Dolphins offense comes alive late, but cannot take sting out of loss to Patriots

The Miami Dolphins were embarrassed in the first half of their game against the New England Patriots earlier today, then hit the reset button at halftime and almost made the improbable comeback. It was an impressive performance from the offense in the second half, making their way back into the game, but they were let down by a defense that could not make a stop when it mattered the most.

Before the season, looking at the Dolphins’ schedule, an 0-2 start seemed definite. Then Tom Brady was suspended and it appeared that the Dolphins could steal a win against the Patriots. Now, after two weeks, the Dolphins are 0-2 and just about exactly what we thought they would be before the opening kickoff in Week 1.

The problem is, that does not make any of this feel better.

This stings, and it probably will for a while. They were one minute away from beating the Seahawks. They were two yards away from tying the Patriots. And, both of those games ended with Miami putting a number in the loss column. That hurts.

Personally, I am absolutely spent after being miserable for the first 30 minutes, then slowly building up as the Dolphins began mounting a comeback, to an incredibly tense final drive, only to see it collapse away. It was great. It was horrible. It was football.

And it stings.

This is another week of trying to put a Dolphins loss behind us. It’s another week where we are trying to find answers to questions that seem to continue to surround the team. It’s another week of not knowing what exactly we have in Ryan Tannehill, Kenny Stills, DeVante Parker, Jordan Cameron, Jay Ajayi, Xavien Howard, Byron Maxwell, etc., etc. It’s another week of trying to solve the riddle that is being a Dolphins fan.

This stings, and it probably will for a while. Miami had the Patriots on the ropes, and they could not stop them from running the ball right down the field and killing the clock. They had a third-string, rookie quarterback on the field, and the defense could not rattle him.

There can be hope from what we saw this week, but there are a lot of clouds blocking it right now. The Dolphins have to figure out a way to get the offense moving earlier in games and the defense needs to finally show up.

Because this stings right now and, if they don’t solve these issues, it might sting a lot more over the next 15 weeks.