There are some key points to take away from the Miami Dolphin’s loss against the Buffalo Bills. Surprisingly, there are some positive notes to take away from a not-so-positive game. The negative takeaways from this game were obvious, but we’ll talk about them anyway.
- Tua Tagovailoa walked away from this game Un-Injured
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           Now, this isn’t satire; to me, this is actually a positive. Heading into Week 5 last year, the Miami Dolphins were without their starting QB, and his future was unclear. Tua took many hits in the game against the Bills, and I surprisingly didn’t have to hold my breath the whole time. He displayed good body control when taking hits and it was great to see his head not hitting the ground. Even after Defensive Tackle DaQuan Jones landed on Tagovailoa with full body weight, Tua got back up unscathed. The added muscle and jiu-jitsu training during the off-season seems to have been effective. Of course, we’d like to see Tua not taking hits at all. But this season’s 3-1 start is already looking better than last year’s 3-1 start. After our first loss last season, we went on to lose our next two games with an injured Tua unable to play. This season, we’re headed into our next game with a healthy starting QB after a physical game. Unlike last season, we’re in good shape to bounce back after this loss.
- De’Von Achane is Legit
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           I will be the first to admit I was wrong about De’Von Achane. I thought he’d be a gadget player and couldn’t take on an every down-back role. While it has only been two games, he seems to be more than capable of taking on that role. Achane has 6 TDs and is currently the 4th leading rusher in the NFL. Achane runs with patience and burst; he always finds a way to get positive yardage. A huge concern before the season started was Achane’s size and the handling of the physicality of the NFL. But he runs with great balance and rarely goes down at the first tackle attempt. I’m sure Miami will continue to use Achane and Raheem Mostert as a 1-2 punch, but Achane deserves more workload and a bigger role on this offense. The silver lining from this game is Miami may have found their franchise RB.
- The Offensive Line is a Concern
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           There isn’t a need for overreaction just yet. The Buffalo Bills have a Top 5 defensive line in the NFL, and this was the offensive line’s first formidable opponent. It didn’t help to be missing their starting Center, Connor Williams, and for Left Tackle Terron Armstead to go down during the game. The Offensive line has held up just fine in the first three games of the season, only allowing one sack. This was the first game the offensive line imploded, so it may not be time to hit the panic button just yet. But there will be questions to answer soon. The first thing that needs to be answered is regarding Armstead’s future with the team and whether Miami will need to start looking for a backup plan at LT. That backup plan could be Swing Tackle Kendall Lamm. Though it’s not promised he’ll sign back with Miami next season. Miami was aware of Armstead’s health history and age when they signed him, but they can’t afford him to be in and out of the lineup when he’s such a key component of the offensive line’s success. The other question that needs to be answered is how valuable Connor Williams is to this team. Connor Williams held out looking for a contract extension, and despite his snapping issues, he may have moved the ball closer to his court by simply missing a game. This offensive line looks a lot different Without Armstead and Connor Williams in the rotation. Seeing what this line looks like against a premier pass rush is a concern and needs to be addressed if we’re going to compete with the elite teams in this league.
- The Defense…
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                       There’s much to be said about this defense, and I don’t think there are too many positives. There are a few key points to take away from today’s defensive performance and thus far into the season. For starters, the front 7 is not what’s advertised so far. There were discussions of Miami having the best front 7 in the AFC before the start of the season, but that has not come to fruition. Miami’s defensive line has consistently failed to get to the opposing team’s QB, and the Linebackers have been nonexistent. The coverage hasn’t been horrible, but it is unimpressive. After today’s game, I’m not sure what needs to change. Many speculate that it’s Fangio’s scheme not fitting the personnel. So what needs to change, Fangio or the personnel? Regardless, the defense has been a liability, and it has put a lot of pressure on the offense to engage and score a lot of points to win games. The defense can’t carry on this way with a long season ahead of us. I’m unsure whether it’s fair to say that Fangio needs to be fired or if the personnel needs to change drastically. Only one of those things is feasible but neither would be ideal in the middle of the season. It’s time for Fangio to take a step back, introspect, and adjust to this defense.
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This defense is bad. Allen, Herbert and Wilson even though his team quit, all had great or good games. That’s three of four.
The only one opponent that didn’t was the fellow benched yesterday, Mac N Cheese Jones, who stinks. We have seen nothing of the previously vaunted ” Fangio Mastermind” defense. Wilkins is invisible, Chubb looks like a scrub, Phillips injured, Raekwon too is invisible. Where is the beef ? Nothing happening up front is causing over stress on the secondary. The only player making plays is ‘Rip’ Van Ginkel. The rest suck right now and need to wake up. It cannot be all offense all the time. Marino lost tons of games that way in his career, especially playoffs, high scoring contests that were outclassed because of a bad defense.
The offensive line looks totally different without Williams in the lineup, Eikenburg is just bad, no matter what position he plays. Except for Van Ginkel, our LBs are non existent. I see why Wilkens wasn’t given top DT money. He’s good, but not dominant and shouldn’t be paid as such. I see why Kohu was a undrafted FA, he’s decent, but inconsistent and shouldn’t be a boundary corner, he belongs in the slot. Miami was out coached and out played. Its only one game and Miami will bounce back, but they won’t be able to handle the big boys till they get this fixed