Miami Dolphins faced plenty of roadblocks against the Detroit Lions

Written by Matthew Cannata at 8:30 AM EST | Twitter: @PhinManiacs

In Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions, the Miami Dolphins had their hands full with quite a few challenges that they weren’t able to overcome. We'll start with the running game, where Joe Philbin said that they didn't get a lot accomplished in that area and that Lions deserved credit for being able to shut them down. 

"We need to do better. I didn’t think there was a lot of gaping holes that we missed the other day, but I thought there was a couple of opportunities for more yards than we got. I think we have to block better. I think we’ve got to run the ball better. I want to see us have more production, for sure.”

Ryan Tannehill echoed those sentiments and said that they need to do a better job of having that mentality to make things work and just get the job done. 

“Well, it’s tough to lose Lamar (Miller) or not have him at full capacity. But, they’re a good defense regardless of who is back there. I thought Damien (Williams) had some nice runs, Daniel Thomas ran hard a few times when he was in there. They’re a tough defense to run against. As an offense we still had some great looks to run the ball, five guys in the box, but we didn’t make the most of those looks."

The Dolphins fell behind early 10-0 but rebounded to take the lead shortly after halftime. Philbin was proud of the way the team responded and continued to compete. 
 
“I like the way the team’s competed since we started this thing in Atlanta in the preseason. I thought the guys played hard. We got our feet underneath us a little bit and we were able to make it a one possession game at halftime. Certainly the first half wasn’t a thing of beauty for sure, but the guys were competing, made a couple plays and had a lot of opportunities in this game.”

As the fourth quarter was winding down, it appeared that the Dolphins had scored a touchdown to make the score 20-13. However, a perfectly placed ball by Tannehill was dropped by Charles Clay in the end zone and instead, the Dolphins had to settle for three points. 

“It was a competitive play," Philbin said. "I guess the guy (James Ihedigbo) got his hands on it and knocked it out. Obviously, you want to catch every ball that’s thrown to you that you have your hands on.”

Tannehill said that while the blame is going to Clay, it was just a matter of Ihedigbo making a good play on it and knocking the ball out of this hands. 

The Dolphins offense faced a tough Lions defense, which was ranked number one in the NFL heading into the game on Sunday. Tannehill knew it was going to be tough and wasn't surprised at how good the Lions defense was and ultimately, the Dolphins didn't do a good job of handling it and getting first downs. 

"Yeah, we knew it was going to be a tough game coming in. I knew they were a good defense, a good team and that we were going to have to make some tough plays. It took us a while to get going. We got behind the chains early with a sack, we tried the reverse play and got way back behind the chains and that makes it tough against a good defense. Later on we ended up moving the ball, but couldn’t get into the end zone. That’s what it comes down to, scoring points in the red zone.”

Following the game, Philbin didn't have much to say except to give credit to the Lions for a job well done and for making the plays when it mattered most. 

“I think Detroit certainly earned the victory. They made the plays they had to make. I felt it was a team loss. It’s easy to say it’s on the defense because they scored with 30 seconds to go, but obviously we had the ball on offense and an opportunity to run the clock out and get first downs but we didn’t do it. We had opportunities in special teams, so in factual it was a team loss. They deserve the credit and they made the plays to win the game."

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