and OLB. The area of biggest concern for me is the spot opposite X. Can either Kader Kohou, Cam Smith or Eli Apple, or possibly even Kelvin Joseph hold down that spot and do at least an average job? Big question, and one that will be tested immediately against QB Justin Herbert, who loves to throw the ball down the field. I would imagine we’re not going to leave whoever plays that spot on an island and they will likely get safety help, which then would put a lot of pressure on X in one-on-one coverage. Mike Williams, one of the bigger WR’s in the NFL is a physical player who will give most DB’s a tough assignment, and Herbert has the arm to get him the ball almost anywhere on the field.
Our offense clearly will be a different animal this season. No question Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle will get lots of touches, but I do believe we will be a more balanced offense this season. I have yet to mention RB De’Von Achane, who at some point will show the NFL his speed and smooth running style. This will truly be a RB by committee situation, with Mostert at least for now the lead back, but I think plenty of touches for Achane, Ahmed and the rookie Chris Brooks. Don’t be surprised if like in the preseason, Chris Brooks gets lots of carries deep in the red zone. QB Tua Tagovailoa has done all he can in the offseason to help himself stay healthy, and help lead this team an entire season of games. He added weight, learned through martial arts proper falling techniques to keep his head from crashing to the ground and as we saw in the preseason, he employed those techniques, and most importantly, they worked.
I think all of us here at FMU have looked at our defense and expected better. I think Vic Fangio looked at this opportunity through the same lens we do, this a defense just waiting to flourish with proper guidance. Fangio is exactly 5 years my senior, born August 22nd 1958. He’s been a defensive coordinator since 1995, no need to count, that’s 23 years (Fangio took a break from the NFL from 2006-2010). It’s hard for me not to believe that Fangio is the missing piece. Flores had some strong points on defense, learning from Bill Belichick in NE. Then Flores’ dismissal led the Dolphins to hand over the reins to Josh Boyer, who in my opinion, was too one dimensional and far too reliant on the zero blitz coverage scheme. I would expect less sacks from the safeties and more from the LB’s and DL. I think David Long is going to be great in this defense, both as a run stopper and helping in pass coverage. It’s not crazy to think we could have a top 10 offense and defense simultaneously.
We have a tough opening game, no doubt. The Chargers were the 2nd team last season to stymie both Tua Tagovailoa and our offense. It was the second leg of a dreadful west coast trip that began with a loss to the Brock Purdy led SF 49ers. Tua was sacked 3 times, and threw 2 INT’s against the vaunted SF defense. The offense was totally one dimensional, we ran 8 times against the Niners. Against the Chargers, it was no better. The Chargers hit Tua, but mostly took away his passing lanes which led to an awful 10 of 28 performance for only 145 yards. We made a slightly better attempt to run, but still had less than 20 carries (19). Despite having one of the best RB’s in the NFL in Austin Ekeler, Herbert was throwing everywhere, attempting 51 passes in all and completing most of them, 39 completions for 367 yards. We’re going to need to do a whole lot better on both sides of the ball to win this one. I expect more running from us, and hopefully that will open up the passing game for a few shots here and there. This would be a huge opening day win, and a big shot fired in the AFC towards the playoff race. I don’t have him in FF, but if I had Chris Brooks, I’d be inclined to insert him in the lineup because I think the kid may get a couple of TD’s in this one. In any case, we must have a better showing than we did on December 11th, 2022 against the Chargers last season.
GO DOLPHINS!!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
Anyone else looking at the first 8 games on our schedule a little differently now?
Nope. These are the teams we got to beat to prove we belong. We just completed step one
I feel a lot more confident going into NE next week, than I would if we had lost.
