An opportunity squandered: Old flaws flare again
GREEN BAY, Wis. – There is one person, and one person only, to blame for the Miami Dolphins not scoring a touchdown again, for getting blown out again on the road, for being the league’s worst run defense and maybe for the price of oil and troubled tech stocks.
Only one person.
Brock Osweiler.
Just ask him.
“I need to find a way to get this offense in the end zone scoring touchdowns,” he said. “This is two weeks now, back to back, that we’ve struggled finishing drives in the end zone. Point blank, period. I’m the only guy on the team that touches the ball every play on offense. I need to find ways to be better and score touchdowns.”
One thing you get used to if you’ve wandered the wilderness with the Dolphins the past 15 years is finding the nobility in a bad day fought well. You could say that again on this game. The Dolphins fought on Sunday. This wasn’t the game in New England, where they collapsed.
Out-manned and over-injured, they fought in the cold of a Wisconsin November. They pulled to within, 14-12, in the
third quarter. They were on the edge of a surprise. Even after the loss, to underline the theme of the noble loser, there was Osweiler taking it all, saying, “The blame is on nobody but myself.”
If only it was that simple.
If only there was one problem here.
There’s a strain of truth in Osweiler’s words, of course. He struggled like a backup quarterback. His game-tilting throw wasn’t a touchdown, but a thirdquarter interception that led to Green Bay turning a close game into a rout.
He, put simply, wasn’t Aaron Rodgers. But then Rodgers wasn’t Rodgers, either on Sunday. Not really. He missed throws he usually makes. He struggled several times in finding the same page with his top receiver, Davante Adams. He completed a pedestrian 19-of-28 passes for a pedestrian 199 yards.
That’s just it. The Dolphins didn’t get Green Bay’s best game. The Packers weren’t asked to bring it out – or maybe they’re incapable of asking it. You can pile up the reasons for this. But from Rodgers’ common game to the Packers defense being pushed around by a makeshift Dolphins offense in the first half, a grand opportunity was there thanks to Darren Rizzi’s specialteams units.
That’s really who gave Sunday a chance. Two takeaways by coverage units. A fake punt. Four field goals from Jason Sanders, making him 15 of 16 on the year. And, yes, they were tricked by Green Bay’s revenge fake punt in the fourth quarter.
But if you’re looking for the only unit that’s consistently producing again this year it’s special teams. For all the injuries to the offense, nine quarters without a touchdown are an indictment. And the defense? Well, it had some good moments on Sunday.
It also was gutted by Green Bay’s 20th-ranked running attack. Aaron Jones ran for a career-best 145 yards on 15 carries a few weeks after Detroit’s Kerryon Johnson had his career day. That was part of the 195-yard rushing total by Green Bay that dropped the Dolphins below Cincinnati as the league’s worst rush defense.
This isn’t about injuries. It’s about issues. It’s about players like middle linebacker Raekwon McMillan looking lost at times or, well, others just getting physically shoved aside. You can’t win with any consistency in the NFL with glaring problems — and the Dolphins have two right now.
They can’t stop the run. They can’t score touchdowns.
“Just execute better in the red zone,” coach Adam Gase said about what must change for the offense. “When we get our chances, we’ve got to run the right routes, got to hit what’s open.”
For nearly three quarters on Sunday, they were in the game. They had Lambeau Field on edge. Sure, the injuries added up, as receivers Jakeem Grant and DeVante Parker left the game. But the Packers lost three defensive starters Sunday, too, including top cornerback Jaire Alexander, by then.
Then Rodgers took the Packers 60 yards in five plays for a touchdown. And Osweiler threw an interception that led to another Green Bay touchdown.
“I thought I had a clean throw to [Danny] Amendola ,” Osweiler said of the interception.
He didn’t. The rout was on. And there was Osweiler, shouldering it all after completing 23-of-37 passes for 213 yards and the interception.
“This franchise deserves better,” he said.
Along with finding dignity amid losses like Sunday, that’s a running theme for 15 years.