Miami Dolphins: 5 Observations From Monday Night

Dec 1, 2014; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Miami Dolphins strong safety Reshad Jones (20) celebrates with free safety

(25) after making an interception with under a minute left against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

The Miami Dolphins are not ready to be playoff contenders

The Miami Dolphins might make the playoffs and if they do it will be an exciting time for Dolphins fans. Something they haven’t felt since 2008 when the Wild Cat ran wild. Truth be told though this team isn’t ready to compete at that level. They can hang with anyone as they have proven all year and they played Green Bay far better than the New England Patriots did but Miami doesn’t have the confidence level that other teams have because they haven’t been here before. They don’t know what it takes to close out close games and win them. Last night was not the normal as it was the second time in 49 games that they came from behind on the road in the 4th quarter to win. In fact it was the 2nd time in that same number of games that they won when trailing at all in the 4th quarter at any time on the road.

The game last night was an emotional win and you could see that on the final defensive play when Louis Delmas mugged Reshad Jones after his game clinching interception. In fact you would have thought they had just reunited after so many years apart. Many of the Dolphins players jumped on Jones in exuberance showing the emotional toll the game had taken on them. They will need to have that emotion next week against the Ravens who are a far better team than the Jets.

Miami has the right pieces but lack certain variables here and there. Coaching consistency at HC and DC are two areas that are a concern and you do have to wonder if Bill Lazor has full control over every play call as sometimes the offense has both aggressive and passive tendencies at odd times. For the Dolphins to finally become legitimate playoff contenders they need to figure out how to close out games or ideally how to put teams away when they can so they don’t have to worry about it.