I look at the first 8 games now and think 6-2 or 7-1 isn’t crazy. Going into this game, I was hopeful, but guarded. The way we stepped up every time we had to was a fortitude I wasn’t sure we’d see from this team. Huge win on the road against a playoff quality team.
https://x.com/nfl/status/1700973419880395100?s=61&t=NWZ–WfgKu_dYbC-fKuB3A
He is HIM
Ok, so was anyone else here angry we didn’t run one rushing play on our last offensive drive to make the Chargers burn a time out? I haven’t seen anyone else mention, I think it was a terrible job of coaching there.
That’s not MM’s style!
So you might want to get used to it.
It didn’t bother me a bit!
It didn’t bother you because the defense finally woke up, but if they went down the field with 2 time outs and won the game it would have
YES
I said 20 mins after the game. I was LOLing about me bitching about us not running more.
We talked about it at my house, but I think no matter how it played out, the D was going to have to make a stop, because the Chargers were only going to need a FG to stay in the game (or because of Sanders win it).
I mentioned it to my buddy before we even started our last drive, that if we can score a TD, we might be able to hold them because they would be forced to pass, and wouldn’t be able to run it down our throats.
I think the Chargers going away from the run inside the RZ on their last score was a bigger coaching mistake. They inexplicably passed it twice, and I thought that helped us hold them to a FG.
When Tua slinging like he was its kind of hard to fault MM for keeping the hot hand hot
Not angry but wondering if it’s a kind of arrogance, bad coaching, or just sticking with what works. We won partially because of a terrible foul at the end of the 2nd quarter. Tua messed up a lot and several times we could have folded under the pressure their running game exerted on a bad defense (at least today it was).
At the same time, we beat the team that thoroughly dismantled our offense last year in their own stadium. Our offense was crazy good and it’s the best one here since pre-Cleveland Danny Boy prime. We stopped them late when it counted and look scary for opposing teams. This is the first team I’ve felt really good about in forever. We have that much talent. McDaniel dared them to stop us as we used our gameplan from last year….and they couldn’t. Feels awesome honestly.
The one I didn’t like was Tua not running it on 1st down, he had room to get at least to the 5, leaving 3 more downs from inside the 5
Cracraft was open, but couldn’t come down with it
In that situation running some clock, while gaining good yardage was the better play
One of the craziest stats to me is TOP.
Dolphins 27:19
Chargers 32:41
The Chargers had twice as many carries as us, 40 rushing attempts at 5.9 per carry and only had a 5 minute TOP advantage. Wild
TOP in this game meant nothing
Agreed. It is just an unusual correlation. With a running game that effective, you’d expect a much bigger disparity.
The Subway Mahomes / Herbert commercial is much better this week! 🙂
Tua is Him! Lol…
I don’t get how most of passing yards were passes to the middle of the field when he can’t see over his OL? LOL…
…..most passing yards
Must be his low delivery…
Last year LA took the center of the field away from Tua. This year Tua said hold my beer.
Ken – just one run, on first down, would have forced them to burn the timeout. It was a no brainer. As it was, we threw incomplete on 1st down and stopped the clock. Bad decision, one that could have cost us
Mike…While I see your point, I kinda like going with your strength. And Tua throwing the ball is definitely their strength.
It’s aggressive, but never take your foot off the petal.
👍
We had 3 downs to gp to our strength. Like I said, we threw incomplete on 1st anyway. I have no problem with being aggressive, but you still want to force them to use that timeout. Especially the way we let them go up and down the field all day.
❤️
Mike E. says:
September 10, 2023 at 9:30 pm
It didn’t bother you because the defense finally woke up, but if they went down the field with 2 time outs and won the game it would have
————————————–
It didn’t bother me because we needed a TD!
Play stupid tricks / win stupid prizes
We needed to score a TD! everything else is minutia!
It’s a good point Mike and i’m sure the coaches’ll discuss it.
But the Bolts D was in a bad place psychologically and
Hill and Tua were on fire,
so no use giving the D a crushing tackle for loss to get them rest and inspiration.
What you are saying is textbook clock management.
Take the game away by leaving no time on the clock or TOs in their pocket.
McDaniel and Tua still have room for strategic growth.
