Following this past Sunday’s loss to the Detroit Lions by our Miami Dolphins, I asked the following question:
What are your overall takeaways from this afternoon’s eighth game of the season between our Miami Dolphins and the Detroit Lions?
What are the positive and negative takeaways from this afternoon’s game, as they apply to the team overall and to individual units and/or players?Below are some of your thoughts and takes on Sunday’s loss-
JUK has several points that end with the fact that we just
can’t seem to get out of our own way at this point.
I’ll do a longer fan post but main thoughts:
- defense was excellent. The whole front had easily their best game of the year, with good pressure from Uche and Chop, but the really encouraging thing was the quality from all 4 interior guys. Hopefully Grant has just been ramping up post injury, a strong second half from him would be huge. Makes the LBs job so much easier.
- Special teams is a joke. We need a new Kicker and Punter, but I don’t see how Tabor can or should survive. Teams like ours need to win at the margins. We lose at them, every week.
- Willis made a horrible throw for his interception but otherwise this wasn’t on him. I appreciate him toughing it out even when clearly hobbled and even with reduced mobility he saved the offensive line about 6 sacks. Not for the first time this year we managed to chalk off his biggest play and some poor drops too, but this isn’t really a week to talk about Willis, we should be talking about…
- The offensive line and Bobby Slowik. 7 penalties (5 holds and 2 false starts). 3 sacks, 5 throwaways and countless plays destroyed before they even began. We couldn’t run the ball with any consistency, but man the pass pro was an absolute joke. Brewer had a poor game, Jonah is regressing to 2025 before our eyes, but Austin Jackson cannot be left 1:1 against even a passable pass rusher never mind one like Hutchison. It’s insanity. Slowik does this every time against top edge guys and it destroys our game plan every time. It’s absolutely inexplicable at this point.
Overall we are playing good teams hard (and man our schedule has been brutal) but we just can’t get out of our own way. 5 offensive penalties when we got over halfway. ST penalties, missed FGs and shanked punts. But… the margins are small and we are getting better especially on defense. There isn’t an easy fix on offense other than playing some weaker defenses and committing to help the right side of the line in pass pro. Just a thought Bobby
JKBMia is like many of us, waiting to see if they manage to put it together on both sides of the ball.
Malik is clearly not healthy, and he’s not a good enough thrower of the football to not be able to run.
The offensive line had an absurdly terrible day. I don’t understand what Slowik was watching. I saw Aidan Hutchinson beat Austin Jackson 753 times today 1on1 off the edge. Not only did he get beat, but they probably could have called him for holding on every drop back.
The defense played awesome. Holding that offense to one touchdown, especially considering they started at our 40+ 3 or 4 times today was no small feat. They made a ton of big plays, got a lot of pressure on Goff and made life really tough for Gibbs which is something almost no teams can do.
Special teams once again absolutely sucked aside from the fake punt call – but who is surprised??
It would be nice to see one week where actually both the offense and defense are in sync. Would be cool.
Really solid game from Caleb Douglas but that’s a tough drop there at the end. The game was basically out of reach anyways, but that’s one you’ve gotta bring in.
phinette sees what the rest of us can see. A defense that gets better each week and an offense that keeps sputtering.
The defense continues to improve with Rodriguez really making a run for defensive rookie of the year. The offense on the other hand is really limited in what it is able to do. Too many drives in the red zone fizzled and we continued to struggle on special teams. Overall, we hung tough.
Left Shark, like many of us, isn’t sold on Willis, and this team won’t get right until they find the right guy to run that offense.
I am no longer the overly emotional fan I used to be, and now try to view things through a lens of reality and reason. So, this season isn’t about wins or losses for me, but indeed the “process” as the front office often bangs on about. And I’m seeing many good things from the process.
I’m sold on the Green Bay guys and think the future is bright with them drafting and running this franchise. They play hard, most have the right mindset (considering the circumstances) and are showing improvement.
And that leads me to Malik. It wasn’t clear to me before yesterday how limited he was running due to an injury and he has been toughing it out the past couple of weeks. But, before then, he has seemed reluctant to run hard and use his legs as a dynamic weapon. I’ve read that he doesn’t want to be considered a “running QB”, etc. And if that is true, he’s, IMO, not going to make it as a pure pocket passer. I think of “football IQ” as seeing the field, processing and decision making. And in these areas he’s just not good enough- as Tua was before him- but in different areas.
He seems to be affected by the pressure and has become more and more terse with the press after games. I see this from him more than any other player. I don’t like the look in his eyes and body language. I’m not seeing the leadership that is required from a franchise QB.
