What Happened to Tua & the Offense???
The whole played poorly, but the Offense was awful!
When Tua and the offense played poorly against the 49ers, the most fans chalked it up to the fact that the 49ers have one of the best defenses in the league, Terron Armstead out of the game, and Tua being over pumped. However, Tua and the Offense just faced a Chargers defense that was decimated by injuries and were downright man handled by a bunch of second stringers in the secondary.
So, what the heck happened?
How could the Miami Dolphins fail so big in a critical game on a prime-time stage?
Dolphins Offense has sputtered for 2 weeks
The Chargers had a plan that worked to perfection. They bullied the Dolphins receivers at the line and played terrific coverage all night. If it was not for a fluky fumble recovery touchdown by Hill and one long bomb where the defender’s legs got tangled up, the Phins could have very well have been shut out of the endzone. If I remember correctly Tua threw for 25 yards in the first half and if it was not for the 60-yard play to Hill, he wouldn’t even have cracked the 100-yard passing mark for the game.
Tua ended the night 10 for 28 for 145 yards 1 touchdown, sacked twice, and had a 65.3% rating, which was arguably his worst game of the season. The concern now is that it is now two bad games in a row for Tua and this offense. What’s worse, Miami looked totally out of synch with Tua missing badly on quite a few throws.
Has the rest of the league now found a blueprint to stop the Dolphins offense?
McDaniel needs to be more than a one-trick pony
Tua and the offense have feasted over the middle of the field against opposing defenses. However, the last two games, both the Chargers and 49ers have clogged up the middle of the field and taken that off the table for this Dolphin offense. In addition, the Dolphins running attack has not done them any favors. Now, with Jeff Wilson with a hip injury, this lack of running attack might get even worse as the season wears on. Miami has shown zero interest in running the ball, which will definitely be a problem in cold weather games. And if they can even make the playoffs, this will not get any better against top quality teams.
You can bet with the best pay per head that Tua and the offense must find a way to get in sync… and fast! Bad news is the schedule only gets more difficult in this upcoming game up in Buffalo. There is already a 40% chance of snow for that Saturday night game, which is not a good forecast for a passing offense that has looked completely out of rhythm. A loss in Buffalo will quickly get them to 8-6 with a three-game losing streak and plenty of ground given up in the wild card race.
The Dolphins may have all but kissed goodbye their chance to win the division, and losses to the Bengals and Chargers might cost them even a wildcard spot it they don’t heat up soon.
Can this team regroup and get back on track and still make the playoffs?
I really don’t know.
Fellow Dolphins Fans, what I am about to say is just shear speculation at this point. I was driving on Monday and a local sports pundit was talking about the Dolphins/Chargers game. This announcer had a lot of praise for Tua this season, and put a lot of the blame on McDaniels and the coaching staff. However, he stated that Tua has not looked comfortable in the pocket, but skittish the past two weeks. He said that had the Dolphins picked Herbert, you can not with assurance state that the team would be better now. He also mentioned that two concussions and a bum ankle to add to that, still, Tua has tried to be a fierce competitor.
Now the pure speculation part. The announcer said that he still would not be surprised if during the off-season, the team did not very, very, aggresively pursue Lamar Jackson! He said Jackson would be an upgrade over Tua and give the Dolphins a whole new level of offense. To have Jackson running around with the receivers this team has would mean lot of very big and explosive plays down field. Something Tua has not been great at. For Tua to succeed, he must have what he had at Alabama, a solid/top OL, strong running game to play off of. Now Tua has Jackson beat on his quick release and is extremely accurate short-medium passing game. However, he lacks the arm for the deep ball. This guy said that with Lamar Jackson, Miami very well could have won both games because there is NO WAY they can play the defense they played and maintain it. Sooner or later, the inside safeties and CB’s which funneled Hill and Waddle to the outside could keep this up with Jackson running either himself, or the scramble. Hill and Waddle would most certainly get open since they would have to break coverage. Jackson forces a defense to play side-line to side-line.
I like Tua and am happy for him and what he had done this year. I myself was more for Herbert. I saw him in the senior bowl run for (3) TD’s, plus he has a cannon like Allen. I was not disappointed with Tua though. I think this guy is right. Give Tua the OL and running game and he will kill teams. Jackson gives us another lethal level that Tua does not have. After some thought, I believe that this could happen. Miami is where he is from, Jackson grew up a big Dolphins Fan, and has formerly stated he wants out of Baltimore and Miami would be a very desired destination per Jackson. We will see. Everyone now second guessing Tua. One thing I do believe, Ross is very impatient and wants a championship in his lifetime. I don’t think Tua and Dolphins have long to figure this out if he really is their man or not. Others thoughts.
Ross has already put the Kibosh on this year’s draft . So it may take 2 more years to fix the offensive line and running game problems !
Jimmy,
OL is not there yet! Tua needs a complimentary offense with a good ground game. This is what he had at Alabama, and that is why he was so successful. Tua is not Lamar Jackson, Fields, Mahomes, who can make consistent plays with his legs. This will not get fixed this season. Improving the OL and getting a running game should be the major emphasis this off-season. Without it, this team will not win a championship or even go deep into the playoffs, should we even make it. Williams needs to go to LG and we need to either draft a top tier collegiate center, or get one via FA.
McDaniels has been out-coached the last two games. I know he is only a first year HC, but you said it completely, he needs to employ some different schemes and wrinkles. 13 games have come and gone. There is plenty of tape on our offense. Changes must be made! How about some reverses, wheel routes, screens, etc. from our RB’s. Draws, mis-directions, and maybe the occasional flea flicker off the run game. Not to mention that we also need consistent play from TE position. Gesecki will not be retained after this season. He will be too expensive and is not consistent enough to consider keeping.
Jimmy, I feel that the all too often Dolphins December swoon is here! This team has a hard time winning in December, and we certainly have not done historically well on the west-coast. I hate to be pessimistic, but I would not be surprised if this team does not make the playoffs. Chris Grier has really done all he can this season by adding. Fisher, Shell, Wilson, Chubb. Without a better run game and execution with some new schemes, it does not look good! So sorry Dolphins Fans for the downer!