Our team had an answer every time they needed one today. Each time the Chargers got the lead, if we didn’t get the lead right back on the next possession, our defense got a stop.
That 4th down call in the first half was ballsy
That timeout after the Herbert slide also showed that McDaniel really just wanted to stay aggressive
And I think not running the ball late to get them to use timeouts was the same logic
^
We won the game on the road against a good opponent.🙂
I think none of the rest of the NFL is looking forward to playing either Miami or LAC.
Maybe some running backs😜
This game sucks
Can’t stand Daniel Jones and their HC, so it ain’t so bad
I always root against Dallas, so I don’t even have that, lol.
This game was a lot like our win against Buffalo last year
Its just 1 win, sure did feel good though
Phel, I’m not sure if I posted this already or not, but I finished Justified and I liked the last 2 or 3 episodes quite a bit. I love that when it came down to the showdown, it was anti-climactic and over in a blink because that dude wasn’t in the same stratosphere as Raylan.
Felt the same. Interesting that they ended with the Boyd breakout.
I’m going to have to double-check my math in the morning… but I think the last time DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR Vic Fangio allowed more than 234 rushing yards against any of his Defenses was way back in 2005 as the Houston Texans DC, week 6 against the Seahawks (320 rushing yards against).
I can GUARANTEE YOU ALL that Fangio is not a happy man this evening.
And did I not say BEWARE Austin Ekeler?
I’d like to see the snap counts between Jerome Baker and David Long… and when and where.
When the cheats were winning SBs they’d win games however, and didn’t seem to care, giving up whatever yards rushing or receiving for one week isn’t a big deal as long as it doesn’t continue
I’d say the focus and maybe the game plan was on stopping Herbert, so they were maybe giving them the run
I hope you’re right, man. For if not, we’ve got a real problem vs the run.
We were 4th last year with most of the same personnel, so I’m not worried yet
One game doesn’t make a trend
Something new I noticed with the officiating today, with the new rule, that the O can’t pull ballcarriers in a scrum, once they see it they stop the play
Devante Parker inactive today knee
Surprised? LOL
Not sure if Armstead could play, maybe they wanted to give him another week or 2, so his injury isn’t lingering all year
Either way we won without him
That’s a very serious and legit victory for us right there: Nick Bosa was kept at bay all day.
I only saw the last 5 minutes
Was Jackson that good or just good enough?
I would say just good enough. Tua had great pocket presence all day and stepped up when it was necessary.
steveccnv says:
September 10, 2023 at 10:49 pm
One game doesn’t make a trend
————-
TRUTH!
We played nickel all day and didn’t want to get beat against the Chargers big receivers with Herbert throwing to them. That was obvious to me.
Still buzzing from last night.
Felt like the old Marino/Fouts (air Coryell) type of game, only with less Chargers passing. Read (don’t know if true) that it set a new NFL record for lead changes (8) and was only the third 36-34. Engineered by #1 and #10 – if you add 10 to both of my predictions and take 1 off Fins score for the Sanders missed XP, I got the prediction spot on so claim my prize of a 2 week vacay round at Howie’s crib!
A lot of stuff needs fixing. But there’s time. I remember Fangio complaining about personnel obliquely after joining and maybe he still doesn’t have the right personnel for his scheme after a few tweaks or we just think or D is better that it really is.
I need to see run-guru MM actually run when he wants to, not when our opponent lets us, as well. Until then, he isn’t a run-guru and we won’t go deep in the play-offs. But after a week when many of the preseason faves laid eggs, we got a Dub.
After losing this fixture last year, we beat a really tough WC conference opponent on the road. I’ll take that and the associated euphoria every day of the week. More please.
This is the way.
You can point to a ton of plays which “won it” for us (and there were many) but this one was obscene. Chargers fans should have been advised to avert their eyes.
Noodle arm strikes again. Justin who?
Chuckle
At first I thought this grazed the DBs helmet. On closer inspection, it appears the ball missed it by the width of a Rizla
With link
Even better from the reverse angle!
