Can the Miami Dolphins rebound after a tough loss on Sunday?

Everyone knew how big the game against the Baltimore Ravens would be on Sunday. It had playoff implications written all over it and it was the main storyline on both sides heading into the game. As we know, it was the Miami Dolphins who came away with the loss and now, they’ll need to finish the season 3-0 and hope for help from other teams. 

Can they put it all back together though? Joe Philbin said that one of the first messages he’s going to tell the team when they return to work is that they need to move on from the Ravens game. He said that this shouldn’t be an issue because that’s been the message since the very first OTA. He noted that they will make corrections, move on and then get ready for the New England Patriots.
 
“I think it’s a good group. I have a lot of faith and confidence in these guys. We’ve got a huge challenge this week going up to New England,” he said. They’re an outstanding football team that’s difficult to beat in their stadium, especially in the month of December. They’re playing very well at this point in time. We’re going to find out a lot more, I told them in the locker room. We’re going to find out a lot this week.” 

Throughout the season, many have said that the Dolphins lack a killer instinct, which is why they’ve lost so many close games or games where they have been ahead at halftime. Philbin said that this was true on Sunday as they weren’t able to finish out the game.

“You have to make to plays. In December to win games, really it doesn’t really matter if it’s December or September, a lot of games in the National Football League come down to execution in the fourth quarter and they come down to making plays. Last week, when we won a game, at one point in time, we took the ball, we drove it down the field, we got a good kickoff in the end zone on a touchback, we got a takeaway in the last two and half minutes of the game. We made some plays. This week, they just weren’t there on tape. They made the plays in the fourth quarter to win the game, for sure.” 

We’ll see what happens on Sunday against the Patriots and whether or not the Dolphins can rebound both physically and mentally.

This story was written by Matthew Cannata. Follow him on Twitter: @PhinManiacs

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