Miami's Back With a Vengeance, A Miami Dolphins Connected Franchise (Madden 17/PS4)

[Number999]

Dolphins RB Situation Explained: Ajayi(1st)/Foster(2nd)

The running game for the Dolphins early on in the 2016 NFL Season has been a bit complicated. Through 3 games, the leader in attempts is Jay Ajayi with 42 carries collecting 132 yards which is good for an average of 3.1 per rush. Arian Foster is 2nd with 29 carries collecting 113 yards for a superior 3.9 yards per rush. Ryan Tannehill is comfortably in 3rd with 15 rushes and a surprising 94 yards thus far! Tannehill has been on the move very often which has been a focal point for Gase. Gase felt that Tannehill has not moved enough considering how impressive he is when throwing on the run, while also having the ability to cause headaches for the defense gaining 1st downs on creative rushing attacks. But now now the real question... Ajayi hasn't been impressive, Foster has been, can we safely say Foster should be the starter by now and he'll get those duties when Miami comes back for the homestand?

No... quite simply. Here's why.

Arian Foster is 30-years old. Yes we can talk all about how much he's recovered and how he's 100% now but he's still an older running back. No matter what, the Dolphins want to limit Foster's carries in the 1st half. Instead, Adam Gase is trying something different with him. He is running almost a 1st half/2nd half difference with Jay Ajayi and Arian Foster. In the 1st half, he's comfortable with letting Ajayi have next to nearly all of the carries. Against the Browns he managed to pick up 35 yards on 11 attempts. It's not a great yard to carry ratio but it was good enough for the Dolphins to pick up a few 1st downs even if it was a slow 1st half. The major difference? In the 2nd half, Arian Foster came out fresh. He was able to warm up and prepare himself in the locker-room at halftime to carry the load in the 2nd half. While it was aided by the fact the Dolphins were rushing a bunch to run the clock out, did you see how many yards the Dolphins consistently gained on their last drive? It's a mix of a great blocking, bad defense, but also the fact an elite back like Foster was only briskly used in the 1st half. He was able to tear the Browns defense apart at the very end. If he had been used in the 1st quarter, can we say with confidence that happens?

There are of course, downsides to this tactic. For one, it hasn't been the greatest for Jay Ajayi's confidence. The 23-year old has failed to have a truly great game, with his highest rushing total coming in Week #1 against the Seahawks picking up just under 70 yards on 15 attempts. If one of the backs were to get injured(which is almost guaranteed to happen this season) that also essentially implodes the system. Some would debate that having Ajayi out there for 1st and 2nd down plays and then bringing in Foster for 3rd downs and obvious passing situations since he's the superior pass catcher would be a better option. There are a lot of ways to run this duel system, but it's what Gase is testing out right now and he'll have a better grasp for how it's working by the midway point in the year. If Ajayi is so useless the rushing attack in the 1st half is essentially obsolete, I'd imagine you'll see a few changes.

One final thing I will add... we are kinda forgetting about the guy who tore it up in the preseason. Damien Williams was a menace to be reckoned with before suffering a partial PCL tear that's sidelined him for a number of weeks now. He's still expected to be out for another 2-4 weeks, which means he's likely to comeback during the Dolphins 4-game homestand. If Williams can comeback and provide a jolt for the Phins offense like he did for them in the preseason, it could really shake things up. Imagine running an Ajayi/Williams duo in the 1st half with Foster finishing things off in the 2nd half. That'd be a bit more of a balanced system. Hell, Williams could work as the 2nd back to both guys once he comes back healthy. Miami could even give Kenyan Drake a few attempts out of the backfield now. They were afraid to use him since he was the one guy they had as a returner, but with Jakeem Grant back they can be far more flexible in many different offensive departments like RB, WR, etc...

I've covered Tannehill, Reshad, Grant, RB system... enough! It's time to take on Cincinnati in Week #4!

[Number999]

2016 Regular Season Game #4 | MIA @ CIN

Miami Dolphins at Cincinnati Bengals
Sep 29, 2016	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Miami Dolphins (1-2)	0	7	7	10	24
Cincinnati Bengals (2-1)	0	10	7	14	31

Team Stats Comparison
	MIA	CIN
Total Offense	559	300
Rushing Yards	202	6
Passing Yards	357	294
First Downs	26	16
Punt Return Yards	3	0
Kick Return Yards	91	47
Total Yards	653	347
Turnovers	5(-5)	0(+5)
3rd Down Converstion	10/17(58%)	5/13(38%)
4th Down Conversion	1/2(50%)	0/0(0%)
2-Point Conversion	0/0(0%)	0/0(0%)
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	1/4(25%)	3/3(100%)
Penalties	4/30	0/0
Posession Time	33:19	26:41

Scoring Summary
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		MIA	CIN
11:31	(MIA) Jay Ajayi 1 yard run | XP	7	0
8:39	(CIN) Mike Nugent 50 yard field goal	7	3
0:54	(CIN) Brian Hartline 13 yard pass from Andy Dalton | XP	7	10
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		MIA	CIN
10:11	(MIA) Leonte Carroo 38 yard pass from Ryan Tannehill | XP	14	10
4:25	(CIN) Giovani Bernard 1 yard run | XP	14	17
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		MIA	CIN
13:43	(MIA) Andrew Franks 38 yard field goal	17	17
9:07	(MIA) Kenyan Drake 70 yard run | XP	24	17
4:05	(CIN) Andy Dalton 2 yard run | XP	24	24
3:41	(CIN) Adam Jones returned interception 32 yards | XP	24	31