So, he’s feeling more like a bridge at this point approx. half way through. I understand he’s not in a great position and I don’t like the overall flow of the game called by the OC. But, hanging his head and deflecting are not the signs I want to see. Hard times forge tough men, but all don’t make it through. I’m hopeful he can prove me wrong before the season is done.
Zen4Phins is at least enjoying seeing all of these young guys go out and compete.
Defense is fun to watch grow week to week. Got some pressure in there today and made Goff uncomfortable. When he had time, the coverage was sticky. Lions are a legit problem on offense even with some injuries so I thought they played awesome.
Willis’s ability to takeoff is a must have with the oline being outmatched and that groin injury looks like it’s a factor. Douglas is looking sharp but gonna need some help. Ollie got some tough yards given the Lions looked ready for those runs between the tackles today.
Special teams had a rough day and as a team had too many penalties.
From the outside looking in, they appear to be competing and buying in. Man, you gotta enjoy the process. Let’s go Phins! Win out!
I Hate Sports would love to win, but it’s also all good losing.
Anther game we could have won but understand why we lost.
As much as I would enjoy beating the Colts, we must lose to Colts due to their 1st round pick going to the Jets.
tvegas897 loves what they are seeing from the defense and sees Willis as a placeholder.
Loving what I see for the future of this young defense. Add some beef upfront (Grant is another miss by Grier) and a bonafied Edge rusher and they can be special. Secondary is getting better but they are still a couple players short there as well.
Offense is a different story. AJ can’t hit the road fast enough. Savi and Brewer both played poorly. Way too many false starts.
They cannot pass up on J Smith if they would be lucky enough to have a shot at him. There’s no Alpha reciever on this roster. And I am thinking Mailk might be handing over the reins as soon as mid next year if they draft a qb. He’s merely a placeholder
DolphinsKings1 is someone I assume was pleased to see Malik sent to IR, since he needed to be there, obviously.
Well at least the Defense played well. The offense is stuck in Reverse. Malik is not IT at all and I want this experiment to end, this guy is lying to our medical staff, he is injured, and he can’t be out there if he is a LIBILITY. Trust me he is period. Our Offense is offensive 😤 with Bobby Slowik and our right side of the Offensive Line. You are now 1-7. It is time to start evaluating who is going to stay on this team and who out in 2027. We have the Colts next. Depending on what happens on Tuesday, will we have a new RT? Will we lose more players to trade? Will we not have to deal with Jonathan Taylor? Yeah we are young but….. We need to more from this offense 9 points. GTFOOH!
David7777 must have been having some sort of fever dream.
Can we trade Malik back to GB for Jordan Love instead ?
Yarganaught doesn’t think the conditions helped as much as they hindered.
I somehow hope that the heat and humidity of South Florida catches up to the Lions in the second half…
If anything, it looked like Miami wore down in the 4th. No big surprise considering the way the Defense was out there for what felt like forever. Once again, the 3rd qtr looked putrid.
Robert Burstein points to a solid fact.
My biggest takeaway, at least we aren’t the LAC
Bill Moody started Willis over Nix and Young!?!
Broke my own rule. Had Bo Nix and Bryce Young. All the experts said, start Malik Willis. My rule, NEVER PLAY A DOLPHIN. Lost by 2.4. Got burned again. This is the kind of thing that makes you hate your teams starting QB. He looked and played like trash.
StanleyDoyle1 is like most of us, happy with the defense’s progress and not yet too keen on what’s going on with the offense.
I’m genuinely enjoying watching the defense. Not just the rookies – I loved that Biggers played to his potential. I think this defense gives me hope for the future.
On offense, the problems are too obvious to mention. We need a real QB who can pass for more than 100 yards outside of garbage time. It’s not getting better. We need a RT and a speed WR and an edge. You get them 1-2-3 in the draft and go after the top RT in free agency, and we’re two years away.
Darryl Dunphy 2.0 is another concerned with the offensive line play.
I think it was a really poor game from the whole offensive unit. The playcalling/scheme today was certainly questionable. The play from center to the right side of the offensive line was brutal. The run game ineffective, the pass game even worse. Not the fault of any one player, a group effort fail today..
I made a comment a few weeks ago that the offensive line could end up being the strength of this team by seasons end…Im not sounding to smart after the past two games…Yikes
Well, it seems there is some consensus that most of us are happy with the progress of the defense but not sure about the offense led by Malik Willis. I suspect we will learn a lot with Willis out, at least for the next four weeks, if we can get any level of play out of whoever is eventually run out there. As always, thank you to each of you who took the time to join us and answer our Phinsider Question Of The Day.
