Dolphins take ‘bye’ in Week 3

The Miami Dolphins, as a team, appeared to sleep walk through their week 3 game against a terrible Jets squad in this 20-6 blowout loss.

Nauseated

Depressed

Pissed

All of the above?

All those emotions are understandable emotions after watching the performance the Dolphins put up today.

Before the game, the Dolphins players and owner Stephen Ross locked arms in a sign of ‘team unity’.  During the game, the Dolphins seemed to continue the theme by failing to show as a team.

Adam Gase gave team their ‘bye’ this week

A couple weeks ago, Adam Gase told the media he would orchestrate a bye for his team to make up for the one they lost due to Hurricane Irma.  Judging by how poorly his team was prepared to face the Jets, it appears he decided to make it this week.

 Jay Cutler couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat.

Despite having time in the pocket, Cutler seemed to never set his feet and missed wide open wide receivers on at least a half-a-dozen occasions.  If you remove the final/meaningless drive, Cutler finished 23/38 for 153 yards and an INT.

The receivers couldn’t catch a cold.

When Cutler did get the ball to the wide receivers they seemed allergic to catch it.  Jarvis Landry and Devante Parker each dropped a pair of passes that hit them right in the hands; including Landry’s drop in the endzone.

The ‘J Train’ ran into a brick wall.

While the offensive line did a pretty good job at giving Cutler time to throw the ball, their run blocking was the worst it has been since Adam Gase took over.  Jay Ajayi is known for amassing ‘yards after contact’ but even he couldn’t succeed when constantly getting hit 2-3 yards behind the line of scrimmage.

No ‘defense’ for Dolphins secondary

Against the Jets, Byron Maxwell continued to show why Adam Gase would demote him if he had a suitable replacement.  Newcomer Altraun Verner showed why he was available so late in the offseason; getting blown past by star WR Robbie Anderson for a 69-yd TD right before halftime.

It’s only one week

Writing this scathing review of the Dolphins performance was almost as brutal as watching them play.  Losing to the Jets (who may only win 3-4 games all year) feels terrible and hurts more because it’s a divisional game.

With that said, it’s worth reminding everyone that this was only one game and the Dolphins CAN recover from it.  The Bills and Patriots lead the division at 2-1 and Miami is only 1/2 game back.  It’s unlikely that the Bills can keep up winning ways and the Patriots continue to look vulnerable.

Miami can usually be counted on to lose one bad game each season so let’s just hope they got it out of their system.