Content Post All 22 Review At Miami

[KCSVEN]

I don’t plan on doing these reviews every game but when time allows once in a while this year I’ll do a more detailed review like today. I did not follow every player for every play but chose ones I wanted to highlight/see and then select plays on others.

Rookie Report

-Craig Woodson-They clearly did not want to give up too many big plays after last week, lots of 2 deep safety play. When they were 1 deep Hawkins was normally the deep safety. Woodson did a good job keeping things in front of him. He does not look lost at all. He plays a conservative game. Not sure he’ll ever be a playmaker but maybe with experience he’ll start to take more chances. The Dolphins ran quite a few down the field and outs and ins in front of the safety. They completed a few in front of Woodson and they missed a throw when Woodson slipped on the same type of play. The first time they ran an out in front he was way too far off the receiver and made it easy. Ater that he was in better position including the one where they challenged the catch and though it looked like ball moved, they ruled it complete. Good closing speed and hit there though, I also think the underneath guys needed to get deeper. I can see why coaches love him, the Steady Eddie type. I think he can play safety a long time and be solid. He does what they ask of him. I’d like to see him diagnose a bit quicker and be more aggressive. He was one of the missed tackles on the Archane TD. They drafted a long-term safety that can start for a long time I think. Just a question whether he ever gets more than above average safety level.

Will Campbell-Dominate run blocking. Good Pass Blocking. Had some trouble coordinating with Wilson on a couple stunts early but after that handled stunts fine. He’s a good player; he might be a great run blocker. Moves guys, good on double teams and getting to next level. He might struggle vs certain guys, but he’ll hold his own vs most. Huge upgrade here from last year. Interestingly he blocks the pass and the run mostly from a stance with no hand on the ground.

Jared Wilson-He ALWAYS has a 3 point stance, like he must balance out the karma with Campbell. Pass or run, 3-point stance, it’s almost like he wants to be the center. He had a good game at guard, but the he screams all pro center, solid guard. I think he moves there eventually. Had a couple good stunt pickups after the early mess ups. Really good point of attack block on 1 Gibson run. I was worried about him a bit last week, much better game but still a future center IMO.

Tre Henderson-Had some bad moments but otherwise had some nice plays. The first pass pro sack he was fooled by the DE. Pats had him and TE in the backfield, and both went to the left. The DE over there faked like he was going to follow the TE to cover him and when he did that Tre looked to see if anyone else was coming, by time the DE had reversed back to QB it was too late for Tre to block him. He had a hold on another pass pro when he got bad leverage on a cb blitz and held, he then got a special teams hold. However, on his swing pass his speed was evident, hit holes quick and punished tacklers. I think he’ll be better at pass pro than the couple plays indicated. Has too much tape showing how good he is. Learning! He still looks explosive. They refused to kick to him and only kicked to Gibson.

Kyle Williams-Not many plays but the Play Action fake reverse sack was an intended deep ball, he was splitting the 2 safeties, a perfect throw could be a TD but unclear if Maye even would have thrown it. It would have been interesting to see what happened.

Ponder-Mainly special teams with a few defensive plays as they rotated a bunch to keep guys fresh, nothing of note other than he was put on his butt on the Gibson KO return TD

Farmer-Got a few plays, surprisingly quick for a big guy, did get blown back 5 yards on a double team, can compare this to how Barmore handled a double team in his comments.

Borregales and Ashby-Barring a yips episode Ashby is locked in for years. I get the 2 XP misses and the short of landing zone KO but the kid can kick, he hit a big kick from 53 end of game. I think he’ll put it together, he just looks like an NFL quality kicker, I preach patience and hope I am right.

 

[KCSVEN]

Non-Rookies

Stefon Diggs-Diggs is smooth to watch, very subtle, very smart and a reason why he is a really good zone wr. The Dolphins did not play much man, a few man to man plays on Diggs and not a ton of separation but very few plays. He is very good at finding the place to be in the zones though. The 1 pass from Maye that was behind him not sure who to fault though Maye blamed himself the replay looks like the smarter play was to stop where Drake threw it, However, in hindsight either place would have worked but keying on the LB it looks like Drake made the better read. That’s going to happen in any offense, you have to read the same thing the same way. Diggs worked really well in the slot and takes away reps from Douglas.

Boutte-In for 21 runs and 19 passes. He was not the main read on many plays, used to clear out a space by running deep a lot. On his 19 pass plays they had 15 complete, 2 sacks and 2 incomplete so you can’t say Maye should have looked his way often, when first read is open, you throw it. Miami wasn’t allowing anything downfield. Great TD catch. The stats don’t tell us much, just the way the game plan went.

