It’s still one game in 17, and at 6-3 the Dolphins are far from being out of contention. However, one needs to accurately put in context exactly what we are in contention for. To win the division, sure, its definitely possible, likely even if the Bills lose tonight against the Bengals. Winning the division is nice, but we have tried to assemble a team with a very small window of opportunity to go all the way. As currently constituted, that won’t happen. At least I should say “shouldn’t happen”, because we haven’t defeated a good team with a winning record since September of ’22.
We got back Jalen Ramsey, Xavien Howard, Jaelan Phillips, Bradley Chubb and Andrew Van Ginkel are all healthy now and playing well, yet we still can’t close out a good team. The offense was more of an issue, and if I’m being honest, why was Raheem Mostert used so sparingly in this game until it was almost too late? Besides De’Von Achane, Mostert is our best RB, our most consistent guy. I know he’s a little banged up, but Ahmed and Wilson just don’t threaten the defense like Mostert does. He looked pretty darn fresh in the 4th quarter, I wish we didn’t save him until then because we squandered too many drives without him. Penalties have been a killer as well, and we escaped a penalty today that should have been called against AVG. It’s not that AVG was looking to hurt Mahomes, he actually turned away and hit him with his back, but the fact is, Mahomes was out of bounds when AVG ran into him and that’s a penalty.
I don’t want to hear the excuse that we had 2 OL out. Every team has subs somewhere, and the O-line was making plenty of room for Mostert in the 4th quarter. Tua had a subpar performance for him. Tyreek Hill dropped a big pass, but Tua with the game on the line let a pass slip out of hand and mishandled a snap, one which did not look egregiously off target. He said it himself, you can’t end a game for your team on a play like that. Another observation is we’ve had a few slow starts. Those of you that attended the Fest game know we were behind 14-0 after the 1st quarter. We scored 3 points against the Eagles in the 1st quarter. We scored 7 against the Patriots, and were shutout the entire first half against the Chiefs. If we’re going to defer, we need to do a better job in the first half because the really good teams put their foot on your neck and don’t let you back in the game.
What can I say, the narrative that we can’t beat the good teams will continue to exist as long as it’s true and accurate, and right now it’s 100% accurate. We look like a different team against the better teams, we’re tight, and we get shut down on offense, and sometimes it’s the defense that looks disinterested. Today, the defense did its best, but the offense was the weak unit that didn’t hold up their end of the bargain. It’s great to be the #1 ranked offense in the NFL, but it sucks when you can’t back it up against better competition. Who cares if we can score 70 against the Broncos when we can only score 14 against the Chiefs?
We have the BYE week next week. Last week we lost OG Isaiah Wynn for the rest of the season, and it’s likely the same fate waits for OG Robert Jones, who ironically just filled in for Isaiah Wynn after coming off this week. Hopefully, after 2 weeks of rest, RG Robert Hunt will be back, and be healthy for the rest of the season. Lester Cotton, who played RG today will probably slide to LG as long as Hunt as healthy. RB De’Von Achane should make his return in Week 11 at home against the Las Vegas Raiders. He will undoubtedly give the offense a huge boost, and when we split carries between the two backs, Mostert and Achane both really thrive. It doesn’t leave that vacuum every time Mostert comes off the field.
Listen, it sucks, if you have friends that are NFL fans like I do, you know they’re getting a hearty laugh at our team, and rightfully so. We have yet to look anything like a team to fear when the opponent has been top level. 48-20 loss to the Bills, 31-17 loss to the Eagles and now a 21-14 loss to the Chiefs. Just remember, the #1 scoring offense in the NFL at a whopping 33.9PPG, practically 34 points per game has scored 17PPG against winning teams. Forget the defense which on occasion has not played well, but the high flying offense seems to wither when challenged, and our young HC Mike McDaniel needs to find a way to stop that from occurring. That won’t be an easy fix, but it has to happen if we’re going to ascend to a playoff winning team. I think our defense is going to be good going forward, but the offense has to be as effective against the good teams as they are against the weaker ones. I needed to vent this, spew it out of my system, it’s cathartic.
GO DOLPHINS!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
“I needed to vent this, spew out of my system, it’s cathartic.”
