Joe Philbin blames turnovers and execution for not winning vs. Packers

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
There were plenty of opportunities for the Miami Dolphins to win the game against the Green Bay Packers but couldn’t get the job done in key situations. Joe Philbin blamed the loss on the fact that the Dolphins had a minus three turnover ratio and the fact that the players couldn’t execute when they needed to.

“I thought Green Bay deserved the win. They had more plays in the fourth quarter. I thought it was a good, hard-fought football game, but they certainly deserve the win. Again, they scored ten points in the fourth quarter. They executed better than we did. You have to give them credit. We have to do better. I think we put ourselves – they got an opening drive of 80 yards to start the game. They went 60 to win the game. They kicked the field goal. They did a couple of good things in sudden change.

“We have to play better on both sides, in all phases of the game. It wasn’t like the offense was good enough to win, either. You’ve got to protect the quarterback at the end of a game you’re trying to win. We knew we wanted to do whatever we felt we had to do to get a first down against these guys and not let him [QB Aaron Rodgers] have the ball again, but obviously they got it back.”

Earlier in the week, Philbin said that this game was a measuring stick and would give a good gauge as to what kind of team the Dolphins are.

“Two-and-three. We’re two-and-three and we didn’t play well enough to win the game. We’ve got to go back and play better. I think we had, I guess the last bit of the game a turnover, probably. We had three turnovers. I don’t believe they had any. It’s hard, it’s tough to beat the Green Bay Packers. Minus three is a terrible ratio. It’s hard to do and it was brutal today.”

In the end, Philbin is upset, as he should be but he’s going to try to find the positives in this game and build off it and get better for next week against the Chicago Bears.

“I thought the effort was good. You go out and you invest a lot of time preparing for each and every game and when you lose a game the way we did, it’s tough. But there’s a lot of football left to be played and there’s a lot of things we can build off of. I’m sure when we watch the tape there will be some good things.”

The Dolphins have to get back on track quickly against a tough Bears team in Chicago. Winning on Sunday will be the first step of a long process to turning this season around.

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