First comments following the game....
i haven't felt that sick after a win in quite awhile. Ashamed of the profanity expressed throughout the game, especially in the 4th quarter, in front of my kids.
Special Teams: I'm good with. Ballsy fake punt on the opening drive, but I like the call and the timing, and I take it as Mullen starting the season trying to make a statement of we wil ldo whatever it takes to win, as opposed to playing it conservative*. It worked, yay. But with an entire off-season to script an opening drive we are staring at 3-out and have to run a fake punt? Son, I am disappoint. Punts were fine the rest of the game, and kudos to having starters getting to the right spot to recover the muffed punt. We avg 44.7y over 3 punts, and allow ONE return for -1 yds = good execution We avg 6.3y per return over 3 punts to us...needs work. This speaks to what others mentioned about focusing more on inside blocks than outside gunners.
Defense: Lack of tackling has been beat to death, no more discussion but it can be improved. I thoroughly enjoyed 11 sacks (I count the last intentional grounding no-call), but recognize their young OL had as much to do with it as our DL. It's a feel good, without really knowing what you have. The DBs embarassed themselves. 19/30 for 214yd feels about right for our sloppy tackling, but the 36 carries for 87 yds is a real head scratching stat in that it is skewed up by the lack of tackling the wildcat (Dallas had 12 for 95y) and down by the sacks (Williams had 14 for -44).
Offense: Got Toney the ball more in the first half, so coaching learned something from last year. But overall, we come back to issues between either bad play calling or poor FF execution. We know there is a low ceiling with FF, so I'm leaning more to the play calling as being sub par. OL did better than I expected, as we did have time to throw on a lot of plays, but no holes for the running game. Ultimately, I could accept a poor running game if it was the OL fault, but a lot of it seemed to come from formation and drawing a lot of their Def into the box limiting our chance before the ball is hiked. And as for time to throw...we hear how this is one of the most talented WR corps in the nation...we have to get them the ball. HAVE TO.
I said this game left me feeling sick over a win. But giving it a few days time to settle, to understand there were linemen falling into FF and causing the last INT on a 'go for the throat' play by Mullen. I'm less upset than I was at the final whistle. I saw play calling that was aggressive* even if we couldn't execute consistently, I saw a defense that despite major handicaps (most self inflicted) didn't give up (gave everything on another whiff tackle). The mistakes we made are correctable, so that leaves hope. We came away with the W, and that can't be taken away - and is much better than opening the season with an L
The biggest reason I feel better, is I considered how a MIA fan would feel - knowing they overcame 10 sacks to be within 4pts late in the 4th quarter, to know that we gave them several turnovers, to know that we couldn't tackle for sht, to know that they had every chance and right to win this game....and didn't. They may have solace in showing better than expected, but they have to live with knowing they had all these factors in their favor and still found a way to lose.
It was an odd feeling for the final 5min of the game, rather have them out there with missed tackles and PI calls than risk handing the ball back to our offense again.
*Conservative play calls tried to keep things manageable for FF...and in doing so killed any chance of a running game, and never utilized the space on the field. Aggressive play calls like the seam to Hammond, or the last INT if intended for the WR up the sideline - these show the coaching putting players in a position to win to build confidence and make a statement. I like taking the chances. I'd probably play more conservative (run to win at the end) but I can appreciate trying to make a statement. From the coaches, I liked it. From the players, the statement was 'we cant do it...yet'. That's probably the biggest thing - I came into this expecting late season execution - between the QB-WR-RB who have been there awhile, we shouldn't have fumbles but familiarity and easier execution; for DBU there should be lights out defense with hard hits and no gains. This was a season opener that looked like a season opener, NOT a team full of players in their second year under this staff.
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TL;DR = we can improve, Canes have to live with an L that could have been a win.