Douglas-Moving Diggs to slot meant less plays for DD. Only 10 pass plays but most were not designed for him, might have had 4 routes with a chance to do something. Not much to learn other than interesting to see if this was a 1 game move or will be continuing. If so, no room for Chism either.

Rhamondre-Really great game, did everything well, hit the right holes, was a punishing runner, looked quick, made good catches. Probably his best game in a very long time. Hopefully a sign, probably the non-QB MVP of the offense.

Moses, Onwenu and Bradbury-I did not look at every play and did not review Tight ends but from the 25 or so plays I saw these 3 played very well and thankfully Drake fell on the bad snap by Bradbury. I did see Moses pointing to Onwenu on a play or 2 and then the guy he pointed 2 went where Moses indicated and Onwenu picked him up. Savvy Vet, helps everyone on the line.

Offensive Line in general-Tape last year was depressing, These guys are extremely well coached or they just happen to be really smart guys that know what they need to do. The overall physical talent might not be top of the league and thus they may have SOME struggles but the nightmare of last year is over on the line. Just a question of what the floor and ceiling is. But it is adequate at worst going forward IMO, assuming Moses stays healthy.

Williams and Barmore-HOLY CRAP! DOMINATION! You watch the game live and you’re thinking, I thought these guys would dominate and then they are not getting all kinds of sacks and tackles, like I expect 5 sacks from each. Then you watch the tape and you see they DID dominate. TUA was getting rid of the ball in 2.57 seconds on average. That’s the offense they run. They scheme well for quick early open receivers and YAC and then when you come up they bomb to Tyreek. Makes it hard on pass rushers. Williams was the more dominant of the 2 but Barmore was not far behind, Barmore drew two holding calls and blew up a run play. They both pushed the pocket regularly. Williams deserved to have gotten the winning sack, probably the defensive MVP. Barmore was double teamed like Farmer, got initially pushed back a yard or 2 and then his power was crazy to hold up the double team, remember Farmer got pushed back 5 yards on a similar play. Find a QB that holds the ball too long and these guys are going to kill someone. Amazing duo. Ridiculous pairing. Please stay healthy!

Spillane and Elliss-Spillane is better than Elliss, I’ll get that analysis right out of the way. They both diagnose and play the run pretty well and make mostly good decisions. Perfectly fine run defenders even with some tackling issues, mostly by Spillane. Pass defense-This is the achilles heal of the defense, the LB’s in coverage. Despite the TD Spillane was adequate in coverage for a LB, just can’t expect him to cover a RB like that on a play like that but he gets to his zones, read the QB well enough. Elliss on the other hand is just a bad pass defender, does not understand where to be in zone coverage. Constantly too deep or too shallow. I don’t know how you fix this, they both play the run well enough, Gibbens and Jennings not known for cover skills either. Not sure how they work to cover up this weakness.

Landry-Stonewalled for most of the day on pass rush. At 6 feet 2 and 251 he looks small out there. Held up well enough against the run. His best move seems to be to use his quickness and bend around the edge but not a ton of pressure from him this week.

Chaisson-Looked better than Landry pass rushing, has some spin moves, some bend and speed, far from great but at least had a couple hurries and a sack. Neither him or Landry were overly impressive in any way but Chaisson looked the better of the 2 in this game and he had more than the 1 move that could work. Hopefully one of these guys starts getting more regular pressure. He had the offsides that hurt and he let Tua escape out of pocket to his side once. Neither edge rusher played great. He did save the game on the second to last play with a stunt flushing Tua out of pocket. Hill had beaten Hawkins on a double move for a TD but Tua did not have time to wait for it.

Hawkins-PFF gave him the highest grade on the entire team. Not correct grading even though overall he played well. Williams and Barmore on defense were way more dominating. His main responsibility was being the 1 or 2 deep safety. He played a few snaps near the line but mainly he was tasked with stopping the deep ball. The underthrown ball to Hill I have no idea what he was doing. He did not immediately back pedal like normal, Hill ran by and he chased, not sure if he had different priority assigned on that play but there was already a LB in that same area he was in and no Miami player but was 3rd and 13 and he stayed at the sticks, I guess the idea to rally and tackle. Maybe Alex Austin was supposed to play off and prevent that, not sure on this one, could be a bad play call on defense. On 2nd to last play of the game he jumped the in cut to Hill and Hill double moved him and would have been open for a TD if Chaisson had not flushed Tua out of pocket away from Hill. Outside those 2 plays he did his job well and tackled well. He was closer on the deep outs than Woodson was on the other side so Miami did not drop any balls in front of him like they did to Woodson. His closing speed was good. Overall a good game but bailed out by the pass rush at the end of the game. It is POSSIBLE he saw Tua was being flushed and jumped the route knowing that because he was looking that way and Tua started moving left before the double move. Overall he was not a weak spot this week and overall DID HIS JOB.

