Phins are wounded in the trenches with Khalil Mack coming to South Florida
Phins fans learned very fast how valuable Laremy Tunsil was and how bad Sam Young is.
What a swing in momentum over the last two weeks… huh?
Just two weeks ago, the Dolphins WERE sitting pretty. They were 3-0 with a chance to make a statement against the Patriots. Now, after back-to-back losses, Miami is on the verge of collapse with an excellent Bears team coming to town.
There’s always the excuse that injuries in the trenches decimated Miami chances…
…But this injury-riddled squad had Cincy down 14 points with just over a quarter to go in the game.
Also, these injuries didn’t cause T.J. McDonald to make a late hit or Tannehill to make a leaping, lawn dart screen pass into the back of Smythe.
Some Fans have been underwhelmed with Tunsil’s play… But he’s a stud compared to Young
Still, you can’t deny that all these injuries led to Sam Young being the turnstile Left Tackle in the 4th QTR of last week. Young allowed 4 pressures in 20 snaps… that’s all-world bad. Tunsil on the other had only allowed 4 pressures all season. Aside from his penalties, Tunsil has made strides.
Can you imagine if Young has to start this week?
So, even though this rash of injuries doesn’t cut it as an ‘excuse’, there’s no doubt that these injuries have negatively influenced the Phins play on the field to some extent. Even the biggest Tannehill and Gase detractors have to admit that. Now, it’s not the end all be all, but let’s be real, you have starters for a reason.
Let’s examine the Dolphins M.A.S.H. unit:
- Season Ending: Josh Sitton PFF Grade 62.3
- Season Ending: Daniel Kilgore PFF Grade 53.6
- Missed part of a game and possibly this week: Laremy Tunsil PFF Grade 69.3
The replacements have been:
- Ted Larsen for Sitton: PFF Grade 53.4
- Travis Swanson for Kilgore: PFF Grade 69.8
- Sam Young for Tunsil: PFF Grade 29.2
It’s very difficult to win in this league on a consistent basis if you lose 3 out of 5 starting Offensive Linemen. And to compound this, Phins were missing both veteran Tight Ends with their rookie TE’s struggling with blocking.
Miami picked up some gems to help with the trenches
But, Nick O’Leary came in against Cincy and showed stout blocking at the point of attack. Also, Phinsnews said we liked Swanson, and he went out and had the best performance of all the Phins O-line. This isn’t just a one hit wonder. Before his slide in 2017, Swanson had an excellent 2016 Season with a PFF Grade of 74.6.
These were excellent pickups, especially this late in the season.
A good Head Coach has to intimately know the pulse of his team
Adam Gase is not one to make excuses, but he admitted that the moment Tunsil was knocked out, he felt the game slipping away. Was it because Gase knew how bad Young was? If so, how bad is Zach Sterup be inactive?
Why have Sterup on the roster if he’s that poor of a player?
Even Marvin Jones said when Miami lost their starting Left Tackle, they smelled blood in the water. Jones responded by relentlessly attacking that side with a heavy pass rush.
Tannehill should get most of the blame for the two turnovers that turned into 14 pts… but not the whole boatload.
Why didn’t Gase understand the situation and act accordingly? Miami was averaging 5.8 YPC up until this point. Every fan knew Young coming in and being paired up with Larsen would not be good. Fans also knew Tannehill has struggled in dealing with pressure for some time.
How was Gase not fully apprised of the situation?
Gase ran on 1st Down and picked up 2 yards. Still up by 7 points at that point, Gase then went 5 wides out of the shotgun. A sack followed from Larsen. Why wasn’t the right side protected with a Tight End… or two, till they got their feet wet?
Luckily, a miracle play by Drake extended the drive.
Here’s a summary of that fateful drive.
This is the preceding call to the fateful nail in the coffin.
How do you run this play? I say this more for Tannehill. How do you expect success on this critical down with this matchup of alignments? Who in their right mind would expect to win this? There are 6 in the box, a creeping Safety, a DT playing 2i Technique with the play-side LB aiming at the B Gap? Not to mention you are running wide to the short side.
Jesse Davis either must go straight for the LB and leave the DT for a free run into the backfield or do what he did. Asking him to help and then beat the LB to the spot is asking way too much. Tannehill should have called an audible… or someone should have called a timeout. Hell, you are short on blockers to boot.
The next play gets worse.
Why protect your strong side with 2 Tight Ends and leave your weak side unprotected?
Tannehill’s decision to not just throw it away, and instead make this pass, is beyond dumb. He could have bailed out his coach with a smart play here. One smart play would have given Miami an extra down to make something happen and, if not, given it to their defense up 7 pts. BTW that defense played near lights out all game.
Neither coach nor QB came up clutch. They both choked hard.
This whole drive was a poorly called series of plays. But Tannehill making this one play made Gase look like Einstein.
The synergy of a good coach and Quarterback is when one fails the other picks up the slack.
You can decide who has done what and who has not.
Khalil Mack and an exceptional defense are coming this week. If Young starts the pay per head sites like AcePerHead.com are giving Miami a snowball’s chance in hell to win. Phinsnews agrees.
The best Defensive Player in the league will feast on Young. Gase will call a poor formation or play along the way. There will be pressure on the QB. Tannehill must completely rewrite the script of how he recently deals with pressure. Sad to say, but he must return to his ‘Philbin form’ when he was beaten to hell weekly, but handled pressure well.
Luckily, Tunsil was at practice, even though he’s still in the concussion protocol. But even if he’s in, pressure for both Gase and Tannehill are coming. Can at least one of them keep their head about them when it comes?
This team can win. They have talent and heart… they are just lacking discipline. Smart, clean play for 4 quarters in Week 5 would have had them 4-1 with a big upset. But in Week 6, without Tunsil even clean play won’t be enough.
Fingers crossed. Go Phins!!!
What are the rest of the Miami Dolphins News fans thoughts about our run of injuries and what this means for the rest of the season?
Best PPH Articles:
- TOP FEATURES FOR YOUR SPORTSBOOK
- THE HIDDEN VALUE OF YOUR PLAYERS
- WHICH IS THE BEST PAY PER HEAD FOR YOU?
- THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CREDIT AND PPH AGENT
- THE BEST PAY PER HEAD SERVICE FOR 2018