I just rage-cleaned the kitchen. I do my best work when I’m pissed the Dolphins lost, lol.
Just cleaned the back yard, put everything in the shed for winter. Still had time to vent this article out of my system. It’s not really full of rage, I think it’s pretty truthful and accurate, but you judge for yourself! 🙂
😭
A lot of us feel the same, Mike. We need to see this team show up in a big game against a good team.
Mike, I’m sure the commentary is really swell just not in the mood to read a lot.
It was a tough loss and hopefully during the bye we can get some more guys healthy and clean some things up.
I’m getting the impression you don’t like to read my articles anymore . . .
It hurts Tim, I feel like it’s choking me, it’s always there.
😂
If we make the playoffs it won’t matter who we won and lost to in the regular season
Well, on that same token Ken, I don’t see how the team could be confident going against any good team when we haven’t beaten one.
That is on the coaches and players to be ready
Of course, it’s not on us! So far, neither has been successful in doing so!
That’s the point I made on last weeks blog, which was an hour ago.
They have played both the Eagles and Chiefs tough. No reason to think they can’t beat good teams. This is a narrative being spun by pundits who need something to talk about
well stated
bummed but balanced,
not freaked out
Ken – it’s not a narrative being spun, it’s a fact.
^
It’s a narrative. You can’t tell me based on that game that if we played the Chiefs 10 times it would be likely be 5-5. We were evenly matched. The pundits can kiss my green ass
Better call me a pundit then. If you can honestly tell me rhis team looks the same against better teams as they do against the lesser teams, then maybe you need to rewatch all of those losses, or reassess your honesty! 🙃
This game was there for us to win.
With each of the games against the SB level teams,
we’ve improved.
McDaniel says it’s important to peak for the “elimination games.”
He’s right about that, and maybe we will.
We haven’t peaked yet, (except for the Denver game)
so that is a good thing.
I’m not really concerned. We’re in solid shape. I didn’t think this season would be easy to begin with.
I also think each of the 3 defeats has had an odd psych factor to them.
The Bills game it was about Josh Allen and the whole team making a statement win that the Dolphins (and Tua) were not catching up to them and threatening their choke hold on the AFCE.
They poured every ounce of themselves into our game and haven’t been the same since, like they burned themselves out to a degree.
They were also at home and had the emo factor from that guy who had the heart attack being back to get them pumped to win one for him.
Now they’ll have to go to Miami to play the last game of the regular season.
Let’s see if they can match the fire we saw in Buffalo.
With the Eagles game, the psych factor was Hurts making the statement that Tua should not have taken his job from him at Alabama. Very emo.
Also a home game for them.
This has also been vented like the Buffalo fury above and won’t be such a big deal if we meet again this season, which by definition will also be on a neutral site..
Wow, anyone watching the Pets and Commanders? Horrible offsides may have just killed the pets.
Horrible meaning bad play, not bad call
Now this game there was the Tyreek the Traitor emo factor.
There’s always a huge desire to prove “we can win without you.”
This will also burn less and less hot as time goes on.
Also
The KC HC built the Cheetah into what he is from a virtual unknown.
He knows how to defend Tyreek, and he’s a great HC straight up anyway.
He’s also the only SB-winning HC to beat Tua.
The only analogy I can easily point to is how the Chargers last year were all about shutting down the “Tua is better than Herbert” debate.
Also their team wanted to be the new rising star team and not let it be the Dolphins.
This year we beat them in their stadium as those emo boosts cooled.
The other super emo one last year was the “Teacher will beat pupil” game versus SF.
Next time we play them, there will not be that much of that factor involved.
The main issues I see are
1) that McDaniel must restrain himself from always trying to get cute on a handful of plays each game. Most of those don’t work out well for us.
and
2) we mustn’t be a finesse team on offense in that teams are going to study our tendencies, and we need to be able to smack them in the mouth and win anyway on our talent and our toughness.
I can’t really understand why anyone thinks
any team
will look as good against the best teams
as they do against the worst teams.
Not looking as good and winning is different from not looking good and losing. The Chiefs didn’t look good against us and won. We didn’t look good against the Chiefs and loss. Big difference.
