Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa stated after Sunday’s 34-19 win over the Las Vegas Raiders that he was “excited to kill narratives,” however all of the Dolphins did was reinforce them.
Whether or not it was missed tackles, lack of ability to cease the run or run the ball, not producing strain, undisciplined penalties, or giving up fast sacks, we will mark all of them down underneath “narrative unchanged.”
There have been a number of brilliant spots on this recreation, totally on offense, however it wasn’t sufficient to beat the well-coached Inexperienced Bay Packers, dropping 30-17 yesterday on Thanksgiving. Followers have a lot to be grateful for, however the Dolphins beating good groups on the street within the chilly isn’t certainly one of them.
Talking of these brilliant spots, Tagovailoa did play at a reasonably excessive degree outdoors of some throws. He went 37-46, 365 yards, and two touchdowns, although he was enjoying from behind all recreation. Some would argue that it ought to be filed underneath rubbish time stats, however when the protection is aware of you need to throw to get again within the recreation, it doesn’t make it simpler to take action.
Outdoors of the choose few balls that Tagovailoa sailed, essentially the most vital being the fourth down earlier than the half to De’Von Achane, he was dialed in that complete recreation. In my view, he did break his “can’t pay within the chilly” narrative and wanted the remainder of the group, most notably the protection, to come back together with him.
Tackling Gasoline
When you’ve ever seen “The Waterboy,” the primary character, Bobby Boucher, turns ‘Waterboy’ to center linebacker for the SCLSU Mud Canine and leads them to the Nationwide Championship. The key to his insanity was visualizing somebody he hated when making an attempt to make a deal with, and it’s one thing that must be taught to the Dolphins protection as a result of they couldn’t deal with a tackling dummy if it had a Packers jersey on.
The protection appeared chilly and didn’t need to hit. The Dolphins missed 20 complete tackles, and 10 of them have been in opposition to Packers working again Josh Jacobs. Jacobs was bouncing off individuals and working by means of arm tackles all evening. He could not have proven it on the stat sheet with speeding yards, however he fell ahead on each rush try and couldn’t be stopped on the 4 catches he had.
Altogether, Jacobs had 117 scrimmage yards and made the Dolphins protection look mushy each time he had the ball. After the sport, Jacobs added, “them guys (Miami) appeared like they was chilly, so we was able to get to it.”
Though missed tackles have been the plague of the protection, the trenches received pushed round all recreation, producing lower than a handful of QB pressures, and completed with no sacks. Jordan Love’s jersey stayed clear all evening, they usually don’t even want to scrub it for his or her subsequent residence recreation.
When you possibly can’t get any strain on the quarterback, somebody will all the time find yourself open, and when the Dolphins weren’t lacking tackles they have been getting picked aside on the again finish.
The stark distinction between Jordan Love having all day to throw, and Tua Tagovailoa maneuvering within the pocket and working for his life all evening reveals you all you have to know relating to the trenches. Nothing else must be stated.
Coaches Don’t Win Video games, However They Can Lose Them
I gained’t go too onerous into the choice Mike McDaniel made to go for it proper earlier than the half as a substitute of kicking the sphere objective as a result of I agreed with it, however in hindsight, it might’ve reduce the sport right into a two-score deficit.
The teaching that I need to get into was the play calling and personnel groupings. Outdoors of the patented angle path to Achane, the pink zone play calling was too cute and ineffective.
If you get to the 1-yard line with three performs left, you need to punch it in. There aren’t any excuses, and never having an influence again contact the sphere was inexcusable.
Jeff Wilson Jr. is the kind of participant you deliver out for video games like this, and he was nowhere to be discovered.
As dangerous because the protection performed, if the Dolphins rating a landing and two-point conversion throughout the objective line sequence, the momentum utterly shifts and makes it a one-score recreation.
Not solely have been the Dolphins stifled on the objective line, however on fourth down, the Dolphins had neither Tyreek Hill nor Jonnu Smith on the sphere. How are they not on the sphere for an important play of the sport?
Line Them Up
The narratives tied to the Miami Dolphins in chilly climate video games are nonetheless there and might be there for the foreseeable future. The silver lining was that Tagovailoa wasn’t affected by the climate and wasn’t a legal responsibility when the temperature dropped.
He sliced and diced all evening outdoors of some throws. The Packers protection performed tons of cover-2 like everybody else and gave the Dolphins the whole lot beneath, and Tagovailoa took all of it evening as he ought to.
The narratives that stay are the protection being mushy, McDaniel not having the ability to name his method out of a paper bag on short-distance conditions, not getting strain in opposition to good offensive strains, and that the Dolphins can’t appear to get out of their very own method with dangerous particular groups play, and undisciplined penalties on each side of the ball.
Not solely are the Dolphins a foul group within the chilly, however it’s been some time since they beat a deep playoff group in any climate.
The Dolphins will get a number of extra cracks within the chilly earlier than the season ends, and they’ll have one other shot at a playoff group in a number of weeks in opposition to C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans, but when they play like how they did on Thursday, the result would be the identical. Narratives stay.
Tell us within the feedback who you suppose ought to shoulder the blame for the loss to the Inexperienced Bay Packers.
