After a sluggish first half, the Dolphins came out firing in second half

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
The Miami Dolphins had 92 yards of total offense in the first half and only scored three points on six drives. With that though, the Dolphins still managed to stay in the game and only be down 3-10 at halftime. In the second half, they came out firing and looked like a completely different team, gaining 273 yards on offense and scoring three touchdowns on five drives.

 “The guys made plays. They stepped up and made plays, really, I think is the big difference,” Joe Philbin said. “We certainly didn’t – I think we had 70 yards of offense at halftime, something like that, which, again, that’s not good enough, doesn’t matter what league you’re in. Certainly not good enough in this league. The guys, to their credit, they kept their poise. They kept working. It was nothing magical.”

One of the most improved players in the second half was Ryan Tannehill, who after throwing two interceptions in the first half, came out and led three 80-yard touchdown drives.

“Seemed like he made some plays. I thought he kept his – I said to the team, look…I don’t want to sound real smart, but I told the team in the team meeting last night that we may have to make a stop on fourth down on the four yard line to win the game,” Philbin said. “I said we may have to drive a two-minute drive to send the game into overtime, to block a field goal to win the game. I kind of thought the game was going to be a close, hard-fought, football game and they’d have a chance to win and they did. I told the team at halftime, it’s a one possession game. Let’s just play football. There’s nothing magical I can say than go out there and execute better. Not enough to want it.”

Jarvis Landry, who had sort of a coming out party while racking up 75 yards on 6 receptions, including a touchdown pass, said that the team has been in this situation before so they knew what to do.

“We’ve been here before. When you look at the Patriot game, you know we’ve been down before with the opportunity to come with the ball and set a tone for the second half, and that’s what we did.”

Ryan Tannehill gave credit to the offensive line and the fact that his receivers were getting open.

“We just made plays. The offensive line did a pretty good job protecting me. We were getting open downfield and I was making some throws, whereas in the first half, it was kind of the opposite of that.”

Despite the great effort in the second half, it didn’t matter in the end result as the Dolphins lost, 24-27.

---