Lost
Pets lose again, Jones with an INT when they were driving to tie it
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that all of our yards on that last drive were from running the ball. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tua, but he hasn’t really had many moments in his career where he has HAD to win the game. A large percentage of the games he’s won have been pretty handily. I would have loved to see him his Wilson for the potential game tying TD today.
I’m with you on maybe we could’ve stayed with the run game a little more at the end there, especially since we had the time.
In case you’re wondering,
Tua has officially had
5 4th Quarter comebacks for victories
and 7 total game winning drives
in the NFL.
Yeah, I’m not down on him at all. It just really would have been nice to see him come through there.
To me it is better to be beating all the teams you are supposed to beat rather than losing to a bum team a couple times a year. That would worry me more than losing on the road to 3 of the best 5 teams in the NFL.
I’d rather have a loss to KC on our record than a loss to Denver.
You can explain and understand losing to that QB and that HC.
Losing to a bum team means your team is capable of just blowing a game.
That’s really worse than losing to a top 5 team.
I disagree. I would have preferred we lost to the Patriots or the Panthers and beaten the Chiefs.
I get you that it’s a source of pride to beat KC,
but I sure as hell would not want to be known as the team that lost to a winless team!
And I enjoy beating Billy Bellicheat more than any coach in the history of team sports.
So, no.
Since losing to any team is the same value, a 1 in the L column, I can’t see your rationale.
I hear you- division games are important. My rationale is that we would have beaten a team with a record over .500, and one of the top teams in the NFL. Not bottom feeders.
I really don’t understand the logic of preferring to beat bad teams instead of good teams.
I’d rather have my team play up and down to competition than have a team that can’t play up to competition, no matter how good they are against inferior teams.
The season isn’t over, the Dolphins still have opportunity.
Wow, awesome game winning drive by Stroud.
What a come back by CJ Stroud!!
Too bad our QB couldn’t do that today
“I can’t really understand why anyone thinks
any team
will look as good against the best teams
as they do against the worst teams.”
What I meant was it seems perfectly logical for a team to look better against the bad teams than that team looks against the good teams.
People keep criticizing us for not looking as good against the top 3 teams in the NFL as we do against lesser teams, but to me that makes perfectly good sense.
What a game C.J. Stroud!!!
Wow
The Buccaneer DC should feel terrible for letting Stroud get away with that.
I hate that Prevent D.
It almost never works.
^
I hope Stroud’s work inspires Tua to rise up again
like he did last year in the Ravens and Bills games.
I doubt he’s focused on that.
To me if you lose to a winless team then beat a SB team, those balance off, and it looks like your team is just erratic, and you can’t depend on them not blowing it.
When the Ravens HC lost to us for our only victory that terrible year,
he got fired for being the only coach to lose to a 1-15 team.
and he had won a SB himself.
Proud of this team this year!
6-3…. what is there to complain about?
Agree
Berrios did not have a single target in the passing game.
Just finished warching the game. The 2nd half sure did make me feel better about our team. Yeah we lost, but we didn’t get dominated….. not in the 2nd half at least. We can play with the big boys.
The good news is if the Bengals beat the Bills tonight, we’re still be #1 in the AFC East going into next week, and likely still #1 coming out of the bye.
And the Pets are dead last in the AFC
It’s the end of that era, finally.🙂
Ding dong the witch is dead, lol.
It is definitely true that we are winners in the Bills-Bengals and
Chargers-Jets games, no matter what the outcome is of those two.
The divisional losses would be far more beneficial, but it is also a win for us if the Bengals or Chargers lose.
We want the Bengals and Chargers to win.
70-20 Dolphins beat Broncos
19-8 Broncos beat Chiefs
21-14 Chiefs beat Dolphins
Any Given Sunday
I think we played the Chiefs even up.
They shut us out in the first half, and we shut them out in the 2nd.
Both QBs got sacked a little bit. Mahomes fumbled.
Tua’s QBR was 51.9. Mahomes’s QBR was 45.1
Tua threw 21 completions for 193 yards.
Mahomes threw 20 completions for 185 yards.
We outrushed them 117-93 on fewer carries for a better average.
We had more first downs and more total yards of offense.
The TOs and ToP were dead equal.
