Miami Dolphins Morning After
By Brian Miller
“…there has to be a morning after…” the line was sung early in the original film, The Poseidon Adventure. Right before the large cruise ship capsized killing the hopes and dreams of a lot of people. It seems fitting today as the Dolphins cruise ship the playoffs has indeed capsized and the fan base once again has it’s hopes and dreams crushed while the New England Patriots yet again find a way to win with what many believe to be less talent. Oh and the Miami Dolphins play the Patriots next week in Foxboro.
The loss yesterday to the Baltimore Ravens has put the Ravens on the fast track to the playoffs with two other teams, the Steelers and Chargers both now tied at 8-5. For the Dolphins who are looking up from the bottom it’s a matter of should’ve, would’ve, could’ve on this Monday morning.
Here are some observations from the game.
Lamar Miller: So effective in the first quarter and most of the first half, the Dolphins opted to pass the ball in the 2nd half to no avail. The Dolphins only attempted three rushes in the 2nd half of the game despite the fact they held a lead for most of the 3rd quarter and despite the fact that Miller was putting the Dolphins in 2nd and 3rd and short. It’s unknown who changed the game plan but the half-time adjustments didn’t work.
Ryan Tannehill: The 70% completion streak ended in Miami on Sunday when Tannehill completed 69.7% of his passes. Three drops contributed to that end. Tannehill didn’t play great but who knows what would have happened if he had more time. He was harassed the entire game and sacked six times. Three by Elvis Dumerville. Regardless the Dolphins didn’t complete a pass over 20 yards the entire game and finished with a 4.8 yards per pass average. Most of that attributed to offensive line play.
Dallas Thomas: He has no business on the field right now and whomever made the decision to keep him at right tackle after he looked so bad last week should be fired now. I don’t care if it’s Bill Lazor, Joe Philbin, or anyone else. Thomas single handedly put the Dolphins in a bad position and the fact that the coaching staff left him in there the entire game is a mistake that shouldn’t be made. Where is Jason Fox? Where is Nate Garner? Hell where is Sam Brenner? This was not a mistake by Dallas Thomas, this was a coaching mistake for having him in there. There has to be better street free agents available than Thomas is right now. That’s on coaching. Oh and of course having Billy Turner and Nate Garner both inactive for the game, yeah that helps.
Wide Receivers: Jarvis Landry had his usual six catch game but there comes a time when you simply have too many people you are trying to get the ball to. Mike Wallace, Brian Hartline, Reshard Matthews, Brandon Gibson, Dion Sims, Charles Clay, and even Lamar Miller. Why is there a need to play Gibson and Matthews? They both bring the same game and frankly keeping one inactive gives you a roster spot for another right tackle. Just saying. More disgusting though was the fact that the Dolphins played against one of the worst pass defending teams in the league and couldn’t generate enough time or the right routes to exploit them. This is a case of being out coached and they were.
R.J. Stanford: Stanford looked great catching the end-zone INT floater but despite having six tackles on the day his coverage sucks. Sunday is what we expected to see from the limited experienced veteran. We thought we would see that against the Jets but Geno Smith couldn’t take advantage. Joe Flacco did and it fell apart for the Dolphins.
D-line: All I am going to say is where is this great pass rush?
Coaching: Green Bay, Detroit, Denver, and now Baltimore. Jared Odrick might be right if he actually yelled, “Every F***ing week” at Joe Philbin. It sure seems that way. It seems the Dolphins change something when they hit the 4th quarter. That is coaching. Four games were lost in the 4th quarter and while Baltimore didn’t merely march down the field to win the game as the final seconds ticked off, they may as well have. There is little to no emotion on the sideline and the “aww shucks” attitude from the coaches has gotten bitter cold.