Drake Maye-Last week Maye had a bad throw on the first pass to DD vs Raiders then played a perfect first half. He then had 4 bad plays in 2nd half but had high level of difficulty, tight windows and needed to carry the team with no running game. He had an above average game for an NFL QB, he just had a few glaring mistakes. He still looked better on tape than most QB’s last week, the narrative was over the top. People seem to be going the other way here. I guess games like Miami is why people think Bo Nix is good. Broncos were #1 in NFL last year in Pass Blocking. Nix averaged 17.4% pressure rate, Maye was over 22%. This was the first game in his career Maye was under 20% and it was 19.4%. When Maye plays in an offense like Bo Nix he is 82.6% completion 10 yards per pass, 137.3 Rating. The scheme, the coaching, the talent around you matters, stats are deceiving, watch tape.

This all leads me to the fact Maye did what he needed to do and added a couple great plays. Overall, the game was easy for a QB. First read open, hit him. The 3 plays that were more special include the TD to Boutte, great placement, great catch, then the Rham catch down the field where he moved up in the pocket and made a good throw. The 3rd one was the pass to Henry on first drive that was a shorter throw and off Henry’s hands incomplete. He threw to a covered Henry in a perfect spot like in the Raiders game and not even blaming Henry for dropping, it was short pass and quick to get on him, but Maye put it in a perfect spot. Outside of that it was great play calling, great scheme and Maye reading the defense. Level of difficulty was not high. It is not a knock-on Maye, because even QB’s, like Nix, that get that environment can’t succeed at the level Maye did.

Going through the negative plays: First pass play sack, slow developing play, nothing he could do. Then the pass to Henry discussed. They started sack and incomplete. The rest of the way 19 for 22 with 2 sacks. Despite those 2 plays they scored a TD on that drive.

Next incomplete was the batted pass in red zone where he had Henry probably for TD if not batted. First play of next drive was the miss to Diggs. Touched on this, zone read, I THINK Maye read it better than Diggs though Maye blamed himself. Just not quite on same page and you can see what the other one was thinking, plays like this happen when you are rapidly reading the defense which Diggs and Maye are both doing.

Last incomplete was to Hollins on 2nd and 8 last drive. I like the idea of Play Action and winning the game there. Hollins has half a step but DB undercuts and also has hand on Hollins Jersey, Hollins claim he was pulled back, I slowed this down and watched multiple time, a very subtle tug and then another tug on the jersey by the DB. So harder to judge the pass since Hollins was slowed down but it was 6” outside the hand of the DB so no chance to put it closer and if not held was probably going to get there. Only 1 other route on the play was double teamed deep, he has to throw it to Hollins. Maybe he could have tried to float it deeper to sideline but think when he threw it, before the tug on the jersey, he had a completion, and a very accurate one.

Other sacks were not on Maye. You could argue he did not have a negative play. What more can you ask of your QB. Maye did not have to carry the team, hopefully games like this become more prevalent.

Overall-Gonzo back will help quite a bit. Just allows them to do more with the safeties. Can be more aggressive on the back end. Barmore and Williams are dominate and if Tua wasn’t the fastest in the league getting the ball out they’d got home a few more times. Not a ton of time on the CB’s but Davis seemed good, Austin had a bad play or 2 but consistently had good coverage otherwise. Linebackers were atrocious in coverage. Good run defense all around I thought. Offense was well called, efficient, ran the ball well, guys got open and Maye made the correct read. Won TO battle. I believe if you put the right pieces around Maye he has MVP level talent. Where he is 2 years down the line could be special. I still expect some growing pains with a young team. Good thing is the schedule is not daunting. Rookie class looks like it will have many successes. Onto Pittsburgh!

 

[Mike the Brit]

Brilliant work! Most of it checks my own impressions but I will have to go back to re-watch in some cases.

I especially agree about Maye not being hopeless in Week 1. But he did have some bad plays that made a difference. Also, or so I thought, he went from being an aggressive (possibly, reckless) runner in '24, to being very cautious in Week 1. His runs in Week 2 were a better balance, it seemed to me. Of course, I loved him outrunning Judon!

Do you have any observations about rotations on defense? In Week 1, there was very little, it seemed from the snap counts, but clearly there was more in Week 2.

 

[KCSVEN]

Do you have any observations about rotations on defense? In Week 1, there was very little, it seemed from the snap counts, but clearly there was more in Week 2.

I think just the heat in Mami. More subs as the game got later which lines up with just trying to keep players fresh in the heat and humidity. Miami had more TOP in 2nd half
I think Mapu might have been in there at the end for obvious passing downs so they could get Elliss off the field in pass coverage.