We had fewer penalties and lost less yards lost on penalties.
The difference was that freak lateral for a TD off a fumble recovery.
Shit happens.
And it was a great strip of Tyreek and the lateral off it was magic. Was the one play that made the difference for sure.
It’s funny how things can change. For as long as I can remember, in a Dallas/ Eagles game, I’d 100% always be rooting for Dallas to lose.
I’m watching the game intensely rooting for those asshole Eagles to get crushed right now, lol.
👍
Good to see ya, Bookman. I hope all is well with you.
Things are fine, hope everything is well with you
yeah there’s something about Siriani that I don’t like.
He seems a bit too arrogant.
Could just be his face and smile just look like that.
I don’t know much about him really.
I’m happy to know we took Kelce out of this game.
That should give our defense confidence
that we can do that to the Big Weapon of the other team.
It also signals an improvement since we often have had trouble with TEs.
The Eagles deserve to lose a game based on some really bad reffing.
The library cop is here, no shenanigans like pee pees and wee wees. 😉
Lol
Main thing the Phins playoff chances depend on going forward is whether they can beat the Yets.
Win 11 games.
We play the Yets twice. Win both of those and we’ll get into the playoffs (even if possibly with 10 wins).
👍
I hope Jones is ok. They said the injury was gruesome so they wouldn’t replay it, and he was pretty emotional coming off the field. He’s only been off IR for a couple of weeks.
I’m not concerned about this team making the playoffs. Not sure where the disconnect is here. I’m worried about getting embarrassed in the first round of the playoffs because the other team is good too. Did we trade away all those picks and get our salary cap all jacked up just to get into the playoffs?
First step first. And first one is making the playoffs.
We made the playoffs last season. First round exit, though somehow we hung around in that game with no QB
Was just talking this season. We’re only 9 games in.
So we are looking at possibly 10-7
Could be worse
The Eagles coach is ….. well he fits for that team/city
Some of y’all think the stej Defense is scary (it is), but the Chefs* are now tied with the stej as the #5 Defense in points against and are the #5 Defense in yards against (stej are #6)… and the stej have yet to play (Monday night against the Charge) this week.
Yeah… so we go up against this KILLER Defense today with a backup LG in Robert Jones, lose Jones early on (onto the 3rd string LG), and a backup RG in Lester Cotton (has been playing on the left side after Wynn went on IR).
NOBODY can tell me that didn’t play a factor in this game. We could barely move the ball for the majority of the game, Tua was under constant pressure, and our running game was neutralized until Mostert caught fire late. Remember, we’re the #1 passing team AND running team in the NFL. What happened, right?
WHAT’S MORE… it was T-Stead’s first game back since he went on IR (he’s certainly not 100% and never is) and it was Connor Williams’ first game back in 3 weeks (certainly not 100%). When the glue between the Tackles and Center isn’t even set (backups and 3rd stringer at the Guard positions), ya get what ya saw today from our O-Line and Offense in general.
The good news? This relative ragtag O-Line seemed to gel in the 4th quarter… minus another errant snap by Williams (SMH). We nearly came back to win against the reigning Super Bowl Champs.
All-in-all, we put up a valiant fight today despite the odds. Had we played against an O-Line that was so beaten up, it would have been a sack-fest for us.
One more point: sure seemed 75%+ of the Frankfurt crowd was rooting for the Chefs*. That further led to communication issues for us on Offense.
Bookman(!),
Good to see ya here, man!
Wow, almost a crazy fumble end for the Eagles there!
This has been a crazy game
Exciting!
What a crazy finish. I can’t believe Prescot took that sack
He is so Tony Romo
He actually lost the game trying to change the play late in the clock when they were at the 6. It was 1st down, and it cost them 5 yards, then the sack.
Mike,
Great article. We haven’t beat a team with over 3 wins so that will either change soon, or we’ll know for sure what we are. Last 3 games will be against playoff level teams so if this team is built to grow into something, we’ll see it by then.
To be honest, we play the Ravens who have destroyed us so many times and have beat us good when we had a playoff shot on the line. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to kick the shit out of the Ravens. As we know, they’re a very good team, so we beat them, we earned it
Heal up a bit, regroup and Raiders up next.
