TOTAL RUBBISH
Dolphins face fatigue, frustration after loss Called ‘garbage’ by their coach during the week, the Dolphins offense really hits the skids in London, failing to put up any points against the Saints.
LONDON — The Dolphins came a long way to not go very far at all.
What a miserable offensive disaster on a cold, raw, afternoon in England.
Here are 5 instant takeaways from Sunday’s 20-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints:
1. This is a tired team.
Head coach Adam Gase is unlikely to make excuses, but we can. These players are exhausted. And how could they not be?
It’s hard to imagine Miami will be playing like this in three or four weeks. I’m going to say that a 1-2 start is not as disastrous as it seems at the moment. These players need a home game. They need a full week of home practice. They need rest. After the game, player after player dismissed the notion that fatigue was an issue. But that’s what they’re supposed to say.
2. Jay Cutler’s still a bit rusty. Cutler looked pretty good on Miami’s first drive. But then he threw a pass to tight end Julius Thomas – that may have been his first mistake — that wasn’t very good. And Thomas didn’t help him out. And it was intercepted in the end zone.
Cutler also fumbled on a sack though Miami recovered. It is fair to wonder if Ryan Tannehill would have been steering a more effective offense. Of course he would have. Cutler’s postgame news conference did not inspire confidence, as he chose words like “chaos.” Kudos for honesty but one wonders if Gase-Cutler has lost its mojo for the moment.
3. Gase tried to be creative. On the first drive, Gase pulled out all the stops. Read zone. Wildcat. In the first t wo drives, we saw Jakeem Grant and Damien Williams and Kenyan Drake and even Leonte Carroo. Surely, Gase wanted to keep players fresh and mix it up and get his and his team’s creative juices flowing.
It just didn’t pay the dividends he had hoped. Gase seemed at a loss in the post-game interview. He needed the flight time home to think about what exactly the offensive identity of the Dolphins is going to be this season.
4. Cordrea Tankersley isn’t prime Darrelle Revis yet.
Tankersley has some potential. He’s athletic. He’s strong. He’s determined. He can be physical. But he’s raw, in the same way Tony Lippett was when he took over for a benched Byron Maxwell last season.
It was a bold move by Gase and defensive coordinator Matt Burke, for sure, even if perhaps Alterraun Verner could have or would have or might have started for Maxwell had he been healthier. It will be fascinating to see where Maxwell’s season goes from here.
Tankersley hadn’t dressed the first t wo games of the season, after Miami made him a thirdround draft choice. He was given a heads up on Friday that he was in line for more reps, though he didn’t immediately realize that he was going to start.
“I was very excited,” Tankersley said after the loss to New Orleans. “You always want to get a start in the NFL. It’s what I had worked hard for. It’s a dream come true to be at this level and play against a Hall of Fame quarterback like Drew Brees.”
To go from inactive to starter so quickly meant, of course, that Brees would target him. In fact, Tankersley was active, with five tackles and one pass defense.
“Yeah I kind of anticipated they would throw my way, you know, rookie guy, also Hall of Fame quarterback,” Tankersley said. “So you kind of expect that. But he’s the kind of quarterback who can pick on anybody. Really all I had to do was just come out and just play my type of football and do what the coaches tell me to do.”
5. Miami’s guard play needs to be better.
The offensive line play needs to better. In particular, guards Anthony Steen, Jesse Davis and Jermon Bushrod need to be better.
There aren’t enough running lanes for Jay Ajayi. There is too much pressure on Cutler. It comes from the edge, yes. But too much has been coming through the middle of Miami’s offense, blowing up plays before they begin.
“I think everyone’s frustrated,” said Ajayi, who was held to 46 yards on 12 carries in his London homecoming. “Two games, really — I mean, to put it, three games. And even in Los Angeles, we didn’t, like, score in the red zone. We’re not putting points up. It’s frustrating.”
It’s not all Ajayi’s fault. There’s been nowhere to run.
“I just know that we have a standard of running the ball,” Ajayi said. “We know how it’s supposed to look when we’re playing up to that standard. And for the past couple of weeks we haven’t been doing that. And so whatever we need to do to get back to that standard of what we believe we can do on the ground, we need to get there.”