It's not the loss that irritates me, I was expecting it.
It's not the 5-8 record that irritates me either, like I've said time and time again, this is a bridge year.
It's not even the fact that the Fins last two losses were theirs for the taking, and both times they failed miserably.
I don't care about any of that, this is a young team and these things are expected.
It's the way the Miami Dolphins are losing these games that has my patience wearing ever so thin.
It's the one big mistake EVERY SINGLE GAME that somebody in the aqua and orange seems to make, that really gets under my skin. Today it was punt returner Marcus Thigpen, somebody who's been a bright spot for most of the season, who was the culprit. With the game at a 6-3 deadlock early in the third quarter, Thigpen fumbled a punt inside the Dolphins 10 yard line, setting up a Frank Gore TD run to put the 49ers up by ten.
That was the backbreaker, the gut wrenching turnover that ultimately, I believe, was the difference in this game.
The Fins are no stranger to this however, as the EXACT same thing happened a week ago against New England. Remember the Brandon Fields fumbled snap inside his own ten? These are the mistakes that the Miami Dolphins make every single week, and the fact is they're just not good enough to win against good teams, like the Patriots and 49ers, when they give them the ball at the ten yard line.
Yet I see no progress.
Don't go anywhere, I'm not done yet.
The play-calling, the bland, vanilla, mind numbingly boring play-calling, is really starting to irritate me as well. First and ten? Run up the middle. Second and eight? Delayed draw up the middle. Third and five? Incompletion/four yard checkdown/sack. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.
Get creative Mike Sherman!
Start having some input Joe Philbin!
The play-calling the last two weeks has been so conservative that one can only assume that every member of the Miami Dolphins has to be a Republican. That's the only answer I can come up with!
I realize the Dolphins have ZERO playmaking wide receivers, believe me, nobody gets that more than I do, but when you have the league's 3rd ranked rush defense stuffing every single run for a two yard gain, why would you keep running at them? Why not let your rookie QB make some plays for you? Why not change something up, Mike Sherman?
The offensive play-calling is beginning to fall right under the definition of insanity. Don't think so? Please, go check out the definition then report back to me.
Am I done? Oh no, there's more.
Why is every single receiver, week after week, WIDE open nine times out of ten? Last week it was Wes Welker, today it was Michael Crabtree, and next week I'm willing to bet it'll be Justin Blackmon. The reality is this secondary is just not very good, and it hasn't been for a long, long time. Sean Smith has played well at times this year, but for the most part he's been no different than the rest of the Miami Dolphins secondary- just plain mediocre.
Notice to DC Kevin Coyle, the zone defense DOES NOT WORK, so please, I beg you, stop throwing it out there. You don't have the personel to run a zone defense, and with every wide open receiver it becomes more and more evident.
Okay, almost done, just one more.
Brian Hartline, Davone Bess, Marlon Moore, all three of you, is there any way you could help out your rookie QB? Anything at all?
Brian Hartline was wide open in the first quarter after catching a Ryan Tannehill pass, and had only one man standing between him and the endzone. Brandon Marshall makes that man miss. Reggie Wayne makes that man miss. Heck, even Michael Crabtree makes that man miss (we should know, he made a dozen Dolphin defenders miss today). But Hartline? Nope, he just fell to the grass.
A symbol for this 2012 season.
How about Marlon Moore? With the Fins trailing by two TD's early in the fourth quarter, Ryan Tannehill bought himself some time in the pocket, stepped up, and unloaded one of the best passes he's thrown all year deep down the sideline to a streaking Marlon Moore. It was a sure fire TD for the Fins, it was going to bring them within seven with plenty of time left, momentum was headed towards the Miami sideline!
And then Moore dropped it. The same phantom tackler that took down Hartline earlier in the game made his way over to Moore, and knocked the perfectly thrown pass right out of his hands.
These are the plays that winning football teams make. Those are the catches that real wide receivers make, especially for their rookie QB. But, just as it's gone all season long for the Miami Dolphins, the plays just were not made today. The big, crunch time, throws just weren't caught.
No, today, just like last week, was more of the same from these Miami Dolphins. They found a way to make the big mistake, and they couldn't find a way to recover from it.
Like I said, I don't care about the loss, it is what it is, I expected it.
But it's the way these Miami Dolphins are losing that raises a red flag for me. Week after week it's the the same mistakes, the same conservative play-calling, and the same missed opportunities that continue to hurt this young group.
I understand mistakes, they're going to happen, but at some point, they've got to be corrected.
Or else you just become a broken record.
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