With Rob Jones now also hurt I’d move C Williams back to guard and play Eich at center and draft the best possible center next draft.
Agreed
This game was a. Great learning experience for a lot of our young guys. We have now had a chance to play both SB teams and really see what it takes to win at that level. I don’t think we had less talent than either of them. We just didn’t know what to expect. Now we do.
And that’s why I fear the Ravens more than the Cowboys.
I haven’t seen Old Dolfan recently… is he alright?
He posted during the game
I don’t think so… you’re confusing Randy’s.
Feel bad for him. He was doing well.
GO BENGALS!!!
naplesfan2010 says:
November 5, 2023 at 8:30 pm
With Rob Jones now also hurt I’d move C Williams back to guard and play Eich at center and draft the best possible center next draft.
————–
That would be Sedric Van Pran, 6’4 310, UGA or Jackson Powers-Johnson, 6’3 320, Oregon (if he enters, only a junior).
This is not a good year for centers in the draft.
Also, we have to resign Connor Williams first. His 2 year contract is up after the season.
I wonder if they had the Philly crew??? That was a clean sack in the video but they called roughing.
Calls Mount for Commanders-Patriots NFL Officiating Crew to Be Investigated
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/calls-mount-for-commanders-patriots-nfl-officiating-crew-to-be-investigated/ar-AA1jqIJ3?ocid=msedgntp&pc=NMTS&cvid=4a326642267f4e228a61689191104d8d&ei=11
We have felt the Commanders pain too often.
The New York Jets reportedly looked to reunite wide receiver Davante Adams with quarterback Aaron Rodgers ahead of the NFL trade deadline, but former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels made sure to reject the trade, according to ESPN. Raiders owner Mark Davis fired McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler on Wednesday morning, hours after the trade deadline, which allowed the old regime to pull off one final act.
———-
Can we send McDaniels a nice fruit bowl? lol
🤣
Thank you, Cincy.
^^^
Well done Cincy
Jets are in second place in AFCE (for now) ahead of the Bills with Zack Wilson at QB.
How about that shit!
If the playoffs started next weekend, the entire AFC North would be in the playoffs.
I’m not worried about 2024. Let’s make the playoffs this year and go from there.
When was the last time in week 9 we lost a game and still lead the division?
Thanks for a new article Mike – pretty much agreed with most of it, except the AVG hit. Technically, it’s true, he was hit out of bounds, but there’s no way Mahomes can be allowed to convert that 3rd down and AVG provided a wall to stop it. If whiny Mahomes don’t want to get hit, there are over a billion ways the NFL have invented to stop their precious QBs, after creating a QB-centric league, from getting hit. He needs to study the rule book, not embarrass himself on the field. The contrast between Tua’s reaction to a BS grounding call and Mahomes was remarkable.
Just wanted to comment on one line “At least I should say “shouldn’t happen”, because we haven’t defeated a good team with a winning record since September of ’22.” This, of course, will be the topic du jour until we next play a good team. My take on it:
Firstly, we are close. We were within a TD of the Eagles until the pick at the Linc and a TD of KC last night with ample time to score and in great field position. I don’t need to tell anyone how those teams did last night. I know we lost them both but we were road teams, banged up (more vs Eagles) and fought hard. This in the first year of Fangio’s D and with the 6th starting OL combo in 9 games. OK, that sounds like I’m being an apologist, which I’m not, but one thing we know about MM is he takes stuff personally and bounces right back up again. This team is far from lost in terms of direction and belief. The question is, is that enough?!?
I follow plenty of sport – gridiron is #1, followed by my version of football, cycling (TdF) and even golf (Ryder Cup) and cricket (Ashes) where there are a bunch of rivalries and lots of psychology. My better half is a big tennis fan too, so I have had a steady diet of Rafa for the last 5 years. One thing you notice in all of those sports, is desire can often trump talent, but, especially with tennis, playing the big points, having a winners mentality and an ability to get “in the zone” when it really matters in game-changing moments nearly always means the difference between an L and a W.
