AFC South
AFC East Reporter
By Lisa Johnson //@LJ1303
What is wrong with the Miami Dolphins? That is the million-dollar question right now. After a 10-6 season, the Miami Dolphins have seemed to regress.
After starting the season off with a win in New England, the Dolphins have dropped their last 2 games. That has left many fans questioning what it’s going to take to turn this team around. It looked like it could come at the expense of the winless Indianapolis Colts, who were without their star lineman and a quarterback that had two very sore ankles.
Sadly, the Colts defense had other ideas. They stopped the Dolphins’ offense dead in their tracks. Which, let’s be honest, hasn’t been able to get on track since game two against Buffalo
Boring, scripted plays that won’t allow Dolphins QB Jacoby Brissett to throw the ball more than 10 yards. A running game that is almost non-existent. Shall we even bother going into the Dolphins offensive line? Which, at one point, I saw lineman Austin Jackson get beat so badly that he tried to use his right leg to trip the defender. Thankfully the line judge wasn’t looking and missed it. Quite a disappointing performance from this Dolphins offense.
The Dolphins defense couldn’t capitalize on Colts quarterback Carson Wentz‘s limited mobility. Wentz completed 24 of 32 passes for 228 yards. He lead the Colts to their first win of the season. 27-17 over the Dolphins.
After the game Dolphins lineman Jesse Davis was asked about the mood in the locker room.
“What does it feel like in there right now?” – “You know it’s probably not somewhere you want to be right now, but we are just trying to go through it in our head how it feels and what went wrong or what didn’t go right. No. 1 thing is we have to stay together.”
“How do you do that?” – “First of all we just go watch the film, go see what happened, where to start, then go over corrections and then meet with the coaches. The biggest thing is don’t be pointing fingers at people. We all, everybody makes mistakes and whatnot, but this is a team and that’s how we’re going to treat it.
There is plenty of finger-pointing going around. Just point to the whole left side of the Dolphins offensive line. I am all about the players staying together, I mean, this is a team sport. I get that.
But… this is tough to watch every game. How could you not get frustrated? I just would like to see some improvement.
With so much pressure coming from the left side of the line, Brissett has no time to push the ball down the field, unless it’s the last quarter and they’re down by 17, then he starts to launch it. But the rest of the time he’s just doing short outs and slants. That’s the offense right now. I hate to be the negative Nelly here, but it’s true.
However, there was a bright spot today. Dolphins DE Jaelan Phillips seems to be coming along. Just as far as the rest of it.
Coach Flores said it best.
COACH FLORES: “I think it’s a lack of focus, a lack of concentration, a lack of attention to detail, a lack of – I think it’s all those things, and that starts with me and getting these guys to understand how important those little things are. The little things are important in this game. They’re very important. The details are important in this game, and if you don’t get them right, then you’ll have a false start penalty when you don’t need them, you’ll have a drop when you don’t need them, and those are momentum-shifting plays that if you don’t make them and they do, you don’t get the result you want so that’s what we have to do. We got to focus on those little things, those details, and play a smarter, more disciplined football game because we’re not doing that right now. We’re not doing that. That starts with me.”
Follow Lisa on Twitter @LJ1303
#SmartWomen #SmartFootball
The post What’s wrong with the Miami Dolphins? first appeared on https://www.ourturffb.com.