By Blyer Henry
Thursday night was an ugly night for the Dolphins who were defeated in convincing fashion, 42 to 23. This game was important for the Dolphins to get a win; however, it did not happen that night. After starting 0-3, the Texans are now on a five game winning streak, while the Dolphins started the season 3-0, and are currently 1-4 in their last 5 games.
Everything that could go wrong went wrong on Thursday. On Offense the Texans put on a clinic not only running the ball with ease, but also passing the ball with no problems. The Texans star quarterback of the future Deshaun Watson played sensationally, completing 16 of 20 passes for 239 yards and 5 touchdowns, while former Dolphin Lamar Miller ran the ball for 133 yards and a touchdown for good measure. The Texans top two receivers Will Fuller and DeAndre Hopkins had a total of 206 passing yards (124 for Fuller and 82 for Hopkins). It was a close game in the first
half with the Texans leading 14 to 10, and in the second half all hell broke loose. Head Coach Adam Gase was not pleased with the team’s efforts. “It was not good on defense. I mean they did whatever they want-ed.” He had thoughts on the offensive side of the ball also, “On offense, we had opportunities early that we could possibly have taken advantage of, at least keep it a back and forth game. We missed out. Then we had the one turnover that gave them a short field, which was not what we needed. I mean that’s what hurt us more than anything. If we wanted to get in that kind of game, we couldn’t make any mistakes.”
The dolphins were pretty much stagnant on offense, one
passing and rushing touchdown with 3 field goals. Their only touchdown pass came from receiver Danny Amendola, running back Kenyan Drake caught the pass and had a rushing touchdown. The Texans defense were able to step up and running back Kenyan Drake to 58 rushing yards and running back Frank Gore to 53 rushing yards. DeVante Parker had a monster game with 134 yards receiving on only 6 catches. Afterwards Brock weighed in on DeVante’s monster game, “It was great, and you know what? It was by no surprise. Just talking to DeVante (Parker) all week, I had a feeling he was going to have a big game. He was hungry to get out there on the field and he really showed it tonight. He made some tough catches. There were situations where some of the balls I couldn’t lead him, I had to throw them on his back shoulder, things like that, and he came up with them all. So, DeVante played a heck of a game and he deserves it.”
Now the Dolphins have reached the midpoint of the season, and it looks like the Patriots are still going to dominate and win the AFC East. Currently at 5-2 and in first place, the Patriots are on a 4 game winning streak, after starting the season 1-3. At 4-4, the Dolphins are in second place with the Jets in third at 3-5. The Dolphins come back home and have a rivalry game against the Jets November 4. With that huge loss against the Texans, it’s now time to be a bit more concerned. If the Dolphins lose Sunday they will be tied at 4-5 with the Jets. The race to the NFL playoffs is a marathon not a sprint, but it does no good to have a hot start and miss the playoffs. The Dolphins are not out of it, but they have to come together and run the table to make the playoffs. Back in 2016 the Packers were in a similar situation being 4-4 at the midpoint of the season, lost two straight to fall to 4-6, and then ran the table going 6-0 to finish the season at 10-6 and made the playoffs. hope springs eternal.
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