Miami Dolphins PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Ryan Tannehill 30/49 373 1 4 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Kenyan Drake 8 97 12.1 1 Ryan Tannehill 5 39 7.8 0 Arian Foster 10 37 3.7 0 Jay Ajayi 12 29 2.4 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD DeVante Parker 8 86 10.7 0 Kenny Stills 5 73 14.6 0 Jordan Cameron 5 73 14.6 0 Leonte Carroo 2 55 27.5 1 Matt Hazel 2 26 13.0 0 BLOCKING PANCAKE SACK Mike Pouncey 0 2 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Isa Abdul-Quddus 12 0.0 0 0 Cameron Wake 5 1.5 0 0 Reshad Jones 9 0.0 0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Andrew Franks 1/1 3/3 6 39 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 Matt Darr 2 69 34.5 0

Cincinnati Bengals PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Andy Dalton 23/34 316 1 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Giovani Bernard 20 15 0.7 1 Andy Dalton 4 -12 -3.0 1 Jeremy Hill 2 3 1.5 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Tyler Eifert 6 119 19.8 0 A.J. Green 6 75 12.5 0 Brian Hartline 5 46 9.2 1 Brandon LaFell 3 44 14.6 0 BLOCKING PANCAKE SACK Andrew Whitworth 1 2 Eric Winston 0 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Adam Jones 6 0.0 3 1 Karlos Dansby 4 1.0 1 0 Henry Melton 4 1.5 0 0 Geno Atkins 6 0.0 0 0 George Iloka 16 0.0 0 0 Rey Maualuga 10 0.0 0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Mike Nugent 1/2 4/4 7 50 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 Kevin Huber 5 204 40.8 0

Game Recap: The consequences of this game will be astronomical, I'll say that much.

Things started well for the Miami defense. Cincinnati got the ball to start the game and were forced to punt after just 3 plays. Starting as the 20, Miami was in a groove early and namely Ryan Tannehill was looking sensational. Passes to Parker, Stills, Landry, and hell even Stoneburner! Making it all the way to deep into the Cincy redzone... on 3rd and goal, Miami tried a fade-throw to DeVante Parker who had the massive size advantage on Adam Jones. The only problem was... Parker wasn't ready for it and didn't cut in front of Pacman. As a result, Jones picked it off and took it 38 yards to the Cincy 40-ish yard line... great drive totally wasted, and people blaming Tannehill even though Parker said it was his bad. Thankfully, the Miami defense terrorized the Bengals offense! It was Thursday Night Football, so the Bengals were naturally worse. After getting it to the Miami 42 yard mark, for SOME reason they tried a 59 yard field goal that Mike Nugent totally bricked. This meant the Miami offense took-over and it was moving REALLY well again... until basically the same thing happened. 1st and 10 at the Cincy 14 yard line, the Dolphins tried out a comeback route. Parker got in front of Jones and would have had the TD if it wasn't for Karlos Dansby(former Dolphin) lurking around prepared to make the interception. He returned it 53 yards into Miami territory... yeah, that one was really Tannehill's fault. Imagine... 14 points left on the board? OR at least 6 points left stranded.

But, the Dolphins defense continued to bail out the offense so it didn't cost them any points. They forced another 3-and-out and after a few negative rushes, the Bengals weren't even in field goal range and had to already punt for their 3 time this game. Miami had the ball to start the 2nd quarter and moved down the field. Converting on big downs like 3rd and 15 as well as 3rd and 9, the Dolphins eventually punched it in with Jay Ajayi rushing for his first career touchdown on a 1 yard carry on a pitch play! Woo! Some nice confidence for the rookie as well as nice points on the board. The Bengals even in primetime had a capable offense, and they were able to respond by getting into Dolphins territory and setting up a 50-yard field goal that Mike Nugent managed to make this time around. With around 8:44 remaining in the game, things were fairly slow moving after the excitement on the first few drives.

After Miami punted and couldn't do anything with the ball, the Bengals got it and on 3rd and 12 at their 27 yard line, Andy Dalton was sacked making it 4th and 20 meaning they had to now punt it away! This time the Dolphins were moving down field... 4 yard pass to Sims, 12 yard pass to Landr- OH WAIT! NO! PLEASE NO! YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!... Landry is down and injured. He would not return to the game. It was later mentioned that he suffered a broken wrist, and we'll have to see how long the timetable is to gauge when he can return. It was a slant play over the middle that got good yardage but also got the tough 3rd year player nailed. Despite that, the Dolphins offense continued to move downfield. Eventually stalling at the Cincy 23 yard mark... they coulda taken the field goal and settled for points. But on 4th and inches, Miami tried to pound it and put Cincinnati on their heels. At the line, Tannehill audibled out of a run play to try some play action since the Bengals were stacking the box. He ended up getting sacked and not making up the 1st with numerous Bengals players hounding him down... welp.

