This season is NOT about New England

[Finatic]

We are all reeling because of the game Thursday. We are let down because we wanted to believe we are better and in contention. Well we are not. But, I do believe we are better. After I have had some time to let it all sink in. We played the best team in the league tight for half of the game, in prime time, and in their house. We have HUGE holes on this team. Offensive line. Linebacker. Secondary. Most of our starters would not start for the upper half of the teams in this league. We are bad in those areas. But we are really good at WR, D Line, at RB, and TE. I think even though the secondary is bad, Jones and Grimes are good. So there are some real good pieces we have. New England is solid top to bottom. No they are not all pro at every position, but they are solid top to bottom. They are extremely well coached. They have maybe the best (even though I despise him) QB in history. Look we got beat by the best team in the league who has been beating EVERYONE that badly all year. They are routing the BEST and we are NOT the best. So let's relax because New England is NOT the season. Now...now we get to see who we are. Buffalo is a MUST win. There are plenty of games we should win. Philly, Colts, Giants, Jets, Cowboys are all the teams I want to see us come out on top and show we are at least on their level even if not on the level of the Patriots. And in ALL of this I want to see us win a game or two we shouldn't, win all the games we should, and in the process play with fire, execute to the best of our talent. If we do that we can make a wild card spot. We can build momentum and then this off season we can attack the missing pieces.

[39Zonk]

I agree , we are a better team under Cambo. The patriot game our defense stood tall, but caved after O was absent. Outside of the Packers who was gonna beat Pats up there on a Thurs. Nite at home. If we are so bad why have we split with the the last two years?. I think we are a level below but a Willdcard team as good as jets, bills and steelers (ahead of us) I believe we finish at 9-7 as a wildcard. Once u get in anything is possible.

[Dolfan1]

I would argue that we are not that good at TE either without Sims. Cameron has shown me nothing at this point and Stoneburner never gets played.

[hawkfinfan]

Our OL and DL are now down 1 starter each. This team does not have the next man up mentality. Bills will copy Pats Def. Can O respond? I don't know. Has anyone called the O to see if anyone is home? Lights on?

[VAIDER5120]

I would argue that we are not that good at TE either without Sims. Cameron has shown me nothing at this point and Stoneburner never gets played.

Will look at the bright side. We used Wakes roster spot to bolster our O-line with a PS O-lineman from the Colts.

[cuchulainn]

IMO, the season is going to come down to staying relatively healthy from here on out, and sticking with the run game in each game we play.

Losing Cameron Wake for the season and likely forever is nothing take lightly, nor is losing James until Dec.

Bills are on a BYE week and we have an extra 3 days to get ready. If we lose next weekend, we're done. Focus on draft at that point.

[VAIDER5120]

Will look at the bright side. We used Wakes roster spot to bolster our O-line with a PS O-lineman from the Colts.

OUCH!!!
Mary Kay Cabot @MaryKayCabot 8m8 minutes ago
Jordan Cameron who? Gary Barnidge catches 6th TD of season. 1-on-1 w/ 5-11 Tony Jefferson. Total mismatch. Could see that coming mile away

[Finatic]

I think the offense has shown amazing talent at time. Bilicheat is one of the best defensive minds ever. Remember it was him who grounded the greatest show on turf.
Look all I am saying do not make the game against the Pats the entire year. There are some good things happening. I think we will have better days. Tannehill and his WRs will be a factor. Lamar Miller will be a factor. We still have a great D Line. I expect them to get things going again.

[cuchulainn]

Still have to have 3/5ths of an OL. And those 3 have to be quality. We struggled when Albert was out and I expect to struggle with James out. Hopefully Fox picks it up and plays better at RT than he did against the Pats.

It's unreal how many picks and FAs we spend every off-season on the OL and it's always a bad unit.

[IMAWriter]

Finatic, sorry, I must have missed your 2nd post. I'll still stand firm on my evaluation of our QB. Wish it wasn't so.

[IMAWriter]

Finatic, spoken like a TRUE fanatic! All you say is true, the speculation is well reasoned. There is only one VERY important element you left out, and it was painfully obvious why.
Usually, when speaking of the strengths and weaknesses of a team, the first thing to come up is the QUARTERBACK. No mention of Mr Ryan Tannehill anywhere in your fine treatise.
So, If I may, I'll add an addendum. Tannehill is a VERY inconsistent performer, which is usually the kill switch to a10-6 season. It's NOT all about the run setting up the pass. That works against opponents that are ALREADY in fear of your QB. Despite Tanny's game against Houston, @ 2-4, with no QB, and a porous defense, his past has shown he has problems doing that against quality teams, or the Fins AFC East opponents. There is just something not quite right inside the young man. Maybe the egregious # of sacks he's taken, or the horrible coaching he's received.

Until the QB situation is solid and consistent, GOOD teams will crowd the box, knowing Tanny doesn't have the ability to hurrt them mid range of deep consistently.

