Joe Philbin defends decision to run out clock in first half

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
In what I believe is one of the worst coaching decisions I have ever seen, Joe Philbin decided that it would be better to run out the clock in the first half with 2:21 remaining and three timeouts rather than try to spark some momentum and lead the Dolphins on some sort of scoring drive to head into the half. After the game, Philbin defended his decision.

“We had, up to that point, 48 or 49 yards of offense,” Philbin said. “I wanted to come into halftime and give our team a chance to get back into the game.”

However, quarterback Ryan Tannehill had a different take on the situation and had hoped that Philbin would’ve given him and the offense a chance to do something.

“As a competitor you know I obviously want to go down and score, but it is Coach Philbin’s call and he wanted to do that,” Tannehill said. “We hadn’t done much up to that point to give him any confidence in us that we can push the ball downfield.”

This move will be heavily scrutinized over the next week and rightfully so. Almost every other team in the NFL would’ve given their offense a chance to get something going. Unfortunately, Philbin didn’t and the Dolphins didn’t have the chance to spark any momentum going into halftime.

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