The Bengals responded and scored on just 6 plays. 15 yard to Green, 28 yards to LaFell, incomplete pass, 10 yards to Eifert, and then sticking the knife in by connecting on a 13-yard touchdown pass to Brian Hartline, another former Dolphin. The Bengals now took the lead in a game where it didn't feel like they truly deserved it. Still, Miami was determined to respond. After a gaff on the kick-off return, Tannehill found DeVante Parker for 40 yards down field! With another 15 to Stills and then 27 to Cameron, they were on the Cincy 9 yard line with just 7 seconds to go and 0 timeouts... one shot at the endzone, and if you don't get it you can kick the field goal. Due to Landry being out, Parker had to take his role and Stills had to fulfill Parker's role. Stills was matched up with Pacman Jones and Tannehill tried to force it to Stills in the corner, throwing it quickly to avoid time running out. The reality is that if Tannehill had looked at his 2nd option(Carroo) he woulda seen he had an open TD in the middle of the endzone. Instead he forced it to Stills and it was picked off by Adam Jones... 3rd INT of the half, awful, awful way to end a half in which RT17 was playing really well... AS LONG as you take away those 3 interceptions, which you can't.

After a demoralizing 1st half, Adam Gase set the tempo and had Arian Foster pound the Bengals to start the 2nd half. It worked really well as the Dolphins drove into the Bengals side of the field. On 2nd and 11 a little beyond midfield, the Dolphins busted out some play action and Tannehill found Leonte Carroo(who saw an elevated role with Landry out and everyone moving up 1 spot) being covered by Darqueze Dennard. Carroo was able to break free of his coverage and took the pass up field. After getting a nice block from Parker, he punched it in the endzone for his 1st career touchdown as Miami jumped back in front to re-take the lead! That must have felt amazing for Tannehill. But it wouldn't be as though the Bengals didn't have a response... nope, they responded and boy were they frustrating. Converting on 2nd and 13, 3rd and 13, 3rd and 4, before punching it in on a Giovani Bernard 1 yard touchdown to go back up 17-14... the once stout defense in the 1st quarter was swiss cheese in clutch circumstances for the Dolphins. Do you blame that on the vets or the inexperienced players?

The Dolphins took the ball next and even took it entering the 4th quarter. The only thing of note to happen was towards the end of the 3rd, Foster got shaken up on a low hit by Shawn Williams and was removed from the game and wouldn't return(the damn unluckiness of it all) It was later mentioned he had a hip pointer... instead of Ajayi, Kenyan Drake now assumed the role as the main running back. After a 10 yard penalty to push it back to 2nd and 11, the Dolphins offense stalled and had to settle for a field goal to tie it up at 17-17. The Bengals were moving the ball well downfield once again, with Andy Dalton relying on his two best targets(Green and Eifert) to make plays happen for him. Eventually the field shrunk a bit at midfield and the Dolphins defense tightened up. A fumble on 2nd and 20 made it 3rd and 21, and a sack on 3rd and 21 made it 4th and 30, effectively pushing the Bengals out of field goal range forcing a punt. A little under 10 minutes to go, this was make or break time for both sides.

Kenyan Drake was in because Jay Ajayi had cooled down after his 1st half. He had to carry the Miami offense since Tannehill had lost his reliable back and his #1 WR target. Boy... I gotta say, did he EVER carry the offense. 7 yard rush on the 1st play. Only for him to make it 10x that on the 2nd. It was an outside rushing play called by Gase. It looked like he was gonna be stuffed for a loss when Adam Jones and Shawn Williams stepped up to cover the right side, but instead he broke free with a beautiful spin move! He busted up field and after getting blocks from Bushrod and Parker, he was inside the 10 yard line... BUT STILL there was a man chasing him in Dre Kirkpatrick. He tried to muscle him down, but Drake so determined to score his 1st TD shrugged him off and scored! 70 yards, nasty spin move to shake 2 defenders and then a simple power move to finish it all off and score the go-ahead touchdown for Miami. WELCOME TO THE SHOW, SON!

Now the Bengals offense took over and... they were exceptional. No other way to put it. Starting at their own 25 yard line, they cruised down the field. Only big spot they had to convert was a 3rd and 2. They used up plenty of clock, and on 2nd and goal at their 2 yard line, with everyone covered Andy Dalton took matters into his own hands as he punched it in to tie the game with 4:13 remaining in the 4th quarter! 24-24... this was your moment Tannehill. Only one problem... Jordan Cameron was now down as well! He injured his foot, and he wasn't in so now Tannehill's safety blanket was taken away and his replacements were a mixture of Dion Sims and Jake Stoneburner. On 2nd and 7 after a short rush by Drake, Tannehill tried to force the issue and... he was picked off.... again. But it was worse this time. Adam Jones read Tannehill's mind for the 3rd time tonight, and with no one in front of him he took it all the way pick. Pick 6, bitch. The Bengals fans roared with applause as the fans at home were dumbfounded... 4 interceptions thrown by Tannehill, Dolphins now trailed 24-31.

