By Byler Henry
The Jaguars travelled to Miami and crushed the Dolphins playoff hopes; what a way to finish the last home game for the 2018 season. After losing to the Vikings last week, the Dolphins playoff hopes were slim but still alive. With a 7-8 record the Dolphins are now eliminated from the playoff hunt. The Dolphins were playing well in the first half but once the second half started, it was a completely different story. Head Coach Adam Gase offers his analysis for the game.
“They (Jaguars) just dominated us up front and holes were closing quick.
I know the backs were trying to get as much as possible, but we were 2-3 yards a clip and then we just kept leaving ourselves in third-and long. Penalties crushed us. We could not get in any kind of rhythm.”
Overall, Tannehill has good looking numbers on paper.
After their first quarter touchdown, the offense could not get back on the board. Tannehill completed 15 of 22 Passes (68%) for 146 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The Jaguars defense was also able to get pressure on him, sacking him 3 times and forcing their way into the backfield.
When asked about the Jaguars pressure Ryan Tannehill offers his insight. “I think they did a good job just getting pressure on us. Obviously, I have to go back and look at the tape and see exactly what happened. A lot of the things that we were trying to get were a little bit further down the field and we weren’t able to get the ball out.” Despite completing 68% of his passes, Tannehill wasn’t able to get Kenny Stills
or DeVante Parker involved.
Kenny Stills only had one reception for five yards while DeVante Parker had two receptions for 13 yards. The running game also struggled, with Kenyan Drake only gaining 23 rushing yards on six carries, Tannehill 22 yards, and Kalen Ballage gained a miniscule 10 yards.
The Dolphins defense played well in the first half, but in the fourth quarter when it mattered the most, the Jaguars were able to find a way to put points on the board. Dolphins rookie Minkah Fitzpatrick sums up the feeling of this lost.
“Yeah, it’s very frustrating. Some of the games didn’t go the way we wanted them too, but this one, we needed to win this one. It was our next game, our most important game. So this was kind of like that blow.
It just hurts.” With this game being a must win, this really felt like a knockout blow.
Between their two running backs Leonard Fournette was able to get 43 yards and a touchdown, while Carlos Hyde gained 47 yards.
With one more game to go this season, the Dolphins have the Bills left on the road. So what’s next for Miami? They have talent on both sides of the ball; however, they were too inconsistent this year. They would be great at home, but not so good on the road. Their home record was 6-2, while their road record was 1-6. If they want to make the playoffs next year they can’t continue to play so poorly on the road. The AFC was a tough division this year, and it most likely will be tough next year so finishing with an average record is not going to cut it.
This offseason, they should look at their overall team, figure out how they can improve and go from there.
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