Why did we punt?

[FTLDOLFAN]

On 4th and 5 with about 6:30 remaining in the 4th quarter. I was screaming that we have to go for it. There was not enough time to punt the ball and score 10 more points. I knew our defense was not going to get a 3 and out and get us the ball back right away and sure enough they didn't and they let the Cowboys run the clock down to about a minute and the game was over.

There was no downside to going for it on 4th down. Even if we didn't get it lets say the Cowboys get a couple of first downs and kick a FG its still a 2 possession game. Now even if we had gone for it and got it we still probably would not have won but to punt the ball in that situation made absolutely no sense.

[Driven_Phinsane!]

I was thinking the same thing,, IMO it's all about the coaching staff not having their finger on the pulse of the game & being totally clueless, especially if they thought our D was gonna hold 'em to a 3 & out - Wish in one hand & shit in the other & see which fills up faster!! ..These are the situations that are all about time management, understanding probabilities, as in if you punt you're probably not getting the ball back & having a feel for the game...

I was also really disappointed that as a team with absolutely nothing to lose & everything to gain we chose to punt earlier in the game around midfield on a 4th & 2...This is one wussy-minded team, no matter how much DC would like them to play smash-mouth!!

[Dolfan1]

We conceded the game with that play.That's exactly what I said to my wife when it happened and I was correct.

[Alpha]

I said the exact same thing to my son......"we just gave up".

[ONole1]

There was no sain reason to punt in that situation. Campbell talks the talk, but right there shows he doesn't walk the walk. I am so ready for this season to be over...

[Driven_Phinsane!]

There was no sain reason to punt in that situation. Campbell talks the talk, but right there shows he doesn't walk the walk. I am so ready for this season to be over...

Sadly this season has been over for quite some time..sadder still, it won't be officially over another 5-6 weeks! And yeah i agree 100% on DC..we should have been playing like a team with nothing to lose, instead we were playing timid & hoping for a lucky break, ridiculous!

[Tarpon Guide]

This season was over in pre-season. The Dolphin starters only did fair against other team's starters. There was no heart in those games, and even though they were preseason, they are a dress rehearsal for how the team is going to do during regular season. Their season was over even before it even started.

[Driven_Phinsane!]

Well, personally i think we sealed our fate by giving Philbin another year (or any years for that matter) and once again that's ALL ON ROSS! The guy is loyal to a fault and in this business that's not a good trait but one that will cause irreparable harm, or at least put you back another 3-5 years...Just think, if Philbins ass would've been fired at the end of last year like he should've, you'd of had a brand new coaching staff with the whole offseason to work on getting straight,, hell, we might've even hired Bowles and kept Kacy Rogers as our DC..Should've, Could've, Would've, story of our lives....

[61finfan]

Go buffalo, beat Brady

[Alpha]

C'mon - you know the refs wouldn't allow that.....

[gulfcoast74]

There was no sain reason to punt in that situation. Campbell talks the talk, but right there shows he doesn't walk the walk. I am so ready for this season to be over...

The season is over!!!!
Unfortunately we have six more games to f up our draft position to make sure we draft mid pack as usual. Unless Ross fires everyone and does a complete reboot then this bs will continue for years to come. Sad just sad!!!!!

[kelbail21]

Because we weren't going to get 5 yards on the ground and no way does RT get us 5 yards on 4th down through the air. Let's be realistic.

[Driven_Phinsane!]

Because we weren't going to get 5 yards on the ground and no way does RT get us 5 yards on 4th down through the air. Let's be realistic.

Hey let's be fair..Tannehill would've made his patented 3 yd. throw well short of the 1st down,, and if by some miracle we didn't get our patented holding call, the receiver could've possibly made 2 or 3 players miss & could've very well made it to the marker..Come on, you've got to be realistic here!

[kelbail21]

Way too true. Like Campbell said, if our receivers could all make one more defender miss on every play, imagine how much more yardage that would be. I'm afraid this guy is way too addicted to the Kool-aid. It's the offensive penalties and a defensive play here or there that's killing us and costing us games. Those are the words from Campbell's mouth. This staff is not living in NFL reality. It's a battle of wits in which we are unarmed. Matt Darr was listed as one of our players of the game. You got to go with the hot hand.

[Dolfan1]

"Hey let's be fair..Tannehill would've made his patented 3 yd. throw"
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Why is it that whenever we are 3rd and long, I already know we're going to throw a 3 yd dump pass? Why do we do that EVERY damn time?? And if I know it's coming EVERY damn time, you can be sure that the defenses know it's coming as well. That pisses me off almost as much as handing the ball to the rb 5 yards BEHIND the line, now he has to run 6 yards just to gain 1.

[Alpha]

A lot of the reason it's a short pass is because the D is sure we'll be throwing, so they come hard and our OL can't possibly hold up. Every team does it - you get the hot read which is generally a quick pass to the slot or RB.

[Driven_Phinsane!]

"Hey let's be fair..Tannehill would've made his patented 3 yd. throw"
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Why is it that whenever we are 3rd and long, I already know we're going to throw a 3 yd dump pass? Why do we do that EVERY damn time?? And if I know it's coming EVERY damn time, you can be sure that the defenses know it's coming as well. That pisses me off almost as much as handing the ball to the rb 5 yards BEHIND the line, now he has to run 6 yards just to gain 1.

Kind of like when we were in a 1st down & 30 yds to go after a couple of penalties set us back 20 yds,, we ran 3 3 to 5 yd plays..Hey, i'm no mathmetician but even my simple math skills tells me they'e need another 6 to 7 downs to get a first at that rate!

[phinfanfrom70s]

on that punt they pinned the cowboys back inside their 20 and stopped them for loses on 2 consecutive runs and it's 3rd down and 14.
dallas ran the ball and miami gave up 15 yrds for 1st down.
that was a defensive failure,again letting the other team get a 3rd and long.
if they didn't get the 1st,miami get's the ball in good field position with all their TO's and dan campbell would have done the right move!
it's easy in hind sight to say they should have done this and that,but dan did the right think ,the team again didn't do their part to make it happen.
so saying that,they could have just as easy not have made the 1st down and in hind sight everyone would have said they should have punted and tried to get the ball back!
I have seen a lot a coaches in that situation decide to punt the ball and have had that exact situation miami was in happen except, their defense stopped them from getting the 1st down they get the ball back!
that's the exact situation dan put the team in but they didn't produce,what makes you think that if he put them in that situation of the offense trying to convert a 4th down when they couldn't convert on third downs ALL DAY and that they would come up with this great play to convert on this 4th down!
that decision is made by coaches probably every week and if it works that's great ,if it doesn't the hindsighters come out in groves!

[FTLDOLFAN]

even if we stopped them on that 3rd and 14 play we would have gotten the ball back with only about 4 minutes remaining lets say around our own 40 yard line. we still needed to score 10 more points to force OT. i just did not think that was enough time. even if we got a score we would have had to recover an onside kick and thats a very low percentage play.

i thought we should have gone for it on 4th and 5 because i didn't think there was realistically enough time to punt the ball and still get 2 more scores. also i had no confidence that our defense would force them into a 3 and out. even when it was 3rd and 14 i was nervous because our defense sucks in 3rd and long. its amazing because the defense is supposed to have the advantage in 3rd and long but yet that seems to be when our defense is at its worst.