FanPost

A look at two plays from the first Dolphin drive. The best and the worst.

1. Third and eleven. TB 49. Probably the best play of the drive,

Offensive Alignment: 1-1-3. Amendola on the slot on the right. Parker on the outside right. Stills on the outside Left.

Offensive Line : Tunsil,Sitton, Kilgore, Davis and James. Gesicki on the right tight next to James.

Defensive Alignment: Appeared to be a cover four with DB lined up nine or 100 yards away from the LOS. The dime defender (Hargreaves #28) appeared to be on man cover against Amendola and was aligned 3 yards from the LOS.

Defensive Line: JPP (90) in front of Tunsil, Beau Allen (91) in front of Sitton, Kilgore free, McCoy to the outside of Davis, Vinny Curry to the outside of Gesicki,

LB: Lavonte Davis (56) and Kwon Alexander (58) lined five yards from the LOS.

Play: Initially I thought that this was an RPO. But after watching the play a few times I see that none of the receivers went for a pattern but rather seemed intent in blocking. This was a run all the way.

JPP run outside of Tunsil and got pretty close to Tannehill. Gesicki ignored Curry and engaged Kwon five yards away.

Amendola went pretty directly to Davis and blocked them pretty successfully.

Curry was slowed by James. Mc Coy rushed through the outside of Curry.

Sitton completely blocked Beau Allen at the LOS and kept the block for the duration.

Kilgore did not even look at the rush and moved to block Davis, He engaged him successfully.

When Tannehill hands the ball, JPP is close to beating Tunsil blocks to the outside. On the other side Curry is making progress on the outside. Davis manages to push Mc Coy slightly to the outside.

And the middle of the field is wide open. Kwon and Davis are at 44 yard line with Kilgore and Gesicki heading to block them.

After the Hand off JPP gets pretty close. But I do not believe he touches Drake. Neither does Curry who also gets pretty close.

The next person who gets close to Drake is Chris Conte (23) who gets close to Drake at the 44. Five yards past the LOS. I do not believe he makes contact.

And the gut who finally hits Drake is Justin Evans 21. He makes contact with Drake low at the 41 yard line. That is 8 yards after the LOS.

Did the decision make sense? Stats and situation.

The Dolphins in the last two years have faced 3rd and 11 a total of 16 times. They have passed 14 times or 88%. That is the exact average of passing play in those situation in the NFL.

Of the 14 times Miami had converted four. That is 29% conversion rate.

Of the two times they ran they converted one. (50%)

This was not a conversion because they felt short. But it did not need to be. I believe Gase and Tannehill knew that id any reasonable gain was made they were going to go for it on 4th down on an exhibition game on the opponent side of the field. As they did.

I believe that this was the best play of the drive. Not only because the blocking from Amendola, Geiscki, Kiclgore and Sitton was very good, I believe Tannehill looked at the defensive alignment and made the correct decision. It would have been extremely difficult to pass for 10-11 yards given the coverage and the rush.

2. Second and eight, TB 35. Probably Tannehill's worst play.

Offensive Alignment: 1-1-3 On the right, Amendola on the Slot, Parker sligthly out and back Gesicki on the inside, Stills on the outside left,

Same offensive line,

Defensive Alignment. Bucs appear to be in man coverage. Safeties were not visible but they appeared to be both deep. Appeared to be cover 2 man. Turned out not to be.

Hargreaves was again covering Amendola. Carlton Davis (rookie 2nd round) was man on man on Parker, Ryan Smith was on the left with press coverage on Stills.

Before the snap Gesicki moved from right to left and actually blocked. He engaged JPP helping Tunsil.

At the snap Hargreaves ignored Amendola and blitzed. Balladge rerouted Hargreaves to the outside, Tannehill very effectively moved into a clean pocket. When he set to throw here is what I could see without All-22.

Tannehill with his left foot at the 41.

Stills running ago route to the outside close to the sideline at the 24. Ryan Smith matching him stride for stride. Very low percentage throw,

Parker has gone past the First down marker. He is not visible at the time the ball is thrown. But as soon as the ball is thrown you can see Parker at the 23rd turned to receive the ball on a hook pattern, Davis is close but Parker appears in a position to shield the ball.

At about the same time Amendola is at the 13th yard line running a corner route, He has two safeties (Evan and Conti) close. But he is open for a perfect throw,

The throw is not perfect. Amendola makes a great effort going off his feet to go for the ball. He gets close. Evans a yard back manages to touch the ball.

The throw was not that bad as this is a difficult pass with a ball thrown over 30 yards in the air. But the decision is also questionable as Tannehill had Parker who had beaten press coverage past the first down marker on a much easier throw.

The other question is the lack of a hot route. No one was in a position to cover Amendola after Hargreaves blitzed. But we ran the same cover route

Very difficult to tell without All-22 which is not available for preseason. Please tell me what you saw.

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.