Phins came out fast… and ran out of gas even faster
The Dolphins crashed hard up in the thin air of Mile High losing to the Broncos 20-13. With their five-game win streak snapped, the Phins now head to New York to face the Jets in a critical division game. Add to the concern, rookie Tua Taglovia was benched for poor performance and veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick moved a stagnant offense but threw a critical interception to end the game.
What should a fan make of the situation now?
First, the sky isn’t falling… and unfortunately, everything isn’t ‘breezy’ either. This week had all the makings of a trap game and most of the team responded well. It was the offensive rookies that were the weak link, but the keyword here is ‘rookies’.
Still, there’s no doubt the Phins playoffs chances took a hit.
Offensive rookies were full of ‘rookie blues’ in Denver
Austin Jackson was beaten early and often one-on-one and with stunts.
Solomon Kindley battled a bad foot and struggled against a very tough defensive front until he was replaced.
Tua had his 1st taste of pressure since the Rams game and didn’t respond well. Uneasy in the pocket, he was slow to get through his progressions and was inaccurate.
Starting three rookies at different points on the offensive line along with a rookie quarterback clearly has some drawbacks for this season as it has advantages for the next.
Plenty of Phins stepped up though
Veterans leadership: DeVante Parker is a stud and Xavien Howard is a ballhawk.
Young guns rising Andrew Van Ginkel is becoming a force and Raekwon Davis is finding his way with back-to-back quality outings.
The defense as a whole played excellently and made a crucial 4th Down stop. Missing Christian Wilkens and Davon Godchaux were too much of a loss for a run-heavy attack.
The elephant in the room is the move from Tua to Fitzpatrick.
It was clear that had Fitzmagic started in Denver, Miami would have put a better effort on offense. Maybe it would have been enough for the win? Is that really a shocker, though? Fitzpatrick has 16 seasons as an NFL QB, that time in the grind gives him a huge edge in handling pressure and going through his reads. The offensive line didn’t have a good day and beyond the rookies, veteran LG Ereck Flowers made too many mistakes. There was a reason Fitzpatrick had a release time of 2.7 seconds. The blockers on offense didn’t set the table for the kid to have success.
Things could get dicey if Tua isn’t supported better and doesn’t handle pressure better
This trade-off of talent over experience should have been expected when Tua was given the start. This moment was clearly coming. After Tua’s 1st start, his mobility offset Fitzpatrick’s experience and he looked fine. Unfortunately for rookies, the NFL is all about adapting.
We now have a small trend staring us in the face. In Tua’s 1st and 4th starts he looked terrible when facing a pressure defense without a lead. In his 2nd and 3rd starts, he had the lead and didn’t face much pressure.
Is this ‘trend’ the end all be all?
Nope!
This is the general formula to beat any rookie QB. Force rookie QBs to go deep into their progressions and apply pressure. Most of the time it works until it doesn’t… or they get canned. If this were Tua’s second season, I’d be concerned, so for now, this is just ‘rookie blues’ in my book. Still, you can bet with the pay per head services like www.AcePerHead.com that this is exactly the recipe every D-coordinator is going to dial up until Tua proves he can handle it.
There is no ducking adversity in the NFL.
With the Phins in the hunt for a playoff spot, what happens if he responds that same way again? Will he get pulled again? And, if not, what will the team think? What will Tua think if he keeps getting pulled?
The only way to resolve this issue is to attack it head on and beat it. Tua, the offensive blockers, and the staff all need to do better.
The next two weeks will be critical. Tua has shown the ability to grow and Flores the ability to teach. Both men and their talents will be at the center stage of all things Miami Dolphins this week. Go Phins!!!
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The Bronkowski’s were ready for us. Their defense looked good! Their linemen just outclassed our defense. They ran the ball to set up the pass. All of our rookie learning turned into rookie mistakes! Oh well! There is always next week! Tua will get better and he will learn more about those second and third reads! The line will get healthy! We were red hot! We can do this again!
They have the book on Tua now… Rams had it and the Cards, chargers, and Jets couldn’t or didn’t use it. Now, with the success of the Broncs it will be the deal for Tua until he beats it. Things is the Rams and Broncs have good fronts, not every team has that. They will try and scheme up pressure and force him into his later reads. Also, until he proves dangerous on the ground, teams won’t put much priotity in him on the RPOs. They will force him to read and throw to beat them. We will certainly get a real read on Tua by season’s end. He isn’t a gifted arm, so he needs to win with his brains. If he can’t, he’ll be like Baker is with the Browns. Good against bad teams decent against decent teams and bad against good teams. It will be very interesting. The good news it’s in his control. He’s young… Jets will bring heat this week.
