Sometimes winning can feel more like losing
The Miami Dolphins beat the New York Jets 34-13 ending any legitimate hope for them to make the postseason. The score though wasn’t truly indicative of the day. Don’t get me wrong the Dolphins won and won handily, but this Jets offense is a disaster of disasters, and evaluations of what Miami did against them shouldn’t have straight lines to what it means against other teams. Still, we knocked off our second divisional opponent and 8-3 is where we were last season. We are in a position with a strong chance to improve on that…
… And we must do better considering the addition of talent and the window of opportunity we are in.
The price for victory can be steep!
The high bar of success to validate the 2023 Dolphins is part of the reason why the loss of Jalean Phillips is so devastating. His absence will diminish the Dolphins’ defense against the better teams and that’s where this team and season will be judged, not against teams speeding towards the drain. But, the biggest reason Phillip’s injury is so devastating is that Phillips is a better human than a football player… and that’s saying a ton! He’s as good a guy AND talent as you can get, and no sane person doesn’t root for him. As an older guy, I don’t often get my heartstrings pulled. Phillips though has an amazing story, humility, intelligence, talent, and character rarely seen and these qualities forced me to be a kid again when it came to wanting him to succeed. I felt a little worse than when Cameron Wake tore his Achilles a few years back, but not as bad as when it happened to Dan Marino– I was still young, Marino had been a childhood hero, and I was full of zealous fandom.
Get well, Jalean Phillips!
Where are the Dolphins post-Jets?
Clearly, the Dolphins’ defense can club seals as we saw against the Jets’ offense. Now, that “Hell Mary” was special and that was a sweet dagger in the heart of the Jets… and their Head Coach as you could see in his numbed response at Half Time. But, we can’t say based on what we saw that the Phins’ defense will do this to another NFL team because the Jets barely have a college-level offense. This defense is good and is a strength of the team despite all the hair-pulling and jumping about that ‘Fangio was a problem’ early in the season. Let’s see what they do in weeks 16-18 and the postseason to give them their final grade. The bottom line: the defense is the least of a Phins fans’ concern.
Now, on offense, we can sorta’ get a decent bearing-sorta’. This Jets defense was gassed early. They’ve been run into the ground all season and by the 3rd Qtr, they were almost cooked. But, the Jets defense was ready early on and Tua and McDaniel had the ball out fast at an amazing 2.17 seconds, offsetting much of their potent pass rush. This has been a continuing theme and Hill and Waddle’s speed and Tua’s quick release can’t get enough accolades. Still, you could see this patchwork offensive line struggled and we had injuries on that front with Terron and Cotton going down. By the end of the 1st Half, we rushed for about 3.2 YPC and struggled to hand the Jets four rushers. Still, the O-line did enough to get the lead and as the Jets’ defense got gassed the Dolphins gashed them ultimately for 167 yards at 4.5 YPC.
You can bet with the best pay per head that the Phins offensive line is going to be in the spotlight going forward.
Thankfully, Robert Hunt is returning soon. Let’s just hope the injuries to Terron and Cotton are minimal issues.
Smart play is as key as turnovers
Yes, Tua must stop throwing interceptions and the offense must stop turning over the ball. But, Mike McDaniel also must learn that going for it isn’t always the best decision. Going for it on 4th and 2 early on was a bit risky, but I get it. Going for the touchdown with no timeouts left and just over a minute left and forcing Tua to throw the football, that’s more risk than reward decision-making. Doing it again on the next drive with even less time was going full retard. This could have been a disaster against even a semi-coherent team. Let’s hope he’s learned something from this.
In the end, the Dolphins are sitting pretty at the top of the division and top of the conference, so you can’t complain too much. Although, the loss of Phillips sure does make you want to cry a little. Go Phins!!!