Miami took back over and were now trying to force overtime. After converting on 4th and 1 at their own 40, a missed pass to Kenny Stills on 3rd and 9 forced them to punt at midfield. Thankfully, the defense stepped up and forced the Bengals to punt it back. Around 1:44 remaining in the game with 1 timeout... Dolphins 30 yard line, you got any miracles? 1st play? Pass knocked away by Dre Kirkpatrick. 2nd play? Incomplete pass, Kenyan Drake ran the wrong route. 3rd play? EVERYBODY was covered... he could have forced a pass to Sims but it could have easily been picked by Vontaze Burfict. Tannehill held it looking for an open player, and he ended up being WALLOOPED on his blindside by Henry Melton who had broken free of his blocker. Tannehill fumbled, and Geno Atkins came swooping in to end the game with the fumble recovery. The Bengals kneeled it out to end it all and seal the victory on primetime... a big moment for Dalton and the Cats, the Miami Dolphins are the jokes of the week and Ryan Tannehill in particularly is not gonna have the greatest next 9 days which is how long it'll be until he plays again... if he plays again?

Other Dolphins/Bengals Photos:

Spoiler

Dansby interceptions Tannehill for 2nd pick of day


Tannehill finds Carroo for his 1st TD of the game, 14-10


Kenyan Drake spins off 2 defenders, takes it for TD

[Number999]

Juice out 7 weeks, Jordan out 5 weeks, MIA/CIN recap!

So things have pretty much hit the fan for the Dolphins. It's pretty funny how quickly things change in the NFL. One moment you're feeling amazing. Go back to that 1st drive against Cincy... defense shut them down, Tannehill was airing it out throwing beautifully, and you start rationalizing everything... we had to lose vs Seattle, we pushed New England REALLY hard, we beat Cleveland, we can win this game and then have 4 straight home games which would shift everything in our favor and could set up for a really good season! Instead... you're 1-3, everybody in the universe is tearing Ryan Tannehill to shreds for his 4 interceptions thrown on national television, your star WR in Jarvis Landry is out for the next 7 weeks, and Jordan Cameron who was having a really good year and actually had chemistry with Tannehill is now out for 5 weeks. Even now that you're taking on the 0-4 Titans at home, how confident can you be right now? Who's to say you won't gift them their 1st win of the season?

Thankfully, Arian Foster looks like he'll be back for next game which is kind of a miracle. Now... let's take a look at Ryan Tannehill's stats through these first 4 games. The team record is 1-3, having lost all 3 games on the road. It should be added that the teams the Dolphins have faced are the Seahawks(3-1), Patriots(2-2), and Bengals(3-1) Thus far, Tannehill has a 76.3 QB Rating. He had thrown 96 completions on 158 attempts, good for a 60% completion percentage. Those completions have been good for 1,158 yards or 7.3 yards per attempt which is actually on pace to be Tannehill's career high. Ultimately, many people will be looking at his 8 TDs and more importantly the fact he has 9 INTs which are leading the entire NFL right now. Tannehill doesn't exactly have a reputation for throwing a ton of INTs, but after that game vs Cincinnati... not many people are being rational about judging him. Anyway, here are my game notes. It feels like these gradually get longer every week now.

Quote:

- monster sack by mitchell and wake on 3rd and 10 - beautiful drive by tannehill until bad INT on fade throw - fumble forced by jenkins on monster hit, can't get fumble - stupid field goal decision by bengals... ball at midfield - tannehill 23 yard run on 3rd and 6, keeps drive alive - tannehill gets picked again... dansby takes it to midfield - MONSTROUS defense in 1st quarter, force 3 straight punts - big 3rd and 15 conversion on pass to jordan cameron - finally a touchdown! Dolphins score, Ajayi punches it in! - WAKE SACKS DALTON ON 3RD AND 12! PUNT! - oh no... landry hurt on slant pass over the middle - landry out for rest of the game with a broken wrist, PLEASE carroo - dolphins try for it on 4th and inches... bengals lockdown, SACK - carroo with a bad drop on 2nd and 10 midfield end of half - tannehill throws his 3rd INT of the game... prevents 3 points - defense has not been strong as it was in the 1st quarter - foster injured after being hit low shawn williams(hip pointer) - SHEESH now Cameron is down and injured... dirty filthy bengals - mario williams forces a fumble on dalton, can't recover it - DEFENSE PUSHES CINCY OFFENSE OUT OF FIELD GOAL RANGE! - KENYAN DRAKE!!!!!!! SPIN MOVE ON TWO DEFENDERS, BEAST TD! - defense can't stop cincy down the stretch, allow game tying TD - wow... tannehill throws pick 6... 4 minute drive... loses game? - Yup. offense caputs and punts, defense forces 3 and out, offense fumbles

Lots and lots of angry in these game notes... hence the caps and frustration. It's pretty funny how you see after that Kenyan Drake play that I was focused on defense but still couldn't stop them down the stretch. Just a couple of things to pluck away from this. Tannehill despite all his errors once again used his legs pretty well. Maybe he should play WR or RB instead of QB with the way things have been going. I mentioned how Carroo had a bad drop on 2nd and 10 but other than that, I really liked how the rookie played in his emergency action in a game he wasn't really expected to play in much. That play for the 2nd touchdown of the game to start the 2nd half was really well done and is just a glimpse of what you can hope he does when given a starting opportunity. Another thing I wanna touch on... the team has been forcing fumbles a lot as of late, and for some reason we simply can't recover them. The once exception is when Antonio Cromartie stripped Shaun Suisham vs Cleveland but there were lie 6 Dolphins defenders swarming that area of the field. If we can get better in that department, it would contribute to a couple more turnovers in our favor. Hell, it'd at least get the defense off the field and give them some rest.

