Random Thoughts on the Dolphins Game

[Direckshun]

I just saw the game, so I'm going to throw a few thoughts out there.

* Game ball goes to Knile Davis and the offensive line. The offensive line struggled all day in pass protection, but they were asked to plow into one of the league's strongest defensive lines almost 40 times in runblocking, and rose to the occasion. Knile Davis did exactly what we needed: trust your blockers, don't get fancy, and when you see a hole, hit it as hard as you can. Eventually we wore down their defensive front.

That game plan should be fairly similar against the Patriots, a team with another really good defensive line and one of the league's best linebacking squads. Their front four is a little better than the Dolphins, and wearing them down and keeping Brady off the field is a winning gameplan.

The Dolphins lined up four DL all game and the Chiefs took it to them, both with their linemen and with their tight ends. Everybody involved in the run game deserves the game ball. But Knile Davis runs hard, like a winner.

* Alex Smith didn't have an errant throw all game. His throws were all on the money, and his receivers got better as the game progressed. The Dolphins don't have the best corners in the world, so Smith was able to get four different WRs involved, in addition to his usual excellent work to the TEs and Joe McKnight.

Maybe this is just me, but Smith seems to play like a totally different QB without Charles on the field. He makes more aggressive reads, throws better, and throws more accurately. It's entirely possible I'm dreaming this up, but this is looking more and more like the Alex Smith from last year's playoff game, where incidentally, we were missing Charles as well.

* This team needs big, important pieces to become a Super Bowl contender. But it also needs smaller pieces that do their job and make everything else work. We have several of those smaller-role players that I am very high on: Anthony Sherman, Joe McKnight, and Junior Hemingway. All three players are free agents this offseason, and all three need to be brought back.

Anthony Sherman has been a reliably punishing blocker ever since he arrived in Kansas City. Sherman's work on the edge and his work up the gut against passrushers is indispensable. He absolutely must be kept, so long as the price is reasonable. Trading Arenas for him was a great call by John Dorsey.

The truth must be acknowledged, Junior Hemingway was a great find by Scott Pioli. Hemingway is the perfect 3rd or 4th WR. He's great on special teams, he has excellent hands, and runs a good, short route. He can play extremely well with the ball in his hands, and I just generally love his enthusiasm in his lesser role on the team.

Joe McKnight. however, looks to be a John Dorsey masterstroke. Dorsey essentially let McCluster walk last offseason to a $12 deal with the Titans, and 100% replaced him with a guy who's bigger, smoother in his routes, and signed for pennies on the dollar. McKnight looks so insanely comfortable as s third down back that if this team were to ever make a deep playoff run, he deserves a spot on the roster so it can happen.

* I adored the 4th down playcall, with the jumbo lineup. All three tight ends, Linkenbach as fullback, Sherman in motion, and we pulled Zach Fulton, and barreled him into the line with reckless abandon, plowing a great hole for Knile Davis.

* Worst play of the game was almost certainly by Zach Fulton on the safety. Fulton picks the blitzing linebacker, leaving Knile Davis to block a defensive tackle. And Fulton fails to even effectively block the linebacker. Both defenders combined on the safety.

* My grades for each offensive lineman: Fisher gets a B-, McGlynn gets a D+, Hudson gets a B+, Fulton gets a C, and Harris gets a C. I really, really wonder why they stubbornly insist on keeping McGlynn in after he gets destroyed consistently in both the run and the pass. McGlynn looks pretty good when he gets out and pulls, but he has no hope against DTs. Linkenbach or Eric Kush need to start at LG, or even LDT.

* If there is one thing Bob Sutton has learned this offseason, it's how to better rotate your talent along the DL and passrushers. The Chiefs are getting all kinds of great play from Bailey, Walker, Howard and Vickerson, along with a renewed energy in Poe, primarily because Sutton brilliantly spells them. And what do you know, you've got Poe roping in a sack in the 4th quarter, and Bailey knocking down a pass in the 4th quarter. On the Dolphins final 4th down attempt, Dee Ford blew up the play, but Vickerson and Poe were almost certainly there to entirely clog the lane. Turns out losing Mike DeVito was a surprise blessing -- sure, we miss his elite runblocking, but the pressure we're generating (FINALLY) from the DL is now the best it's ever been since we've switched the the 3-4. We do not miss TJax or DeVito as much as I thought we would -- but then again, we haven't played an elite running team like the 49ers, yet.

* Missing Mike Pouncey turns out to have been huge for the Dolphins. Samson Satele couldn't effectively call any blocking assignments. It's honestly like the Dolphins offensive line had no idea how to block stunts by the DLs -- almost every single one was successful in generating pressure. Poe absolutely destroyed in the middle of the line all game. Allen Bailey and Walker looked great in their roles. Tamba Hali was beating Brandon Albert like a drum in the 1st half, but Albert regrouped in the 2nd to basically shut Hali down. Dee Ford played his ass off from whistle to whistle -- if he can keep that up, he's going to go a looooooooooong way in replacing Hali sooner than later.

* The Dolphins ran the ball effectively on us for two reasons: we were in the nickel on 90% of the snaps, and our backup ILBs clearly do not look like the answer I was hoping they'd be -- JMJ in particular. JMJ is super athletic but he is not shedding blocks. Mauga is better at the line of scrimmage but he does not offer the same ability to pound blockers like Joe Mays. Mauga and JMJ are also, obviously, young and inexperienced, so maybe some of this gets corrected -- both players were caught sucking inside and losing integrity on their backside contains in Dolphins cut-back runs.

I'm guessing the Chiefs part ways with DJ this offseason. If that's the case, this defense is going to have a gigantic dearth of leadership, with DJ and Hali gone. Poe and Berry are stepping up, but the Chiefs will need to go to the well early and often in the draft to land some defensive talent that will not only make this defense nastier, but give it energy and motivation.

* Probably the biggest advantage to playing Tannehill was that he plainly didn't test our safeties -- like, at all. Eric Berry, even if he was healthy, wouldn't have had to suit up for this one. Our corners struggled with Brian Hartline, which everybody does, but they managed to cage in Wallace for the most part. The only thing I'll note for play by our safeties is Kurt Coleman's solid work at the end of the first half -- he managed to make two sure-handed tackles that prevented TDs, forcing the Dolphins to kick for 3.

In a really surprising twist, we only allowed one completion to their TEs, even though we're sporting a backup SS and two backup ILBs. Huge credit to the work by JMJ and Kurt Coleman. We're going to need that kind of incredible effort against a slowed-down Gronkowski.

I think it's pretty obvious at this point that our CBs are struggling. Even our starters, Marcus Cooper and Sean Smith, are allowing decently high completion rates. Chris Owens was a little better, but he was aided by a couple critical drops as well. Fortunately, the Patriots have zippo at WR, except for Julian Edelman. We have absolutely nobody on this roster who can contain Edelman, and he's almost certainly going to end up with double-digit receptions against us.

That does beg the question: do you commit more resources to Edelman, and force Brady elsewhere, or do you give him the defend-against-Michael-Jordan technique, and just blanket everybody else and hope he has an off game? I really don't know who you put on Edelman at this point (Chris Owens, I guess?), but if we can slow him down, there's no reason we can't shut down Brady. Edelman is seriously all he has.

* Special teams has to clean up their ****ing act. Two big kick returns negated by shitty blocks in the back. I'm glad we gave Santos a rest this game to get his mind right, but we're going to need him Monday night to step up big.