Reasons to Smile
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Clutching at straws, maybe. Overly optimistic, probably. Rose tinted glass, definitely. But I don't care, there are positives to take away from the situation (some bigger than others).
1) The most obvious point would have to be the run D, by a long, long way. 20 rushing yards? Seriously?! We'll have to see how this holds up against a more proven run team, but given that it's not unknown for Tannehill to make plays with his feet, and they have a highly touted back in Miller, it can only be a good thing. As they say, you can only beat what's in front of you, and we beat their run game.
2) 'Shutdown' Joe Haden - Mike Wallace, their new $60m WR, was totally, and completely fairly - no penalties afaik - shutdown. One catch from the entire game? Guarantee that the fishes are going to be bitching about that. Helped out by a decent push up front which we'll get to later, Haden had no troubles today. If we can find a guy to step up on the other side (or acquire one next offseason) this D is going to be one of the best around.
3) QB pressure. OK, not enough of it in the second half, but 4 sacks is pretty decent for a defense still trying to get to grips with a new scheme. Added to the run D, we had little difficulty getting through their OL.
4) Jordan Cameron. The kid can catch. The interception that ricocheted off of his finger tips, he's always going to struggle to catch the poor throw. Perhaps he can bat it down? Call it naivety, but I like his confidence that he can catch anything thrown to him. The grab over the two DBs for the TD was a thing of beauty. Not sure about his blocking, perhaps someone more informed can enlighten us, but he is as billed - athletic, with good hands.
5) The Black Bess Monster. He came here with a reputation for converting third downs - not sure how many times he was targeted on those situations though. What I do know is that basically everything that came close to him he brought down - including the one right on the sideline where he's dragging his feet to stay in bounds and complete.
6) Cousins won't be playing much longer! A bit of a stretch, I know. But Shawn Luvavoavoa is on his way back, and should provide an upgrade, even if it's from awful to mediocre at best. Who knows, maybe Gilkey gets a start this weekend.
7) We had a chance. If it weren't for Cousins' penalty, Barnidge scores his TD and we're all of a sudden 6 points behind. Onside kick and we're in position with reasonable time left on the clock to get down the field and get the TD to win. Wishful thinking, probably, and the faith the BW could have lead that drive is wafer thin, but after what we can all agree was a horrible game, with some bad QB play, drops from WRs and a leaky right-OL, we were more or less in contention. See the above point about Cousins and his lack of a future in the NFL - any serviceable NFL OG and we're a log better off in this game.
Gordon will be back for most of the season. Assuming he doesn't spend his 2 weeks off getting trashed, we'll have our No1 receiver back. It takes the pressure off of Little, who gets covered by the No2 CB, maybe gets a little more separation, catches the dropped passes because the separation allows a 'safer' throw from Weeden. Not saying Flash will score 4 TDs each game, but it frees up our other players to make plays. For example, if Mike Wallace had been suspended, instead of Gordon, Haden covers Hartline, he doesn't have such a huge game, Miami manages about 150 yards passing, about 13 points, and we probably end up scoring another FG at least.9) Mingo the Merciless - we managed all the QB pressure without our top draft pick. Feel free to disagree about him being good value at number 6, that's in the past now. He's an athletic guy who is going to get his share of the action. At the worst, it keeps Sheard/Kruger fresher. At best he pitches in with 6-8 sacks.
Sure, I'm being overly optimistic. And I'm sure people will pick it apart. But hell, if I spend now until May thinking how Weeden is awful, we need a better secondary and the receiving corps is about as effective as a cat flap in a elephant house, I'll lose my shit.
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My main reason to smile is we are tied for first (and last) in the AFCN.
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