A couple last few notes to touch on... there are plenty of good and bad things to take away from the Bengals game. On one side, 3 Dolphins players scored their first career touchdowns. Jay Ajayi, Leonte Carroo, and Kenyan Drake so that's pretty cool. Ryan Tannehill... even though he's getting shredded right now looked really good with the exception of those awful throws forcing it against Pacman Jones. Against the Tennessee Titans who don't really have a ballhawk, you hope he can step up and just not have any INTs. The main reason Miami lost was the -5 differential in turnovers... Andy Dalton with all his history of being awful on primetime(and he has been) did not have a turnover against the Dolphins. He fumbled, but it didn't end up costing him. Hopefully against a younger QB in Marcus Mariota you can cause some more chaos and make him panic. Thus far this year Mariota has 8 TDs and 5 INTs so you never know what you'll get. Something to note? Dorial Green-Beckham and Kendall Wright have torn it up with him.

Overall, Tannehill just had an awful day... let's focus on bouncing back and not cutting/trading him right now!

[Number999]

Can Ryan Tannehill be benched in the 2016 NFL Season?

After the performance that went down last Thursday night... many have asked, is there a shot that Ryan Tannehill could be benched at some point this season? The main reason people are asking... Tannehill of course had his 4 INT performance(first time he's thrown 4 INTs in one game) while also in general having been skeptical about Tannehill for a number of years now. Through 4 weeks, the AFC East is looking insanely weak. The Patriots are the only team that doesn't have a losing record at 2-2. The rest? The Dolphins, Jets, and Bills are all 1-3 and it has been a very rough start to the season. The Patriots have beaten the Dolphins and Texans, the Dolphins have beaten the Browns, the Jets have beaten the Bills, and the Bills have beaten the Patriots. Basically... if everyone is middling through the season in another... 3-4 ish weeks, why not bench Tannehill and see what you can do with Matt Moore?

The reality is, that simply isn't a possibility. For all the criticisms you can have about Tannehill... at his worst, he's still better than Matt Moore. Moore is 32-years old and simply hasn't started consistently since the 2011 NFL Season when he salvaged an awful 0-7 Dolphins start to get to a 6-10 record to end the year. Even right now.. what qualities does he have superior to Tannehill? He'll throw interceptions because he's a gun slinger. Are you counting on his deep ball? How would all of that change with both Landry and Cameron being taken out of the lineup?

Adam Gase was brought in to take care of Ryan Tannehill. See what he can do with him, work with him, etc... right now, Tannehill's at the lowest point he's been since his rookie season. He has this 4 game stretch at home to try and fix that. Going up against the Tennessee Titans, Pittsburgh Pirates, Buffalo Bills, a bye, and then the New York Jets. If he can go... 3-1 in that stretch while putting up respectable numbers, he'll have done enough to guarantee himself that he'll start the rest of the way. Hell, going against the likes of the Titans and Steelers awful secondaries... he could hopefully see himself have a resurgence. We've seen it happen with Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin in 2007 with those Giants teams. Show us what you got Tannehill, Dolphins vs Titans is coming next!

[Number999]

2016 Regular Season Game #5 | MIA vs TEN

Tennessee Titans at Miami Dolphins
Oct 9, 2016	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Tennessee Titans (0-4)	0	3	0	3	6
Miami Dolphins (1-3)	14	7	14	7	42

Team Stats Comparison
	TEN	MIA
Total Offense	200	451
Rushing Yards	59	199
Passing Yards	141	252
First Downs	12	19
Punt Return Yards	0	57
Kick Return Yards	79	51
Total Yards	279	559
Turnovers	3(-3)	0(+3)
3rd Down Converstion	5/15(33%)	7/13(53%)
4th Down Conversion	0/0(0%)	0/0(0%)
2-Point Conversion	0/0(0%)	0/0(0%)
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	1/1(100%)	3/4(75%)
Penalties	4/18	4/45
Posession Time	24:08	35:52

Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER SCORING		TEN	MIA
6:18	(MIA) Kenny Stills 49 yard pass from Ryan Tannehill | XP	0	7
2:30	(MIA) Jay Ajayi 48 yard run | XP	0	14
SECOND QUARTER SCORING		TEN	MIA
6:33	(MIA) Jay Ajayi 1 yard run | XP	0	21
0:05	(TEN) Ryan Succop 43 yard field goal	3	21
THIRD QUARTER SCORING		TEN	MIA
9:49	(MIA) DeVante Parker 6 yard pass from Ryan Tannehill | XP	3	28
4:59	(MIA) Isa Abdul-Quddus returned interception 11 yards | XP	3	35
FOURTH QUARTER SCORING		TEN	MIA
10:49	(MIA) DeVante Parker 11 yard pass from Ryan Tannehill | XP	3	42
7:52	(TEN) Ryan Succop 49 yard field goal	6	42

Tennessee Titans PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Marcus Mariota 20/34 191 0 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD DeMarco Murray 17 47 2.7 0 Marcus Mariota 2 3 1.5 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Delanie Walker 8 84 10.5 0 Kendall Wright 6 53 8.8 0 Dorial G-Beckham 2 22 11.0 0 BLOCKING PANCAKE SACK Jack Conklin 0 4 Chance Warmack 0 1 Jeremiah Poutasi 0 1 Ben Jones 0 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Da'Norris Searcy 12 0.0 0 0 Derrick Morgan 5 1.5 0 0 Wesley Woodyard 7 1.0 0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Ryan Succop 2/2 0/0 6 49 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 Brett Kern 8 388 48.5 1