 

[condon84]

@KCSVEN these posts are well appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

Non-Rookies

Stefon Diggs-Diggs is smooth to watch, very subtle, very smart and a reason why he is a really good zone wr. The Dolphins did not play much man, a few man to man plays on Diggs and not a ton of separation but very few plays. He is very good at finding the place to be in the zones though. The 1 pass from Maye that was behind him not sure who to fault though Maye blamed himself the replay looks like the smarter play was to stop where Drake threw it, However, in hindsight either place would have worked but keying on the LB it looks like Drake made the better read. That’s going to happen in any offense, you have to read the same thing the same way. Diggs worked really well in the slot and takes away reps from Douglas.

Boutte-In for 21 runs and 19 passes. He was not the main read on many plays, used to clear out a space by running deep a lot. On his 19 pass plays they had 15 complete, 2 sacks and 2 incomplete so you can’t say Maye should have looked his way often, when first read is open, you throw it. Miami wasn’t allowing anything downfield. Great TD catch. The stats don’t tell us much, just the way the game plan went.

Douglas-Moving Diggs to slot meant less plays for DD. Only 10 pass plays but most were not designed for him, might have had 4 routes with a chance to do something. Not much to learn other than interesting to see if this was a 1 game move or will be continuing. If so, no room for Chism either.

Rhamondre-Really great game, did everything well, hit the right holes, was a punishing runner, looked quick, made good catches. Probably his best game in a very long time. Hopefully a sign, probably the non-QB MVP of the offense.

Moses, Onwenu and Bradbury-I did not look at every play and did not review Tight ends but from the 25 or so plays I saw these 3 played very well and thankfully Drake fell on the bad snap by Bradbury. I did see Moses pointing to Onwenu on a play or 2 and then the guy he pointed 2 went where Moses indicated and Onwenu picked him up. Savvy Vet, helps everyone on the line.

Offensive Line in general-Tape last year was depressing, These guys are extremely well coached or they just happen to be really smart guys that know what they need to do. The overall physical talent might not be top of the league and thus they may have SOME struggles but the nightmare of last year is over on the line. Just a question of what the floor and ceiling is. But it is adequate at worst going forward IMO, assuming Moses stays healthy.

Williams and Barmore-HOLY CRAP! DOMINATION! You watch the game live and you’re thinking, I thought these guys would dominate and then they are not getting all kinds of sacks and tackles, like I expect 5 sacks from each. Then you watch the tape and you see they DID dominate. TUA was getting rid of the ball in 2.57 seconds on average. That’s the offense they run. They scheme well for quick early open receivers and YAC and then when you come up they bomb to Tyreek. Makes it hard on pass rushers. Williams was the more dominant of the 2 but Barmore was not far behind, Barmore drew two holding calls and blew up a run play. They both pushed the pocket regularly. Williams deserved to have gotten the winning sack, probably the defensive MVP. Barmore was double teamed like Farmer, got initially pushed back a yard or 2 and then his power was crazy to hold up the double team, remember Farmer got pushed back 5 yards on a similar play. Find a QB that holds the ball too long and these guys are going to kill someone. Amazing duo. Ridiculous pairing. Please stay healthy!

Spillane and Elliss-Spillane is better than Elliss, I’ll get that analysis right out of the way. They both diagnose and play the run pretty well and make mostly good decisions. Perfectly fine run defenders even with some tackling issues, mostly by Spillane. Pass defense-This is the achilles heal of the defense, the LB’s in coverage. Despite the TD Spillane was adequate in coverage for a LB, just can’t expect him to cover a RB like that on a play like that but he gets to his zones, read the QB well enough. Elliss on the other hand is just a bad pass defender, does not understand where to be in zone coverage. Constantly too deep or too shallow. I don’t know how you fix this, they both play the run well enough, Gibbens and Jennings not known for cover skills either. Not sure how they work to cover up this weakness.

Landry-Stonewalled for most of the day on pass rush. At 6 feet 2 and 251 he looks small out there. Held up well enough against the run. His best move seems to be to use his quickness and bend around the edge but not a ton of pressure from him this week.

Chaisson-Looked better than Landry pass rushing, has some spin moves, some bend and speed, far from great but at least had a couple hurries and a sack. Neither him or Landry were overly impressive in any way but Chaisson looked the better of the 2 in this game and he had more than the 1 move that could work. Hopefully one of these guys starts getting more regular pressure. He had the offsides that hurt and he let Tua escape out of pocket to his side once. Neither edge rusher played great. He did save the game on the second to last play with a stunt flushing Tua out of pocket. Hill had beaten Hawkins on a double move for a TD but Tua did not have time to wait for it.