Not bad for a lazy, fat bastard that did very little pre-season work huh? Things that make you shake your head. Twat!
CDub photobomb – lol
Serious props to Tua for maintaining his focus in that interview. He kept his head level and away.
I would have been caught at least ten times on camera looking at her tits.
😂 oh, she was interviewing Tua?
And just for the record, the page turn is a myth.
Thank God the D stepped up when it needed to. I hope this game was an anomaly, and Fangio can get it straightened out soon. NE should be a tough game for us.
Ahhhh
It’s a beautiful morning.
Brian in NY says:
September 11, 2023 at 8:10 am
Thank God the D stepped up when it needed to. I hope this game was an anomaly, and Fangio can get it straightened out soon. NE should be a tough game for us.
Reply
Belecheat is watching that tape from yesterday today salivating changing his plans to run on us 60 times!
At the beginning of the game Harlan said “the offensive line is the strength of this Chargers team.”
And that’s a team with serious stars at QB S WR RB and Edge.
Boy, Tua and company came out of the box on fire. We had more than 100 yards passing than anyone and more than a yard per attempt average than anyone.
The NFL website featured Tua on the splash page.
Props to UK for the specialty paper reference to describe a perfect burn of that DB.
We easily could’ve had another 7 points if not for fumbling on the 6 on the first drive.
Not that worried about the D. That is a Chargers Offense that is loaded. They are going to score points. To me the D made some big plays that impacted the game. The Kohou sack that set up the short field TD and the final series in particular.
Shout out to You Tube. Nice job on the Sunday Ticket. It was better than Direct TV
I love week one overreactions
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/week-1-overreactions-and-reality-checks-tua-tagovailoa-mvp-49ers-best-team-in-nfc-browns-rule-afc-north/
I especially love them when they are not overreactions!
Mike McDaniel 2-0 in season openers. Are the days of slow starts finally behind us?
A win next week puts us at #1 in the division and I THINK #1 in the conference too.
We are #1 right now in the East but will fall to #2 tonight after MNF.
How can we fall if both teams are indefeated?
Because they haven’t played yet. After the game tonight one will have a loss and be behind us and one will have a DIVISION WIN and thus be ahead of us.
He is to Tua being 5-0 against Belecheat next week!
** Here is to Tua \_/
Glorious Victory Monday
The NFC was undefeated against the AFC this week.
THAT is fantastic!
1) Tua Tagovailoa’s season-opening performance puts him among NFL elites
Tagovailoa made waves in Week 1, throwing for 466 yards and three touchdowns in an electrifying showing against the Chargers.
As far as season-opening performances go, Tagovailoa’s passing total puts him on an impressive list of sure-fire Hall of Famers. His 466 passing yards are the third-most in a Week 1 game in the Super Bowl era, bested only by Tom Brady’s 517-yard performance against the Dolphins in 2011 and Miami legend Dan Marino’s 473-yard total from 1994 against the Patriots. Fourth place on that list does not include the Dolphins, as that belongs to Peyton Manning’s 462 yards in 2013 against the then-reigning Super Bowl champion Ravens.
Tagovailoa’s yardage is also the most in a game against the Chargers in NFL history, besting Gus Frerotte’s 462-yard performance in Week 12, 2000.
This was not the first time Tagovailoa has put together a stunning performance in a road win. In Week 2 of last season he threw for a career-high 469 yards and six touchdowns in a 42-38 win in Baltimore.
Tagovailoa’s two road wins with 450-plus pass yards are tied for the most since 1950 (tied with Brady, Joe Montana and Boomer Esiason).
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Victory Monday
🐖💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨💨
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
After the missed extra point, I’m sure I was like all of you: “how can we win when we haven’t stopped SD offense, or even slowed them down” … then the SACKS. Regardless of the rest of the game, when the game was on the line only one side played like they WANTED it. Road win against a playoff caliber team. I’ll take it and let the coaches worry about the rest. 🙂
Mike Gesicki had 3 catches for 36 yds for the Pets yesterday.