Miami Dolphins PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Ryan Tannehill 23/30 268 3 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Jay Ajayi 23 146 6.3 2 Ryan Tannehill 4 45 11.2 0 Kenyan Drake 7 8 1.1 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Kenny Stills 4 106 26.5 1 DeVante Parker 11 72 6.5 2 Dion Sims 4 40 10.0 0 BLOCKING PANCAKE SACK Mike Pouncey 2 0 Branden Albert 0 1 Ja'Wuan James 0 1 DEFENSE TACK SACK INT TD Cameron Wake 8 4.0 0 0 Isa Abdul-Quddus 6 0.0 1 1 Jelani Jenkins 7 0.0 1 0 Ndamukong Suh 5 2.5 0 0 Kiko Alonso 11 0.0 0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Andrew Franks 0/0 6/6 6 0 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 Matt Darr 6 331 55.1 3

Game Recap: Now that's more like it Miami! That was an ***-whooping if I've ever seen one!

The Dolphins right out of the gate in the 1st quarter established their dominance over the Titans and simply made it a nightmare for them all day long. They started the game with a 3-and-out as they had won the coin flip, and little did they know that would be their general experience the next 3+ hours. The Dolphins offense soon took over but on 3rd and 1 was stuffed as Ajayi couldn't pick up the 1st down. The Titans got the ball back but on 3rd and 11 only picked up 5 yards and settled to punt again, this time Miami was determined to score and rid themselves of the awfulness last Thursday night. On 1st and 10 at just about exactly midfield, Tannehill saw the lane he needed. From under center he rolled out with a defender chasing him and found a gap in the man coverage by the Titans. Kenny Stills had gotten free of his man and a beautifully thrown touch pass by Tannehill found his grasps as he reigned it in and took it up field where there was no support in the secondary allowing for the 49 yard touchdown connection!

When Marcus Mariota and the Titans got the ball back, they actually maneuvered a good bit down the field. Getting to the Dolphins 33 yard line after finding Delanie Walker, they set up on 1st and down on a play action pass... but they weren't accounting for one thing. Last year before his injury, Cameron Wake beat the Titans up. This week... he did more of the same. Matched up against Jack Conklin, he threw him to the side and got around the support in Walker and Murray hounding down Mariota as he scrambled helplessly. Wake slammed him from behind and actually forced a fumble! For the first time it feels like, there was a fellow Dolphins teammate there for the recovery! Suh fell on the ball to confirm a change of possession and put an instant stop to the Titans brewing offense. After a rush by Ajayi, he hit the holy grail on his next play. 2nd and 2, he hid behind Laremy Tunsil and Mike Pouncey for a bit before being hit by Titans DE Karl Klug... he shoved him off and all of a sudden had ACRES of running room! Making it to the endzone easily, a 48 yard touchdown just like that put Miami up 14-0 in the 1st quarter!

The harassment wouldn't stop there on Mariota, not even in the 1st quarter. He got the ball and on 2nd and 9 at his own 40 yard line he threw his 1st interception of the game! Feeling the heat of Ndamukong Suh coming for his throat, he shot a pass over the middle hoping it would find Dorial Green Beckham but instead it found the clasps of Dolphins linebacker Jelani Jenkins! The ball was very poorly thrown, considering even if Jenkins wasn't there it would have been too far in front and too low for Beckham to make the catch. Sadly, the Dolphins offense couldn't do much with it since after two Ajayi rushes, Tannehill got sacked for a 9 yard loss taking Miami out of field goal range forcing them to punt the ball away. Still if the defense kept playing like it was, more points wouldn't be needed.

After another Titans 3-and-out, Miami's offense engineered another good drive deep into Titans territory. Jay Ajayi was having his best game of the season as the Titans defense essentially had no response to the Dolphins running prowess. On the 1-yard line, Ajayi punched it in for his 2nd touchdown of the day as Miami's lead only continued to climb now up to 21-zip. The Titans got the ball back and looked like they were gonna punt again... until Isa Abdul Quddus for yet another week got greedy and tried to block the punt. As a result, it was 15 free yards and the ability to keep driving... but the Titans weren't able to score. Stopping at the Miami 44 yard line, it was too deep to try a field goal. Miami's offense punted it back, and then that's when the Titans finally got moving again. This was probably Mariota's best drive of the game and even though they couldn't get a touchdown, it did prevent total embarrassment as the Titans got points on the board right before the end of the 1st half to make it a 3-21 deficit.

Things did not turn around much in the 2nd half for the Tennessee Titans. The Dolphins kicked to start the game so they got the ball to start the 2nd half. Opening drive, it was easy as pie as the Dolphins connected with Parker, Sims, a good rushing attack by Ajayi, all before finding DeVante Parker in the endzone to extend the lead and go up 28-3. The Titans weren't able to grow on their previous possession before halftime and it resulted in more punishment for Mariota as he got sacked on 3rd and 10. Dolphins offense tried their best but they soon had to punt as well... the good news for them was that Matt Darr had his best punt of the night pinning the Titans back at their own 8 yard line. On 2nd and 5, Mariota saw Delanie Walker but he was drifting to his right and had to throw it off his backfoot... quite possibly, the worst mistake you can make as a QB. Dolphins FS Isa-Abdul Quddus knew he had to avenge his mistake from earlier and stepped up! Picking off Mariota and easily walking it into the endzone, it was a pick-6 as this started reaching the "sad" point in the game... Titans now trailed, 3-35.

