The trip to London came at a perfect time for the Miami Dolphins

Written by Matthew Cannata | Twitter: @PhinManiacs
The week leading up to the game against the Oakland Raiders was one filled with drama and controversy, mainly due to the fact that Joe Philbin refused to name a starting quarterback. With all the media attention on the team for all the wrong reasons, it was a relief to get out of the country and away from all of the craziness.

“Yeah, I think it was kind of nice just to get away, spend time with teammates.  We had a long flight, spent a lot of time together over the last three or four days around the hotel, practice and all of that.  So it was good for us to get away and really just focus on the task at hand, and that was the game,” said Ryan Tannehill.

“It was fun.  I think it was kind of the vision we had coming out on this trip was to get our offense moving in the right direction.  I think we haven't performed up to our potential in the past three weeks, and to get out and get some momentum going felt great.”

Playing in front of a packed house at Wembley stadium was exciting for Tannehill and the other players, despite the fact that quite a few of the fans didn’t really understand all of the rules of American football.

“The stadium is awesome.  I think we saw that yesterday.  We came in and had a practice here yesterday, and it was really cool coming here for the first time just seeing the stadium.  Really nice stadium, and the crowd today was great.  It's kind of funny seeing all the different jerseys as you drive in.  You see every NFL team's jersey coming into the game, which is pretty cool.  You don't normally see that.  So it was fun.  They were a lively crowd, got the wave going there, I think in the second half.  I saw that a few times.  It was a good time.”

The team refused to be taken down by the media, critics and internal strife and instead, came out and banded together to dominate a lifeless Raiders team.

“It was huge.  Not only for me but for the team, as well.  Just kind of shows the character we have as a team, being able to overcome everything that was going on and come out, travel through a long trip, and play well.”

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