Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dolphins overcome season-beginning challenges
Carson, Calif. – Once the celebration of Sunday’s stomach churning, nail-biting win over the Los Angeles Chargers died down the reality of the world the Miami Dolphins were returning to began to set in.
“How are we going to get home?” Dolphins defensive end Andre Branch asked the defensive side of the locker room as a room full of puzzled faces looked back at him.
Branch was referring to when the team arrives back at the Davie facility Monday morning, following their week of being displaced in California because of Hurricane Irma.
Normally everyone’s cars would be at the facility, which is where the team usually meets before getting on its chartered flight to go to road games. But for this road trip, which begun nearly 10 days ago when owner Steve Ross paid for players, coaches, staff, and their family members to escape Irma’s wrath days before the storm pummeled South Florida like Jay Ajayi’s runs
bulldozed Chargers defenders, cars where left at home.
Or they were out of town since many players had to find their own way to California from wherever they ended up after their game against Tampa Bay was postponed due to Irma, and many fled car or plane.
Now that the Dolphins’ season-opener, which had been delayed a week was over, and the Dolphins pulled out a 19-17 win when rookie kicker Younghoe Koo missed a 44-yard field goal in the closing seconds that would have given the Chargers their first win inside their new home, reality began to set in.
Football was over and real life returned to the forefront.
“Hopefully my power is on and I can be comfortable in my home because that would suck if there was no A.C. in there and I have to go to sleep at 4 in the morning,” said Ajayi, who carried Miami’s offense, gaining 122 rushing yards on 28 carries. “Somebody has got to get me home because I’ve got to get some good sleep tonight.”
Much like the rest of South Florida in the aftermath of Irma, it had been a long, rough, emotionally draining week for Ajayi, and his teammates. And Sunday’s game against the Chargers paralleled the team’s struggles. Distractions weren’t hard to find. On Sunday morning the organization learned that linebacker Lawrence Timmons, one of the team’s top offseason additions, had left the team for reasons that haven’t been disclosed.
That meant Miami’s defense was forced to play Mike Hull as the every-down linebacker paired with Kiko Alonso, start rookie linebacker Chase Allen in the base package, and play Sunday’s game with just four available linebackers.
Despite Hull having a team-leading 10 tackles, the Dolphins’ defense got carved up by Philip Rivers, who competed 31-of-39 passes for 331 yards and one touchdown.
Rivers was handed a 19-17 deficit with 1:05 left in the game following Cody Parkey’s 54-yard field goal, and drove his team 54-yards downfield on four passes and a penalty, putting Koo in position to win the game with nine seconds left.
But the kick went wide right, allowing the Dolphins’ sideline to erupt in celebration despite the Chargers field crew mistakenly firing the team’s celebratory cannon.
A victory had been stolen from the clutches of defeat courtesy of Koo’s misfortune.
Considering the Dolphins had been on the end of similar losses when the team was led by Tony Sparano and Joe Philbin, don’t expect anyone with Dolphins ties to shed a tear for the Chargers.
Especially after everything the Dolphins, and South Florida have been through this past week.
“We’re just trying to do everything we can to get back to normal, and I know the people in South Florida are trying to do the same things,” said defensive end Cameron Wake, who was one of the few players who rode out Irma in his Broward home. “Football is part of our normal routine, and we’d like to make winning part of our routine. Today was a step in the right direction.”
A welcomed step that should bring some relief, and help in the process of getting life back to a sense of normalcy.
“I have no idea,” Byron Maxwell said when asked how he was getting home. “I guess I’ll Uber or something.”
Branch chimed in, “No, we’re all going to walk it.”
With this team, finding the most challenging route to get to their final destination would be their way.