Looking at last night, when it really mattered, Spag sent the house, Tua panicked and the #1 seeding died on that field. It was remarkable that the Fins didn’t see it coming and have something to counter it (hell, even a QB draw would have been better than a panic because the play we called was never going to work) so we lost the game and all that went with it and fuelled the “narrative”. It has to be said, the KC brain trust out-witted the Fins and I did wonder whether Fangio ever gets to speak to coach during offensive drives as surely he could have helped at that point?
So what? Well, our second year HC is still learning every week. He has nurtured this group of players into units that believe in themselves and never say die. The big questions are, has he done enough teaching, learning and preparation to put us in a position to make a play off run. On the first one, we are still conceding too many pens and beating ourselves. Not to mention the snaps. So that’s a mid-season no. On the second, he still outsmarts himself too often imho, but when what he tries comes off, he’s a genius, when it doesn’t he’s a doofus. So that’s a maybe, but probably a maybe not. On the preparation, we are falling short in big, game-defining moments, on the road. So for me, that’s a no, but can change to a yes in the last 8 games. It has to, because the road to the SB is through Arrowhead now, and if we have aspirations to make it there, we have to play those game-defining moments better. We have to win them to have a chance. It’s a big ask, but teams have done it before. Another obvious concern is also our physicality, but there’s little we can do about that now. The roster is set and MM needs to work with the tools he has. As of now, even if we capture lightning in a bottle and get to the big game, a replay vs the Eagles is a game I don’t relish one little bit.
Edit: I don’t need to tell anyone how those teams did last year
Buffalo has fallen out of the playoffs and are now below the jest.
I love this, but we need the jest to lose tonight and twice to us.
https://twitter.com/NFL_Memes/status/1721387961617379786
BBM
I’m saying let C Williams walk.
The Bills are out of the playoffs and still have to play Philly, KC, Dallas, Chargers, Patsies, jest, and us … IN MIAMI!
ppl are saying Ahmed should see the bench after yesterday’s performance.
2 great points by
UK:
“one thing we know about MM is he takes stuff personally and bounces right back up again.”
True and he has already publicly stated that the miscommunication between Tua and Ced at the end was his (MM’s) fault.
“one thing we know about TUA is he takes stuff personally and bounces right back up again.” There I fixed it.
#2
“This team is far from lost in terms of direction and belief. ”
True and guys like
Tua, Tyreek, Mostert, Wilkins, AVG, Sieler, Phillips, D. Elliott, Ingold, Berrios, Holland, Ramsey, Kohou, Smythe, etc. etc. will NEVER quit, never take a play off, never give up on a play, a game, or a season.
I was asleep at the time, but …………
LMAO – still dumb as rocks!
McDaniel says a third reason he went over to Germany early is so his players could live through a week in a foreign city with maxed out hype and 24/7 distractions and extra interviews and a #1 level opponent.
He said you don’t want your first “remote” prep week to be for … the Super Bowl.
Personally, Naples, I think that’s looking too far into the future, in a league where “no one focusses past their next opponent”, but that’s just me.
How long ’til a div. rival lampoons us with this?
If, before yesterday’s k.o., I’d have offered you this unconditionally, how many would have snatched my hand off? Exactly.
Did I see this right?
Josh Allen called for intentional grounding AND taunting on separate plays in the same game?
a game in which he was behind mostly the whole game and did indeed LOSE!!
Those are 2 arrogant-style penalties. Man, his head is MESSED up!
Tim – The NFL is so unpredictable. Your nonchalant attitude about this season really surprises me. You know as well as anyone here how quickly the NFL landscape changes. We have to make things happen this year, especially while Tua is healthy. I feel this team really needs homefield advantage. I don’t want to just slide into the playoffs and go to Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati or even Jacksonville for that matter. All 3 losses have been away. We need to take care of business during the regular season to get us home as much as possible.
I think we have one more year with more or less this roster, Mike.
For me, the pillars are:
O = Tua, Hill, Waddle, Achane and Mostert if he can still get it done next year.
D = Chubb + Phillips up front and X, Ramsey + Snowman in the secondary.
Then get as much cheap talent as we can afford to surround them. We also may have to face it that in yr 2 for VF and yr 3 for MM, changes will come too. Value upgrades will be the name of the game over summer I suspect.
