3-0! It's nice when you see a prime opportunity for your team to start off the year fast, and they take advantage of it. This one, perhaps more so than the others, wasn't easy -- but this gritty, playmaking group got it done, despite a number of challenging events taking place. Let's list them:
- Reshad Jones couldn't play, which shook up Miami's Base/Nickel looks. This especially looked problematic on Oakland's opening drive, which lead to 7. Fitzpatrick seemed hesitant on at least couple of single-high safety looks as well, one of which lead to a huge gain by Jordy Nelson. Pass coverage from Base continues to be an issue, and the Raiders exploited this to begin begin the game.
- Man, was that Akeem Spence penalty/ejection a big one. I'm still not sure what exactly he did that warranted getting tossed from the game, but the flag negated a huge 3rd down sack and allowed the Raiders to extend a very long drive.
- Gosh dang, were those OPI penalties bad. Gase will be sending a lot of tape to the league office this week. At the time of these calls, it just didn't look like it was going to be Miami's day.
- Injuries to Hayes, Branch, Derby, and McCain. Think Kendall Langford gets a phone call from Miami this week?
In other news ...
Miami fans seemed split on DeVante's return this week, but he deserves some love. Parker was able to beat the defense over the top and snag a beautiful Tannehill pass on that key drive, which eventually brought the game within reach, 14-17. With Amendola, Wilson, and Grant making the opponent's defense work their butt off east to west, it's nice to have an additional receiver to Stills with the speed/size to attack defenses vertically. Yeah, he has a role on this team.
Tannehill got a lot of cheap yardage on those two shovel passes for scores, but the throw to Stills (TD) and Parker (41 yards) were f-cking gorgeous, big boy throws.
We missed this last week, but Nick O'Leary was signed to the Practice Squad this week. He's a guy to keep an eye on if Derby's out for an extended period of time.
Miami now heads to Foxboro next Sunday, where the Patriots almost never lose, and then to Cincy, who's offense looks explosive. If Miami's able to split these 2, I'll be over the moon.