Tannehill
and how we can improve,” Tannehill said.
The Miami quarterback will have to play the rest of the season without starting center Daniel Kilgore and left guard Josh Sitton. Tannehill says he’s still confident in the line, which now includes center Travis Swanson and guard Ted Larsen.
“I have to make sure that we’re in the right plays and I can get the ball out quickly and get (it) into our playmakers’ hands,” Tannehill said. “It’s tough to ask those guys to protect for long periods of time on each play.”
Sunday, at Cincinnati, defensive tackle Geno Atkins has the potential to be a real problem.
“Geno is still a nightmare to deal with,” Dolphins coach Adam Gase said. “He’s going to cause problems in the run game and prevent you from doing a lot of things.”
Tannehill acknowledged he failed to spot a few open receivers against the Patriots, though they weren’t always his first or second reads.
“We didn’t have a great game,” Gase said, when asked about Tannehill. “There were some things I wish I would have done different. He felt the same way. We didn’t play good as an offense. Frank (Gore) probably played good. Besides that, a lot of guys struggled. We didn’t do anything we talked about.”
Gase concluded his Wednesday news conference by succinctly, and accurately, stating that “we just got crushed” by the Patriots.
But, as importantly, the Dolphins are 3-1, in first place in the AFC East, and coming off a strong rebound practice.
“Today I felt like there was a really good energy level,” Gase said. “Guys understood what happened, watching the film on Monday, getting another day away from it, coming back, resetting. We’re not going to sit here and keep pounding on what happened on Sunday. We fixed what we needed to fix.”
Tannehill reflected on the start of Miami’s season.
“It was a good first quarter,” Tannehill said. “Obviously, there was a bad taste in our mouth after Sunday, but you have to take a step back from that and say, ‘Okay, we’re in a good spot. We just have to keep pressing.’ First quarter is done. We’re 0-0 starting the second quarter and we have to find a way to finish this week 1-0.”