Hawkins-PFF gave him the highest grade on the entire team. Not correct grading even though overall he played well. Williams and Barmore on defense were way more dominating. His main responsibility was being the 1 or 2 deep safety. He played a few snaps near the line but mainly he was tasked with stopping the deep ball. The underthrown ball to Hill I have no idea what he was doing. He did not immediately back pedal like normal, Hill ran by and he chased, not sure if he had different priority assigned on that play but there was already a LB in that same area he was in and no Miami player but was 3rd and 13 and he stayed at the sticks, I guess the idea to rally and tackle. Maybe Alex Austin was supposed to play off and prevent that, not sure on this one, could be a bad play call on defense. On 2nd to last play of the game he jumped the in cut to Hill and Hill double moved him and would have been open for a TD if Chaisson had not flushed Tua out of pocket away from Hill. Outside those 2 plays he did his job well and tackled well. He was closer on the deep outs than Woodson was on the other side so Miami did not drop any balls in front of him like they did to Woodson. His closing speed was good. Overall a good game but bailed out by the pass rush at the end of the game. It is POSSIBLE he saw Tua was being flushed and jumped the route knowing that because he was looking that way and Tua started moving left before the double move. Overall he was not a weak spot this week and overall DID HIS JOB.

Drake Maye-Last week Maye had a bad throw on the first pass to DD vs Raiders then played a perfect first half. He then had 4 bad plays in 2nd half but had high level of difficulty, tight windows and needed to carry the team with no running game. He had an above average game for an NFL QB, he just had a few glaring mistakes. He still looked better on tape than most QB’s last week, the narrative was over the top. People seem to be going the other way here. I guess games like Miami is why people think Bo Nix is good. Broncos were #1 in NFL last year in Pass Blocking. Nix averaged 17.4% pressure rate, Maye was over 22%. This was the first game in his career Maye was under 20% and it was 19.4%. When Maye plays in an offense like Bo Nix he is 82.6% completion 10 yards per pass, 137.3 Rating. The scheme, the coaching, the talent around you matters, stats are deceiving, watch tape.

This all leads me to the fact Maye did what he needed to do and added a couple great plays. Overall, the game was easy for a QB. First read open, hit him. The 3 plays that were more special include the TD to Boutte, great placement, great catch, then the Rham catch down the field where he moved up in the pocket and made a good throw. The 3rd one was the pass to Henry on first drive that was a shorter throw and off Henry’s hands incomplete. He threw to a covered Henry in a perfect spot like in the Raiders game and not even blaming Henry for dropping, it was short pass and quick to get on him, but Maye put it in a perfect spot. Outside of that it was great play calling, great scheme and Maye reading the defense. Level of difficulty was not high. It is not a knock-on Maye, because even QB’s, like Nix, that get that environment can’t succeed at the level Maye did.

Going through the negative plays: First pass play sack, slow developing play, nothing he could do. Then the pass to Henry discussed. They started sack and incomplete. The rest of the way 19 for 22 with 2 sacks. Despite those 2 plays they scored a TD on that drive.

Next incomplete was the batted pass in red zone where he had Henry probably for TD if not batted. First play of next drive was the miss to Diggs. Touched on this, zone read, I THINK Maye read it better than Diggs though Maye blamed himself. Just not quite on same page and you can see what the other one was thinking, plays like this happen when you are rapidly reading the defense which Diggs and Maye are both doing.

Last incomplete was to Hollins on 2nd and 8 last drive. I like the idea of Play Action and winning the game there. Hollins has half a step but DB undercuts and also has hand on Hollins Jersey, Hollins claim he was pulled back, I slowed this down and watched multiple time, a very subtle tug and then another tug on the jersey by the DB. So harder to judge the pass since Hollins was slowed down but it was 6” outside the hand of the DB so no chance to pout it closer and if not held was probably going to get there. Only 1 other route on the play was double teamed deep, he has to throw it to Hollins. Maybe he could have tried to float it deeper to sideline but think when he threw it, before the tug on the jersey, he had a completion, and a very accurate one.

Other sacks were not on Maye. You could argue he did not have a negative play. What more can you ask of your QB. Maye did not have to carry the team, hopefully games like this become more prevalent.

Overall-Gonzo back will help quite a bit. Just allows them to do more with the safeties. Can be more aggressive on the back end. Barmore and Williams are dominate and if Tua wasn’t the fastest in the league getting the ball out they’d got home a few more times. Not a ton of time on the CB’s but Davis seemed good, Austin had a bad play or 2 but consistently had good coverage otherwise. Linebackers were atrocious in coverage. Good run defense all around I thought. Offense was well called, efficient, ran the ball well, guys got open and Maye made the correct read. Won TO battle. I believe if you put the right pieces around Maye he has MVP level talent. Where he is 2 years down the line could be special. I still expect some growing pains with a young team. Good thing is the schedule is not daunting. Rookie class looks like it will have many successes. Onto Pittsburgh!

