Finsmob Unleashed

There are so many storylines coming out after this game, it obviously did not go as we all hoped it would. I mean there’s the “Any given Sunday” mentality that gives you hope for games like this, right? The problem is, the Ravens are a very well coached team, and in addition to that, they have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball. I had mentioned in my previous article that Lamar Jackson is simply the most talented and dangerous player on the field. He proved that yesterday, posting an absolute perfect passer rating of 158.3, finishing 18 of 21 for an easy 321 yards and 5 TD’s, 0 INT’s. He also picked up 35 yards rushing on 6 carries. Back to coaching. John Harbaugh is a really good coach, and his system is firmly entrenched now, he’s been the Head Coach of the Ravens since 2008, and he’s been breaking down the Dolphins all this time. Early in his coaching career taking down Chad Pennington in a playoff game in which he put into effect a defense in which Chad Pennington was stymied. They had defenders all within 20 yards from the line of scrimmage in order to dare Pennington, who due to many injuries simply couldn’t throw deep with any pace, try to beat them deep, and easily contest any short to medium passes. The Ravens won that game 27-9 and Pennington couldn’t operate effectively with the short to medium passing zones clogged and he threw 4 INT’s in the loss.

For those Dolphins fans with short memories, I’ll remind you that this past Sunday’s beatdown was not the worst at the hands of Harbaugh and the Ravens. September 8, 2019 the Ravens shellacked us 59-10. This was the worst beatdown. Or maybe the 40-0 shutout in 2017 was worse, despite the lesser disparity in points.Maybe it was the 38-6 loss in December 2016 when the Dolphins went into Baltimore as playoff contenders at 7-4. The point is, the Ravens have been kicking our ass for a long, long time. It’s why I hate them more than any other team in the NFL, including our division rivals Patriots, Jets and Bills. They seem to always be lurking when we’re feeling a little proud, looking like a contender, and the Ravens, the big bullies are always eager to put us right back in our place, and John Harbaugh is the man behind that.

As good a Head Coach as Mike McDaniel is, he simply hasn’t had a system in place for a long enough time. There’s a reason the Ravens are perennial playoff contenders, because they’ve had the same Head Coach and system in place for 15 or more years. The Dolphins have been churning and burning through Head Coaches since John Harbaugh started in Baltimore to the tune of Tony Sparano, Todd Bowles, Joe Phibin, Adam Gase, Brian Flores and then finally, Mike McDaniel. Perspective is necessary here, that’s 6 Head Coaches for us, 1 for them. Continuity is a wonderful thing, although sometimes things do get stale. Not so for John Harbaugh who owns a 160-98 record, an amazing .620 winning percentage. The Dolphins, with their 6 different Head Coaches managed a 127-131 record in that same time span good for a .492 winning percentage.

I know yesterday’s game has left you feeling down, and besides the loss in the game, the loss of 2 more defenders (Chubb) and (Howard), you feel let down again. Just keep in mind that our Head Coach is in his second season and is already 20-14, with 2 consecutive playoff berths. How about looking at the positives? We need to get better and especially younger at CB. Cam Smith has been a huge disappointment, making basically no impact this season as he’s battled injuries. Xavien Howard has also been fighting off groin injuries, knee injuries and other nagging injuries for the last few years, we need to find his replacement. The fact that we have been able to do so well on the O-line with a collection of 2nd and 3rd string linemen makes me think that CB may again be a priority next season. 

I’m not going to touch too much on next week’s Sunday Night matchup against the Bills now, I’ll save that for the next article. Players like AVG, Melvin Ingram, Emmanuel Ogbah are veterans who have been through games like this before. The good thing is that Cameron Goode will be getting a lot of reps and hopefully he can understand his role better going into that big showdown in Miami. We only have one LB that could potentially be promoted from the Practice Squad, that’s LB Quinton Bell. Just some quick info on Quinton Bell who was a former college WR before switching to defense his last year at Prairie View A&M and getting drafted in RD 7 by the then Oakland Raiders in ’19. Bell 6’3 253 ran a 4.48 40 at 238 pounds and has rare athletic traits posting a 41.5″ vertical, very twitchy athlete with excellent closing speed. Who knows, maybe we catch lightning in a bottle with one of these kids? All we can do now is hope. hard Rock will be rocking, and let’s face it, the Bills are not the Big Bad Bills. This game is in OUR house for the division, I think we’ll be ready to win this game! LET’s GOOOOOO!

GO DOLPHINS!!!