Durham Smythe played all 67 offensive snaps for the Dolphins and had 3 catches for 44 yards.
All 3 catches were on the same drive too, for Smythe
The Chargers have scored 92 points in their last 3 games and lost all 3..
BWAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAAA!!
Not a bad way to start the season with two in the top 5 of the MVP watch!!
A simple ranking of the top five candidates, which will be updated weekly, depending on performance. Here is how it stands heading into Week 2:
Rank 1
Tua Tagovailoa
Miami Dolphins · QB
Rank 2
Josh Allen
Buffalo Bills · QB
Rank 3
Aaron Rodgers
New York Jets · QB
Rank 4
Tyreek Hill
Miami Dolphins · WR
Rank 5
Patrick Mahomes
Kansas City Chiefs · QB
what to cheer for tonight (besides injuries LOL)??
I’m tempted to cheer for Buffalo to blow out the Jets just to send Jets/fanbase into the same “fall off the cliff despair” that Giants fans are suffering through right now. Jets fans deserve it wayyy more.
a tie!
I think I will be rooting AGAINST the Jets a little more than I will against the bills.
much better phrasing than what I used!!
1 punt! Just 1!
a TD instead of a fumble and a TD instead of the INT (both from the red zone) would have been “Much better” So I say you are wrong Marcel…
😉
TDs instead of TOs would’ve changed the game quite a bit, and how both teams played, maybe had we gotten those TDs we’d have lost
Chargers last scoring drive they kicked an FG, if we were ahead they’d have been more aggressive and gone for a td
2 turnovers inside the 10 certainly sucks though!!!!!!!
Don’t look back, could’ve meant we blow them out, could’ve also led to a loss
– At inside linebacker, it was very surprising to see Andrew Van Ginkel play 51 snaps compared to only 17 for free agent acquisition David Long Jr., and perhaps that was due to the Chargers focusing on their running game for a good part of the afternoon and Van Ginkel being more stout against the run.
Is that an Omar article?
Either Long was banged up or Fangio wanted the better coverage guy, hard to believe AVG is the better run defender, if he us we made a huge mistake getting rid of Roberts, but I don’t think we did
Jackson beat the shit out of Bosa.
WOW
Good reps. Now show the bad ones!
He really does look good in those few plays.
Another big win for us is we avoided any additional injuries
https://x.com/miamidolphins/status/1701216751659209097?s=46&t=iJM4Q1l5mMck0UQRm2xJ-w
very cool to put Sieler on the doors.
He gave a great individual effort to get that sack.
He’s one of my faves. 😍
The INT by Tua was the “excusable” kind. No INT is good, but
A medium long pass to an open WR into the end zone is worth a shot.
We scored right afterwards.
We learned (maybe should’ve known this)
that throwing a long, post-up 50/50 ball to a 5’9 guy is not a great plan.
But that is a new player to our team, and now we know that that won’t work well.
So that’s a first game type error that most teams will make.
We won’t do that again.
Berrios’s strength was shown on his digging that low throw out of the dirt.
Berrios also had a beautiful 16 yard catch on which he beat his man to Tua’s roll out side and laid out for the throw.
and that was to convert a 3rd and 15.
After having a day to recover from the excitement
A couple of interesting roster choices stuck out to me
1 there were a few Ezukanma sightings. He’s getting playing time and looks good early
2. What happened to starting Brandon Jones. All I saw was Elliot in the field. Did I miss something – I thought Brandon Jones won the starting job
3. Ahmed was on the field really early. I didn’t expect to see him at all – but they used him a lot. I think this might change eventually when Wilson is back and Achane can play. But I thought we might see Brooks – but maybe the coaching staff isn’t comfortable thrusting a rookie up like that
I saw a reference to Eze E being a Debo lite yesterday. I had the same thought in pre-season, when he was used in that way.
