Saints embarrass Dolphins: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Miami Dolphins leave London and head home with a second-straight embarrassing loss in the books. A week after losing to the New York Jets, the New Orleans Saints took it to the Dolphins. The offense again struggled to find any sort of identity, let alone a rhythm, and the defense could not keep up with New Orleans once the time of possession stared mounting in the second half.

In our review of the game, we take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from the contest.

The Good.

Ryan Tannehill’s job security. Hey, remember when Ryan Tannehill was holding back the Dolphins’ offense, and replacing him was going to turn the team into a high-powered attack? Yeah, that does not seem to be the case after three games, with the Dolphins averaging 8.3 points-per-game this year. Tannehill was on the sideline on Sunday, watching as the Dolphins struggled to do just about anything. Clearly, the quarterback position was not the issue, as Jay Cutler is not lighting up the world, and Tannehill’s job security for 2018 - which really never should have been in question - should continue to be pretty solid.

Defense. Even with as miserable a game as was played on Sunday, the defense deserves some recognition. They held the Saints to three points in the first half and they kept the offense in the game as long as possible. There are issues there, but they held the Saints to just 3.1 yards-per-attempt rushing, and they had to deal with a nearly 10 minute difference in time of possession. The defense deserves some recognition.

The Bad.

Punting. Matt Darr used to be among the top performers for the Dolphins every week, changing field position every time he kicked the ball. Before him, Brandon Fields was the same way. Now, the Dolphins have an undrafted rookie punter who is struggling to find consistency. Sometimes, Matt Haack seems to boom a kick deep, but the coverage team cannot get down there fast enough. Sometimes, he seems to blast the ball up for a huge hangtime, but not get the distance desired. He averaged 43 yards-per-kick on Sunday, but he also had a kick that went just 38 yards, giving the Saints the ball at the 50-yard line and leading to a quick, eight-play, 25-yard drive that ended with a field goal as the first half ended.

The Ugly.

Six points. That is the total points the Dolphins have scored in the last 120 minutes of football - and those six points came on the last play of the Week 2, a garbage time touchdown pass that really had no bearing on the game, other than keeping the Dolphins from being shut out, but for only one more week. Then the Saints took care of that problem, the first time the Dolphins have been shutout since 2013. The Dolphins offense is anemic right now, and it seems like it is just about everything. Jay Ajayi is running hard, but there are no running lanes, and the team is having to abandon the run as they fall behind. The offensive line is struggling to pass block. Cutler is not yet on the same page as the receivers on every play, and the receivers are dropping passes they should be catching. The play calling is questionable at best, with no big play attempts and the struggles of the ground game making it that much worse. Head coach Adam Gase after the game said there are no plans to make a quarterback change, but he better find something to change this week or the Dolphins are going to continue to get blown out.