The Dolphin Defense Flounders as Jay Cutler Shines

The sense coming into the third preseason game was the Miami defense would need to carry the team until the offense found its swagger. Jay Cutler needed time to shake off the rust and find a rhythm with his receivers. The opposite proved true, Adam Gase’s offense quickly adjusted to Cutler’s quick release and carved up the Eagles secondary, while the Miami defense struggled mightily.

Jay Ajayi slashed and bruised his way through the Philadelphia defense for nearly 6-yards a carry and even Mike Pouncey walked away smiling. The Cutler signing looked almost prophetic as Matt Moore threw two ugly interceptions, one resulting in a pick six. With the Dolphins threatening to score, Moore tossed a rookie INT into two defenders with no Miami player close enough to contest.

If anything, the 38-31 loss to the Eagles seemed to vindicate Adam Gase’s decision to pull Jay Cutler out of retirement for one last shot at something special. The offensive line mostly held its own with Mike Pouncey out of bubble wrap for the first time this preseason. An ugly missed block by left tackle Laremy Tunsil caused Cutler’s only bad play, a strip sack-fumble leading to an Eagle TD. Both Tunsil and right tackle Ja’Wuan James looked slow and unprepared for live game action.
 
21 dynamic points with Jay Cutler at the helm, showed the Miami offense did not miss a beat without Ryan Tannehill. In fact, Cutler was noticeably more at ease in Gase’s offense after only 18 days in Miami, than Tannehill had been in a full season. With the playbook relegated to only a few pages, it should be quite interesting to see the transformation with a full arsenal on display. Cutler seemed particularly eager to find DeVante Parker in one on one situations and their 72 yard hook-up was a teaser of things to come.

The Miami defense on the other hand did not look much different than where it left off ranked 30th in the NFL last season. There were a couple of bursts in the first quarter, including a tipped ball interception that saw 340 pound Jordan Phillips rumble to the 2 yard line, but overall, the defense was not good. Byron Maxwell lost interest in coverage resulting in a 50 yard TD completion to Alshon Jeffery. Bobby McCain was caught flat footed on multiple occasions and hopefully Reshad Jones was simply rusty because his tackling was pathetic.

Key defensive free agent acquisition Lawrence Timmons looked incredibly slow reacting at the point of attack. The step Timmons was rumored to have lost, did not come from his feet, but rather in his inability to recognize the play before being blocked out of it. It was not a good sign for Miami, when Timmons looked lost for much of the evening. For whatever reason, Kiko Alonso and Ndamukong Suh did not appear to be interested in the game as their names were rarely called.

Playing T. J. McDonald at safety seemed counter-productive when the player will be lost to suspension for the first 8 games of the season. Obviously, Nate Allen was nursing some vague injury, but aside from Xavien Howard, the Miami secondary had trouble in staying with Eagle receivers the entire night. With blown coverages all over the field and missed tackles, Matt Burke’s defense looked a long way from being ready to open the season in two weeks.

Before reading too deeply into negative reactions, this was a preseason game and for the defense, it certainly looked the part. There is work to be done all over the defense, from the line play, to linebacker positionings and in the secondary. The positive is the plethora of opportunities Miami coaches will have to teach from the many mistakes.

In all, the Miami Dolphins can safely place the loss of Ryan Tannehill behind them in the mental preparation for the season. Jay Cutler is going to be just fine and may even be the NFL’s biggest surprise. The concentration should now be centered on getting the offensive line playing together, healthy and in sync.

On the defensive side, there simply must be more intensity. In this game, there were a few moments of true dominance, but far too often poor execution led to costly chucks of yardage and touch downs.

Suh’s name was not called, Alonso’s name was not called, Jones’ and Maxwell’s names were called for all the wrong reasons. If these guys are joining Cameron Wake as the money players on this defense, then they’re going to have to strap it up and bring some conviction. After spending two days practicing against the Eagles, Lawrence Timmons' lack of anticipation should be a huge concern.

It’s a preseason game, and drawing too many conclusions from these games is a mistake…

The Dolphins now have a very good read on what they need to sure up over the next two weeks.

They can do that with a comforting sigh knowing the loss of Ryan Tannehill will have little or no impact on the season’s outcome.

Welcome to Miami Jay Cutler!

The Dolphin Defense Flounders as Jay Cutler Shines

The sense coming into the third preseason game was the Miami defense would need to carry the team until the offense found its swagger. Jay Cutler needed time to shake off the rust and find a rhythm with his receivers. The opposite proved true, Adam Gase’s offense quickly adjusted to Cutler’s quick release and carved up the Eagles secondary, while the Miami defense struggled mightily.

