Jaguars rip Texans, return to playoffs
quarter and overtime.
This year’s Dolphins have mostly started slow, and finished poorly. And the only thing that’s been consistent about these Dolphins is the fact that they are inconsistent.
“Frustrating,” pass rusher Cameron Wake said when asked to explain the 2017 season. “I don’t know any other words.” Well, that fits. But so does confusing. How do we make sense of a team that doesn’t make any sense?
Some how we expected an inconsistent, apathetic quarterback like Jay Cutler to come out of retirement and save the season after Tannehill suffered his second knee injury during training camp.
And what we got is an erratic one who is hot one game, then cold the next.
We expected a running game that drove the offense last season to pick up where it left off despite playing behind a depleted offensive line.
Then we anticipated that the offense would perk up after Jay Ajayi, who up until Sunday was the team’s leading rusher, was traded to Philadelphia for a 2018 fourthround pick.
We expected a defense that hemorrhaged yards last season to tighten the screws because safety Reshad Jones was coming back, and Lawrence Timmons and T.J. McDonald were added as free agents. Yet, all we’ve got is more of the same. Plenty was expected, but little has been delivered, and right now Miami’s staring at an 8-8 season, another .500 year for this franchise, at best.
“We knew everything that was at stake,” said receiver Jarvis Landry, who has been Miami’s only consistent performer this season. “We didn’t make it happen.”
And that’s the point. Unlike Landry, who is playing in a contract year, there doesn’t seem to be enough at stake for these Dolphins.
A significant amount of Miami’s starters were in a contract years last season and they cashed in on the team’s success because Gase was pushing for continuity.
Well, he got it, and very little has carried over from last year.
Gase is securely entrenched as the head coach, and offensive play-caller even though Miami’s offense is still on pace to be one of the worst scoring units in franchise history.
So is his buddy, Matt Burke, who will likely remain as Miami’s defensive coordinator despite his unit’s inconsistencies.
That means the only thing left to change are the players this offseason.
While Miami isn’t mathematically eliminated from qualifying for the playoffs, the Dolphins would need to win the final two games — which starts with next Sunday’s road game against Kansas City — and the half dozen teams ahead of them in the wild-card standings would have to drop the ball.
“I never feel like we’re out of it. Still don’t feel like it,” said tailback Kenyan Drake, whose emergence as the team’s leading rusher is one of the few bright spots of 2017. “We might need more help than usual though.”
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JACKSONVILLE — Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan waited until the final few minutes to start celebrating.
Had he uncorked the champagne when the game was essentially over, Khan would have been drinking by halftime.
Blake Bortles threw three touchdowns passes , including two to seldom-used backup Jaydon Mickens, and the Jaguars clinched a playoff spot with a 45-7 drubbing of AFC South rival Houston on Sunday. Jacksonville’s seventh victory in its last eight games locked up the franchise’s first postseason berth since 2007. “It’s a story of perseverance,” Khan said . Once the NFL’s poster child for futility and a punchline for potential relocation, the Jaguars (10-4) are now one of the league’s top turnarounds.
The injury-riddled Texans (4-10) have dropped four in a row and seven of eight.
“They can smell the playoffs,” Houston receiver DeAndre Hopkins said. “You can tell that by the way they played. That’s what you play for: playoff football. You play this game to win the ultimate goal. When you don’t get there, what you did is not good.”
Bortles finished with a season-high 326 yards and the best QB rating (143.8) of his career. He did it without receivers Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns and Marqise Lee.
With Robinson (knee) on injured reserve, Hurns (ankle) inactive and Lee (ankle) in the locker room, Mickens and rookie Keelan Cole stepped up. Mickens caught four passes for 61 yards and two scores. Cole had seven receptions for a career-high 186 yards and a TD.
Mickens disclosed earlier this week that he slept in his car outside the facility at night to save money, not knowing how long he would remain in town.
Now, he and teammates playoff checks.
“It’s kind of cool that we solidified our spot,” Jaguars defensive tackle Malik Jackson said. “Now we can get over the giddiness of it. It’s cool to be where we are, but we’re not done yet.”
That’s a huge change for Jacksonville, which was an NFL-worst 22-74 over the previous six years and widely considered more of a laughingstock than a postseason contender. will be getting