Week 12: Gase & Tannehill Start Regime Defining Stand

M.J.

6 years ago

Gase & Tannehill can either flip or cement perception over the next 6 weeks

Gase & Tannehill are joined at the hip… they sink or swim together.

Love or dislike Adam Gase and Ryan Tannehill, if you are a Miami Dolphins fan you want them to win.

Should Miami moves on from one or both men, uncertainty will swarm over the franchise. While this uncertainty may bring positive winds of change, odds are it will only bring success at an equal or lesser level to what’s in place now.

But, it’s hard not to feel that a roll of the dice is better than this perpetual stagnation. Unending ‘meh‘ is as bad as losing.

The best case scenario for the franchise and fans is that a great epiphany strikes both Gase & Tannehill. If Miami goes 4-2 over the next 6 games and pulls off even a single Post Season victory fans would unite in a chorus of Kumbaya. Past ‘sins’ of Gase & Tannehill would be forgotten. This scenario is no small feat… it would be a minor miracle and a legitimate case for both men to return in 2019.

Is this Hollywood scenario likely?

No. But, the NFL has had plenty of unlikely Cinderella stories over the course if its history, and Miami is long overdue to receive a blessing from the football Gods.

The Colts game this week will all but determine whether this ‘2018 Phins fantasy’ has legs or not.

Adam Gase and Matt Burke have had two weeks to prepare and the players two weeks to rest. Yes, this game will be a tough one, and the Dolphins are terrible on the road. The 10 points that the price per head bookie sites like AcePerHead.com are giving Indianapolis over Miami clearly shows how tough a win will be. But despite the odds, Miami has the advantage of game preparation. That’s what good coaches do after a Bye Week: Win.

Greatness rises above circumstance…

Gase has had at least once shocking win a season. He almost had it with Cincy in Week 5. But an ‘almost win’ this week will mean an almost dead 2018 Season. This isn’t horseshoe or hand grenade tossing. Gase must nail this one to show that 2016 wasn’t a mirage. It’s time for the Phins to rise above the situation, instead of just drifting along in mediocrity.

Even a little hope goes a long way.

The same can be said for Tannehill… if he plays, which it looks like he will. Tannehill must swallow the pressure of the situation and shoot bullets… not blanks stares after turnovers. This is Tannehill’s ‘make it or break it season’ 3.0. He has had a couple of mulligans already… No more free passes.

The time is now for Tannehill: Put up or pack up.

Miami is desperate for the ‘W’ and had twice the amount of time as the Colts had to prepare. Gase & Tannehill must grab the smelling salts, dial in a crucial victory, and prove they aren’t who we thought they were…

…Or they could just crawl in the corner and start the collapse. One extreme or the other is best in my mind.

Week 12 of the 2018 Season is a regime-defining moment.

A win or loss doesn’t end or make the season… but it will go a long, long way towards assuring one end of the spectrum or the other.

There is another possibility other than sink or swim over these next six games…

…and that’s the worst case scenario possible:

Remember, Steven Ross chose Adam Gase despite the advice of Mike Tannenbaum to hire a veteran coach. Ross bragged after Miami’s 2016 Post Season appearance about how he had chosen Gase. He publicly boasted like a proud father on numerous occasions that Miami had finally found a good coach. I feel for Ross, he is a fan of the Dolphins and wants them to win. He has done everything in his power to get this team to win. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been enough.

Canning Gase & Tannenbaum after an 8-8 season will likely be too big a piece of humble pie to swallow–unless Gase crashes and burns… and maybe not even then. The carnage of players on I.R. serves as the perfect excuse to say, ‘one more year’ for Gase and Co.

As for me, 4-2 over these next six games, Playoffs or not, is the baseline to have Gase & Tannehill return in 2019. I believe both are capable to pull it off… But it will take more than just the same ole’, same ole’ that we hear from Gase in his post-game conference. It will take real change… not platitudes. Go Phins!!!

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