Five disappointing observations from Dolphins week one game
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins, after seven plus hours, won their opening game of the 2018 season but not all of the game was worth cheering about.
To sit here and say that the Miami Dolphins played a bad game would be ridiculous. It’s all worth noting that bringing down the good-feeling associated with the win is not something fun to do. The Dolphins played a good game on Sunday but not everything was roses.
Understand that this isn’t a negative piece, the Dolphins were unable to get any consistency given the nature of well, nature, on Sunday. Just observations that need improvement.
Ryan Tannehill – It wasn’t a surprise that Tannehill threw two interceptions. He has missed 20 games since 2016 and hardly played anything in pre-season. There was bound to be rust but two throws stood out and both were the interceptions.
The fade pattern to Mike Gesicki in the end-zone was a horrible throw that never had a chance. Even if Gesicki hadn’t slipped as he tried to turn towards the short throw it would have still likely resulted in an INT. Hard to say for certain if the TE could have at least knocked it down but that was not pretty. Tannehill has never been good with that type of route/throw and he doesn’t look like he will get better any time soon.
The second pass was the second interception. To some degree perhaps Jakeem Grant can be partially to blame. Tannehill went a lot deeper than Grant. Did Grant run the wrong pattern? Was he jammed during the route and thus had his speed taken away? Hard to tell without knowing what the play called for.
Mike Gesicki – Gesicki caught his first NFL regular season pass and it was great to see but after that he kind of disappeared. To his credit the Titans played him really tight and made sure he didn’t get off the line of scrimmage without being delayed. Sometimes with two defenders. He did well enough blocking but Miami fans want more of him in the red-zone.
Play calling – Overall the play calling seemed to be much improved over last year but that doesn’t mean that Adam Gase can’t improve more and he needs to. The Dolphins were running the ball well especially later in the game.
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Following Reshad Jones’ second interception the Dolphins had the ball on the Titans 12 yard line and were poised to put the game firmly out of reach but a bad running call lose three yards and on the next play Tannehill was sacked and lost another eight yards. Gase can’t coach to be protective, he needs to keep the throttle down and call high percentage plays. He had a chance to go for the throat but didn’t assume that the Titans would first expect a run and then didn’t anticipate a full blitz on the next play. It is a minor thing but one that should be watched.
Special Teams – Nothing special about the special teams on Sunday. Yes Jakeem Grant ran back a 98 yard touchdown on a kick-off but the Dolphins gave up one of their own two series later. Overall the kick-off unit was simply not that good. The Titans were able to make decent yards on kicks and punts. The Dolphins have to tighten this group up because they didn’t look good overall. Props to rookie Jason Sanders however who made both of his kicks and his extra points.
Number 5 – Honestly, I really can’t think of anything else that dissappointed. I would have changed the headline to four but who likes even numnbers? The truth is given the circumstances of the game it’s hard to determine if the Dolphins would have more offensive consistency without the delays. Feel free to tell us what your thoughts on the game were in the comments.