Gase Must Prove The Pursuit Of Continuity and Culture Has Value
Gase has proved to be strong enough to make the hard decisions, but will they prove to be smart as well?
Ajayi was a talented, but disgruntled complainer and Gase saw divorce as the only option
Here we are, where the rubber meets the road with Adam Gase in 2017.
After having made the biggest all-in move of his short career as the Miami Dolphins coach by shipping Pro Bowl Running Back Jay Ajayi out of town mid season, Gase has the ball in his court for a crucial prove-it-or-lose-it game to restore what many are seeing as his crumbling credibility.
Now, let’s be clear, the move had to be made.
Would I have like more than a late 4th Round pick? Hell ya! But that bone-on-bone knee might be more bone-on-bone than we plebs know. Or maybe Mike Tannenbaum was told by Gase to get Ajayi out of town by hook or by crook… and the crook was Philly ripping Miami off?
We’ll know the truth in time.
But any player who storms out of the locker room after a win because he didn’t get ‘his’ is a cancer to unity. Plain and simple. And the best remedy for cancer is to treat it immediately and aggressively, before it spreads and kills the patient.
Well, Gase has traded talent for continuity and culture, so that continuity and culture better prove to have more value than just a feel good statement. A disaster by Gase and his offense this week, combined with Ajayi having good production, would be a PR nightmare.
Miami’s Offense has been terrible… not a hot news flash, I know. But beyond the rabid discussion of exactly why it’s been terrible, one thing everyone can agree on is, the offense and play calling has been predictable and the players have all been inconsistent (which for some is another way of saying they suck).
Gase bears full responsibility for the Ajayi trade, so he must make good
I got after Gase quite hard for his schemes and play calling from the Jets game on. Both have gotten somewhat better. But this week Gase must be superb. If some guys don’t know the playbook, then whoever they are, they need lesser roles. Whatever it takes, Gase needs to prove he’s a quality HC AND play caller. No excuse will cut it.
The Dolphins staff has changed the way they teach, coach, and prepare, and the players have received as powerful a message of ‘get with the program or your gone’ as you’re ever going to see.
Gase has home field advantage, rest, the players he wants on and overboard… so this offense must produce and continuity and culture must show substantial value.
Must Gase notch a “W”?
No.
I’d ‘get’ a close loss given everything involved… as long as that offense produces about 24 points or more without long stretches of pathetic.
The Raiders are good team, despite their record, and Miami will feel the loss of Ajayi as it transitions. Then there are the banged up D-Ends Andre Branch and William Hayes, who might be missing against a stout silver and black O-Line and talented RB’s.
A loss to the Raiders would be rough, and the price per head sportsbook sites would then mark next week in Carolina a must win.
And if there’s a loss with the offense still looking like a stuttering drunk trying to tell a joke, 2017 will end in utter disaster… with the possibility of more ultimately on the line as well.
But for a second, think back to last season and the days leading up to Week 6 against the Steelers. Heck remember the talk leading up to Atlanta this year? Remember how the Miami season was finished, doomed, kaput? Well, we are there once more. Maybe, as many say, Gase is an idiot, and this is the death spiral that will end in another failed regime? But maybe, just maybe, Gase proves to be right… again. Sounds nice anyway. Go Fins!!!
…well since Dun thinks freak and I are twin nemesis’ here, I’m just going to have to agree with freak …a “close loss” is like saying anything but a blowout will make you happy …that’s akin to being happy about a grenade missing you by a foot …sigh …how low can we go
…I expect a win …really …the Raiders have lost 5 straight …make it 6
…the power of positive thinking, that’ll get ‘r done
…seeing as how Gase bet the farm on trading a top 5 RB for a bottom of the 4th draft pick, then he has to believe a whole lot of his offensive problems went with him …now I don’t share that optimism, but then I’m a negative nellie, eh
…according to the spin coming out of Davie, Ajayi was sooooooooooo baaaadddd that just setting him wasn’t going to get it done …no sirreee bob, we traded his skunky negative nellie ass for …lets see …the equivalent of another Asiata …next year …and put him on a team that looks to be a legitimate SB contender half way through the season
…sooooooooooooo
…I purely do expect the phins to win out and those poor Eagles to go into a tail-spin now that they are fair the well stuck with that negative nellie in THEIR locker room …serves them right it will, trying to make the phins FO look incompetent …like that could possibly ever be right
…yes sirreee that OL is going to perk right up and bash holes through that Raider DL and Drake is going to run for 200+ yards …you heard it here first …mark it down, eh 🙂
“a “close loss” is like saying anything but a blowout will make you happy …that’s akin to being happy about a grenade missing you by a foot …sigh …how low can we go”
First, if you look at it for a single game or a single season… yeah. I choose a less myopic view. This is about turning around a franchise. Carrol had two seasons of 7-9 before the break out, Falcons went 6-10 and 8-8 before the SB appearance as two examples. Freak goes through anything I or Jimmy write and finds a point of contention and slams it with zero context. He is he is socially maladjusted and intellectually dishonest. Did that one line embody the article? Was that the point or thesis of what I wrote? Miami is making a huge mid season change in philosophy and getting rid of a key, but incomplete, player. If they have a close game, which includes putting up a load of points, and wins next week, is that a losers mentality? Is the season over? Come on now. Don’t fall for the dark side of the force… I have been nothing but fair to you, and even gone through great lengths to search out your points of contention and present mine– that was a low and unfair blow. I expect it from Freak, he is incapable of anything else… you are more than that.
