Miami Dolphins Fans: Your Game 5 Takeaways

Following our Miami Dolphins loss on Sunday to the Cincinnati Bengals, I asked the following question:

What are your overall takeaways from this afternoon’s fourth game of the season between our Miami Dolphins and Cincinnati Bengals? What were the positive and negative takeaways from this afternoon’s game, as they apply to the overall team and to individual units or players?

Below are some of your answers and thoughts on the game-

Finland1 is ready to see what a backup QB has.

McCord Pleeeeeez FinsUp!!!

jmworacle it says that will lead to a big given Grier and all his missteps. Also, trade down from #1 overall if we get it.

Thanks to Chris Grier’s incompetence, it will take a few more years to clean up. If the ‘Fins get the number one overall pick my advice is to trade down.

Stanley Doyle1 has some short-term issues and one big long-term issue at QB.

The short term issues are obvious and not a problem for someone like me who picked them to finish 2-15.

1. Youth and inexperience.
2. Lack of talent at certain positions (QB, Edge, WR, maybe DT)
3. I was encouraged by OL. Go out and sign a top RT in free agency, draft a G, and you’re good to go.
4. Some rookie stars in the making at LB and maybe WR with Bell.

But long-term, the issue is management and trainers:

5. Choosing Willis proved to be a huge error in judgment. He is not the answer, he is not enough to form the question. But they picked him, and invested a ton of cap-space in a guy who would fight to be the number 2 on another team. They go with the safe and familiar, and it explodes as a disaster. What does this tell you about their ability to identify and develop talent?

Drybch77 want to talk to the person responsible.

Who paid Malik to slide when he broke free for what can only be described as a possible touchdown?

Phoenix6 would like to know if anyone knows where the big guy is.

Did Kenneth Grant play? I never heard his name in any post or comment…

Zen4Phins says there are positives and negatives but we can still run the division.

Positive: The rookies played well again today. It seems like I’m making excuses but Burrow (with limited pressure), Chase and Higgens are a tough ask overall for this defense and they contain those 2 for the most part. 1td 99yds, 8 rec, 14 tgts and 1 for 45 to Chase. Ollie is back. Scored 24 pts and rushed for over 200yds. Oline was finally healthy early in the season.

Negatives: Tough day, at the back, for Willis. I have to believe that he will see it, work to fix it, and succeed. There is no qb on our roster all year so far that will be better in my opinion. Ride under all day if he sees or wants it and we move well. Special teams opening kickoff coverage teleported us into the griddy dance early. The 3rd down and redzone defense struggled and Burrow looked comfortable.

Some time off and a chance to go undefeated in Division play!

MiamiItaliano is out on Willis but hey, well there’s still that rodriguez kid.

Negatives: Malik Willis is definitely not the guy. Likely to be benched after another poor performance against the Jets. Then they have to keep the guy on the books next year because his dead cap hit is $39.3 million. Their dead cap is still at $31.8 million next year lol. Also, J-Rod hasn’t been good in coverages. Burrow threw around him like a child at recess. And the offense tried to pad the stats in garbage time, barf.

Positive: J-Rod had 11 tackles.

I Hate Sportsis, I think, trying to tell us about the starting QB.

biggest issue in the game right now

1. Willis Interception
2. Willis Interception
3. Willis Fumble
4. Willis Accuracy/Timing
5. Willis Decision Making

gertdoggy he sees the road to the Super Bowl getting tougher.

We probably lost a first round bye in the playoffs with this loss.

FinsUp88 seeing a qb that needs to go back to what he showed last season in a limited sample.

Overall, I continue to love the effort and resistance this kid continues to show and develop. I thought our secondary battled hard and was very good against today’s top tier wideouts, I liked seeing that. The defense continues to improve and communicate better, the stops will come eventually, they seem to be doing the D the right way.

Willis kills the offense. He pushes on almost every pass play, when I’m sure the coaching staff is constantly stressing about taking what the defense gives you. He has opportunities to use his legs and seems reluctant (this is what I’m most excited about with him, using his legs to extend plays and drives). He constantly passes up available options for the big shot and kills drives and momentum, while keeping our defense on the field for far too long. I understand the talent at our skill positions isn’t elite and the separation is limited, but he needs to pick up the open play when it’s there and use his legs to keep the defense honest when it’s not.

If Willis can hold on to what he looked like last year in GB, we should be close for a win here soon, this team is fighting hard so it won’t be over anytime soon.

Well another disapointing outing for at least some of the teams with many of you feeling like you’re in on the whole Malik Willis experiment. I suspect we’ll be looking at that experiment for the rest of the season barring an injury. Fortunately, many of the rookies continue to look good and show growth from game to game which should give us all hope for the future, beyond the current season. As always thanks to each and every one of you who took the time to participate in our Phinsider Question Of The Day.