Shame of the Game - at Steelers

[dolphins4life]

Matt Moore.  He clearly saw Harrison coming, you HAVE to protect the ball in that situation

Landry.  You have to keep your cool.  You were getting fifteen free yards and you blew that drive

OC.  Why was no back in the backfield on that fumble before the first half?

[Dave Gray]

Gotta be Moore.  3 turnovers all of avoidable mistakes.

[Spider-Dan]

Defensive coordinator Vance Joseph.

During a game played in sub-freezing temperatures, the Steelers looked like they were in a dome.  Their first punt came in the 4th quarter.

Honorable Mention to Jay Ajayi, who ran for 33 yards and had a completely useless 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty.

[Dolphster]

The Steelers for having the nerve to be considerably more talented than our Fins.     This went about like I expected, but doesn't change the fact that I'm very pleased with this season.  

[fyo]

I think blaming Moore is a bit unreasonable. My DVR flaked out on me, so I can't go watch the plays again, but IIRC Branden Albert got beat badly on a stunt on the fumble where Matt Moore collided with Ajayi. Albert looked like a rookie on that play. Or a fat, slow veteran. On the other strip-sack, Pittsburgh sent 5 and the Dolphins kept 2 tight ends back + Ajayi in blitz pickup. The two tight ends wound up having responsibility for 2 guys, which isn't easy, but despite the defenders just rushing straight, neither tight end managed to TOUCH their guy. Ajayi was forced to choose and did a perfect job, but that still left one guy. Or maybe I'm remembering wrong and one of the strip sacks actually came on the play where Albert thought his guy backed off and shifted his stance and blocked inside on double team with Tunsil, leaving the DE untouched on Moore. That was an ugly play as well.

The interception, while NOT a good throw by Moore, was an amazing play by Shazier. If you have it on tape, go look at it again. Shazier blitzes from left to right (seen from O), sees Moore handoff to Ajayi (fake) on a run to left, brakes down and manages to come back across his original direction of motion and almost meets Ayaji at the line of scrimmage, recognizes it's a play-action fake and then backpedals like mad and gets an interception. Moore never saw Shazier and it's hard to blame him. I still would have liked to see a bit more power on the throw, but that's one thing about Moore; he does tend to use a lot more touch than power.

My SoTG is Branden Albert. He got owned today.

[Dolfanalyst]

Adam Gase, for planning nothing ingenious offensively to help the team keep pace with the Steelers, knowing his own defense had no such shot of doing so.

[dolphins4life]

I think blaming Moore is a bit unreasonable. My DVR flaked out on me, so I can't go watch the plays again, but IIRC Branden Albert got beat badly on a stunt on the fumble where Matt Moore collided with Ajayi. Albert looked like a rookie on that play. Or a fat, slow veteran. On the other strip-sack, Pittsburgh sent 5 and the Dolphins kept 2 tight ends back + Ajayi in blitz pickup. The two tight ends wound up having responsibility for 2 guys, which isn't easy, but despite the defenders just rushing straight, neither tight end managed to TOUCH their guy. Ajayi was forced to choose and did a perfect job, but that still left one guy. Or maybe I'm remembering wrong and one of the strip sacks actually came on the play where Albert thought his guy backed off and shifted his stance and blocked inside on double team with Tunsil, leaving the DE untouched on Moore. That was an ugly play as well.

The interception, while NOT a good throw by Moore, was an amazing play by Shazier. If you have it on tape, go look at it again. Shazier blitzes from left to right (seen from O), sees Moore handoff to Ajayi (fake) on a run to left, brakes down and manages to come back across his original direction of motion and almost meets Ayaji at the line of scrimmage, recognizes it's a play-action fake and then backpedals like mad and gets an interception. Moore never saw Shazier and it's hard to blame him. I still would have liked to see a bit more power on the throw, but that's one thing about Moore; he does tend to use a lot more touch than power.

My SoTG is Branden Albert. He got owned today.

The first fumble is on Moore.  It was not a blindside hit.  He saw Harrison coming.  He needed to take the sack there.

[fyo]

The first fumble is on Moore.  It was not a blindside hit.  He saw Harrison coming.  He needed to take the sack there.

The Harrison strip-sack, having watched it again on replay, was mostly on Albert. Harrison backed off right before the snap and Albert decided to block inside instead and let Harrison tee off on Moore. And, yes, this was from the blind side. Did he see Harrison? Sure, about a tenth of a second before he got hit. He had enough time to turn and take half a step towards "freedom" before the hit. Could have have chucked it into the ground for an intentional grounding? Probably. Could he have pulled a Peyton Crumble? Sure.

[Tenshot13]

VJ

[CF DolFan]

Regargess of anything else not sure how you can't give it to Moore and his 3 turnovers. You have to get points insde the 10 and he made a huge mistake by not protecting the ball. 

[masterfins]

The Harrison strip-sack, having watched it again on replay, was mostly on Albert. Harrison backed off right before the snap and Albert decided to block inside instead and let Harrison tee off on Moore. And, yes, this was from the blind side. Did he see Harrison? Sure, about a tenth of a second before he got hit. He had enough time to turn and take half a step towards "freedom" before the hit. Could have have chucked it into the ground for an intentional grounding? Probably. Could he have pulled a Peyton Crumble? Sure.

I blamed Tunsil for that sack.  Albert was engaged blocking, Tunsil was standing there watching.  IMO it was Tunsil that should have dropped back and picked up Harrison.

[masterfins]

Defense in the first third of the game - they had zero tackling ability.

Offensive Line the rest of the game, very little protection for Moore, no running lanes for Ajayi.

HM - Ajayi, sure the O-line didn't open holes for him, but I've seen enough games where he bounced it outside for gains.  He had nothing against Pittsburgh; AND he was partly responsible for Moore's second fumble by running into Moore.

[dolphins4life]

The Harrison strip-sack, having watched it again on replay, was mostly on Albert. Harrison backed off right before the snap and Albert decided to block inside instead and let Harrison tee off on Moore. And, yes, this was from the blind side. Did he see Harrison? Sure, about a tenth of a second before he got hit. He had enough time to turn and take half a step towards "freedom" before the hit. Could have have chucked it into the ground for an intentional grounding? Probably. Could he have pulled a Peyton Crumble? Sure.

No, watch it again, he sees Harrison coming and runs to avoid him.  What he SHOULD done was taken a sack, call timeout, and regroup.

Why no running back was in the backfield for that play is a mystery. 

[masterfins]

No, watch it again, he sees Harrison coming and runs to avoid him.  What he SHOULD done was taken a sack, call timeout, and regroup.

WTF??  If Moore took a sack every time the opposing team was coming at him there would have been about 20 sacks on Sunday.  As long as Moore wasn't losing more yards and pushing the Dolphins out of FG range he did what he was supposed to do, other than throwing it away which he didn't have time to do.

[fyo]

I blamed Tunsil for that sack.  Albert was engaged blocking, Tunsil was standing there watching.  IMO it was Tunsil that should have dropped back and picked up Harrison.

Really? That would be a very strange blocking scheme. Albert is clearly poised to take on Harrison, who then drops a step back and a few steps wider. Albert should think "speed rush" at this point. Tunsil probably didn't even see Harrison move and his responsibility had to have been the inside guy (and the outside guy moving wider wouldn't change that). I'm thinking Albert either thought Harrison was backing off and not rushing (really??) or that he had Ajayi in the backfield to help (although that matchup would be a big ask).