Miami Dolphins blow 17 point lead in loss to Bengals

This week against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Miami Dolphins put together a weak and uninspired performance that resulted in a devastating loss after leading by 17 points.

The loss against the Bengals is the second big loss in two weeks. Last Sunday, Miami suffered a blowout loss against the New England Patriots in Foxboro. With the 38 to 7 loss, Miami had a variety of things to work on in order to shake off the loss and win this week’s game against the Bengals.

For the first half, Miami looked as if they were ready to play on defense and special teams, as both units succeeded in playing quality football helping the team to a 14 point lead going into halftime. This, however, changed completely after halftime.

Miami was unable to do anything on offense and was responsible for 3 turnovers, two of which were returned for points. In all phases, Miami came out cold from halftime and the offense was only able to manage three points.

Both of the recent losses were hard to handle but the loss against the Bengals is much more concerning than the one against New England. The Patriots had been coming off of two consecutive losses and were bound to have a big game at home against any opponent who they played in week 4. It just happened to be the Dolphins. Miami’s entire team looked outplayed in Foxboro leading to the blowout.

Against the Bengals, Miami overcame struggles on offense and was able to build a sizable lead that they kept until the momentum completely shifted in the middle of the third quarter. Miami’s defense was able to force the Bengals into a three and out on the first drive after halftime. On Miami’s next possession, the Dolphins effectively moved the ball downfield and found themselves in a third and 1 to pick up the first down. Instead of running the ball (which had been working well on Sunday), Miami chose to throw the ball resulting in Tannehill forcing the throw to Kenny Stills deep that ended up being incomplete. This was the major momentum changer for Miami.

On the next play, Miami picked up a 15 yard taunting penalty followed by poor defense and a terrible personal foul call on TJ McDonald that resulted in Cincinnati putting up points. From there on, it was a total meltdown of epic proportions.

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This was a bad loss for the Miami Dolphins. Miami struggled on offense for the second consecutive week and, outside of some big plays here and there, has looked weak for most of the season. Miami only scored 10 points yesterday and Ryan Tannehill failed to throw for at least 200 yards for the second consecutive game, which is not good especially the way that the NFL is structured nowadays.

There were a lot of reasons that the offensive struggles should be concerning. Miami’s offensive line has been losing guys every week and has struggled to protect Tannehill in the last two games. I worry that this is a long term issue that is going to hinder the offense since two of the injured lineman are done for the season.

Tannehill also played poorly throughout the game. He held on to the ball two long, threw inaccurate passes and turned the ball over in the worst places, leading to points for the Bengals. Throwing the ball away or taking a sack would have been preferable to forcing the throw under immense pressure which turned into points.

Play calling was poor yet again, Miami’s receivers struggled to find space and they were completely stalled in the second half. Injuries only exacerbate these problems.

The worst part about this loss was that the offense squandered a great performance by the defense. All year, Miami’s defense has looked like a quality unit for the first time in a few years. The new additions seem to have gelled well and the unit looks good but Miami’s offense looks as if they took a step back, again.

If Miami wants to re-establish winning ways, Adam Gase needs to change the way he does things and needs to put in a game-plan that puts the offense in the best position to succeed. The offense needs to look more competent and Tannehill needs to play to a level where he doesn’t cost the team a win.

I think there is enough time for Miami to turn this around and fix the issues that plagued them on Sunday. Miami has good talent on this team and needs to use it wisely in order to right this ship.