[Finatic]

I did leave Tannehill out. That is because I think we can win with him. He is not like a Brees, Manning, River or Brady where you can put it all on his shoulders and expect him to throw for 500 yards and 6 TDs. But with a balanced attack and when we are capable of running the ball he excels and wins. I see him much like a Eli Manning, Russel Wilson, Joe Theisman kind of QB. We as Dolphin fans get enamored with the big time QB because we had Marino for so many years, so we hunger for that big arm kind of guy. Fact is they just don't make that many of those guys. So if you go to the second tier which is where you will find Tannehill, you will always need to supplement him with a good running game and defense to win. Just like Trent Dilfer had. Just like Joe Flacco had. etc.etc. not to say we couldn't upgrade at QB. Just saying that we can win with him and there are some HUGE holes on this team that need to be addressed. I personally find it inexcusable that this franchise has been completely ineffective at fixing the offensive line for the last 15 years or more. We went into the off season knowing we had issues at DB OLine and LB and did nothing to solve it. No starters and no depth. Yeah...Tannehill is the least of my concerns.

[HndRkyaBong34]

What gets me is 2nd year Derek Carr is throwing bombs right on the money and taking the Raiduhs to another level... I think we can win with RT as well, but, we still need to keep looking for a QB for the future...

[Driven_Phinsane!]

What gets me is 2nd year Derek Carr is throwing bombs right on the money and taking the Raiduhs to another level... I think we can win with RT as well, but, we still need to keep looking for a QB for the future...

yeah, the Raiders are starting to look like a team that others better not take lightly...

I used to think we could win with Tannehill, but i don't like it that EVERYTHING has to be perfect for Tannehill to win; it's like if you fall behind, or if your D puts you in a bad spot, or if your running game isn't clicking you're shit outta luck! As long as we're a team with that as our M.O., we're pretty much SCREWED!!!

[HndRkyaBong34]

Bottom line is, RT is to inconsistent.... He will wow" you in one game and then give you nothing the next 2 or 3 games.. he's proven over the last 3 years that's what he is and nothing more....QB needs to elevate his game in time of need on a consistent basis... RT can not do that..... You can build around him but make sure we have a un-proven stud waiting in the wings....It's time to start looking for that stud".....

[cuchulainn]

I think much of this is based on blocking. There's a reason Tackles and Centers make the big money over Guards. Neither Miller nor Tannehill have been able to perform in games where we were missing Albert or James. We're 3-0 in games where the blocking just was league average. We're 0-4 where we were missing either Tackle and both Miller and Tannehill we're able to overcome the blocking issues. Of course it doesn't help when your dropping every 5th pass.

[Finatic]

I just looked at the stats and Carr isn't that much better than Tannehill in almost every category. After the Texans game everyone loved Ryan. Carr has a good game, now everyone loves Carr. Wait and see how the season plays out. Tannehill is ranked pretty much middle of the pack (12-15) in almost every category. Other than NE he has looked pretty solid. Quit dreaming of the big arm Marino days. They are over. We had the best QB in the league for 17 years how did that work out for us? This team has more pressing issues.

[DolphinsFreak]

Finatic, spoken like a TRUE fanatic! All you say is true, the speculation is well reasoned. There is only one VERY important element you left out, and it was painfully obvious why.
Usually, when speaking of the strengths and weaknesses of a team, the first thing to come up is the QUARTERBACK. No mention of Mr Ryan Tannehill anywhere in your fine treatise.
So, If I may, I'll add an addendum. Tannehill is a VERY inconsistent performer, which is usually the kill switch to a10-6 season. It's NOT all about the run setting up the pass. That works against opponents that are ALREADY in fear of your QB. Despite Tanny's game against Houston, @ 2-4, with no QB, and a porous defense, his past has shown he has problems doing that against quality teams, or the Fins AFC East opponents. There is just something not quite right inside the young man. Maybe the egregious # of sacks he's taken, or the horrible coaching he's received.

Until the QB situation is solid and consistent, GOOD teams will crowd the box, knowing Tanny doesn't have the ability to hurrt them mid range of deep consistently.

I completely agree. Any halfway decent coach can put together a defense to stop all of Tannehill's "attributes" and while doing so, their defense also stops the run. All the defense has to do is stop the short passing game, which puts more people close to the line of scrimmage and the box, and it clutters up the first 15 yards of play which makes it almost impossible to run on and it takes away Tannehill's dink and dunk offense. Until Tannehill becomes more accurate AND learns how to air it out CONSISTENTLY this team will always be mediocre. It time to find a new QB in the draft or free agency next season.

[HndRkyaBong34]

Stats are just that, Stats..... The different between good QB's and great one's is the great one's find a way to over come the teams deficiency's.. this will never show up on a stat sheet... As for Carr, he's completing long throws and over coming adversity against good teams.... RT has shown none these quality's against good teams.. Build a team around RT and yes he will manage but you take away the run game and the short pass in the middle and what do you have????