Dolphins fall to Raiders
By Byler Henry
After losing two straight games the Dolphins are currently in third place in the AFC East with a 4-4 record. With 8 games down, there are 8 more left in the season and the Dolphins are still in the hunt and still have a chance to grab the wild card spot. Currently the Bills are second in the AFC East with a 5-3 record, and they currently have the second wild card spot. Second place in the AFC East and the sixth seed in the playoffs are still within reach for the Dolphins.
Sunday night was a good close game that ended with Dolphins only losing by 3 points to the Raiders, 27 to 24. It was an overall better performance after they were blown out by the Ravens. Jay Cutler performed well under center going 34 of 42 with 311 passing yards and 3 touchdowns. Julius Thomas was the lead receiver with 84 receiving yards and a touchdown. Even though the Raiders were victorious, the Dolphins put up a good fight. With Jay Ajayi being traded to the Eagles, the Dolphins have to find a way to get the running game going. Kenyan Drake was their leading rusher with 69 yards on 9 attempts. Damien Williams had 14 yards rushing and 47 yards receiving. Many of the Dolphins drives were halted because of costly penalties. “There might have been 21 penalties between both of us. It seemed like theirs almost came on one drive where there were back-to-back penalties. Ours were coming at really poor times where we had some good plays and (they) get called back. Hard to recover from it,” Head Coach Adam Gase stated about the penalties.
Next week the Dolphins go on the road for a Monday night game against the Carolina Panthers. This will be a tough game, but if the Dolphins could cut down on the penalties they can come away with the win. They were establishing rhythm on some drives, but the holding penalties pushed them back and stalled them. There were a lot of positives to take away from this week. Although there were too many costly penalties, the offensive line only allowed one sack. “I think we just have to look at the positives; offensively, we did some good things tonight. If we eliminate some of those penalties and that turnover when we’re driving, and we’re in good position. We’re 4-4 at the halfway point. (There is) a lot of football left to play. There’s a lot of opportunities for us to put it together.” Jay Cutler said about the offense. They have a whole week to look at tape and clean up any mistakes. There are still 8 more games to play, and that sixth playoff seed is not far out of reach.