Jumping ahead to the 4th quarter, the Dolphins had the ball after a few possession exchanges and with 10:53 remaining in the game they scored for the final time before taking mercy on the Titans soul. It was 3rd and goal at the Titans 11 yard line after a few penalties. The Dolphins were willing to settle for a field goal until Tannehill noticed Parker was wide open over the middle for his 2nd touchdown of the day and Tannehill's 3rd on the afternoon... a monumental improvement as to what happened Thursday night. The Titans responded with another field goal after a few nice passes by Mariota, but they were never able to punch it in the endzone. Each side basically knew the gig at this point and just sorta ran the ball the rest of the game just trying to end it as soon as possible. After a couple of punts, the final whistle sounded and the Dolphins had won their 2nd game of the 2016 NFL Season!

[Number999]

No Landry? No Problem. Dolphins thrash Titans, 42-6!

After the massive disappointment that was last Thursday night against the Bengals, the Dolphins came back with extra rest and thrashed the Tennessee Titans in their 2nd home game of the still fairly young 2016 NFL Season. To be honest, many would argue this sort of performance was over-due... Miami was actually thriving quite nicely against Cincinnati early on, and it was only those two interceptions that killed the drives that bottled a potential 14 points for the Dolphins. Taking the good from the performance vs Cincy and applying it to the 0-4, now 0-5 Titans... you get the result you got. Last year Miami also played Tennessee but the key difference was that the Titans played at home. Miami still won by a sizable score of 38-10, while Tannehill had 2 touchdowns, 2 INTs, had 266 yards, and overall passed 22/29 on the day. He saw an improvement from his last performance by not throwing a single INT, throwing for 3 touchdowns, 268 yards, and completing 23 of his 30 pass attempts. Tannehill is now 2-1 against the Titans all-time... his one loss coming when the Titans thrashed the Dolphins in his rookie season, 37-3.

Many wondered how the offense would perform for Miami without star WR Jarvis Landry along with early reliable TE Jordan Cameron in the lineup. I gotta say... it was pretty alright. Kenny Stills stepped up by making two monster catches(TD, one that set up another TD on long down) while DeVante Parker was really asked to carry all game long catching a career high in 11 receptions. The last time a Dolphins player had that many receptions in a game was in fact Landry against the New York Giants(12/14/15) Dion Sims was also asked to contribute and while his hands have been an issue in the past, he had a respectable 4 catches for 40 yards performance. Guys like Leonte Carroo, Jay Ajayi, Arian Foster, Jake Stoneburner, etc... will all have fairly minor roles unless they excel in a certain matchup in these coming weeks. The biggest thing that made up for the loss of Landry and Cameron was the fact the rushing attack got rolling. Jay Ajayi dominated and Drake came in for the occasional short carry since Foster had the game off because it was a blowout and there was no need to force him to play after he had that hip pointer last week. Regardless, here are my game notes finally! Smaller than last week and more of a suffice summary.

Quote:

- jenkins monster stop on 3rd and 1 force punt opening drive - Solid connection between tannehill/stills TD - YESSSSS!!!!! Wake sacks Mariota, forces fumble Suh recovery - ajayi breaks tackle from klug and goes the distance! - jenkins picks off mariota!!! suh forces pressure on bad throw! - bad sack takes dolphins out of fg range, oh well - beautiful goal-line blocking sets up 2nd Ajayi TD - wake sacks mariota but stupid facemask penalty... stupid - defense ges another massive 3rd down stop - dolphins d stops them deep in their zone, force another punt - ISA ABDUL QUDDUS!!!! YET ANOTHER ROUGHING THE KICKER! - gave up a free 3 points cause of that foolish penalty - Wake is having a MONSTER game, his best game in forever - ISA ABDUL QUDDUS STEPS UP AND PICK 6'S MARIOTA!!! - matt darr has been punting exceptionally well today - overall, just a beastful game by everyone on our end

But that's enough talk about the offense... one of the biggest things I highlighted in my notes that I really felt was the biggest game-changer... Cameron Wake, take a bow son. He was having a pretty slow start to the season by all accounts, and he even admitted that he wasn't up to as high a playing level as he would have liked after the game. Many would even say that Mario Williams was out-playing him to start the season. The way he played vs Tennessee though... 8 tackles, 4 sacks, 1 forced fumble. You'll struggle to see a defensive linemen get much more dominant than that. He beat right tackle Jack Conklin like a drum all afternoon and the craziest part is that this isn't the first time he's done this. Last year in Tennessee he was having an awful start to the season only having 1 tackle through 4 games while also having 0 sacks and then he destroyed the Titans collecting 4 tackles and 4 sacks while also forcing 2 fumbles. In his last 2 games vs Tennessee, he has 12 tackles, 8 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles.. poor Mariota!

