Grade The Team - Week One - Miami

I am going to ask politely that My thread please not be merged into any others. I would like to see if this can become a weekly thing so please if possible leave it as is for this week at least.

Would like to see how everyone would Grade the team in all three phases from this weeks game. Grade on any criteria you like, obviously the lower the grade the more they need improvement. Please stick to letter grades and while you dont have to provide an explication for it it would be appreciated to understand your thoughts. Below are mine


A Solid D


The Offense -- D-

-- The big issue and the elephant in the room is the O-line It was complexly blown up on both sides. I know some people will say it has everything to do with Mankins being gone but that is no excuse for not a single one of them being unable to block. Coaching and skill is obviously a large problem here that needs to get fixed quickly or the season will be in compete shambles. Brady played quite decent in the first half then lost it in the second. I understand that the line was giving him issues but on the occasion they were able to hold up for more than 3 seconds he was missing some wide open receivers. Vereen and Edelman were the MVPs of offense today.


The Defense -- D-

-- I may get some disagreement with this but the Defense in the first half forced 3 turnovers. I can't much fault them in the second half when the Offence was on and off the field in less than 2 minutes every time they got the ball. Even then they still manage a few 3 and outs to try and keep us in which were all for naught as the offence still could not do anything with them. The scheme was terrible and the run blocking atrocious. Moreno was burning though the line and keeping the Miami Offence alive. Honestly if poor coaching wasn't a factor for some of Miami's drives the score would have been much larger. Several times on the goal line they chose to throw instead of run. And I fully believe if they had run every time he would have scored on most of them. There was very little pass rush. Tannehill had 200 years back there to throw half the time. Fortunately for us most of his receivers are not that great. Then Revis leaves the game with leg cramps and while the game was already falling apart at that moment, yyou have to wonder if this is going to be a lingering issue. Today it wasn’t a big difference maker but with teams with high passing offences are we going to have this hanging over our heads?


Special Teams -- C

-- Special Teams was not horrible today. Gostkowski was ace as usual. His kicks in the first quarter weren’t going through the endzone but I believe he was kicking into the wind as someone mentioned in the gameday thread. After they switched sides in the second he was fine. Allen was alright but really inconsistent with how far his punts were going. Unfortunately this game got off to a bad start with that blocked punt that was pretty much a gimme TD for Miami. I wasn’t fond of the blocking as I felt a lot of yards were given up on some of those returns. Something else they need to tighten up.


I have to say when I began watching this game this afternoon there was no way in hell I would have ever thought it would look like it did. The first Week One loss since 2003, lets just hope this year ends like that one.

Overall- D-
Defense- C-
Offense- D
Special Teams- F

D- . A gentleman's F.

QB ..... B-
WRs, TES .... B-
O-Line .... F-

D-Line .... F
Linebackers .... B
DBs .... C

Special teams ... C+

Miami has a very good receiving corps.

Wallace, Hartline and Clay for starters...add in Moreno, by the way.

QB B- (a couple of bad passes away from a B)
WR/TE B
RB C
OL F

DL F (perhaps this should be shared with the defensive game planners)
LB B
DB B

ST C

C/FO - D

Never has the fault been so clear. No one was perfect. However, the lines were really awful. We would likely have won if EITHER line had played an adequate game.

It is extremely difficult to judge anything in this game.

All in all the biggest failures happened in the trenches. The OL was neither able to run block nor pass block consistently throughout the entire game except for that one TD drive at the start of the game. We never established the run.. not even close. The pass blocking was horrendous and let Brady & Co. no way to get into rhythm. This is a failure that is shared by the players and coaches.

Similarly, the DL was never able to put consistent pressure on Tannehill. The few times where they succeeded the Dolphins were helped by a couple of questionable flags for QB hits. Also we had extreme problems defending the run combined with an incredible inability to tackle.

The next garbage fire were the special teams. There were countless issues over there as well.

If you combine those three fundamental failures (F-) then you won't win games in the NFL. Some of the issue (e.g. tackling, punting) should be fixable others (run D, OL) might be a bit harder to change.

I have no idea how to judge all other parts of the team because they were very much affected by the meltdown of OL, DL, ST.

All in all this is only the first game, and I rather have a reality check very, very early. There is enough time to work on things and still end up on top at the end of the year.

Tackling: F
Coverage: B+
Blocking: D
Pass Rush: D

Fans: D-. Hypercritical chicken littles.

I am revising my season record prediction down, though, after this game, to 15-1.

Offense C
QB C
WR D
TE C
RB C (Vereen A, Ridley F)
OL F

Deffense D
DE D
DT F
S B
CB B
LB D

Special Teams C

An overall C. Looked really average. Coaches deserve an F here. Double so, because the GM is a part of said staff.

Sticky Caulk said:

An overall C. Looked really average. Coaches deserve an F here. Double so, because the GM is a part of said staff.

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I especially agree with this part of your post.

crew1954 said:

Fans: D-. Hypercritical chicken littles.

I am revising my season record prediction down, though, after this game, to 15-1.

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I think you are being quite hyperbolic. I wouldn't call anyone here a hypocritical chicken little. I dont see anyone saying the season is over. One would have to be quite delusional though to not think that there were major issues with the team today.

The whole team gets an F-. They should be embarrassed.

KDPPatsfan85 said:

Overall- D-
Defense- C-
Offense- D
Special Teams- F

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I'd actually be really interested to read your thoughts on these grades.

The defense was bad. Bud I would give an even worse grade to the coaches for running this 3-4. F- for the D coaches. The personel for 3-4 simply isn't there(except for one or two players). On the other hand we have a bunch of players that are prototype 4-3 players that really excels there. Playing a 3-4 with these players is like runing the read option with Brady. It just won't work.

I've said it before and I say it again. Anything else than top 7 in points allowed for this defense(without many major injuries) should be seen as a huge fail for the coaches and should make us reevaluate if BB and his puppet Patricia is the way to go on defense. Or if we should bring in some new blood in the braintrust for the defense. Absolutely not saying fire BB as a HC. Just rethinking his defense.

F

QB C+
RB B
WR C+
TE C+
OL F

DL F
LB C
DB B

scott99 said:

The whole team gets an F-. They should be embarrassed.

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I hope they bury that game ball in New York.

Pass Offense: C+

Did very well in the first half after the opening drive, ran out of gas in pass protection after halftime.

Rush Offense: D-

No idea where the run game was today. Didn't run, and when we did, we didn't get much.

Pass Defense: B-

Gave up a couple crucial plays, but penalties really screwed up a few key stops. Revis looked good against Wallace.

Rush Defense: F

Pretty self-evident.

Overall: C-

We'll get it together, like always do after terrible games like this. We had a loss in Buffalo in 2011, we were one healthy Gronk away from the Lombardi. Lost at home to Kevin Kolb's Cardinals the next year's opener, still went 12-4 and one game from the SB. Our offense looked horrible for most of the first half of last season, still finished 3rd in scoring.

BB won't let this team flounder, he never does.

Miamis game plan = A

The Phins had over a month to prepare for the Pats and it showed.