Week 10: Miami Dolphins (4-4) @ Carolina Panthers (6-3) on MTF... third primetime game's a charm?

[Carmen Cygni]

3 hours ago, Swampbilly said:

Our once strong defense is looking tired at this point of the season.

Im going to put a large part of this loss on Matt Burke.  Our defense didn't look prepared to defend the read option whatsoever.  Our underneath coverage got exposed for the second week in a row.  

It's coaching, the scheme, and bad playcalling.

 

Take this play for example at the 2:04 mark.

Panthers are in the gun, 11 personnel, 2x2 w/ TE in-line and Twins stack to the boundary. We're in a 4-2, Man Free w/ Banjo coverage on the RB.

When facing a spread offense (especially one that features RO), the mesh point is predominately going to be cross face of the QB. IOW, really the only way McCaffrey will be running here is to the fieldside (his right). Yet, what does Burke call? A TEX stunt (Tackle penetrates first, End loops) on the strongside which conveniently (for the Panthers) clears out a path for the power G run with no one within 5 yards of the LOS on the playside for an easy 17 yard gain.

Scheme-wise, we massively overuse the wide 9 front and in doing so we fail to present any confusion to the opposition's pre-snap blocking assignments. The NT will always be in the 1 tech (outside shoulder of the center to the weakside), the DT will always be in the 3 (outside shoulder of the guard on the strongside), and the DE's will always be kicked out in the 9 and/or ghost 9 (TE absent). Our attacking one gap philosophy is also taken advantage here because of our tight inside flow on the second level and their failure to key the backside pulling guard.

This goes on and on and on . . .

The dependence of pure execution in this scheme can only be relied on so much without the help of flexibility and versatility, which is not offered.

 

 

[Carmen Cygni]

4 hours ago, cddolphin said:

Branch and Fede particularly were constantly freezing.

2016 Kiko needs to come back.

Alonso was exposed and a liability in '16 also. He had a few highlight plays that for some reason overshadowed his consistent bad play.

Take his pick 6 vs the Chargers for example: In week 17 NE took full advantage of that defensive play call. In the 3rd qtr, 6:41, NE showed the exact same formation that San Diego (yes, I refuse to associate them with LA) did from that situation and Miami played the exact same defense where we showed a double A gap blitz but bluffed and bailed the Mike to play the Hook/Curl zone on the strongside. Instead of the Dig route, which SD used, NE adjusted to an outside Pivot route option which took advantage of the Mike bailing from the A gap. Alonso failed to ID the receiver in the Curl zone, dropped into the Hook, and Edelmen took the pass for a 77 yard TD after some very poor tackling efforts.

Besides his poor coverage skills, Alonso also constantly fails to shed his blocks and flow properly to the ballcarrier. He is consistently out of position and arrives late, often only to rack up pointless tackle numbers by jumping on the pile after the fact.

[cddolphin]

35 minutes ago, Carmen Cygni said:

Take his pick 6 vs the Chargers for example: In week 17 NE took full advantage of that defensive play call. In the 3rd qtr, 6:41, NE showed the exact same formation that San Diego (yes, I refuse to associate them with LA) did from that situation and Miami played the exact same defense where we showed a double A gap blitz but bluffed and bailed the Mike to play the Hook/Curl zone on the strongside. Instead of the Dig route, which SD used, NE adjusted to an outside Pivot route option which took advantage of the Mike bailing from the A gap. Alonso failed to ID the receiver in the Curl zone, dropped into the Hook, and Edelmen took the pass for a 77 yard TD after some very poor tackling efforts.

Dolphins got burned on a bluff A-gap blitz last night as well. Asking both LBers to bluff that blitz and then effectively make up the ground you need to cover seems like a dicey proposition most of the time.

[Dolphinmeister]

At this point in the season I am just starting to think that this team is just out coached each week . I know Miami has their player issues on the O-line but this team has more talent then it is playing like week in and week out.

[Carmen Cygni]

3 hours ago, Dolphinmeister said:

At this point in the season I am just starting to think that this team is just out coached each week . I know Miami has their player issues on the O-line but this team has more talent then it is playing like week in and week out.

Completely agree. Talent-wise, teams are closer in comparison than they appear. Every team has enough talent to win in this league (any given Sunday), the biggest difference maker b/w them is coaching. And Miami is failing in that respect as they are even having a hard time being competitive. An undisciplined team that fails to compete is directly related to to coaching.