Game Review: Dolphins – 2018 Week 10

A win. That’s what we needed, that’s what we got, but it didn’t feel like the kind of reassuring victory the team needed to get back on track.

For starters, I was a little surprised with the slow start on defense. They let Miami run right down the field to start the game. Were it not for a bad snap, the Dolphins could have stolen some early momentum and made this a different game.

Once the Packers got the ball, they scored and got a quick stop, making it look like they were getting on track.

Of course they fumbled the punt because it’s the Packers things to do. Then they get a starter hurt defending the drive. Of course, Kyler Fackrell would come through for them, though, with a sack to force a field goal. This is the 2018 season in a nutshell.

Aaron Jones Is A F#cking Freak

It’s like every time he touches the ball, it’s a minimum of ten yards. He jumps offsides and sets up the team at 1st and 15? Well just give him the ball and he’ll convert. Ridiculous. 100 yards in the first quarter. Still a huge impact but only 15 carries, which I think that was just about right. He’s so good and I’ll write more about his usage in another column.

The Other Aaron

Rodgers still can’t seem to get those deep throws over the shoulder of his guys. He still doesn’t look like his form is back. I’ve thought it was because of the knee injury for a while. It seems like he doesn’t even try to set his feet, but he’s not getting the strength behind it that he used to.

For a few weeks, in the back of my mind, I started to fear it may be that his surgically repaired collarbone isn’t what it used to be. That may be playing into the reduced strength, but when I really watch and re-watch him, it seems like he’s not setting his feet. Maybe his pre-surgery collarbone could get the necessary power without setting his feet. Maybe he’s not setting his feet because of his knee. Whatever it is, it needs to change.

I think his body has aged to the point that his game needs to adjust and he just hasn’t made that adjustment yet. He could click into it any week and just go nuts, but I think he’s going to need a full offseason to adapt his game… if he can.

Also his body language sucks. He looks like a middle school star who who whines every time a play doesn’t go well. Come on Rodg, stop flipping your head back and pointing about where someone should have went. I can almost hear your teenage huff. It’s not a good look for you.

Notes

• Kick coverage, which has wavered between “meh” and “ugh” all year, was pretty good today, really good at times. IT was nice to see that. Of course, punt blocking royally sucked #ass to make up for it,
• I’m not gonna look it up, but I gotta believe that Tramon Williams and Kentrell Brice were the first ever starting safety tandem from Louisiana Tech in the history of the NFL
• Breeland finally did something – I hadn’t been impressed with him, but he came up with a nice pick on an underthrown ball
• Fackrell looked really good in pass coverage
• The fake punt up by two scores with 11 minutes left might have been the most exciting (and unnecessary) play of the game
• This might have been Bakhtiari’s worst game as a pro. Not sure what happened there, but puke all over that game film.
• Watching this game recorded and fast forwarding between plays really underscored how slow the Packers offensive tempo is compared to the Dolphins.
• The hit that St. Brown used to on Bobby McCain was not worthy of a penalty in my eyes. EQ realized that McCain didn’t see him so he let up and just squared his shoulder. McCain was running full speed and plowed right into someone bracing for a hit. That hurts. It sucks that he had to go out. It’s football. Every time there’s a hard hit doesn’t mean it’s a penalty. I think @Peter_Bukowski illustrated this perfectly:

Can it be a blindside block if the player gets his head all the way across the body of the defender? At what point is it up to the defender to see that when it's literally right in front of him? pic.twitter.com/fj7EFIYTWL

— Peter Bukowski (@Peter_Bukowski) November 11, 2018

Question of the Week

In this week’s Twitter thread, we asked:

How many net passing yards will the Packers D surrender to the Dolphins?

The Dolphins finished the game with 163 net passing yards, which is kind of embarrassing. Pretty much everyone had something in the low 200’s, but @LuvsThePack won this week, with a prediction of “Under 200”

Self Grading

A look at how we fared with our predictions from this week’s preview article:

MVS goes over 100 yards again With 6 catches on 7 targets, I would have thought for sure he would go over 100 yards – getting only 44 yards was a bit of a surprise, maybe signaling a change in role given the unavailability of Cobb and the ineffectiveness of Graham
Packers have more rushing attempts as a team than they have all year They had 25 rushing attempts, the same as last week, but not enough to eclipse the 32 rushes they had against the Bills – however, they only had 141 rushing yards against the Bills, while they managed 195 last night
Rodgers doesn’t get sacked Yeah, the way he’s moving and the way the line’s blocking, I don’t think I’ll be predicting this any more – gone are the days where he could avoid any sack with his legs

Tramon Williams comes up with a pick I had a feeling someone was going to come up with one and thought it would be a veteran on a savvy move – it was, but it was Breeland and not Tramon
Nick Perry gets his monthly sack No, he was a total goose egg, didn’t even get a tackle – he did get injured though…
Kenny Clark hosts a block party two yards behind the line of scrimmage all game He was back there pretty much all day and netted a sack

No matter who returns kicks, they still don’t break one longer than 30 yard because the blocking just isn’t there Nope, didn’t even crack 20 yards

Packers 27, Dolphins 10 This was a pretty close to the final score of 31-12

This felt like the same sloppy team we’ve seen all year, they just played a worse opponent. I want to enjoy this more than I am. Win at the Clink and I’ll be more impressed.