It’s strange, but I get the feeling Cheetah and/or X could retire at any time. I feel like Tyreek wants to kill it this year, and if he breaks records, not sure how hyped he’ll be to go through another grueling season.
I know what you mean Mike, but he declared KC a rivalry now and with where we’re at, I would imagine he and X would both want to go out on top. A lot depends on their bodies too.
plus Josh Allen threw as many picks as TDs and was the leading rusher with more than twice the yards as the next guy on the Bills.
That’s not good team offense at all.
Couldn’t sleep last night due to congestion and was up at 5am. Put NFL network on to catch up with scores and they were saying Buffalo’s O is very predictable, one-dimensional and relies too much on cry-baby having to make stuff happen. That = picks, or, if you’re mean like me (whispers) injuries!
One thing that worries me is the jest getting to the playoffs AND getting ARod back.
Good post above from UK
UK Rocks!
It’s too early for this, but
if the season were to end like things are right now,
we’d be the 4th seed and get Pittsburgh in Miami for the first playoff game.
I’d be ok with that.
Browns would go to Jax and Bengals to Baltimore.
If we win, we would have to go to KC the next week
unless one of the Ohio teams win.
Teams (esp. the QBs) are starting to whine and beg during our games.
This is a good sign.
They are beginning to feel the pressure of our team’s growth.
Allen, M. Jones, and now Mahomes are speaking directly to refs trying to call for flags.
The patsies would now have to finish 7-1 just to have a winning season.
Mentioned in-game how hard Reek had to run to gain every yard. This is crazy. He worked his butt off and deserves the bye as much as anyone.
yeah but that’s only like about a half a mile.
Even I can run that far at full speed, and I’m OLD.
Not sure when in the game that was though Naples – stamped 4:52 – UK time or CET time? Anyway, he surely ran some more?
And respectfully, what’s your top speed?
I can’t remember Tua whining and begging during a game,
even after a sack or an obvious PI non-call.
Rex Ryan and Ryan Clark say the Bills are no longer SB contenders
and their window has closed.
Not all Pats are scum! Tip of the cap
Naples, my bust. I thought for some reason you meant to move C Williams to LG then draft the best OC.
That’s how I read it anyway.
no I messed that up.
I did mean to move him there for this year,
but then look to the draft to get a real center,
hoping Wynn and Hunt would be back at the LG/RG,
so we wouldn’t have to re-up an expensive guy
who can’t hike the ball.
Letting Williams walk would save us some money, right?
After taking the day to reflect I think I’m ready to post
It’s a disappointing loss for a lot of reasons
But that said, I think we are in good shape to win the afc east and that really is the first step to actually doing something in Janaury and February
Contrary to what the talking heads say, you don’t have to prove anything to anyone in the regular season. We are just setting ourselves up for the best possible playoff position
Then you still have to play the games in the playoff
Our next few games after the bye are considerably lighter than tje 3 game street we just had:
Commanders, Raiders, Titans and jests twice
We can go 5-0 in that stretch
Sweeping the jests would be a Godsend
If we do that, we will win the AfC east
Even if we split with the jests we are still in great position
But people will still say they can’t beat anyone good
I don’t really care about that narrative
But even if I did it doesn’t matter
we don’t play anyone good again until the last 3 weeks of the season
Than we have another shot to play the top climber teams going into the postseason
So for now, I’m just focusing on 5-0 or 4-1 in our next 5
We can’t lose to a team we should beat!
Smart Pig
excellent points
Those 3 games at season’s end should have us readied for play-off calibre football if we get in.
That 1st Jest game is the only game in the next 5 that worries me- mostly because of the short week on the road.
But as long as we go 4-1, we’ll have a really good shot to win the division. Go 5-0 and we will likely have it sewn up before we face the Bills in week 17.
UK:
yes certainly it was more than that by game end, and it is a point of concern to require Tyreek to run that much, but c’mon, he’s a track star in the prime of his athletic life.
Football is played on a very small field when compared to distance running.
I’d rather he not do black flips any more. One slip and he could have a career-ending back injury, for nothing!
I agree Naples – to the point I’d actually restrict his game time if/when we get a big lead and make sure other WRs can fill in when needed. Maybe not a popular opinion amongst “stat-collectors”, but I want play-off wins, not gaudy stats.
