Weekly recap: Ryan Tannehill’s performance week 2
By Nick Belotto
Miami earned a quality victory with a 20-12 win over the New York Jets. It is now time to continue the weekly series looking at Ryan Tannehill’s performance throughout the afternoon.
Our weekly look at Ryan Tannehill’s performance throughout the season takes a pit stop in New York, where Tannehill led the team to a solid win over a division rival. Let’s break down his performance, assess how he did throughout the game and give him a grade.
Overall, Tannehill had an interesting day in New York. He finished with 168 yards and 2 touchdowns completing 17 passes on 23 attempts. More importantly, he added 44 yards on the ground, 2 more than the entire Jets running game. If you look at the numbers, Tannehill had a great game. When you look at how the game played out, however, the offense wasn’t as effective as it should have been and Tannehill deserves some of the blame for that.
Tannehill was sacked 4 times and fumbled the ball twice. Some of those sacks were on the offensive line. The rest are on Tannehill.
Tannehill has had a knack for holding on to the ball too long sometimes causing problems on offense throughout his whole career. This was evident on Sunday, as he tried to make something happen with this arm as opposed to throwing the ball away and not losing valuable yardage.
Tannehill needs to develop a better mental clock when it comes to pressure. He can’t take unnecessary hits while trying to get the ball downfield. The more hits he takes, the more chance of getting re-injured.
On a much more positive note, Tannehill has shown in both games so far that when he has the time to throw the ball, he can be great through the air, evident with his touchdown strike to AJ Derby. He had more than enough time on this play to set his feet and throw a great pass for a score.
He also demonstrated poise late in the game, specifically on third down. During the last drive of the game, Tannehill dropped back to pass on 3rd and 19. He stepped up into the pocket, avoiding the pressure and hit Frank Gore for a 20 yard gain. Yes, the ball was low and Gore was responsible for turning that pass into the big gain, but Tannehill’s presence in the pocket was great. That was a play that Miami didn’t make over the last few years and it was great to see Tannehill convert on third down to put the game away.
Tannehill’s yards on the ground cannot be overlooked either. His play with his legs caught the defense off guard numerous times and Miami was able to extend their drives by letting their quarterback run the ball. Miami has been a great team when they can run the ball effectively, and if the quarterback can get in on some of the action, this offense will keep drives alive and score more points.
Overall, Tannehill had an up and down game offensively yesterday but he was able to put together a number of good plays that allowed the Dolphins to go home with a very important early season win. For two consecutive weeks, Tannehill has put together quality games translating to quality wins.
Week 1 Grade: B
Week 2 Grade: B+