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I'm going to talk out my opinion of what I seen on the field yesterday. There is probably some popular opinions, and probably some unpopular opinions mixed in all of this. I'm not trying to be right, wrong or indifferent... you'll probably agree and disagree with some of it, and that's okay.
1. I've seen people say the defense played well yesterday. I'm not ready to say that myself. They gave up 17 quick points. 14 in Q1, and if my memory isn't leading me wrong, the field goal was early Q2. X was getting torched. Did he may a "nice" play with the INT? Sure. But it's obvious X has lost a step, lost that "edge" that earned him the big contract he demanded. Boyer needs to go. I know there has been a ton of injuries, I get it. It's just obvious, at least to me, Boyer has to go. The defense gave up 34 points. I'm not sure how anyone can quantify as that playing "good". But alas, some will. They couldn't stop a man with what, 7 Dolphins hanging off of him from getting that 1st down at the end of the game?
2. Skylar was what he was supposed to be. A 7th round rookie. People were expecting miracles out of him, but everybody should know, Miami isn't in the let's cash in on miracles type of team. We're just not. He missed wide open guys sometimes, made a couple good throws sometimes, made a bone headed decision on the INT. Had terrible.... what I'm going to label "leadership" in my opinion, whether it was actually McDaniels fault for not getting plays in, or whatever the case is. It didn't look good for Skylar. But again, he's a rookie in an away playoff environment. I'm not sure what everybody, but he was exactly what I expected him to be.
3. I'm not sure what the heck was up with Waddle/Hill and everyone with the dropsies. Waddle had a chacne on that first drive to set the tone for our offense. And he caught that ball like... a waddling penguin with short arms and no hands. That trend continued for a lot of them. Did dhtey make plays throughout the game? Of course they did. But they also killed us a few times too. The drops didn't help Skylar, at all. It was a situation where nobody complimented anyone else yesterday. Skylar needed all the "help" he could get. Drops like that just don't help.
4. Geseki. I'm not sure he fits the scheme McDaniels is wanting to implement here. I know he's in his contract year, but he had two big opportunities yesterday that I can remember, anbd he dropped them both. I seen an article where he said about his future "he wanted opportunity". Well buddy, you had one yesterday, actually two, and you dropped the ball. Literally. I think he should go, and McDaniel gets that run blocking tight end he needs. We can get the same production out of many TE's that we got from Geseki this year, probably easily for less money. So, bye Geseki. It was fun.
5. McDaniel, looked like a rookie HC in his first playoff game at moments, but also had the team in the game, playing hard, fighitng in an away playoff game, until the final drive. The players love him, I think jthat's pretty evident. He had some bone headed things (4th and 1 DoG?). He blamed the refs for it, saying he didn't know if they gave us the 1st or if it was 4th, sending in players for the 1 and 10 play... then realized it was 4th and tried changing the player group last minute. Bone headed. hopefully he can learn and grow from it. I do like McDaniel. To me he reprents what the future of the NFL looks like in a lot of respects. I'm not highly confident that the majority of the NFL players in this day in age are the "coaches in your face", or the "drag a player by the facemask and cuss them out" type of players. They're millenials. I think he relates to them well, and has a way of communicating and getting them to play hard for him.
6. Special Teams. Not just this game but overall, it has to be addressed. The statistics don't lie. We're among the worst in the league in the third phase of the game. Sanders has to put in work this off-season, fix his 50+ work. The rest of Special Teams has to just be better. Hopefully they can situate some of this during the off season.
7. O-line. Again, I'm not sure what everybody expected out of the running game yesterday. The o-line was a patch job at best. A patch job on a firehose turned wide open. It was going to be tough no matter how McDaniels schemed things up. Our leading rusher had 10 carries for 23 yards. Do I need to say anything else? Awful.
8. I read another article saying Grier was hugging the players as they got on/off the plane yesterday, whichever it was. I imagine he was, because for me personally, they probably saved his job for another year. His lack of ability to address the o-line alone... wait let me rephrase. The lack of o-line producing, despite all that's been sunk into it, is unacceptable. It's not just a year or two, it's been what, 10 years of it? Yeah he's hit on some draft stock, but he's also blundered a ton of draft capital as well. I say all that o say, I think everyone is safe another year and we will be riding with "mostly" what we had this year. Because let's face it, we don't have much capital to work with this off-season.
We have a projected -$22.5 million dollar deficit in cap space starting out. We only have 5 draft picks. We've got holes all over the place on o-line. The good news is,hopefully we have a returning secondary that is healthy... and stays healthy. We can hope and pary, right? And we can pray Tua is back and healthy. And stays healthy. Unlikely, but hopefully. I think somehow with Skylar as a backup, you still bring in someone else to compete. Maybe a chepaer veteran type, not named Injurwater. Tua, Skylar and an old dog.
Me and a good friend were talking after the game yesterday and we decided it was a good year. It was fun watching our beloved team be... well... fun to watch again. At least during that big stretch of wins, being the Dolphins, they broke our hearts toward the end of the season. Then sparked a small fire in an away game to try and punch the 2 seed out of the playoffs. I think we are "relevant" again, if we can somehow find some miracles in the offseason and find ways to be creative w/ cap space and what very little draft capital we have.
Be safe this off season Phinfever family. It'll get slow aorund here until around draft time. We all don't always agree, and we fight like family some days... but y'all are still my people.
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