Oh and this year I’ve been unofficially timed in the mile in under 20.
I can do it way faster than 20 hours, but I’m only 62 going on 63!
Mahomes picking on an undrafted 2nd yr CB instead of X or Ramsey.
Great play by Kohou and the DL.
Did I see #40 in that frame?
Is that Nik Needham?
I hope!
Oh, nice! You’re right, that was Needham. I didn’t realize he got playing time. I am a little scared to say this, but we actually have some quality depth in our secondary now.
UK
rotflmao
I meant under 20 minutes.
If I ran for 20 hours, it would be my last day on earth.
Our gym is almost exactly a half mile from our house, so when my wife and I walk there to lift weights, she says it takes us 7-8 minutes, because she has to be there on time for her personal trainer.
That’s how I get the idea I could go a full mile in under 20.
Chuckle
The 2nd Jets game, Ravens, Cowboys and Bills will all be good tests at the end of the season.
I’m not sure why not beating good teams doesn’t mean anything. When you make the playoffs, you’re going to play good teams, if you can’t beat good teams, your time in the playoffs will be a short one.
What makes you think we can’t beat a good team when we took the SB champs to the wire?
0-3 makes me think that. We played poorly or made key mistakes in every one of them. Like I said, we’re scoring 34 PPG, but 17 PPG against winning teams.
Because we didn’t beat them like the Broncos did
😂
Jets took the Chiefs to the wire. Score was actually closer
They did. That has nothing to do with my point. We have no reason to think we can’t beat a good team. The Jets have that ability as well
Ken – When we beat a good team, we’ll have beaten a good team. Until we do, I have no confidence that we can accomplish that.
We haven’t done yet Mike, but make no mistake, MM has his eyes on the prize. Part of that (through holding players back on IR, from games and substituting etc) is to have this team playing its best football come January. Whether that plan works or not remains to be seen, and ditto whether that’s going to be enough, but that’s the plan. The old adage SBs aren’t won in October, November or December applies.
It just seems like many of us are stuck in a chronic cycle of negativity. This team is playing well. They can beat anyone. It doesn’t mean they will but they can. Yesterday’s game was anybody’s game. I am just going to enjoy the fact that we can play with the best right now.
We’re Dolphins fans Ken. When we hear a bang we expect a bullet. This has been the way. For too long.
Lot of seasonal affective disorder going on here. Two good teams play each other, one has to lose. Defense played lights out yesterday. Offense missed some plays and the last two plays were atrocious, but they went blow for blow with KC. The margin was a freak stupendous play by KC’s D when they stripped Hill and ran it back for a TD. That was a 14 point swing.
Well said Phelon. The strip and score was the game.
Mike E
Gosh I don’t think it means nothing.
However,
I think we’ve showed serious improvement from the Bills loss
to the eagles loss to the Chiefs loss.
And we are a young team in our rising arc.
If we were the Bills, I’d worry our window was closing.
If we were the Ravens or Chiefs and couldn’t beat the best teams,
I’d be worried because those teams are supposed to be
matured versions with veteran coaches and
several years of the same system and drafting philosophy.
We are none of those.
We have a first time HC with less than 2 seasons on the job.
We are still changing our roster from a totally opposite concept under Flores and only 2 drafts to stock the team with those who fit McDaniel’s concept and even less opportunity to acquire what first year DC Fangio thinks he needs to run his defense.
Our window is just opening after years of Gase and Philbin hell punctuated by the Flores lawsuit years and the tampering by the owner BS.
I’m HAPPY!
Ours is a program on the rise.
Not to mention overcoming a rash of DB, RB, and OL injuries.
I agree, I think more than anything, yesterday showed that we are not mature enough as a team to beat the Superbowl champs yet. And tbh I think McDaniel being a young coach, was out coached yesterday by Andy Reid. He’ll learn from it.
Nice write Mike. I think during the playoffs we’ll be better as a team. I mean we almost beat the bill in Buffalo last year with a 3rd string QB in the playoffs. Anything can happen
Piggy, Are we doing the NY fest? I need to get my ticket if we are. thanks
I don’t think Pig is organizing. Might be Ken or Mike E.
R-E-L-A-X