Do you remember being a kid and thinking that you knew everything? Then your Dad would put you back in your place. Sometimes with an angry voice or a quick smack to the back of the head. Even worse, a belt to the back of your pants. Then you remembered who was in charge all along. Sadly Sunday, the Patriots reminded the Dolphins who still runs the household.
An embarrassing loss Sunday was maybe what the Phins needed. A great start to the season, when it seemed like everything was working, was quickly brought to an end. This was not our 2018 Miami Dolphins team. A few bad defensive calls early in the game cost them 10 points early on. After that, they seemed to just not be able to recover. It didn’t help having no Reshad Jones, Andre Branch, Devante Parker, William Hayes, Josh Sitton, AJ Derby, and Daniel Kilgore. That’s a lot of missing pieces to the team. I am not the biggest Parker fan; however I always think he changes the dimension of the receiving core. None of the wideouts are over 6 feet tall, besides Parker. They need him back and healthy to win some one-on-one battles on jump balls. Reshad Jones is the Quarterback on the defense. He is one of the top Safety’s in pro football. Every team has injuries, the Dolphins need to find a way to get over them.
I am fan of Coach Adam Gase and rarely questioning any of his decisions. I do however, wonder why he is not getting Kenyan Drake the ball more? Last year, in the last 6 games of the season he looked like a workhorse tailback. A very versatile player, who can run between the tackles and be split out wide to catch passes. In the last 2 weeks, he has seen only 8 total rushing attempts. Drake is a home-run hitter. You don’t let one of your best hitters only get pinch-hit at bats, do you? He needs a little volume, let him get into a rhythm. Nothing bad to say about Frank Gore, he should be our Change Pace Back. Someone who can get a short yard first down, not the guy who is taking away from our best weapon.
There were no game changing plays today. The Phins just got beat in every aspect of the game. In Ryan Tannehill’s coming out party, he never showed up. He had no enthusiasm and momentum in the game, he was below average. That simple. The offense could not sustain any drives and therefore put the defense in bad situations. It was not close from the start, it was a disheartening loss. Maybe the worst part about it was the score. If the Dolphins lost and played a respectable game, maybe we could move on to the next day. However, getting blown out of the water in New England, was not what the doctored ordered. The Patriots still have Tom Brady and sometimes that’s all you need.
If there are any positives that we can take from this game, please let me know. The only good thing is the Dolphins finish the quarter point in the season at 3-1. I’ll take that all day, every season. This loss hurts, but sometimes it’s good to taste defeat. This week we go to the first place Cincinnati Bengals. Let’s hope we get back on track with a good performance coming up. We need to get back to winning football. That is controlling the line of scrimmage. Playing ahead of the chains on Offense and getting off the field on Defense. Sounds fairly simple, but only winning teams do that well. This coming Sunday vs the Bengals will tell is even more about our team. Either we will get back to the winning ways or be left wondering if the first 3 weeks of the season was a fluke. Just remember always, who’s your Daddy?