But it just wasn't Cameron Wake either. Jelani Jenkins collected his 2nd interception of the season! The outside linebacker has been a play-maker this season in a contract year and he may see a pay raise because of it. The former Gator is still very young at 24 and to see him pick-off Ryan Fitzpatrick and Marcus Mariota, force a couple of fumbles, and also being a fundamentally sound tackler... he may have a spot in the Dolphins linebacking core for awhile. I also want to give a shutout once again to another member on the defensive line. Ndamukong Suh gets all the praise since he's been dominant as a run stuffer, causing numerous passing mishaps(he forced that INT to Jenkins) and just in general being a monster. But the man next to him in Earl Mitchell has been cleaning up his 1 v 1 matchups. While Suh is taking on the double teams, Mitchell has managed to bust through the line and get tackles in the backfield, see a sky-rocket in his sack count, and just in general be at the peak of his playing powers. Guess that's what happens when you have a future hall of famer next to you(or should I say 2 HOFers cause of Wake?)

The Dolphins are feeling good about themselves, and they'll need it taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week #6!

[Number999]

Steelers are 1-4, in poor shape entering Week #6 vs MIA

Things have not gone very kindly for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2016. The club that seemingly always dominated the AFC North has fallen on hard times to start the year, and they must quickly asset themselves sooner rather than later if they don't want to find themselves totally removed from playoff contention even before November begins. What has caused the Steelers downfall? Well... piss poor run defense(ranked 32nd in the entire NFL in terms of rushing yards allowed) as well as simply not playing well against their opponents. In Week #1 they got thrashed by the Redskins, 31-3. They followed it up with losses to the Bengals(L 10-16) and Eagels(L 17-31) before getting off the schnide somewhat in defeating the Chiefs by a field goal(W 24-21), still the following week at home they were thrwiated by the Jets(L 7-29) resulting in their 1-4 record, one of their worst starts in franchise history.

In terms of individual statistics, it isn't hard to see where the drop-off has occurred. Ben Roethlisberger hasn't even reached 1k yards and currently has a 83.1 QB Rating which simply isn't good enough. The worst part? It seems the big fella is starting to breakdown again at the age of 34. He is out for "at least" the next 6 weeks with "concussion" symptoms as well as dealing with a dislocation in his ankle and some injuries in his throwing arm... that means that yes, Landry Jones OR Bruce Gradkowski will battle it out to see who the starting QB of the Steelers will be next week. DeAngelo Williams is the Steelers leading rusher with 206 yards on 45 carries... he's been sharing a running back system with Daryl Richardson since Le'Veon Bell has been sidelined the whole start of the year with a quad tear. Various other Steelers have gone down with injuries including Arthur Moats, James Harrison, and Alejandro Villanueva just to give you a gauge of what Pittsburgh has had to deal with to start the year.

With Roethlisberger likely being out for over a month and a half, and considering the Steelers have started the year 1-4... it isn't too unreasonable to do what many suggest. TANK! You need to start thinking of life after Big Ben if he's going to keep getting hurt. He's 34-years old... tank and try to get one of these young rookie QBs. You have a beast RB in Bell when he's healthy. A potential great trio in Brown, Bryant, and Wheaton in terms of your wide receiver core. LaDarius Green is good at tight end, you have a young offensive line, address your awful run defense by getting some beefy new defensive tackles and linebackers. It may take another season, but start re-working that secondary is well. You have been offered the gift of an excuse to tank and rebuild with Roethlisberger being out.

But... with this all presenting itself, this honestly means good things for the Miami Dolphins! You don't have to deal with the freak that is Ben Roethlisberger. Now, that's not to say the Steelers don't have players who will be a headache(we've all seen how much a star WR and TE duo has hurt Miami this season) Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if Antonio Brown had a career day. But with the Steelers having a dreadful rushing defense, you can have Ajayi and Foster go after them early and often. Guys like Stills, Parker, Carroo, and Sims will be enough against the Pittsburgh secondary since it's not like they have anyone elite on their end of the spectrum either. This is a very winnable game, especially at home. Getting back to .500 along with combining the first back-to-back wins of the season would do wonders for the confidence of this squad moving forward(especially with the Bills/Jets coming up)

Finally, I want to go a bit off topic here and talk about sliders. Sliders are really great. They help you tweak stuff just so it's fair for both sides and they're wonderful since if you think a difficulty like All-Madden is unfair, you can tilt it enough in your favor to get the perfect game experience. As I've been playing on All-Pro, I haven't really messed around with sliders too much. But... now that I'm 5 games into this franchise, I do feel like I can tweak a few things a bit to get better results. I've decided I'll finally post these on the 1st page, editing under the post "Franchise Settings" where there will be a spoiler for these. Basically the main changes are QB Accuracy was pushed down(for numbers sake), run blocking I bumped back up a bit cause I felt like I was shutting down the CPUs rushing attack too well. In the preseason it was a nightmare to defend, but now I feel like I can handle it. I put down interceptions to 40 since I don't want guys like Karlos Dansby looking like Deion Sanders against me, and finally I put punt power down to cut the averages slightly. Other than that, I've been really enjoying my experience thus far. If I feel like these jacked anything up, I'll re-adjust them and include the changes.

But enough with that nonsense... it's time to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week #6 of the 2016 NFL Season!

[NewscasterNews4]

Loving the writeups, these seem like they take a really long time to write and they're so in depth.