Berries was solid yesterday
So was Cracraft
So was Ezukamna
The depth on the WR chart is filling out nicely
Cracraft was critical to our success yesterday. BIG Plays.
Shocker of the day was Smythe being put 3rd leading receiver
Great win. The run defense and our rushing attack were the two areas we need to work on.
Tua Tagovailoa’s 466 yards are the most passing yards in a single game versus the Chargers in NFL history.
Sounds like we’re still in the mix to trade for Jonathan Taylor.
hmmm
Ced Wilson was a healthy scratch.
The other inactives were all hurt.
Were they trying to protect their trade piece?
Berrios also converted a 3rd and 8 with an 11-yard catch on that Tua face mask play.
So he converted three 3rd downs to 1st downs.
That is exactly what we need him to do!
Yep!
I think maybe van Ginkel was “caught” on the field when the bolts went into no huddle several times for the express purpose of preventing Miami from subbing to a runstop pkg.
Fangio will need to look at how to prevent that.
McDaniel has BIG BALLS. 4th & 7 on our side of the field? Yeah go for it!
9 seconds left in the half on our side of the field? Most coaches run the ball up the middle or take a knee. NOPE we dial up a bomb and wind up getting the PI and kicking (what would amount to be) the winning field goal!
I like big balls you like big balls but McDaniel has the biggest balls of them all.
(AC⚡DC) credit
Brilliant coaching.
Instead of throwing up a way too long Hail Mary,
McDaniel calls an intricate mid-deep pattern
with a tall tough Ezukanma in the mix nearby to Hill,
distracting the DBs,
so there’s a good chance of a PI.
Deep enough to give the FG kicker a legit shot.
😂
I’ve seen several posts, didn’t read them, but the title is ‘Dolphins upset Chargers’. Was that really considered an upset? To me, an upset is when a lesser team wins.
WE AREN’T A LESSER TEAM!! 🤯😤🤬
Maybe cos we were on the road? And they beat us like a drum last year. For me, two play-off calibre teams who are in the mix. I noticed 4 of 5 talking heads went with the bolts in a studio somewhere. I expected it to be close and it was – I think upset is overstating it too.
Tua had an incredible 10.4 yards per attempt and 16.6 yards per completion. That is some sick deep throwing.
Wow
Yeah I saw that earlier. Didn’t really think about it during the game. But there were a lot of lead changes.
HUH? We played two offensive snaps with the lead at least! (Two kneel downs)
▪ Even though inside linebacker Long — considered a good starter in Tennessee — was on the field to open the game, he played just 17 of Miami’s 81 defensive snaps. New defensive coordinator Vic Fangio gave far more playing time to Andrew Van Ginkel, who logged 51 snaps in his first regular season game as an inside linebacker. PFF said Van Ginkel played much better than Long, ranking Van Ginkel sixth and Long 16th among the 18 players who logged snaps on defense.
Rewatching the game. One of my favorite moments was after the JC Jackson INT, when we got the ball back, the 1st play was a quick strike TD to Hill over Jackson.
Sure, part of that was situational; they went man coverage on the play and Hill had Jackson beat bad with no help over the top, but that was straight up assassin mode.
Tua’s accuracy is sick, and Hill has games where opponents simply can’t cover him.
I didn’t quite understand how much man coverage SD was playing on Hill
The thing with Hill is he can change gears so fast that DBs think they’re with him and then he’s gone. It’s like he has 6 gears when most fast guys have 5.
