FanPost

Houston: Do We Have a Problem?

Ryan Tannehill - A Quarter by Quarter Tip Sheet.

Much has been made of RT17's debut last week, especially of the number of tipped balls and the turn-over’s they led to. The why has been analyzed at great length, by everyone from our own ct1361 (Tipped Passes: Who Is to Blame) to Dan Marino. (Not that those are two opposite ends of a scale).

I thought it might be interesting to look at before and after the great Texas Tipfest to see if we might gain a little insight to what might happen next as opposed to "why?" and "how?"

Quarter 1: A New Hope

Att 6 Comp 5 Passes tipped 1 Int 0
Pretty good start for the rookie. Two drives, the first stalls at midfield when Tannehill (or Pouncey??) loses track of the snap count and the ball hits him in the chest. Thomas is alert enough to pick it out of mid-air. Unfortunately its ruled a fumble so it doesn't help Tannehill's passer rating.

On the second Tannehill leads the Dolphins down the field to the Houston 21 and a field goal. His only incompletion is a throwaway.

There was actually a tipped pass in the first quarter but it didn’t make the stat sheet as an Anthony Fasano circus catch turned it into a completion. Perhaps if someone had noted that ice floe we might have been able to avert the collision with the iceberg.

Quarter 2: Remember the Ah! OhNo!!

(Some lame Texas humour there.) Att 11 Comp 4 Passes Tipped 3 Int 3
Tannehill was 3 for 6 and should have been 4 for 6 (Anthony Armstrong dropped one he should have caught) before he threw his first pick.

Then the roof falls in: The next five Miami offensive plays include three batted balls, two of which are intercepted, an incompletion and a fumble. The three turnovers lead to 21 points in the last 4 minutes of the half.

If Tannehill had stayed in the locker room after halftime it would have been understandable. Helen Keller once said (wrote actually) "Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it." So, no matter what happed at the end of the second quarter, the start of the third quarter was going to tell us a lot about our new QB.

Quarter 3: Heroics on Hold ….

Att 1 Comp 1
We ran three offensives plays the entire 15 min. The one pass was a shovel pass to Bush for no gain. On the plus side, thanks to Thigpen’s punt return, despite having the ball for less than 2 minutes, we out-scored Houston 7-3.

OK, NOW what will we learn about our new QB?

Quarter 4: What Have You Done for Us Lately?

Att 17 Comp 10 Tipped 1
When Tannehill finally got back on the field he went 6 for 8 and took the ball down to the Houston 11 before a 4th down pass to Fasano didn’t reach the end zone.

On the next drive he completed his first three passes and got the ball to the Houston 5 yard line. He went 0-3 to end the drive but one of those was a shot to Bess on the 1 off a roll-out that might well have been a completion (we lost the challenge.

The last incompletion, his 15th pass of the second half, was batted down by Tim Jamison. That was the first since the second quarter. In between Tannehill was 10-14 with two trips deep into Texan’s territory.

On the final series he was 1-3 with a clear drop on Bess’s part before he was sacked on fourth down.

There has been a week of discussion on what he needs to do to fix this problem. But it wasn’t nearly as big a problem in the second half. Might be Tannehill was already on his way to figuring things out.


Side note: On one attempt Tannehill wacked his hand off the back of Jake Long’s helmet. Jake Long is 6’7. At least on that play the issue isn’t a low release point.



This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of The Phinsider's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of The Phinsider writers or editors.