…sorry mj, but you’ve bought into the story out of Davie …I haven’t …and for the life of me, I can’t think of a single positive thing about settling for a close loss to a team that has lost 5 in a row as being a good thing, no matter how you spin it 🙁
…coming out of January they had two major problems …LB and OL …you bought into that then, so did Dun …FA was mostly a bust with the exception of Timmons, albeit he turned out to be a bit of a flake …but he did fix a major part of the problem at LB …they bought in a G who wasn’t good enough for the Bears to keep, much less make an offer to …you thought that was a fix for the OL, I said it wasn’t …and they resigned the pff worst rated G to a 3 mil contract, guaranteed …you thought he was making progress, I thought it was the worst move they could possibly make …ta da, FA was over
…then the magic draft …the 1st pick was a DE who has yet to earn a starting slot despite some highlight moments …his competition was a DE who we paid a small fortune to keep, again with a guarantee …AND we passed on the highest rated G in the draft to take that pick
…2nd pick looked like they were addressing a real problem at LB, but then they got a look at him and tried desperately to bring Misi back …Dun thinks that’s a positive, I think any 2nd pick who couldn’t beat Misi out with one hand tied behind his back is a negative …AND we passed on another highly rated G to take him
…then there was the 3rd pick, our last chance to address the OL problems before the 5th round …and we took a CB …one who wasn’t dressed for the first two games, one who they thought so much of that they went out and got a FA CB who everyone else had passed on and played him instead when Lippett was injured …and then when injuries to the two starting ahead of him finally got him on the field, he wasn’t a total fail …and Dun calls that earning a start …I don’t see it that way but then Dun’s shades tend to be more than a mite rose tinted
…what I did see is that at no time in FA or the draft did they actually try and fix the long standing problems at G …your attitude, expressed repeatedly, was that we could get by with dumpster Gs, which correlated nicely with the spin out of Davie
…I said then that we were headed for a rotten season …that we’d have to go 4-0 out of the box to even have a prayer considering how heavily loaded the rest of the schedule was against us …and that was before Lippett, Misi, and Tannehill went out for the year …not to mention Irma and the NFL screwing us out of the first decent bye in ages
…and here we are mid season facing a team that has lost five straight and you are ready to call a “close” loss to them a “win” …sorry mj, but I’m with freak on that …8 weeks into the season and our offense sucks so bad that you’re ready to call a projected loss a win …and then there’s the Ajayi trade …the guy we were going to ride to the SB is suddenly persona non grata with Gase, you, and staggeringly, his biggest fan here, Dun …who appears to have bought into it as well …the Jay-Train just flat ran off the tracks …who would have thought that was possible 8 weeks ago?
…I try to be fair minded, I do …but the spin here is that the offense is dead because Gase suddenly got Alzheimers …which I think is ludicrous, period …replace the interior line with something other than 3rd string Gs and a palsied C and Gase would suddenly, miraculously return to the coach who took us to the playoffs last year …and Ajayi would be having another pro-bowl year on our way to the playoffs once more
…we had the opportunity and cap to do that before the season started …we didn’t …ergo, here we are …imnsho of course
…which is worth exactly what it cost you, eh
…ps …I hope the phins win tomorrow, Drake runs for 200 yds behind a solid OL, Cutler throws for 300 with no picks, and our D has a shutout …I know that’s delirious but I’m a phin fan, really …on any given Sunday 🙂
It’s not your points that I disagree with, or heck even Freaks point– it’s his ulterior motives and tone that irks me–they are valid, although not concrete, until the end of next week’s game. I have shown expressly in the last film study that WR blocking, RB blocking, TE blocking, Tunsil, Landry, and even Gase’s calls were on a much higher scale of what went wrong than the interior OL. Heck, my balls were busted about Davis, yet in his first start PFF graded him an 80.2… no mention of that–no even a peep. If the OL gets destroyed for the next 2 weeks, then fair is fair. But fair is fair should be applied evenly. No? The next 2 weeks will be near concrete in validating all the thesis’ of all on this blog. But to make sweeping judgments either way until then is premature. As an example, Freak said Miami was dead after the Saints game… then after the Titans he goes all but silent, aside from a few excuses that the wins meant nothing because… , then whammo! Dolphins get creamed by the Ravens and the peacock shows his feathers. He did the same thing last year against the Titans, then he went submarine only to rise when he found opportunity to feel good about himself. The article I wrote said the next 2 weeks will have season wide and maybe even greater consequences. It spoke about the full range of results and their consequences–that’s context. I stand by that. If this means I’m an idiot and know nothing about football, then so be it. Of course, I find it funny that such heavy consequences are never applied to all the many wrong predictions and analysis from others. Interesting. Lemmus, you’re my guy… one of the best… I stand by that as well.
“Must Gase notch a “W”?
No.
I’d ‘get’ a close loss given everything involved… as long as that offense produces about 24 points or more without long stretches of pathetic.”
There you go folks….a loss is acceptable so long as the offense looks good! Wow. How low expectations have become. That says everything about this franchise and fan base.
Imagine that attitude in NE, Pitt, NY, Dallas….shame.