Dolphins fizzle, fall to Detroit
A lack of defense and answers lead to Miami’s 32-21 loss to Lions.
MIAMI GARDENS —
The first play?
“A 20-yard run,” Detroit Lions center Graham Glasgow said. “That’s a pretty good statement.”
The best play? “What’d it go for, 71 yards?” Detroit guard Frank Ragnow said. “That’s a great feeling to watch run down the field.”
This was the view from the other side, the winning side, the side that beat up the Miami Dolphins defense in Sunday’s 32-21 loss in a way it hadn’t been this year at Hard Rock Stadium. Come on, Detroit had 248 yards rushing? It hadn’t run for that much since 1997.
“Wow, I was one-year old,” Ragnow said.
This is how bad it was for the Dolphins: All this Detroit feelgood in the post-game locker room wasn’t even the worst part of Sunday. Sure, it’s bad enough to have Detroit, the 23rd-ranked rushing offense, put a chain on your defense and drag it up and down the field so it scored on eight of nine possessions.
It’s worse knowing your offense can’t answer.
“We’ve got to find a way to match it on the other side of the ball and create points,” Dolphins coach Adam Gase said. Sometimes, in today’s NFL, the offense has to bail out a bad-day defense. The Dolphins offense never does. Thirty-two points is a distant dream for them. They’re one of six NFL teams not to reach 30 points in regulation (they scored 31 in overtime against Chicago last week).
They haven’t scored on a first drive all year, as guard Jesse Davis gave up a sack and Sunday’s first drive went nowhere. That should be the easiest way to set a day’s tone, like Detroit did, going 64 yards in six plays to take a 7-0 lead.
“We felt we took over, right
there,” guard T.J. Lang said.
The Dolphins offense has other, unfortunate problems now, too. Receivers Albert Wilson and Kenny Stills left Sunday’s game with injuries that, in Wilson’s case, could possibly end his breakout season. And DeVante Parker oddly wasn’t active (which sent his agent on a rant aimed Gase). And so they ended Sunday’s game with two receivers.
And they play Thursday in Houston.
And here’s the worst part of all: It’s not the backup quarterback, folks. We’re only getting to him this low in the column for a reason. Brock Osweiler has played the past two games as well as Ryan Tannehill has done for his years with the Dolphins.
Osweiler completed 22-of-31 passes for 239 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. That’s a garden-variety Tannehill day, right? Avoid the big mistake. Take what the defense gives. Make a few nice throws, but generally do what’s asked.
“I feel like I need to find a way to play better, to find a way to put the offense in the end zone more, and that’s something coach Gase and I will sit down and look at and talk about,” Osweiler said.
Here’s the real question: Is there a way to improve the offense at this point in the season? Are they who they are? That’s a managed quarterback running a managed offense that can’t hope to match a runaway offense on the other side. The way Detroit did Sunday. And New England does regularly. And any contending NFL team must these days.
Everyone knew where the first finger of blame for Sunday’s loss gets pointed. That’s the easy part.
“A bad day for us; now we got to fix it,” Dolphins defensive tackle Akeem Spence said.
That’s the hope, anyway. You can look around and find simple issues. Middle linebacker Raekwon McMillan had two tackles at half as Detroit ran for 139 yards. No single player is to blame for such a bulldozing. But McMillan, who finished with eight tackles, is the first in line.
“When you’re eight yards a carry, that means your life is pretty easy,” said Detroit running back Kerryon Johnson, who had 19 carries for 158 yards. “This is one of the best games we played. I don’t know if we even gave up a sack. I know we had very minor negative yards. I think we had only one penalty.”
That’s how it sounded in the other locker room, the winning locker room. The Dolphins were in that room a week ago. They’re 4-3. They’re still in fine shape. But for anyone paying attention, the defense was a one-day problem. It’s the offense that’s a seasonlong problem.
As injuries mount, can it be fixed?