Kevin Coyle walks us through the last drive of the game vs. Packers

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
The last defensive drive for the Miami Dolphins is one that was extremely frustrating to watch as the Miami Dolphins had the Green Bay Packers on the ropes several times. As we all know though, they weren’t’ able to finish it off and on Monday, Kevin Coyle walked us through the last drive of the game.

“We missed some opportunities to get off the field. We had a fourth-and-10 and they converted. We got the ball off the quarterback and we were a foot away from recovering it. The fake spike, everybody is making a big deal about the fake spike, but the fake spike, if it had been the touchdown, I think would have been a bigger issue. The fake spike, we’ve got to tackle the guy, get him on the ground and the game is over, they don’t get another play. So it wasn’t so much that the fake spike cost us the game.”

“There are a number of plays, you go back through the game. I say this to you guys all of the time. The fact that they converted a third-and-6 for a touchdown earlier in the game where he (Aaron Rodgers) scrambled out and was running for his life and (Randall) Cobb ended up uncovering on a scramble drill, that play is as big as any other play, because, had we stopped them on that, we had them bottled up and just couldn’t get him on the ground there as he rolled out to their sideline. That’s a four-point differential there, had we stopped them and they had to kick a field goal. Earlier on one of the drives, we had a third-and-9 where they did kick a field goal and they converted. So you go back through it, there’s going to be six or eight plays as you go analyze the game that didn’t go our way for one reason or another. We’ve got to do better and I’ve got to do better.”

One of the biggest questions was the fact that Joe Philbin called two timeouts during that last drive and some said that those allowed the Packers to regroup and get their best play calls in and ready to go. However, Coyle didn’t have a problem with the timeouts when they were taken.

“I think they were good decisions. I think they were good decisions because it gave us a chance to anticipate formations. It also gave our rush guys a chance to catch a  little bit of a blow, to be able to crank it up full speed, to make sure that everybody was on the same page. Sometimes, in the chaos of an on the ball drive at the end of a game, you’re worried about the communication and things like that, so you take the time to ensure that everybody is on the same page and we could get things communicated well.”

In regards to the fake spike, Philbin said that they cover it in training camp and practices but they aren’t on the field walking the players through everything. Ultimately, it’s up to the players to execute and in key situations, they failed to do just that.

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