Miami Dolphins Must Chalk Up Loss As A Learning Experience

Just when it looked like the Dolphins were following up last weekend’s dominating performance with another one, they began to stall.

Just when it looked like Reggie Bush was going for back to back 100 yard games, he sprained his knee.

Just when Ryan Tannehill looked like he was playing his second mistake free game, he threw a pick six.

Just when it looked like the Dolphins fought thru adversity and were going to secure back to back home wins, Dan Carpenter missed the game winner.

Get the theme?

I feel your pain.

Every time the Dolphins looked like there were doing what they wanted to do, they found a way to disrupt that flow.

It was the story of the game and may very well be the story of this season.

So the thing to take away from this game would be the knowledge they gained in this learning experience.

They learned what they’re capable of in pressure moments, and most of it wasn’t bad.

They learned their rookie QB can make enough big throws to put the team in position to win.

This is a young team with a new head coach, bumps in the road had to be expected, and with that being said, I think they’re improving much faster than expected.

Yes there has been plenty of negatives taken away from their losses but there’s also been plenty of positives too.

To me, this team seems like one that has to experience the bad happen before they can make some good happen.

They had to experience a blow out loss before they could produce a blow out win.

Now they’ve experienced a close game loss and now know what it takes to win a close game.

The Dolphins lost this game solely because Carpenter missed the game winner, plain and simple, but there are things they can improve as a team so games don’t even come down to this.

The Dolphins outclassed the Jets for most of the afternoon, it shouldn’t have even been close.

With that being said, two things that need improvement ASAP are the Pass Rush and Tannehill’s accuracy.

The pass rush mystifies me because they get pressure early in games but don’t complete the sacks.

That doesn’t bode well later because the QB’s confidence isn’t shaken having avoided those would be sacks.

Cameron Wake has missed too many sack opportunities where his hands got on the QB, he didn’t get a contract extension for that.

Olivier Vernon, Jared Odrick, and Derrick Shelby need to close out their pressures as well. Pressures don’t effect a QB’s psyche, it’s the hits and sacks that do! QBs can’t be buying time at the Defense’s expense.

Yea, Tannehill may be the worst rated QB in the league right now but every week he’s getting better.

I see him make more difficult throws as he continues to develop from week to week, so I believe his accuracy will improve.

Because he isn’t so much an inaccurate QB as he is an inexperienced one and not having tried certain throws in live situations have hindered him.

As he gets more comfortable with making the difficult throws, his accuracy will improve.

I know it’s painful and hard to see after such a loss, but the Miami Dolphins got better yesterday, even if it only gets chalked up as a learning experience.