The Phins lost their first game of the season to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and now the Dolphins are 1-1. With their first home game looming next week against the Bills, they must marinate their preparation with the loss of a very winnable game. Once again they came out flat. Once again they were their own worst enemies. And what stings is they didn’t have the lead for even a second against the Jaguars.
To me the biggest thing was penalties. Miami had a whopping 13 penalties for 112 yards, and that is not something that is going to put you in good position to win football games. Under Coach Philbin the Dolphins have generally had a very clean sheet in regards to penalties, so hopefully this was only an anomaly. Vernon’s penalty at the end of the game was the nail in the coffin on that final drive for the Jaguars. Philbin must regain control of his team this week in practice, or this is going to be a very long season.
Surprisingly, there were no turnovers in this game from either team. I guess they were too busy committing penalties. (There was a combined 21 penalties for over 205 yards) Miami did a little better job protecting Tannehill, only giving up 2 sacks. But Tannehill spent most of the game running for his life. On the other side of the ball, Miami couldn’t get any sacks on Bortles, and once again the defensive line was out played by the offensive line opponent. Suh was held in check one-on-one most of the game. The fact he didn’t command a double team is disturbing.
Once again, Miami failed to generate any semblance of a running game. They only attempted 16 rushing plays, which accumulated to a dismal 42 yards and 2.6 yards per carry average. Clearly this offensive does not want to make any effort to run the ball. Until they realize that you need to have a balanced offense in order to be successful on offense, you can bet Miami is going to have similar problems sustaining drives and putting points on the board.
There is still plenty of season left, but Miami needs to start playing better football if they want to be in the playoff hunt late in the season. Hopefully this game will serve as a wake up call, because next up is the Buffalo Bills, and all Football gambling fans know that Buffalo is a very touch match up for Miami.
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