Thanks for the write-up and the full review of the tape; much appreciated.

It might just be bias on my part, because I saw those awful plays by Hawkins you mentioned and assumed he was part of the problem the rest of the game. Interesting to see he wasn’t. He’s been feast or famine so far this year.

As for Woodson, through 2 games my impression for his performance is James Sanders, for better or for worse. Not a guy that will win the game for you but won’t lose it either. We’ll see if that changes as time goes on.

 

[Water Boy]

He still looks explosive. They refused to kick to him and only kicked to Gibson.

How'd that work for them?

 

[varjao]

One thing I got impressed with Maye that it may be better to post here than in the game thread, is that in many snaps he got the ball with 2 or 1 second remaining on the play clock but no delay of game, he was in total control of the offense, making adjustments, on the road, tough environment and eyes on the clock, it may be a minor thing or just his obligation as a professional QB but we see QBs taking a delay of game every week especially on the road it's normal, but I really felt he was in a good flow, whatever he and McDaniels talked, Maye was more confortable and this is a good thing going on.

 

[n1997y]

Tre Henderson- They refused to kick to him and only kicked to Gibson.

How'd that work for them?

Worked well. Henderson did not take a kick to the house.

 

[TommyD4207]

Worked well. Henderson did not take a kick to the house.

I expect the upper-tier teams we play later in the year to just kick it in the end zone and take their chances.
Honestly I expect Pittsburgh to do this next week.

 

[irishfanatic]

Thank you for all 22 analysis. From my perspective I had high hopes for Spillane, call it a gut feeling about him as a leader. V the Fish, I was very dissapointed in his missed tackles ( from my amateur view). I really appreciate ur more informed and detailed analysis. Ty

 

[Ring 6]

Non-Rookies

Stefon Diggs-Diggs is smooth to watch, very subtle, very smart and a reason why he is a really good zone wr. The Dolphins did not play much man, a few man to man plays on Diggs and not a ton of separation but very few plays. He is very good at finding the place to be in the zones though. The 1 pass from Maye that was behind him not sure who to fault though Maye blamed himself the replay looks like the smarter play was to stop where Drake threw it, However, in hindsight either place would have worked but keying on the LB it looks like Drake made the better read. That’s going to happen in any offense, you have to read the same thing the same way. Diggs worked really well in the slot and takes away reps from Douglas.

Boutte-In for 21 runs and 19 passes. He was not the main read on many plays, used to clear out a space by running deep a lot. On his 19 pass plays they had 15 complete, 2 sacks and 2 incomplete so you can’t say Maye should have looked his way often, when first read is open, you throw it. Miami wasn’t allowing anything downfield. Great TD catch. The stats don’t tell us much, just the way the game plan went.

Douglas-Moving Diggs to slot meant less plays for DD. Only 10 pass plays but most were not designed for him, might have had 4 routes with a chance to do something. Not much to learn other than interesting to see if this was a 1 game move or will be continuing. If so, no room for Chism either.

Rhamondre-Really great game, did everything well, hit the right holes, was a punishing runner, looked quick, made good catches. Probably his best game in a very long time. Hopefully a sign, probably the non-QB MVP of the offense.

Moses, Onwenu and Bradbury-I did not look at every play and did not review Tight ends but from the 25 or so plays I saw these 3 played very well and thankfully Drake fell on the bad snap by Bradbury. I did see Moses pointing to Onwenu on a play or 2 and then the guy he pointed 2 went where Moses indicated and Onwenu picked him up. Savvy Vet, helps everyone on the line.

Offensive Line in general-Tape last year was depressing, These guys are extremely well coached or they just happen to be really smart guys that know what they need to do. The overall physical talent might not be top of the league and thus they may have SOME struggles but the nightmare of last year is over on the line. Just a question of what the floor and ceiling is. But it is adequate at worst going forward IMO, assuming Moses stays healthy.

Williams and Barmore-HOLY CRAP! DOMINATION! You watch the game live and you’re thinking, I thought these guys would dominate and then they are not getting all kinds of sacks and tackles, like I expect 5 sacks from each. Then you watch the tape and you see they DID dominate. TUA was getting rid of the ball in 2.57 seconds on average. That’s the offense they run. They scheme well for quick early open receivers and YAC and then when you come up they bomb to Tyreek. Makes it hard on pass rushers. Williams was the more dominant of the 2 but Barmore was not far behind, Barmore drew two holding calls and blew up a run play. They both pushed the pocket regularly. Williams deserved to have gotten the winning sack, probably the defensive MVP. Barmore was double teamed like Farmer, got initially pushed back a yard or 2 and then his power was crazy to hold up the double team, remember Farmer got pushed back 5 yards on a similar play. Find a QB that holds the ball too long and these guys are going to kill someone. Amazing duo. Ridiculous pairing. Please stay healthy!