It was a bad throw
But you can see why berrios wasn’t able to get up and fight for a 50/50 ball
That int didn’t bother me. It would have been a long FG try. We took a shot at a TD, I didn’t think Berrios did a great job fighting and it wound being better than a punt because Jackson took it out, wound with bad field position and resulted in a short field touchdown
Berrios didn’t fighT for it at all
But we don’t have great WRs to be throwing so sort of 50/50 balls to
BErrios is not that type of WR
But the point is – he probably is in position to fight for it but for the contact which is illegal
We have smallish receivers
We don’t need big receivers bc our QB is so accurate
So we can focus on speed
Critics sometimes suggest a lot of QBs can thrive with our speedy receivers
But the reality is we don’t have 50/50 types
The fade to Hill was Impossible to defend bc of the ball placementm- he didn’t even have to jump for it….lol
https://x.com/PFF_RyanSmith/status/1701266689151623312?s=20
PFF’s overall O-Line rankings from yesterday
LT- Kendall Lamm: #26 out of 75
LG- Isaiah Wynn: #29 out of 68
C- Connor Williams: #8 out of 37
RG- Robert Hunt: #12 out of 68
RT- Austin Jackson: #62 out of 75
According to PFF, Jackson gave up 4 hurries yesterday
Personally, I feel Jackson did far better than what PFF is giving him.
These O-Line rankings are SOLID for us! Perhaps we’ve finally fixed ol’ Humpty Dumpty.
As a whole, our O-Line came in at #8 in overall pass-blocking efficiency.
He was very good yesterday
Not sure it’s fair to ask for more of him
I find PFF to be very inconsistent in general
^
Tua did a good job with his pocket presence yesterday. When you watch games no QB doesn’t face some pressure and they have to adjust. You’re just asking your OL to give them a chance.
*Tua did an EXCELLENT job yesterday with his pocket presence.
TIFI 🙂
Vote for Tua!
https://www.nfl.com/voting/air-and-ground/
I’m not even going to bother posting our D-Line or LB rankings… that’s how ridiculously bad they were. Vic Fangio has a lot of work to do vs the run.
I’m none too concerned (YET) about our run-Defense. It was probably just a one-off game.
One thing I’ll say about that is the Chargers have a very good OL and were running a lot out of 11 personnel which had us in nickel. It seems we were more concerned about their bigger WRs than we were about their run game.
That’s a very good explanation… agreed.
Again I am not all that worried about it. Chargers offense is going to make a lot of teams look bad. Our D made plays when it mattered
Piggy:
True we don’t have great WRs for 50/50 balls. Although Hill is a lot better at it than you would think because he is so strong and has such strong hands
Don’t forget Da Cheetah’s vertical leaping ability. That cat can SKY!
Absolutely
^ and Waddle can get up there too.
Tim Knight says:
September 11, 2023 at 3:48 pm
^ and Waddle can get up there too.
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And here I thought penguins were flightless birds… 😉
Dare I say it… we may have the best O-Line we’ve had since the MR. Pennington days. Plus, T-Stead will be back soon.
Connor Williams and Tua MUST work on the snapping aspect of their game.
Definitely, it happens too often and that can cost you a game if it happens at the wrong time.
The coaching has been better under McDaniel as well. They’re taught to attack defenders instead of allowing them to get on you. They also mix up their combination blocks nicely.
After talking to some Eagles fans (hey, I live in PA), there was a cause for concern for them yesterday: the Patsies* were CONSTANTLY in their Offensive backfield yesterday. And yes, the Eagles have arguably the best O-Line in the NFL.
That being stated, we’re going to need a decent game from our O-Line if we’re to beat the Patsies* next week with our Offense alone.
Belichick always finds ways to have good defenses regardless of personnel.
That said week one is always a strange week because most starters haven’t played much and it shows. After a few games we start to see better football.
Tim Knight says:
September 11, 2023 at 12:34 pm
Sounds like we’re still in the mix to trade for Jonathan Taylor.
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What have ya heard to make ya say that, man?
https://dolphinstalk.com/2023/09/rapoport-expect-trade-talks-for-jonathan-taylor-to-miami-to-resume/
I copy that. Thanks!
I know I’m pretty critical over some of the way sports journalism is done
But I’m gonna say it anyway and take it with a grain of salt
There is this new trend I am seeing when field reporters are doing
Which is essentially
I sat down with ____
I asked him: _______
He said: ________
They are reporting word for word what the conversation was like they are reading back a transcript. It’s a little weird. It’s annoying me. Just me?
