The Miami Dolphins get their feet wet against Titans
The Miami Dolphins played the Tennessee Titans Sunday, in a game that would be controlled by the weather, not the Titans, but the Dolphins still prevailed.
The Miami Dolphins already knew they would have to control Derrick Henry, to keep him from running away with the game, and thank goodness for the holding penalty that negated his 65 yard touchdown run. The Dolphins defense played good, good enough to hold Henry to 26 yards on 10 carries. However Dion Lewis was the real threat with 75 yards on 16 attempts. In the end Miami’s defense did their job.
Marcus Mariota came out of the game late in the second half, due to what looked like a hand issue, on a hit from William Hayes. Back-up Quarterback Blaine Gabbert then came in, and completed 11 of 22 passes for 117 yards. The titans moved the ball pretty well with Gabbert and put 17 points on the board as the back-up.
Ryan Tannehill completed 20 out of 28 passes for 230 yards and 2 touchdowns. That is great, but the fact Tannehill threw 2 interceptions is not great. Four bad passes in total. This is the Tannehill that you don’t want to show up. It is very hard to overcome turnovers in this league, and still pull out the win, this needs to be fixed if it can be.
Miami’s offense showed it is capable to drive down the entire field, even after having to battle through the delays and restarts due to lighting.
Jakeem Grant showed up in a huge way, returning a kick-off for 102 official yards for a touch down, and untouched. His 102 yard return set a Dolphin record for 2nd longest return. He also had 5 receptions for 38 yards. He just might be faster than Flash Gordon.
The ground game was led by Frank Gore. Gore had 61 yards on 9 attempts, and Drake had 48 yards on 14 attempts, good job by both runners.
The offensive line created a stat sheet you would love to ignore, Laremy Tunsil and Juan James continue to draw flags for false starts, 3 in total on the day, plus 1 holding call. These two have to do a better job, as neither are rookies. This needs to be cleaned up, and cleaned up fast.
Kenny Stills made a nice catch from Ryan Tannehill, with Malcom Butler draped over his left shoulder. The catch went for 75 yards and a touchdown. These two are finding a nice rhythm. Stills also dropped 1 pass, but also hauled in another for a touch down in the red zone. Not too bad Kenny.
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Under the circumstances head coach Adam Gase called a pretty good game, other than the call he choose to pass the ball to Mike Gesicki, instead of a running play. Mike Gesicki in route on that play, tripped and fell in the end zone, leaving ball hawk Malcom Butler to catch the pass uncontested. The ball looked poorly thrown by Tannehill, and it is one coach Gase mentioned Tannehill would want back, in his post press conference.
The Titans gave Miami a tough match, despite losing starting quarterback Marcus Mariota, and their starting tight end Delanie Walker to injury, And having a rookie head coach in Mike Vrabel.
This was a rough day to be a fan, if you were in the stadium, or outside the stadium, you just had to sit and wait, and wait, and wait, the end result was about 7 or so hours long. But through the wind and rain remained all the hardcore Dolphin fans to the end, and it was worth the wait to get the win, and what seem to be a long time coming.