Spillane and Elliss-Spillane is better than Elliss, I’ll get that analysis right out of the way. They both diagnose and play the run pretty well and make mostly good decisions. Perfectly fine run defenders even with some tackling issues, mostly by Spillane. Pass defense-This is the achilles heal of the defense, the LB’s in coverage. Despite the TD Spillane was adequate in coverage for a LB, just can’t expect him to cover a RB like that on a play like that but he gets to his zones, read the QB well enough. Elliss on the other hand is just a bad pass defender, does not understand where to be in zone coverage. Constantly too deep or too shallow. I don’t know how you fix this, they both play the run well enough, Gibbens and Jennings not known for cover skills either. Not sure how they work to cover up this weakness.

Landry-Stonewalled for most of the day on pass rush. At 6 feet 2 and 251 he looks small out there. Held up well enough against the run. His best move seems to be to use his quickness and bend around the edge but not a ton of pressure from him this week.

Chaisson-Looked better than Landry pass rushing, has some spin moves, some bend and speed, far from great but at least had a couple hurries and a sack. Neither him or Landry were overly impressive in any way but Chaisson looked the better of the 2 in this game and he had more than the 1 move that could work. Hopefully one of these guys starts getting more regular pressure. He had the offsides that hurt and he let Tua escape out of pocket to his side once. Neither edge rusher played great. He did save the game on the second to last play with a stunt flushing Tua out of pocket. Hill had beaten Hawkins on a double move for a TD but Tua did not have time to wait for it.

Hawkins-PFF gave him the highest grade on the entire team. Not correct grading even though overall he played well. Williams and Barmore on defense were way more dominating. His main responsibility was being the 1 or 2 deep safety. He played a few snaps near the line but mainly he was tasked with stopping the deep ball. The underthrown ball to Hill I have no idea what he was doing. He did not immediately back pedal like normal, Hill ran by and he chased, not sure if he had different priority assigned on that play but there was already a LB in that same area he was in and no Miami player but was 3rd and 13 and he stayed at the sticks, I guess the idea to rally and tackle. Maybe Alex Austin was supposed to play off and prevent that, not sure on this one, could be a bad play call on defense. On 2nd to last play of the game he jumped the in cut to Hill and Hill double moved him and would have been open for a TD if Chaisson had not flushed Tua out of pocket away from Hill. Outside those 2 plays he did his job well and tackled well. He was closer on the deep outs than Woodson was on the other side so Miami did not drop any balls in front of him like they did to Woodson. His closing speed was good. Overall a good game but bailed out by the pass rush at the end of the game. It is POSSIBLE he saw Tua was being flushed and jumped the route knowing that because he was looking that way and Tua started moving left before the double move. Overall he was not a weak spot this week and overall DID HIS JOB.

Drake Maye-Last week Maye had a bad throw on the first pass to DD vs Raiders then played a perfect first half. He then had 4 bad plays in 2nd half but had high level of difficulty, tight windows and needed to carry the team with no running game. He had an above average game for an NFL QB, he just had a few glaring mistakes. He still looked better on tape than most QB’s last week, the narrative was over the top. People seem to be going the other way here. I guess games like Miami is why people think Bo Nix is good. Broncos were #1 in NFL last year in Pass Blocking. Nix averaged 17.4% pressure rate, Maye was over 22%. This was the first game in his career Maye was under 20% and it was 19.4%. When Maye plays in an offense like Bo Nix he is 82.6% completion 10 yards per pass, 137.3 Rating. The scheme, the coaching, the talent around you matters, stats are deceiving, watch tape.

This all leads me to the fact Maye did what he needed to do and added a couple great plays. Overall, the game was easy for a QB. First read open, hit him. The 3 plays that were more special include the TD to Boutte, great placement, great catch, then the Rham catch down the field where he moved up in the pocket and made a good throw. The 3rd one was the pass to Henry on first drive that was a shorter throw and off Henry’s hands incomplete. He threw to a covered Henry in a perfect spot like in the Raiders game and not even blaming Henry for dropping, it was short pass and quick to get on him, but Maye put it in a perfect spot. Outside of that it was great play calling, great scheme and Maye reading the defense. Level of difficulty was not high. It is not a knock-on Maye, because even QB’s, like Nix, that get that environment can’t succeed at the level Maye did.

Going through the negative plays: First pass play sack, slow developing play, nothing he could do. Then the pass to Henry discussed. They started sack and incomplete. The rest of the way 19 for 22 with 2 sacks. Despite those 2 plays they scored a TD on that drive.

