Owner pleased with progress, expects more
PITTSBURGH — It was a jarring end to the Dolphins‘ season with a 30-12 loss at Pittsburgh Sunday in their wildcard playoff game, but that doesn’t tarnish the strides the organization made this year.
Miami jumped from 6-10 to 10-6 under first-year coach Adam Gase, and owner Stephen Ross anticipates his team will keep rising.
“I think we’ve come a long way from where we started, but certainly not happy right now,” Ross said in the locker room after the game. “But I think you can see I’m happy with the direc tion we’re going. I think we have the right coach, the right people in place and the basis for something good. Everybody’s smelling it. They want it more. That gives you optimism for next year.
“Today is a loss, but I feel good with the direction the team is going.”
This was the team’s first playoff appearance since Ross became majority owner in 2009, and it came in a season that started miserably.
A l r e a d y v i e we d a s a n underdog in the AFC, the Dolphins lost four of their first five games and gave no indication they’d be a threat to make the playoffs. They surged, though, and won six straight games to save the season.
Miami won 9 of 10 after that start and clinched a playoff berth in Week 16.
“You saw a team that was 1-4, and everybody was ready to write it off at that point, and they fought back and came together as a team,” Ross said. “That’s a great thing to see.”
Dolphins upset about Moore hit: The hit that temporarily knocked Dolphins quarterback Matt Moore out of the game was tough to watch, and some Miami players were irate about Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree taking an unnecessary shot.
In the second quar ter, Moore was rolling right and looking for a receiver near the sideline when Dupree blindsided him with a hit to the head.
He wa s p e n a l i z e d f o r roughing the passer.
“They threw the flag, so obviously it was unnecessary, but what got me so fired up about it was we’re already down to our second quarterback,” right guard Jermon Bushrod said. “He came back in the game and slung it around and did what he had to do.”
Moore missed one play — the Dolphins had T.J. Yates in for a handoff — before returning.
Dolphins safety Michael Thomas declined to comment specifically on the hit because he didn’t want to further instigate, but was inspired by Moore’s resiliency.
“H e ’ s t o u g h , m a n , ” Thomas said. “That’s his mentality. You think about him, he’s been fighting his whole career to get to this spot and he doesn’t want to go out like that. That just shows his toughness.”
Damien Williams, who doesn’t need any help getting fiery, also praised Moore.
“He said, ‘It’s time to go. We’re not done yet,’” Williams said. “You could tell he wanted this as bad as anybody else. To see him take that hit and get back in, that fired me up more than it did him.”
Cold day in Pittsburgh: At kickoff of Sunday’s game, it was the third-coldest game in Dolphins history and their coldest playoff game.
It was 17 degrees, but it felt like 2 degrees with the 15 mph wind.
Players huddled on the sidelines and benches wearing long, heavily quilted coats.
It was so cold ticket prices dropped before kickoff, just like the temperatures.
Dolphins players downplayed the cold entering the game.
“It’s not a big concern for me,” Gase said on Thursday. “It’s the NFL and you play in all kinds of weather. These guys are all over from different parts of the country. There’s nobody that hasn’t played in the cold at any point in their career.”
The coldest game in Dolphins history came in 2008, when it was 10 degrees in a win at Kansas City.
Miami lost when it was 14 degrees at New England (1977) and 22 degrees at New England (1982).
“I knew this was the right guy,” Ross said. “I always felt he was the right guy and I think the players feel he’s the right guy. He’s special.”
The players are beginning to be convinced they are, too.
“We’re not the same teams of the past,” said running back Jay Ajayi, despite being held to 33 yards on 16 carries and a 2.1 average. “Of course we wanted to do something special this year.”
Those hopes were put on ice — literally, on a day when the wind chill was 2 degrees — as the Steelers stormed to a 20-3 lead and quickly quashed any hopes of Ajayi repeating his 204yard rushing performance in the teams’ first meeting this year, which triggered the Dolphins’ 9-1 run.
“We fought all odds to get here, so you don’t want to pat yourself on the back,” safety Michael Thomas said. “We just took an ‘L’ in the playoffs.”
Cameron Wake joined the Dolphins in 2009, so Sunday marked his long-awaited playoff debut.
“Ho p e f u l l y, g u y s n ow know what it takes to get to this point, what it feels like to play in a game like this and also the disappointment,” Wake said. “And you hope it sits, you hope it burns, you hope it leaves that hole. And starting whenever you get back to work, you do whatever you can to make sure that 1) You get back here and 2) You don’t have to deal with this again.”
With an immense edge in playoff and championship experience, the Steelers needed no lessons in January football. They knew their fortunes revolved around their “Killer B’s” of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, running back Le’Veon Bell and receiver Antonio Brown. All three were shut down in Miami’s 30-15 victory in October. Not so Sunday.
Roethlisberger hit Brown with touchdown passes of 50 and 62 yards on the Steelers’ first two possessions. Bell exhibited remarkable patience with every handoff, waiting for the clutter in front of him to present a crease or, on rare occasions when that didn’t happen, plowing into the scrum and moving everybody 5 yards down field. When it was over, Roethlisberger had an efficient 197-yard day, Bell had 167 yards and two TDs and Brown had 124 yards.
The Dolphins? They had no answers. It was too much to overcome for a team that had too many injuries to too many key players. While fans might wonder what-if Pro Bowl talent such as Reshad Jones and Mike Pouncey had not landed on injured reserve, Ross didn’t want to entertain those thoughts.
“What go o d d o e s t h a t do?” Ross said. “I’ll do that when I’m trying to fall asleep tonight. There’s no sense. We’re here to win. Anything but winning is unacceptable.”
Guard Jermon Bushrod took some solace in knowing his team kept getting up off the deck.
“It could have got bad — this game and this year,” he said. “But we decided to put an end to it. We fought and fought and fought and fought. We threw a couple of punches and they threw more back. We weren’t able to keep up.”
Quarterback Matt Moore tried. Moore, subbing once again for injured starter Ryan Tannehill, absorbed a wicked helmet-to-the-chin shot in the second quarter from linebacker Bud Dupree, who was flag ged for roughing the passer and surely will be fined by the league. After a quick check by doctors on the sideline, Moore was back after only one play, but who’s to say if there were lingering effects?
A few minutes later, the Dolphins, trailing 20-6, took possession on an interception by Thomas. They drove to the Steelers’ 8-yard line on a 37-yard pass from Moore to DeVante Parker and were poised to make it a one-score game at halftime. But the left side of Miami’s offensive line failed to pick up pass-rush ace James Harrison, who blindsided Moore to cause a fumble that started a string of three consecutive turnovers by the QB.
Moore began the second half with another sack-stripfumble, then threw an interception to Ryan Shazier. The Steelers scored 10 points off those turnovers for a 30-6 lead that made the rest of the game academic.
“Certainly everybody in this room is disappointed, but I think the basis is here to create something,” Ross said. “Hopefully we’re in the right direction. I believe it.”
Asked how close he thinks his team is, Ross made a reference to the Super Bowl.
“Three games away, OK?” he said. “That’s how close we are.”