Shame of the game - Raiders

[dolphins4life]

The front office could get it every week this year.

Willis took a dumb sack that ended any hope, but I can’t give him it for that

The defense sucks

[Frimp]

Me because I forgot about it.

[Denver2]

Stephen Ross

[Dave Gray]

I had us being terribly bad this year.  This is what I expected.  However, even then, I think what I saw today is very concerning.

The Raiders are probably among the worst teams in the NFL.  ...bottom 5....but probably bottom 3.  Maybe bottom 2.  And we had a lot of things break our way.  We had multiple INTs that gave us field position and we had a special teams return that put us inside the 10.  You're not going to get that normally.  And even with those things, we scored only 13 points.  And the TD we did score was a scramble on a broken play.

It's going to be incredibly ugly this year.  We were uncompetitive against probably the other worst team in football and it just gets harder from here.

As for Shame of the Game....I don't really know whether I should pick the GM that gave us this roster or the GM prior that set the stage for this or Stephen Ross for overseeing the whole thing.

Our new GM made the choice to dump a bunch of players at a loss and still pay salaries for guys to play on other teams.  That's not great, but I think the calculus is that you need a fresh start to evaluate your new guys.

Our previous GM paid a bunch of guys big money when he should have let them walk at the price.  And we're paying the price for that.

But I ultimately have to go with Stephen Ross.  He's the one overseeing the entire plan -- he let the previous guys overspend on the groceries and he let the new guys come and clean out the fridge.  Now the meal sucks.

[Spider-Dan]

Hard to say which was worse... the offense (only 13 points against the Raiders), or the defense (gave up 27 points to the Raiders).

For today, my SOTG goes to the head coach, due not only to the putrid performances on both sides of the ball, but the 8 penalties.  MIA looked simply unprepared out there.

[Pappy13]

I had us being terribly bad this year.  This is what I expected.  However, even then, I think what I saw today is very concerning.

The Raiders are probably among the worst teams in the NFL.  ...bottom 5....but probably bottom 3.  Maybe bottom 2.  And we had a lot of things break our way.  We had multiple INTs that gave us field position and we had a special teams return that put us inside the 10.  You're not going to get that normally.  And even with those things, we scored only 13 points.  And the TD we did score was a scramble on a broken play.

It's going to be incredibly ugly this year.  We were uncompetitive against probably the other worst team in football and it just gets harder from here.

As for Shame of the Game....I don't really know whether I should pick the GM that gave us this roster or the GM prior that set the stage for this or Stephen Ross for overseeing the whole thing.

Our new GM made the choice to dump a bunch of players at a loss and still pay salaries for guys to play on other teams.  That's not great, but I think the calculus is that you need a fresh start to evaluate your new guys.

Our previous GM paid a bunch of guys big money when he should have let them walk at the price.  And we're paying the price for that.

But I ultimately have to go with Stephen Ross.  He's the one overseeing the entire plan -- he let the previous guys overspend on the groceries and he let the new guys come and clean out the fridge.  Now the meal sucks.

I'm going to preface this by saying I haven't seen the game tape yet because the game wasn't on in my area and I didn't feel in the mood to watch the game last night. I'll try to watch tonight so I have a better read on things, but here's my initial thoughts.

Some people thought Miami would be competitive against the Raiders because they're not that good, but I saw it completely differently. You don't just replace half your roster and your complete full staff which includes a rookie head coach and think things are going to take shape week 1. In my opinion Miami should have taken a different approach to the preseason then they did. In my opinion Miami should have played the starters for at least a half of every game. I know most team use the preseason as an evaluation for the bottom half of the roster, but that's because the top half you already know what you have, in the case of the Dolphins they didn't even know what the top half of the roster was let alone the bottom half. They should have used those games to find out. Now they are finding out in Week 1. It's too late to complain about that now.

So I figured Miami would get thoroughly outplayed and from the jump that's what seems to have happened. I'm just hoping that we start to resemble a team in week 9 or 10 this season. Having said that and pretty much just looking at the scoreboard, it was about what I expected. Miami's defense looked really shaky early on but did better in the 2nd half. I'm hoping it's a trend that the Dolphins will look better in the 2nd half of games than the 1st half. That will tell me whether or not Hafley and the Dolphins can adjust to what the other team is showing them.

