Wow! I wrote about pattern recognition last week and boy did I see some patterns. Bad ones. My grandmother was a seamstress by trade and watching her work when I was boy was very educational. She said “Paul, cut out this pattern section for a dress or blouse and then I will sew them together and measure for the final fitting. Measure twice. Cut once.” Basic stuff. That was the first time I ever heard the word “pattern.” I did my best but, my grandmother always said you can undercut the pattern but never
overcut the pattern because I can’t add the small sections back and the blouse will look silly.
This Miami Dolphins team is a bad pattern that is overcut, undercut and not measured properly. Yes, we have terrible scissors, materials and needles. IMHO, this situation is worse than Flores’ first season. Why yes, the situation is different. But I don’t see much to build upon. We should be able to see one small but strong piece. Maybe I just don’t see it. But like back then under Flores, this is a “start from the foundation process” but I feel more scared. The question is why. Darryl Johnston made great points about the “process.” and we have to be okay with suffering under the process. And I get it but I don’t get mistakes from nearly every single position group.
Sunday, against the 49ers, it is very hard to tell if it is the talent (or lack thereof) or the schemes/coaching. There were so many bad mistakes that I am not sure where to start to fix. There were simply numerous blown assignments, numerous lack of playmakings and numerous “out-classings.” Example, Michael Taafe tried to go high on Deebo Samuel or George Kittle (can’t remember) and fell off like a baby stroller trying to tackle a freight train. Welcome to the NFL, rookie! Before going any further on the defense, I will give a 15% curve upgrade score to the entire secondary because the pass rush is completely non-existent. We have zero pass-rush talent even when Chop is in there. The last two QBs have not had to worry about getting hit and the WRs know they can run all of their “ingenious routes” according to Darryl Johnston. This is simply ludicrous because ANY offensive system will work, when there is no pressure on the QB or on the RBs. Darryl Johnston probably knows this but has to build up Brock Purdy and Kyle Shanahan to prop up the NFL lore of how great the players are. Brock Purdy isn’t one-tenth the QB that Dan Marino was. He can run, yes, but his throws are all perimeter precision throws backed by a superior rushing attack. I really do like Brock Purdy but the Wing-T or Run-n-Shoot would have worked perfectly well again this defense. How do we fix the defense? What if we had very good players at every position? Could this coaching staff coach them up? You can’t blame every single defensive SNAFU on the players, many yes but not all of them. What new breakdowns will we see next week against Mahomes? Rest assured, we will see Mr. Kenneth Walker ad infinitum.
My last column mentioned how special teams should be the easiest thing to fix. Boy was I wrong!!!!! This punter can’t even hold on to a ball to punt it. How does this happen? Lack of concentration, I think. Yes, I still believe they are using the “K” balls which were originally supposed to come out of the box and handed to the kicker right before it was kicked. I think the NFL has eased up on that (please correct me) so the ball is slickish( I just coined that word ). Last week we couldn’t stop the long returns; for now that seems to be fixed. For now. I should wager which special teams mistake(s) will we make next week. Why in the name of Garo Yepremian has one of our kicker/punter been needed to make a tackle the first two weeks? Who is in charge of special teams? This takes me back to the trepidation about coaching. I contend that special teams is one-third of the game. If you come out neutral on special teams, that is good enough for me. At the National Championship at the Rose Bowl, I watched Auburn lose to FSU on two game changing special teams plays: a fake punt AND a kickoff return. Other than that, Auburn was better than FSU but FSU DOMINATED special teams and deserved to beat Auburn. I don’t want that to happen to the Dolphins and I don’t want mediocrity to be accepted on special teams, offense or defense.