Maybe it’s just me, man, but I feel this trend has been going on for a long time.
What annoys me more is when one says, “WE sat down with _____”. Who is ‘we’? Was it like 15 against 1? LOL
Did ‘we’ (they) FORCE him to sit down, or would he rather do a standing interview?
A lot of it is fluff anyway.
Rockphin says:
September 11, 2023 at 12:39 pm
McDaniel has BIG BALLS. 4th & 7 on our side of the field? Yeah go for it!
Similar play last year game 1, Tua to Waddle for 6 on 4th down with 24 seconds left in half, from Cheats 40 something
Risk is worth the reward, if the ball is incomplete LAC has just a hail Mary left, I like the odds
That was a great play.
mf13ss says:
September 11, 2023 at 3:30 pm
PFF’s overall O-Line rankings from yesterday
LT- Kendall Lamm: #26 out of 75
LG- Isaiah Wynn: #29 out of 68
C- Connor Williams: #8 out of 37
RG- Robert Hunt: #12 out of 68
RT- Austin Jackson: #62 out of 75
According to PFF, Jackson gave up 4 hurries yesterday
Personally, I feel Jackson did far better than what PFF is giving him.
They don’t account for the quality of opponent, so giving up zero sacks to a guy like Bosa is a win for Jackson
ABSOLUTELY agreed, Steve.
Heck, that’s a win for ANYBODY facing off against a consensus top-5 EDGE rusher (Bosa) in the NFL.
At times it looked like Jackson was bullying Bosa. Using his hand punch and shoving him around. It was a good sign for Jackson.
I only paid attention in that clip that was posted up the page, but man, those HAD to be cherry picked, his very best reps because he did look like he dominated Bosa
Mack and Bosa never really got close.
How can you have 2 botched snaps and be the #8 center???????
Blocking grade. Williams allows Tua a pocket to step up in. He’s got those exchange issues at times but he’s a very good blocker.
Good question. Bad answer…lol
The PFF grades aren’t based on two bad snaps.😉
Uh…strength of play and risk must be underrated…losing the ball on the goal line?
Lmfao…I would say you lose major points and show me why you didn’t…
22 years ago today.. NEVER FORGET
Never! I won’t forget the people that celebrated it in NY and NJ either. You know who you are and get the fuck out of the country.
Not rooting for either team tonight but I’d be happy if the Jets got smacked in the mouth tonight to curb their enthusiasm. The hype needs a taste of reality. Simmer down, it’s a long season.😎
I root for Defense in these cases. LOL
Man! I want this to last! I turn on NFL Live and the four ESPN aholes are all raving about the Dolphins and Tua. All the assholes from last year who threw out BS are doing their segments praising the team.
It’s only week one. PLEASE? Can we continue to prove they are good?
It’s no longer about is Tua good enough, it’s only about can he stay on the field.
Right “if Tua can stay healthy…” all the time
I hope Kenny Picket can stay healthy…have any of you heard that about Pit? Picket had 2 concussion last year. Where are all the worriers for Pit?
They were being really creative with using him
He had 2 Carries
No supposed to be a reply
kinda like that Debo role
I forgot about the 4th down call early in the game
That was a ballsy play call by McDaniel
He coached a great game
There were a lot of little thing alike that
He’s constantly showing Tua how much faith he has in him
I have a friend that’s a Jets fan and he said our offense looks practically unstoppable, so some Jets fans are grounded
They ought to be
There’s been hundreds of cancelled flights in LaGuardia and JFK today
Lol
I wasn’t going to post this because of Karma but I’m going to just go ahead and write that Bronco game down as a big W for Miami. 1pm in Sept? When they get off the plane from CO they are going to breath in and go damn are we under water? The humidity is going to kill them.
I can delete this if you want?
You can’t say that shit man you know better than that lol
Last time they came in Tebow shoved one right up our ass.