MEGA MOORE
Backup steps up to rally Dolphins over Jets
MIAMI GARDENS — The decision has been made, and Adam Gase didn’t get to make it.
Miami’s youthful boss, 14-9 as a head coach and suddenly on the rise again, won’t fret his second quarterback emergency of 2017. He won’t dwell on fans chanting for Matt Moore in recent weeks, or cheering when Jay Cutler left Sunday’s game with a chest injury, or anything else that has to do with games already played.
What Gase will do is exactly what he told Moore to do when Cutler was called out of retirement in August to replace injured starter Ryan Tannehill. Accept conditions as they are. Adjust to them. Prepare to win no matter what.
“Coach Gase has an unbelievable message about what’s done is done,” Moore said after coming off the bench to lead a 31-28 comeback win over the New York Jets. “We can’t do anything about it. Let’s move forward.”
In this case, it means Moore has just a few days now to get ready for the Baltimore Ravens. Not as a backup, but as his coach’s third choice promoted to first.
Gase seemed neither excited nor distressed by that prospect during Sunday’s postgame wrapup. He won’t admit to being wrong about bypassing Moore in the first place.
He won’t concede that anyone else has the authority to question that. He won’t make decisions on weeks down the road, either, until the calendar actually takes him there.
Remember that when Tannehill is ready to play again next season, but more relevant to this discussion, remember that if Cutler’s injury is the kind that might heal in time for him to play later this season.
Look at the difference in perception.
Cutler was 12-for-16 passing Sunday with two touchdowns and a pick before heading to the locker for the first of many looks at what was initially described as a chest injury.
Moore, meanwhile, was 13 of 21 with two touchdowns and a pick after that. Pretty similar, yet one of those guys is generally viewed as a pain around here and the other as the people’s choice.
Here’s another way to see the thing.
Combine the second half at Atlanta last week with the first one against the Jets on Sunday. Cutler and the Miami offense put up 34 points over that stretch, the equivalent of one NFL game, and got touchdown catches from Jarvis Landry (2), Kenny Stills (1) and Anthony Fasano (1) along the way.
To Gase, that felt like it was really starting to work with Cutler and his new teammates, that the Miami offense was turning into something he’s been seeking for two years.
To Cutler’s critics, and they are legion, it meant that the other shoe was sure to drop soon enough. A rash of interceptions. A string of losses. A season-ending injury at the age of 34. Something to make it seem that the $10 million spent to bring Cutler here was too much for too little.
My preseason thoughts ran along those lines, but a sports columnist’s opinions carry as much weight with Gase as public opinion polls do, which is to say none at all.
So don’t be shocked if the Cutler question isn’t completely closed.
If it’s a couple of cracked ribs, as reported by ESPN’s Adam
Schefter, quarterbacks can play with those. Andrew Luck did it for several games a couple of years ago. Carson Wentz suffered a hairline fracture of a rib in the summer of his rookie season and wound up starting all 16 games.
Suppose Cutler and his big arm are back and ready to go in the next month or so. Moore knows enough to consider that possibility. That’s why he said this late Sunday when asked what he would do if Gase decides to return to Cutler at some point this season.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he said. “Those are decisions to be made and they’re out of my hands.”
Moore wants to be the starter, surely, and remembers what it was like to go 2-2, with a playoff loss included, as Tannehill’s injury replacement last season.
The Jets have done their best to make Moore look like a world-beater, too. His first start in 2016 was a glorious Saturday night at MetLife Stadium with four touchdown passes and a 34-13 Dolphins runaway.
This league always comes down, however, to what each coach thinks will put him in the best position to win a game.
Bottom line is that Cutler would have to be unavailable for the rest of the season, or he would have to decide he doesn’t want to play anymore, before Gase completely gives up getting him back.
Doesn’t matter that the head coach will never, ever hear the crowd chanting for Cutler. Gase hears it in his own head.