Likewise I'm hoping the 2nd half of the season looks a lot better than the 1st half, so I'm pretty much expecting Miami to go 0-6 or so to start the season...but then I hope things start to look better from there on out. How much better is the question. If they finish something like 4-7 or something like that that will be about the best you can hope for.

[Dave Gray]

I fear for what the conversation on this website and this thread looks like throughout the year.  There really isn't anything to talk about because we're likely to see 17 weeks of this kind of thing.

[CF DolFan]

I had us being terribly bad this year.  This is what I expected.  However, even then, I think what I saw today is very concerning.

The Raiders are probably among the worst teams in the NFL.  ...bottom 5....but probably bottom 3.  Maybe bottom 2. 

Raiders are better than us. Titans and Browns could be worse. Either way, I think we are guaranteed a top 3 pick next year. Vegas had us at #1 but I don't know if that changed after this weekend.

Hard to say which was worse... the offense (only 13 points against the Raiders), or the defense (gave up 27 points to the Raiders).

For today, my SOTG goes to the head coach, due not only to the putrid performances on both sides of the ball, but the 8 penalties.  MIA looked simply unprepared out there.

Defense had to deal with crappy special teams and some turnovers. They weren't good, but they got very little help.


My vote is for Chop Robinson. Third year player who was expected to have a breakout season after having a great preseason. The guy made a tackle towards the end of the game to get on the stat sheet. Horrible game for him all the way around.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Ross for letting Grier get you into the hole you are in. 

I heard a discussion on what is worse a bad GM or bad coach.  And a bad GM is way worse than a bad coach. 

If you have a bad coach and a good roster than all you need to do is replace the coach and the following your you can be contenders and the new head coach will win (or at least get nominated) COTY. 

If you have bad roster it is going to take a shrewd GM several years to rebuild the roster.   

[Spider-Dan]

You don't just replace half your roster and your complete full staff which includes a rookie head coach and think things are going to take shape week 1.

Didn't seem to hinder last year's worst team in the league, who had a rookie head coach, new coaching staff, new starting QB, and their own roster churn.

[CF DolFan]

Didn't seem to hinder last year's worst team in the league, who had a rookie head coach, new coaching staff, new starting QB, and their own roster churn.

Were they playing with only 45% of the salary cap? Our leadership was dealt a pretty crappy hand so they decided to take their lumps this year. We've known about that for months now so this shouldn't have been a surprise.

[Pappy13]

Didn't seem to hinder last year's worst team in the league, who had a rookie head coach, new coaching staff, new starting QB, and their own roster churn.

Last year the Patriots lost to the Raiders at home week 1 20-13. Hey everybody based on this and Spider's analytical skills WE ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!

[Phishfan]

Last year the Patriots lost to the Raiders at home week 1 20-13. Hey everybody based on this and Spider's analytical skills WE ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!

How do you draw that from anything Spider said? He and I don't agree a lot but I was going to come with something similar.

[Spider-Dan]

Last year the Patriots lost to the Raiders at home week 1 20-13. Hey everybody based on this and Spider's analytical skills WE ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!

You misunderstood my response.

I am not talking about what the Raiders did to the Patriots in week one of last year.
I am talking about what the Raiders did to the Dolphins YESTERDAY with "a rookie head coach, new coaching staff, new starting QB, and their own roster churn."

You listed off a bunch of problems for MIA.
LV had many of the same problems and they looked like a significantly superior team.

[Pappy13]

I am not talking about what the Raiders did to the Patriots in week one of last year.

I didn't miss anything. You brought up the Patriots last year, not me. That was your example and I turned it around on you.

You missed the point of my post. I said that teams that go through a bunch of changes like the Dolphins (or the Patriots as you pointed out) you can't expect them to play their best in week 1. The Patriots just happened to lose to the same weak Raiders team in week 1 of last year despite going to the Superbowl. They lost of 2 of their first 3 games last year and then lost only once the rest of the regular season. That example supports my claim that teams that go through a bunch of changes in the offseason probably won't be playing their best early in the season. You were trying to refute my claim and missed the mark by choosing an example that supports my claim.