The Miami Dolphins fall to the Cleveland Browns 17-16 on Sunday in Cleveland. In a game that Miami clearly was the better team, they still could not put away the Browns. The red zone struggles continued, and it, once again, beat the Dolphins.
Quarterback Chad Henne played well today. He finished the day 19-for-29 for 255 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. Unfortunately, he needed 5 more yards to give Dan Carpenter a chance to win the game.
And, even that wasn't a guarantee, as Carpenter missed his third field goal of the season today.
The defense played well for a while, but then seem to fall apart, especially on the last Cleveland drive, where Colt McCoy could find anyone he wanted, and get a big gain out of it.
Rookie Jimmy Wilson came up with his first career interception, and, interestingly, Sean Smith spent some time at safety during the game.
Fellow rookie Daniel Thomas came just 5 yards short of being the first Dolphins rookie to record back-to-back 100 yard games, gaining 95 yards on 23 carries (4.1 yard average). Meanwhile, the Reggie Bush experiment is getting worse - the team misuses him, and then he can't seem to hold on to the ball.
But, everything will be focused this week on even louder calls for Tony Sparano's head. While I personally feel that would be a mistake, because, other than Jason Garrett improving the Cowboys, mid-season coaching changes don't work in the NFL, I can't argue against it any more. This team has too many issues to be able to explain, and the coach needs to be accountable.
Look for Lefty's full analysis in the morning.
I'll post a game thread for the late games shortly.