Jarvis Landry shines on national television in a must-win game

Written by Matthew Cannata at 9:00 AM EST |Twitter: @PhinManiacs

Jarvis Landry, a second round pick out of LSU, was a big reason why the Miami Dolphins won the game on Thursday night against the Buffalo Bills. Landry had 4 receptions for 46 yards and 1 touchdown. He averaged 9.5 yards per reception and his longest catch of the night was 12 yards.

While those numbers might not seem staggering, it was his energy and ability to make defenders miss that really sparked the team and allowed the offense to continue to move the chains. 

"He loves to compete and he loves the game. He wants to win and doesn’t really care what his touches are in a game," Joe Philbin said. " He’s not concerned about that stuff. He’s concerned about winning and contributing to the team. He brings a lot of energy to the ball club.”

Landry, who fumbled the ball on a free kick following a safety, was relieved that the Bills weren't able to score any points off that turnover. Landry wanted to redeem himself as quickly as possible after that and he did just that. 

“Yeah. It definitely was a momentum builder for us. Putting the defense in a bad spot. But all the credit goes to those guys making the play. Being able to come back and respond; I think that was the biggest thing about this whole entire night.”

On that touchdown reception, Landry was isolated in one-on-one coverage and made his man miss before plowing forward into the end zone.

“The touchdown was actually the identical play as the San Diego game. Identical play. I had an opportunity to get one on one isolated with their guy and just made a play and stretched the ball over the goal line. When I saw the replay I was kind of on the fence about it. Then Coach was kind of telling me, ‘get your personnel ready’ and stuff. So I was kind of upset about it. But at the same time, the ref made an outstanding call. Outstanding. Outstanding call.”

Over the past several weeks, Landry has been getting more involved in the offense due to his ability to make things happen. Landry credits his success to preparation.

“I think it’s just all about the preparation. It’s all about the preparation. Of course we had a short week, but I think, like I said, we played our game. We played our game. I think for us, I think it was just one of those; just being a man. Manning up and taking this one. I think that’s what this was about.”

Ryan Tannehill summed it up best when he said that Landry is one of the most reliable guys when they get down to the red zone area.

“I thought that he was in for sure when it happened. On the replay it looked close but he’s a guy that if you get the ball into his hands that close to the goal line, I feel pretty good about him getting into the end zone 95 percent of the time.”

The Dolphisn should consider using Landry a lot more in the red zone considering that they are ranked 30th in the league when it comes to scoring red zone touchdowns. We'll see if his usage picks up in that area over the next several weeks.

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