Dolphins at Jets Week 12 Good, Bad, and Ugly

The Miami Dolphins lost their seventh straight AFC East game, and fifth of this season, this time dropping to the New York Jets 38-20. Tuesday will mark a full calendar year since the last time Miami won a divisional game. Things started off badly in Sunday's game against the Jets, and got worse as the contest continued. From poor decisions, to no running game, to a steady stream of injuries, things were bad for the South Florida franchise throughout most of the game.

Our recap of the contest turns now to our weekly good, bad, and ugly look at how Miami performed.

Good

Jarvis Landry is ridiculous. He does not get the name recognition of his former LSU teammate Odell Beckham, Jr., but Landry may be just as good. Despite a knee injury that slowed him throughout the week of practice, Landry still recorded 13 receptions for 165 yards with a touchdown. He had a beautiful 40-yard reception. He continually fights through tackles, gaining extra yardage after contact. The team took him away from his duties as the primary punt returner this week, cutting the workload as he deals with the knee injury, returning one punt for three yards. He also had one rushing attempt, picking up four yards. Landry made one catch on a hook-route, cutting through three defenders to grab the pass, demonstrating exactly how he seems to play at a different level from everyone else; there is no way he should have come through triple coverage to grab the ball, yet there he was. With the ball in his hands, Landry is just dangerous, and the Dolphins know it, getting him the ball as often as possible.

Bad

Ryan Tannehill struggled and there is no denying it. His stat line looks good (33-for-58, 351 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT), but his accuracy and his pocket presence once again came into question. There are other factors that went into Tannehill's struggles (including the loss of Rishard Matthews and Mike Pouncey), but at some point, a veteran quarterback has to be able to fix some of the repeated problems we are seeing from Tannehill. He is not as bad as some of the talk out there, and, until Miami has an offensive line than can actually block for him, there will continue to be questions about Tannehill, and reasons why he may be better than we are seeing. But, the fact that there are still questions is part of the problem.

Ugly

Brent Grimes versus Brandon Marshall was ugly all game long. The former Dolphins wide receiver, now playing for the Jets after a stint with the Chicago Bears, racked up 131 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries, pretty much all on Grimes. The Dolphins' Pro Bowl cornerback looked slow and small against Marshall, and he just could do nothing to stop quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick from targeting the matchup. Marshall caught passes over Grimes, he boxed out Grimes to catch passes in front of him, and he ran routes that turned Grimes around behind him. Miami typically uses Grimes to shadow the opponents' best receiver, and this year, it is coming back to haunt them.

Honorable mention for the ugly goes again to the Miami running game, which tallied a grand total of nine carries for 12 yards. The Dolphins love to abandon the run as early as possible. Miami fired offensive coordinator Bill Lazor on Monday, so there is a chance the team will find more of a run-pass balance the rest of the season.