Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Parker’s non-play illustrates the day
WR says he doesn’t know why he didn’t attack intercepted pass
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Here’s what I wonder about the Miami Dolphins after this heaping pile of poo: I wonder why DeVante Parker didn’t jump.
All the rest of it — Bill Belichick’s fake punt, Tom Brady’s four touchdown passes, New England’s seven sacks — simply show what everyone knew before the Patriots out-thought and out-toughed the Dolphins once again, 35-17.
My question is more fundamental. That’s what the Dolphins need to stress, right? Fundamentals? So why didn’t Parker jump? It probably wouldn’t have changed the game. It might not even have changed the second-quarter play, as Parker said when asked, “I don’t know.”
But he knew what he should do. It’s what any high-school receiver knows. “Attack the ball,” he said. Sixteen seconds before half. Ball at the Patriots’ 15-yard line. The Dolphins trail, 21-10. A score here puts them back in the day and they get the second-half kickoff. Matt Moore sees the 6-foot-3 Parker covered by 6-1 cornerback Stephon Gilmore, as he was all day.
“I thought Matt made the right read,” coach Adam Gase said.
“I put the ball up and it was probably a little short,” Moore said.
But not terribly short. Not if Parker goes after it. Maybe he catches it. At the very least he breaks up the pass to live for another down or even a field-goal attempt.
Instead, as Gilmore said, “I got an easy one.” An easy interception, he meant. And a game-changing one. “Got to attack the ball,” Parker said. So why didn’t he? “I don’t know,” he said. It’s nearing the end of Year 3 of hoping Parker takes the progressive step to being a No. 1 receiver. And he’s not making that step, folks. He’s regressing. That’s the larger story of what’s going on with the Dolphins in this dismal season, too.
No one’s taking any steps forward. Left tackle Laremy Tunsil? Cornerback Xavien Howard? Any of the surviving running backs? See anyone emerging? Where are the building blocks of tomorrow for a team that again must look to tomorrow?
One more question: Why didn’t Parker jump?
“It wouldn’t have mattered since I beat him to the spot,” Gilmore said, meaning the spot where the ball would land. “I knew the route. They ran the same exact route in the first quarter. They didn’t throw it the first time.
“But I saw how he set up and knew what he was going to do. I kind of expected it since they wanted a touchdown before half and not a field goal. And I just got to his spot before him.”
He did all day, too. Parker had one catch for 5 yards. He is playing on a bad ankle. But if he can’t do better, why is he out there? That leads down another rabbit hole about the Dolphins’ roster. They have no depth. Leonte Carroo? Jakeem Grant? Anyone seen them? Or Parker? “I was pressing him all the time,” Gilmore said. “He couldn’t get off it. He struggles against the press. He’s a good, deep-ball guy and has great size to make plays downfield.”
But if he can’t get off a cornerback’s press at the line, he can’t get downfield. That problem, plus regular injuries, was the book on Parker when he was the Dolphins’ first-round pick in 2014. Nothing has changed that narrative in three years, either.
“We keep beating ourselves,” Parker said.
The Patriots didn’t even need their best game. A bad shotgun snap gave the Dolphins a touchdown. Brady actually threw an interception — his third of the season. They had four fumbles (losing just one).
But Belichick told how little he feared the Dolphins by calling a fake punt on his 27-yard line on fourth-and-eight just 58 seconds into the game. Who does that? Oh, right, the best in the business does.
“So 9-2 and just keep grinding,” Brady said. “Isn’t it fun?”
Fun is a foreign word to the Dolphins. Their season is dead. Their coach has no answers. And their building blocks to tomorrow aren’t building, as Parker showed, saying, “It never feels good to lose.”
So why didn’t he even jump?
“We keep beating ourselves.” DeVante Parker, Dolphins wide receiver