Sep
14
The score, stats and results of this game say I’m being too hard on the Dolphins in terms of my grades.
Watching how Miami got to this point will show you that the grades are spot on.
You look at Tannehill, who completed 22 of 34 passes for 226 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions and you’ll think, “Decent game, could’ve been better,” but no. Tannehill was not very good on Sunday, playing more like the guy we saw at the end of the 2013 season against Buffalo and Washington than the Tannehill we expected to see.
Running the football was an idea so foreign to Bill Lazor that Donald Trump would deport it if he could. Despite the aversion to the run game, Lamar Miller played well, averaging 4.1 yards per carry. If only he had more than his usual 13 carries.
Miami’s receivers played well, as did tight end Jordan Cameron. Jarvis Landry was the team’s MVP with eight catches for 53 yards to go along with his punt return for a touchdown.
The offensive line allowed three sacks, but in fairness to them one of those was due to Tannehill‘s lack of awareness of the open field in front of him (which would’ve gained him at least 10 yards) and open receivers (including Landry, who evaded a double-team on the play).
On defense, the vaunted defensive line didn’t get cooking until the second half, but one reason they looked so bad was defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle’s decision to drop some of the defensive linemen back into coverage. Why would you do that?
The reason: bad linebacker play. Only Jelani Jenkins played a game you could consider decent, as the rest of the linebackers missed tackles with great regularity.
Miami’s secondary got some help with DeSean Jackson going out early in the game, but they played well as a unit. Reshad Jones was the defense’s MVP thanks to the tone he set with his tackling.
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