Monday Night Observations

Ugly

So much for my Jonnu Smith premonition. For a garbage game, he wasn’t terrible and almost scored a TD, but that was a tough watch overall. The Dolphins sling it around to so many different players, while the Rams have their shallow, rock-solid three-player tree that produces even when they fail to score a touchdown. I also spoiled it by accidentally glimpsing the final score while checking the price of bitcoin this morning — totally forgot there was even a game.

• I don’t know if Tua is still rusty, or the Dolphins have been solved, but there just isn’t any rhythm to the offense that was so unstoppable at times last year.

• How is the Rams defense better without Aaron Donald? It’s like they suddenly got faster, younger and more aggressive, the entire unit. It goes to show how much we don’t know, and how overrated names on jerseys are.

• The Dolphins defense was also nasty. I had expected this to be a shootout.

• De’Von Achane is so fast once he gets going, but the Rams rarely let that happen.

• Smith is a weapon, and he’s a significant part of the offense, but they spread it around so much.

• Jaylen Waddle had a bad drop, but they seemed to want to get him involved early.

• Tyreek Hill is one of the stranger busts in recent memory. He looks just as fast, but after Tua got hurt they just never regained interest in getting him the necessary looks.

• As I said, Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua and Kyren Williams are rocks — the entire rest of the offense barely sees any touches.

• One odd thing when you know the final score is trying to figure out in real time how it gets there. When the Rams were down 20-9 with five minutes left, I was sure they would get the TD and fail on the two point conversion to make it 20-15. But instead they kicked the FG, the Dolphins got their FG, and the Rams kicked yet another FG before a failed onside kick.