**Oehser ...

Sexton ...

1. Missed their chance in prime time. **A young team that was riding high after an upset win on Opening Day and a strong showing in Nashville never showed itself on Thursday night against Miami. Instead of youthful exuberance it was youthful inexperience and it showed across the roster with missed tackles, penalties, turnovers and even a missed extra point. That's the way it's going to go with this team in 2020 though they fooled us last week with their calm and purposeful come from behind attempt against the Titans. The Dolphin's coaching staff saw a young team and went right at it. They will bounce back from this but most NFL fans won't see it, this was their only prime time game. 

2. It didn't help that Magic's man was missing. There's no denying they missed wide receiver DJ Chark this evening. Chris Connolly can't stretch the field nor can he draw the kind of coverage that Chark does and the same is true for Keelan Cole. LaViska Shenault will someday but it was his third game. Chark's absence left Minshew off-balance and trying to force the ball to Connolly which didn't work. Chark is Minshew's guy and would have caught that ball on the final play of the third quarter for a touchdown…Connolly couldn't get there. He also wouldn't have dropped the first down on the first series of the game. The receivers numbers tell the story, young quarterbacks need to have a guy they can count on and it rattled Minshew a bit when the other receivers couldn't make the same kinds of plays that Chark routinely does. 

3. The defense is going to take time. I think the pressure will come, they have a Pro Bowl player in Josh Allen and a young K'Lavon Chaisson who has flashed big play ability. What might not come around is the coverage. Tre Herndon has struggled this year without a dependable pass rush to help and CJ Henderson had a tough go with DeVante Parker, though he is going to be very good once he figures out the game at this level. DJ Hayden is a good nickel but if the guys outside can't hold up their end it doesn't matter as much. The safeties are hard hat, lunch pail guys but the kind of players you're desperate to replace next spring because they're not fast enough to close the gaps in the defense or athletic enough to run in man coverage with tight ends and receivers. They're going to ask this unit to make a few stops a game and try to keep up on offense, can they do that?