Was the Miami Dolphin’s loss to New England a fluke or reality?

On Sunday the Miami Dolphins lost their biggest game of the 2018 young season and many wonder if this is something they should be concerned about.

The Miami Dolphins lost in huge way to the New England Patriots on Sunday by a score of 38-7. After going 3-0 to start the season, Miami laid an egg in Foxboro while producing 172 total yards on offense and allowing 449 total yards on defense. By all accounts, this was a deflating victory that exposed a number of holes that may have been ignored with the early three game winning streak.

When it comes to passing the football, Miami was extremely effective over the first few weeks of the season. During Miami’s winning streak, quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw for 687 yards, 7 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Tannehill has looked great coming back from the ACL tear that sidelined him for almost a season and a half. He looked poised, decisive and, most importantly, accurate.

Against the Patriots, it was the complete and total opposite. Tannehill was constantly under pressure and couldn’t find any receivers down field. He wasn’t able to get the ball out of his hands effectively and only threw for 100 yards and an interception. The question needs to be asked, what happened that caused Tannehill to perform like this? The answer is, of course, complicated.

First, playing against New England in Foxboro is never easy. Couple that with the fact that New England lost two games in a row the cards were stacked against Miami going into this game. Bill Belichick knows how to turn things around quickly so it was almost guaranteed that New England was going to fix a lot of the issues that plagued them in their losses.

New England knew exactly what to do to stop the Miami offense on Sunday. They completely took the running game away and forced Ryan Tannehill to beat them. In passing situations, Tannehill constantly had faced seven men in coverage, making it hard to find anybody open. The bigger issue here is that New England felt comfortable sending four to rush the quarterback because there was no need to send more. New England was able to put pressure on Tannehill all day with only sending four rushers. Miami’s offensive line played poorly and the constant pressure caused Tannehill to struggle all day.

The lack of a running game was also concerning and may be an indicator of a bigger problem. Here are the rush yards Miami has accumulated over the last 4 weeks and the leading rusher:

Against the Titans: 120 total yards: leading rusher, Frank Gore

Against the Jets: 135 total yards: leading rusher, Kenyan Drake

Against the Raiders: 41 yards: leading rusher, Ryan Tannehill

Against the Patriots: 56 yards: leading rusher, Frank Gore

Over the last two games, Miami’s running game basically disappeared. When Miami can’t get the running game going, it hurts the offense in a number of ways. Without a running game, it forces the offense to get one-dimensional and forces Tannehill to win football games. I fall into the camp that believes Ryan Tannehill is a good quarterback but I don’t think that he is the guy who can win you a football game. Tannehill needs a good running game and a good pocket to be effective and to keep the Miami offense going.

The offensive line was poor at best yesterday. The loss of Josh Sitton is really starting to impact this team and if Daniel Kilgore is injured and out for a considerable amount of time, the line is going to need an infusion of talent to keep Tannehill upright and get the ground game going.

Game planning was also an issue against the Patriots. It seemed that Miami was out coached throughout the entirety of the game and wasn’t prepared to put pressure on Brady and couldn’t do anything against their defense.

It is not a surprise that Miami’s offense came out flat on Sunday as that has been the case all year so far and for a large portion of Adam Gase’s career in Miami. Miami has been lucky that they were able to “right the ship” during the first three weeks. Unfortunately, giving the Patriots those extra inches made it impossible to stay in the game. That comes from game-planning. Add in poor play calling, and the offense is going to struggle all year just as they did against New England.

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Miami’s defense struggled to stop anything New England threw their way. They couldn’t stop the run, they couldn’t stop the pass, and they couldn’t get off the field on third down. Sure, some of the penalties that kept a few Patriot drives alive were poor calls but it doesn’t change the fact that Miami seemed to be unable to cover New England’s average receiving corp or their running backs.

They also put next to no pressure on Brady, which is the sure fired way to beat the Patriots. This is where the loss of William Hayes is going to hurt Miami. Without his play, Miami is lacking depth on the line and can’t put effective pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

Are the game planning issues fixable? I think so on defense. I’m not sure about the offense.

It is still too early in the season to determine if this loss against the Patriots was a fluke or reality. As of now, it seems that there are pieces of both. I think Ryan Tannehill will recover and put together a better game against the Bengals. I think the defense will play better and shake off some of the penalties.

I worry, though, about the offensive game plan, the offensive line and the running attack. I get the feeling that these are going to be longer term issues for Miami this year and will need to be fixed quickly if Miami wants to recover from this big loss.