The Good

Is Tua Tagovailoa finally showing he is the man? Against a top pass defense with little pass protection to speak of and limited weapons, Tua went 27 of 31 for 230 yards and 1 touchdown.

Is Jaylen Waddle finally showing he is a franchise wide receiver? 9 catches for 137 yards and a TD with a long of 57 is a far cry from the running back YPC we have been seeing from Waddle all year.

Is Jaelan Phillips finally showing he was worth a first round pick? 3 sacks, 4 QB hits and 1 pass defensed. It seems he is growing into the linebacker role.

The defense was monstrous, allowing only 64 yards rushing, 134 yards passing and amassing 3 INTs and 5 sacks.

The special teams unit blocked a punt and converted it for a touchdown.

The Bad

The offensive line provided little protection for Tua and few running lanes for the running backs. Botched snaps were also a problem.

The Ugly

Turnovers, blocked punts, special teams TDs. These were staples of the 2020 Dolphins that are making an appearance a little too late in 2021. It makes one wonder, what happened in the first half of the season that none of these things were happening and now they are? Is it a young team finally coming of age?

Overall

The Dolphins have won four in a row after starting off 1-7 and losing some very winnable games against bad teams. Now they are beating tougher teams like the Ravens and Panthers. Again, where was this early in the season? Where were the special teams and defensive plays that changed games? That were a staple of the 2020 Dolphins? And why have these things reappeared? Now the Dolphins are a couple of games out of a playoff spot and Flores is making a case for keeping his job another year. Come to think of it, so is Grier with the recent success of Waddle, Phillips and Holland, who appear to be three future playmakers for this team.

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Thanks, Rich!



Such a strange team. I think Miami's offseason moves had an impact on this team and it took them half a season to trust Flores and Grier. I remember just prior to the winning streak that Flores had a meeting with the team, and everyone came out of it inspired. I think losing veteran leaders and inserting young players had some impact.




They should be back, and hopefully they learned some lessons from this offseason. I see several Dolphin FAs being resigned and a couple of offensive line FAs also signed. It's going to be an expensive free agency ahead of us. The Dolphins also need a back up QB who can think a little faster than Brissett. The biggest thing that Flores needs to learn is why the heck his teams always start the season slowly.

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A lot of youth on the team and a lot of turnover in the coaching staff may have some effect on the slow start of course injuries to the qb did not help any either.

Nice write up Rich, thanks.

Nice work Rich.

I would add that Tua is making the case to not be replaced as well.

Unless there is a massive drop off in the final month I'm willing to guess that all three (Tua, Flores, Grier) are back next year.

I don't think Miami squeaks into the playoffs this year with upcoming road games in New Orleans and Tennessee. They literally have to win out and that is a tall order. However, I believe they have a puncher's chance at 8 wins (with an upset over NE in the final game).

The Saints and Titans are not playing that well now and look very beatable. Will we have Parker and Dieter back by then? That would help us a lot. If we play the way we have the last three weeks, we will be 9-7 going into the New England game. If we stay healthy, I think that will happen.

Will Canned Newton be dressing up against us for NOLA & TEN?

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Remember the Dec swoon and now it's the Sept swoon.

Add Jason Sanders to the bad list, in my opinion

Thats an interesting question makes me wonder if Lamar Jackson will be dressing up against us for NOLA and TEN?

It is more about playing on the road against fringe playoff teams. Titans were missing a lot pieces yesterday. The Saints may not have a QB, but playing the Dome is never easy.

Well, in East's defense you can argue that Lamar Jackson has looked as bad as Newton in his last few games. 7 picks and sacked 9 times (under 7 YPA in those games).

I would sign up to play against him. I think Miami really exposed how you beat him and if it wasn't for a completely inept Browns offense (who was exposed by the Pats) he'd have thrown away another game last night.

The really good news for Miami is that if the defense stays healthy the remaining QBs they face can be easily rattled. Just have to hope Tua stays efficient and the ground game is solid (I really like the Phillip Lindsay addition).

While running the table seems like a long shot, all the remaining teams have had their fair share of bad games, and we have a shot a beating all of them. We should win most of the remaining games. The Pats are probably our toughest remaining opponent and we have them at home. We very well may end up at 9-8 at the end.