Next incomplete was the batted pass in red zone where he had Henry probably for TD if not batted. First play of next drive was the miss to Diggs. Touched on this, zone read, I THINK Maye read it better than Diggs though Maye blamed himself. Just not quite on same page and you can see what the other one was thinking, plays like this happen when you are rapidly reading the defense which Diggs and Maye are both doing.

Last incomplete was to Hollins on 2nd and 8 last drive. I like the idea of Play Action and winning the game there. Hollins has half a step but DB undercuts and also has hand on Hollins Jersey, Hollins claim he was pulled back, I slowed this down and watched multiple time, a very subtle tug and then another tug on the jersey by the DB. So harder to judge the pass since Hollins was slowed down but it was 6” outside the hand of the DB so no chance to put it closer and if not held was probably going to get there. Only 1 other route on the play was double teamed deep, he has to throw it to Hollins. Maybe he could have tried to float it deeper to sideline but think when he threw it, before the tug on the jersey, he had a completion, and a very accurate one.

Other sacks were not on Maye. You could argue he did not have a negative play. What more can you ask of your QB. Maye did not have to carry the team, hopefully games like this become more prevalent.

Overall-Gonzo back will help quite a bit. Just allows them to do more with the safeties. Can be more aggressive on the back end. Barmore and Williams are dominate and if Tua wasn’t the fastest in the league getting the ball out they’d got home a few more times. Not a ton of time on the CB’s but Davis seemed good, Austin had a bad play or 2 but consistently had good coverage otherwise. Linebackers were atrocious in coverage. Good run defense all around I thought. Offense was well called, efficient, ran the ball well, guys got open and Maye made the correct read. Won TO battle. I believe if you put the right pieces around Maye he has MVP level talent. Where he is 2 years down the line could be special. I still expect some growing pains with a young team. Good thing is the schedule is not daunting. Rookie class looks like it will have many successes. Onto Pittsburgh!

Good stuff.

 

[WhatJustHappened]

WHEN did WRAPUP leave? These guys are trying to slam shoulders, it loses more than it wins.
I can't understand that ********.

 

[grux]

Thank you for the film review. I have learned a ton from your posts. Keep up the great work. On to Pittsburgh.

 

[Se7eN]

Thanks as always KCSVEN. I noticed on the completed throw to Hooper during the first drive that better ball placement might have given Hoop the ability to catch and run for the TD rather than dive for the catch. Maybe some of Drake's early game nerves still? Seemed to resolve itself later in the game, as in the 3 fantastic throws you mentioned

18s into the following vid

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

The OL penalties are irritating but they are keeping Drake clean and thats the most important factor this year by far. I think the only sacks sunday were when they got rushers isolated on henry or henderson. We’ll see if they can maintain this, namely this week Pitt will be a huge test even with the injuries

 

[Zuma]

The OL penalties are irritating but they are keeping Drake clean and thats the most important factor this year by far. I think the only sacks sunday were when they got rushers isolated on henry or henderson. We’ll see if they can maintain this, namely this week Pitt will be a huge test even with the injuries

Better to have the OL penalties then a planted Maye. They will get better.

 

[patfanken]

Great Job, K. And no, you do NOT have permission to take a week off unless you have my previous permission. I need this stuff, and you do a good job of analyzing it. We all do, it keeps the ridiculousness down when you do. Do your job.

Now some comments on your comments... and some other stuff from the weekend. Your Woodman stuff was spot on. I played some safety (mostly SS) and after starting college as a DE/NT, then moving to LB, and finally some Safety I know the feeling of seeing the game from all 3 defensive levels and it is a SHOCK when you first experience it at first and it takes a while before it gets comfortable. And when I played S in the early 70's coverages and patterns were a LOT simpler than they are now. Anyone who expected the rookie to jump out at FS and look like an all pro or complain when he didn't is an idiot. You hit the nail on the head. He looked like he was in the vicinity most of the time, not nearly as close as you'd like or as likely as he'll likely to be in the future. But it will take a while.

I'm glad you felt Austin played a bit better than it was being reported here. Again, Ashane, Hill and Waddle with a health Tua and McDonald's quick motion offense can make a mess of a LOT of defenses and has for most of the 20's.

I hope the knee-jerkers noticed how guys like Daniels, and McCarthy didn't play like the all stars they looked like in week one. Football is an imprefect game. IIRC there was a playoff game where Brady threw something like 5 picks in Denver, so even a GOAT doesn't always play like one EVERY game.

There was room for improvement for Maye. Better pocket presence on his sacks. More accuracy on some of his completions (which will help with the RAC) And it's been 2 games and have we've seen even ONE series of hurry up football. I've always found Brady used the hurry up and change of pace very effectively to throw off a good defensive team. It's time that Maye started to practice it in a game.

The Pats did a GREAT job of overcoming the adversity of all those penalties. They got away with it, and they need to do fewer each coming week. Not necessarily none, just fewer.