Good article. The Broncos defense was outstanding and they essentially really won the game. Dolphins weaknesses were exposed for all to see. Rookie QB, same old poor running attack, poor inability to consistently stop the run! In the NFL if you can’t stop the run and in turn, run the ball, winning is tough. This is our biggest need in the off-season. On defense we need a pro bowl caliber MLB, and a dominant “beast” NT/DT that can bottle up the middle and funnel running plays outside for our LB’s to pursue. On offense, need to draft with one of our two 1st round picks a top flight RT to protect Tua’s blind side and allow Jesse Davis to be our RG. If this team does make the playoffs, we will be most likely out just as fast as we got in. With these two glaring weaknesses in the run game, not much of chance to win against playoff caliber teams. Fans should not get discouraged as we are in year 2 of the rebuilding process and this is a process. Actually, we are doing much better than I thought the team would be doing at this stage of the game given the very “hard” re-set that was organizational from top to bottom. Tua and Flores were asked about a prospective foot injury that Tua had. Both said it was nothing, but I think it was a little more than that because his mobility seemed a little limited. Fangio is an excellent DC in his day, and I am sure that they felt Tua may be limited in his mobility so all the more reason to get after him. Upcoming are two very winnable games Jets & Bengals. Jets suck, but they are a rival and could manage to win 1 game, so I worry it is against us! Bengals minums Burrow should all but be lock in Miami! Finally, here is my read for the 2021 draft vs. current team needs: 1st Round: MLB, RT, 2nd Round NT/DL, OLB. I could see maybe with the 2nd of our 2 second round picks giving Tua more weapons, or even perhaps an OG? Your thoughts MJ?
Thanks a ton, brother. “Both said it was nothing, but I think it was a little more than that because his mobility seemed a little limited. ” This is a good point, but it’s also a concern that he is already injured. “Fangio is an excellent DC in his day, and I am sure that they felt Tua may be limited in his mobility so all the more reason to get after him.” He is and so is the Jets DC. The Bengals game is a win… the Jets game could be tough. Tua had a very poor game though. The Ol wasn’t good, but some of those sacks came about because Tua froze and didn’t get rid of the ball. I thought some line calls might have been off.., Doing a whole offensive game vid now and going over it with a fine-toothed comb. Brieda isn’t good either. Don’t like him as a runner or his pass blocking. We are missing Gaskin. I like Ahmed, though. But, he isn’t as well rounded yet. This week is a big one… the O-players could start to toon out if he freezes again. Tua will make his money with his brain. He doesn’t have elite arm talent… he must win with his brain… What an interesting game coming up, Steve!
The Bronkowski’s were ready for us. Their defense looked good! Their linemen just outclassed our defense. They ran the ball to set up the pass. All of our rookie learning turned into rookie mistakes! Oh well! There is always next week! Tua will get better and he will learn more about those second and third reads! The line will get healthy! We were red hot! We can do this again!
They have the book on Tua now… Rams had it and the Cards, chargers, and Jets couldn’t or didn’t use it. Now, with the success of the Broncs it will be the deal for Tua until he beats it. Things is the Rams and Broncs have good fronts, not every team has that. They will try and scheme up pressure and force him into his later reads. Also, until he proves dangerous on the ground, teams won’t put much priotity in him on the RPOs. They will force him to read and throw to beat them. We will certainly get a real read on Tua by season’s end. He isn’t a gifted arm, so he needs to win with his brains. If he can’t, he’ll be like Baker is with the Browns. Good against bad teams decent against decent teams and bad against good teams. It will be very interesting. The good news it’s in his control. He’s young… Jets will bring heat this week.
MJ,
Good article. The Broncos defense was outstanding and they essentially really won the game. Dolphins weaknesses were exposed for all to see. Rookie QB, same old poor running attack, poor inability to consistently stop the run! In the NFL if you can’t stop the run and in turn, run the ball, winning is tough. This is our biggest need in the off-season. On defense we need a pro bowl caliber MLB, and a dominant “beast” NT/DT that can bottle up the middle and funnel running plays outside for our LB’s to pursue. On offense, need to draft with one of our two 1st round picks a top flight RT to protect Tua’s blind side and allow Jesse Davis to be our RG. If this team does make the playoffs, we will be most likely out just as fast as we got in. With these two glaring weaknesses in the run game, not much of chance to win against playoff caliber teams. Fans should not get discouraged as we are in year 2 of the rebuilding process and this is a process. Actually, we are doing much better than I thought the team would be doing at this stage of the game given the very “hard” re-set that was organizational from top to bottom. Tua and Flores were asked about a prospective foot injury that Tua had. Both said it was nothing, but I think it was a little more than that because his mobility seemed a little limited. Fangio is an excellent DC in his day, and I am sure that they felt Tua may be limited in his mobility so all the more reason to get after him. Upcoming are two very winnable games Jets & Bengals. Jets suck, but they are a rival and could manage to win 1 game, so I worry it is against us! Bengals minums Burrow should all but be lock in Miami! Finally, here is my read for the 2021 draft vs. current team needs: 1st Round: MLB, RT, 2nd Round NT/DL, OLB. I could see maybe with the 2nd of our 2 second round picks giving Tua more weapons, or even perhaps an OG? Your thoughts MJ?
Thanks a ton, brother.
“Both said it was nothing, but I think it was a little more than that because his mobility seemed a little limited. ” This is a good point, but it’s also a concern that he is already injured.
“Fangio is an excellent DC in his day, and I am sure that they felt Tua may be limited in his mobility so all the more reason to get after him.” He is and so is the Jets DC. The Bengals game is a win… the Jets game could be tough. Tua had a very poor game though. The Ol wasn’t good, but some of those sacks came about because Tua froze and didn’t get rid of the ball. I thought some line calls might have been off.., Doing a whole offensive game vid now and going over it with a fine-toothed comb. Brieda isn’t good either. Don’t like him as a runner or his pass blocking. We are missing Gaskin. I like Ahmed, though. But, he isn’t as well rounded yet. This week is a big one… the O-players could start to toon out if he freezes again. Tua will make his money with his brain. He doesn’t have elite arm talent… he must win with his brain… What an interesting game coming up, Steve!