Jay Ajayi slashed and bruised his way through the Philadelphia defense for nearly 6-yards a carry and even Mike Pouncey walked away smiling. The Cutler signing looked almost prophetic as Matt Moore threw two ugly interceptions, one resulting in a pick six. With the Dolphins threatening to score, Moore tossed a rookie INT into two defenders with no Miami player close enough to contest.

If anything, the 38-31 loss to the Eagles seemed to vindicate Adam Gase’s decision to pull Jay Cutler out of retirement for one last shot at something special. The offensive line mostly held its own with Mike Pouncey out of bubble wrap for the first time this preseason. An ugly missed block by left tackle Laremy Tunsil caused Cutler’s only bad play, a strip sack-fumble leading to an Eagle TD. Both Tunsil and right tackle Ja’Wuan James looked slow and unprepared for live game action.
 
21 dynamic points with Jay Cutler at the helm, showed the Miami offense did not miss a beat without Ryan Tannehill. In fact, Cutler was noticeably more at ease in Gase’s offense after only 18 days in Miami, than Tannehill had been in a full season. With the playbook relegated to only a few pages, it should be quite interesting to see the transformation with a full arsenal on display. Cutler seemed particularly eager to find DeVante Parker in one on one situations and their 72 yard hook-up was a teaser of things to come.

The Miami defense on the other hand did not look much different than where it left off ranked 30th in the NFL last season. There were a couple of bursts in the first quarter, including a tipped ball interception that saw 340 pound Jordan Phillips rumble to the 2 yard line, but overall, the defense was not good. Byron Maxwell lost interest in coverage resulting in a 50 yard TD completion to Alshon Jeffery. Bobby McCain was caught flat footed on multiple occasions and hopefully Reshad Jones was simply rusty because his tackling was pathetic.

Key defensive free agent acquisition Lawrence Timmons looked incredibly slow reacting at the point of attack. The step Timmons was rumored to have lost, did not come from his feet, but rather in his inability to recognize the play before being blocked out of it. It was not a good sign for Miami, when Timmons looked lost for much of the evening. For whatever reason, Kiko Alonso and Ndamukong Suh did not appear to be interested in the game as their names were rarely called.

Playing T. J. McDonald at safety seemed counter-productive when the player will be lost to suspension for the first 8 games of the season. Obviously, Nate Allen was nursing some vague injury, but aside from Xavien Howard, the Miami secondary had trouble in staying with Eagle receivers the entire night. With blown coverages all over the field and missed tackles, Matt Burke’s defense looked a long way from being ready to open the season in two weeks.

Before reading too deeply into negative reactions, this was a preseason game and for the defense, it certainly looked the part. There is work to be done all over the defense, from the line play, to linebacker positionings and in the secondary. The positive is the plethora of opportunities Miami coaches will have to teach from the many mistakes.

In all, the Miami Dolphins can safely place the loss of Ryan Tannehill behind them in the mental preparation for the season. Jay Cutler is going to be just fine and may even be the NFL’s biggest surprise. The concentration should now be centered on getting the offensive line playing together, healthy and in sync.

On the defensive side, there simply must be more intensity. In this game, there were a few moments of true dominance, but far too often poor execution led to costly chucks of yardage and touch downs.

Suh’s name was not called, Alonso’s name was not called, Jones’ and Maxwell’s names were called for all the wrong reasons. If these guys are joining Cameron Wake as the money players on this defense, then they’re going to have to strap it up and bring some conviction. After spending two days practicing against the Eagles, Lawrence Timmons' lack of anticipation should be a huge concern.

It’s a preseason game, and drawing too many conclusions from these games is a mistake…

The Dolphins now have a very good read on what they need to sure up over the next two weeks.

They can do that with a comforting sigh knowing the loss of Ryan Tannehill will have little or no impact on the season’s outcome.

Welcome to Miami Jay Cutler!

Jay Cutler Leads the Miami Cyber Crusade

I've was never a Cutler fan. I laughed when someone added an "N" between the "U" and the "T" thus changing Jay's name forever in my mind. I completely understand Miami signing him, even applaud it, there was never really much choice.

Yet I can’t help lament, this was the season Tannehill would finally define himself and make the leap into elite. That illusive place we've all been holding our breath hoping he would step into, but it’s not to be. Tannehill will be on the wrong side of 30 when he returns and a great season by Cutler further muddies the waters.

Cutler is a stop-gap to some future that is very fuzzy, but today, here and now Jay and Miami Dolphins will begin their crusade against cyber bullies.
 
Here and now, we remove the "N" from Cutler, click past the cigarette smoking memes. We use the hostility spewed incessantly over the vile social media dominated society to motivate the Miami Dolphins.
 
