Dolphins, Saints do business in London
LONDON — The air? Cool. The sky? Grey. The forecast? Wet. The atmosphere when the Miami Dolphins play the New Orleans Saints on Sunday on the outskirts of old Londontown?
Downright medieval. That’s fitting for fall here. It’s perfect for these teams, too. Emotions are raw inside both of them. Having one win to this point can do that, even if the Dolphins have only played two games.
New Orleans got its win last week against Carolina in a dominant 3413 fashion. But Coach Sean Payton called it the defense’s, “first good step in a while,” and labeled it, “Not as meaningful if we don’t follow it up with a similar performance this Sunday.”
The Dolphins have their own issues, as spelled out this past week. There’s the “garbage” offense as Coach Adam Gase framed it. There’s finally welcoming back The Runaway Linebacker, Lawrence Timmons.
There’s a pass defense that goes under the full microscope for the first time this game. And no one knows quite what to expect. Before most practices this summer, Gase made a point of going to the defensive backs and delivering a similar thought.
“We’ve got something for you today,” he’d say, meaning the offense he directed.
That stirred the nest. That was the point, of course. The cornerbacks came back with their own lines.
“We’ve got something for you, too.
“Bring it.”
“We’re waiting …”
Well, it’s Drew Brees who has something for them today. It’s early, but not too early to see the Saints’ never-aging quarterback is doing what he’s done to defenses for the past decade.
“Same guy, same game, same everything you have to respect,” Dolphins cornerback Byron Maxwell said.
Brees, at 38, ranks fourth in the league in quarterback rating (109.7), fourth in passing yards (867) and tied for fifth in touchdowns (six). Yeah, it’s early. But he’s taking up residence again as a Top-5 quarterback, a position he’s held for years.
This, then, is the first time the Dolphins have played a top-tier quarterback this season. The Chargers’ Philip Rivers, after all, has won five of his last 19 games, rated 19th among quarterbacks last year and sits 24th today. Age may have caught him.
The Jets’ Josh McCown? He’d lost 27 of 29 starts before beating the Dolphins last week with a career day as evidenced by a 126.3 rating and whopping 10.83 yards per pass attempt.
“Got to do better,” Maxwell said. “We’ve been working on that this week. You can’t have a game like that and not see things you’ve got to improve on.”
Maxwell has started in the same, slow manner he did last September. Nate Allen, the fill-in safety until T.J. McDonald returns from suspension in the ninth game, has started even slower. And the linebacker corps minus Timmons has been easy pickings.
That needs to change Sunday. Just like this offense does. Gase exhausted his Thesaurus for descriptions of its output. Among his words for it this week: Garbage. Embarrassing. Inconsistent. Troubling. A mess. A disaster.
In case you missed the point, he also gave a general, “We haven’t been very good.”
And you think media overreact to losses?
So, yeah, emotions are raw around the Dolphins. And you can be sure whichever team loses today will feel like the sky came down a little bit more. But seasons can’t be lost on the first day of October. Can they?
What that means is whoever they are, whatever they can be, you should see it today. Quarterback Jay Cutler has waffled between Chicago Jay and Good Jay. Jay Ajayi found holes to help him the first game and nothing at all the second game. The defense has turned around against the run thus far — but not against the pass. Who are the Dolphins?
That will come into better view after this game. Just as it will for the Saints. Neither season ends with a loss. It’s early. But it’s not too early to realize this cool, grey, wet day should match raw emotions inside both teams.