However, I do agree that it is a little too late to make the playoffs. We needed to win a couple of the early games.....

IF we win out and end up 10-7, we stand a very good chance of making it. That’s a VERY tall task for a team that can’t effectively run the ball and has a Swiss cheese offensive line.
All the teams in the AFC look beatable. The only team we seem to be guaranteed to lose to is the Bills. They have our number on their bathroom wall.


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This is why I put $3k on GB.

Go. Pack. Go.

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8-6-7-5-3-0-9?

But the Packers played an NFC team this week……



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If Lamar was able to be traded right now do you think there would be NFL teams that would trade for him.

A video has just surfaced from 5 weeks ago showing Coach Flo motivating his players.

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To win the SB

Not that I ever tune in anymore but it’ll be another added bonus just knowing how irritated the talking heads on BSPN will be after that man takes home the NFL trifecta of regular season MVP, Super Bowl champion and SB MVP

Can somebody say….triggered?

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Of course. But it doesn't change the fact that he has played terribly lately. Big difference between a young guy coaches will take a chance on and an old, broken guy.

I don't know that Lamar can consistently be "the guy" that everyone thought he would become. Even former TE Christian Fauria (who does sports radio up here in Boston) said today that Lamar has been figured out.

The same thing happened with Kaepernick which is why he isn’t playing in the NFL. If he were all that good, someone would have looked past his outspoken opinion on soup to nuts and signed the guy.


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Lamar played at my HS. He’s a great dude and one of the best true football players you could have on your team…but he isn’t a sustainable NFL QB. Harbaugh and co. may look to trade him or move on if he continues to spiral.

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I'll take it a step further. Josh Allen has thrown 7 interceptions in his last 4 games with mixed overall results. Justin Herbert has thrown 6 interceptions in his last 5 games with mixed results. We roast Tua for one boneheaded throw buts he has a third of the supporting talent those guys are working with.

When you get mobile guys with big arms, defensive coordinators eventually find their weaknesses. If they can't play backyard or modern day college ball with broken plays you find that their processing ability is far less adequate than the hype suggests. I always cite Joe Flacco as the big example. He did great when surrounded by wonderful talent. Then they paid him the big bucks and asked him to carry an inferior supporting cast...and now he's the triple backup in NY while Matt Ryan (from the same class) is still a borderline franchise guy.

Cam Newton is a victim of both ego and injury, but I'm not sure he ever had the ability to overcome defenses with quick processing. Same for the above mentioned. And without AJ Brown and Julio Jones, we saw Tannehill regress back to nightmare form.

The only QBs who have that combo of processing and backyard ability are Mahomes, Rodgers and Wilson (which is why each has won at a high level). Plenty of others pile stats and regular season wins.

The more I think on it the more I am optimistic about Miami's chances of winning their next 4 games. The defense is proving to be THAT GOOD (if they stay healthy).

You give more insight in 4 paragraphs than ESPN does an entire afternoon of broadcasting

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....and Jammer does it without all the back and forth bickering and useless banter.

Great write up Rich. I always look forward to these. The offensive line issue is an interesting one. Watching the game it seemed like they were as bad as usual, or maybe slightly less horrible but still no where resembling good. Yet, I think I read today that only Austin Reiter gave up more than one pressure, to go with his 2 awful snaps that cost us dearly. It doesn't seem to jibe with what my eyes told me, but maybe I was just expecting them to be bad. Of course, the fact that the game plan called for Tua getting rid of the ball super fast negated a lot of the pressures that no doubt would have been there otherwise.

Something I have said prior. Many Miami fans never watch other QBs play with the same eye as they do a Miami QB and never take into account the talent around the other Qbs.

There are two different evaluations from Dolphin fans. Other teams QBs are compared to no one. Dolphins quarterbacks are compared to HOF QB Dan Marino in his prime.

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Wow, that’s a pretty convincing comparison. You got TD/INT, yards, completion percentage, qb rating, and W/L. Can’t get much clearer than that. Yet people still dog on Tua.


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I dunno man…I think I might take those xtra 200 passing yards brehh

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