I shut down Facebook, turned off Twitter and stopped reading faceless snippets from losers with nothing better to do than disparage other people.

Cyber bullies… Think of those poor kids. I was always of the thought, “suck it up you little weaklings.” Now I see more clearly in the treatment of a grown adult how hard it must be when the keyboard warriors attack a child.

I’m going to make a dolphinshout out to all Miami Dolphin fans. How about we make a stand? Not just against these faceless Cutler haters and their ruthless memes, tweets and posts, let’s do it for the kids. Let’s dedicate this Miami season to shutting down the cyber hate.

Jay has a big load on his shoulders, he’s the leader of our little campaign and he doesn’t even know it. Adam Gase will get the most out of Cutler and Miami can be a decent team, but a Dolphin crusade against cyber bullies in all their forms could be a difference maker.

The curse of Joe Robbie has never been exorcised. Ever since Wayne Huizinga sold out the Robbie name on the stadium Joe built, the Dolphins have been cursed. Somewhere up there Joe’s been looking down with his Voodoo doll, piercing a pin in Marino’s Achilles tendon, Tossing Marty Lions on the back of Dwight Stevenson’s knee, pricking Tannehill’s ACL.

We need a cause! We need to show Joe Robbie that Miami fans will rise above putting the "N" in Cutler... In a society more and more dominated by negative information saturation, we can save the children. We can raise a mighty middle finger to all of those who dare add “Ns” to our quarterback’s name.
 
Drink in the faceless hate, let it resonate inside our hearts, like the Grinch who finds Christmas until it swells and pulsates into a superpower. Rally around our new mantra!

“Jay, Jay he’s our man! Ride his naked butt to the promised land…”

or something like that…

Go to the schools, find the sad little one with bottle-bottom-glasses and bring him to the center of the field for the coin flip. Let him get all the way down on his knees to read that thing and then raise him on our shoulders!

“Jay, Jay he’s our man! Ride his naked butt to the promised land…”

This is our crusade, the cyber bullying stops here. There will be no more “N” in Cutler. Every hateful meme, every smoking Jay image, every nasty tweet, every ugly Facebook quote and every child thrown under the cyber bus is our fuel. We welcome the hate because the hate is our fire, the hate is what fuels us to try a little harder.

Bring it… Bring all you got! Cause we got Jay and in Gase we trust…

“Jay, Jay he’s our man! Ride his naked butt to the promised land…”

Miami Dolphins Land Quarterback Jay Cutler

As we all know Ryan Tannehill sustained a setback to his 2016 knee injury last week/Thursday. The severity of the setback is still inconclusive. In a best case scenario, he may rehab and hope to return in 6 to 8 weeks. The potential alternative is surgery which would finalize his 2017 season though (if done immediately) should have him at 100% for 2018's start.

Miami has been deliberating what their next course of action should be.

Today on Sunday August 6th Adam Gase pulled a former proven QB of his from the clutches of a 2 month free agent/semi-retirement hiatus.

Miami signed 11 year starting QB veteran Jay Cutler to a (reported) one year 10 million contract with incentives that could earn him in the 13 million neighborhood.

Cutler played for Gase as OC in 2015 for Chicago which resulted in the most (efficient) and impressive year of the gunslingers career (to date). 3,659 yards, with a two to one TD/int ratio 21 & 11, and a single touchdown run for the 22nd. He's produced bigger seasonal numbers over his career but Gase led him to his most efficient season with a 92.3 QB rating.

He is 34, stands at 6-3, 231 and has 208 Touchdown passes to his credit as the Bears all-time leader. His first three NFL years was spent in Denver.

Cutler has an accurately scoped rifle of an arm with great touch, and a SIX shoot'n gunslingers mentality. He has good footwork but can get the ball wherever it needs to be off of one foot, flat-footed or from many an awkward position/angle with a fairly quick release, and throws a very catchable pretty ball. He has good pocket awareness as a savvy 11 year starting QB veteran, he's mobile and is a tough runner that will lay his body on the line if need be.

But what is most important is that he and Adam Gase will be reunited and on the same page from day one with a clear understanding of one another. Cutler is already familiar with the type of offense/playbook that Gase runs, and what will be expected of him.

Matt Moore is presently the Dolphins starter and that's a good thing (minus Tannehill), but what's better is that Miami now has a legit, playoff winning starting QB in the background awaiting his opportunity to help The Miami Dolphins Win and fill the sudden, unexpected void of Ryan Tannehill.


WELCOME TO MIAMI
Jay Cutler!!!

GOFINS!!!