Miami Dolphins vs. Detroit Lions: Full Report Card Grades for Miami
This is a game that lends definition to the term "heartbreaker."
That's what happened to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday afternoon, as they lost a heartbreaker to the Detroit Lions 20-16 in a game where fans looked for places to blame and either way had to stress for it.
In other words: You can't blame quarterback Ryan Tannehill, and you can't blame the coaching staff.
Miami lost on the road to a 7-2 team by four points. In said game, it lost a starting left tackle and a starting cornerback, while its primary running back was banged up.
At the same time, a few calls went against the Dolphins that shouldn't have, and some players made key mistakes at the wrong time. Which means to some fans it's all the coaches' fault. I'm still struggling to see how it could be.
What fans aren't accepting is that Miami lost to a good team on the road. These kinds of losses happen—sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way, and sometimes you can make the right calls, but the other team can execute better down the stretch.
Can that be accepted by the fans?
Here's a look at the grades from Sunday's game.
Quarterback
1 of 10
Let's start with Ryan Tannehill's first half, which was bad like many other Ryan Tannehill first halves.
Why was this one so bad? Simple: He never seemed to have enough time to throw the ball.
He faced pressure all afternoon from three to five Lions at any time, making the field tougher to read and receivers tougher to find. He was sacked just three times, though.
Tannehill had a better second half (as usual), and finished the afternoon going 27-of-38 for 201 yards, one touchdown and one interception with a quarterback rating of 81.1.
That rating goes up if Charles Clay catches a pass in his breadbasket in the fourth quarter. Clay was in the end zone at the time.
Overall, not a bad day from Tannehill considering the circumstances.
Grade: B
Running Back
2 of 10
Lamar Miller was banged up going into the game. In retrospect, it was probably a bad decision to play him with Buffalo being just four days away, but credit to him for trying to play his way through.
However, as much as he tried to play, he wasn't on the field for very long. His injury rendered him ineffective, and with the team already thin at the position, Miami kept him off the field in order to keep him from getting even more hurt.
In his place were Daniel Thomas and Damien Williams. Thomas ran for 14 yards and a fumble on five carries, while Williams ran for 35 yards on seven carries.
Williams wasn't bad, but a key mistake in Miami's penultimate drive might have cost the Dolphins an eventual first down (and victory).
On 2nd-and-5, Miami handed the ball off to Williams, who ran it up the gut. Smart play call, as it can waste time. However, Williams got a bit cute and tried to go backward in order to break a big run.
That wound up costing him three yards. By falling forward, he gains at least two yards, but he instead lost one.
Would you rather face 3rd-and-2 or 3rd-and-6? In a game of inches, it matters when you lose 36 of them.
Yet no one is talking about that.
Other than that one play, Williams was pretty good in spot duty for the Dolphins, and he should be a bigger part of their game plan Thursday night against Buffalo.
Grade: C
Wide Receiver and Tight End
3 of 10
Let me separate Jarvis Landry and Mike Wallace from this group, as both of those players played well.
Charles Clay's statistics looked like he played well, but he made two big mistakes on the same drive that cost Miami a touchdown—one that would've made it a seven-point Miami lead in the final Detroit drive of the game instead of a three-point lead.
The first mistake was getting tackled by the ball on a pass from Ryan Tannehill. How does Clay lose his balance so easily on that play?
That I could see and forgive a little bit, but his next play was unforgivable.
On 3rd-and-goal, Tannehill threw a perfect pass to Clay that hit him in the breadbasket.
The pass couldn't have been any better had it come on a silver platter, yet Clay dropped the touchdown, forcing Miami to settle for a field goal.
Clay at least had some big catches to counter that, but what's Brian Hartline's excuse for his poor performance?
Hartline had one catch for one yard. One catch and one yard from a guy who's supposed to be your No. 2 receiver and is being paid like one.
Just pathetic. No separation at the line of scrimmage, and no effort from Hartline.
The only good thing he did was let a ball bounce off of him into Brandon Gibson's arms.
That's it. Otherwise, a complete no-show.
Grade: D
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Offensive Line
4 of 10
You don't see Miami's offensive line get dominated often, but the Lions defensive line feasted on Sunday.
Ndamukong Suh took advantage of Miami's blocking schemes and miscommunication, passing by whomever was on him. One of the guys on him was Mike Pouncey, and Suh won that matchup handily.
I don't have to tell you what he did to Dallas Thomas.
As a whole, Detroit's defensive line was nasty and was able to tee up on the Dolphins offense. It made Miami's run game nonexistent (with help from Lamar Miller's injury) and hit Ryan Tannehill nine times.
It's a miracle he was only sacked three times.
Grade: D
Defensive Line
5 of 10
It's difficult to judge whether this was a good game for Miami's defensive line or a bad game (for them). Truth is, a bad game for the Dolphins D-line is usually a good game for most others.
The line wasn't outright dominated at the line of scrimmage, but it wasn't in control, either. That battle was a draw.
However, the defensive line did account for three sacks and made some big plays down the stretch. It also held Detroit to 63 yards rushing.
This unit is usually so spectacular that it's graded differently than others. I have to be fair, though. Originally I was going to give the D-line a C due to its high standards. However, this wasn't a C effort, even though it wasn't an A effort, either.
Grade: B
Linebacker
6 of 10
Miami's linebackers played well.
The Lions tight ends and running backs weren't able to create much into space. On top of that, they were used effectively in the pass rush and didn't allow themselves to get picked on throughout the game.
The only gripe was a very questionable penalty on Philip Wheeler in the first quarter, one that gave Detroit a field goal. I don't know how he was supposed to control his body on the way to the ground to avoid hitting the receiver with his helmet.
The rule against helmet-to-helmet hits is supposed to protect receivers from head-hunting. Wheeler was playing the ball on that play, not hunting for anyone's head.
Grade: B+
Secondary
7 of 10
Before we grade the secondary, let us all bask in the awesomeness of this play:
"Boss #interception by Brent Grimes against the Lions https://t.co/1rbq6sGdI3
— Thomas Galicia (@thomasgalicia) November 9, 2014"
Feel free to watch the clip on repeat.
The stats say that Brent Grimes wasn't great on Sunday.
That is a lie. Grimes was blanketing Calvin Johnson all day. In fact, I was shocked that Johnson had seven catches for 113 yards and a touchdown.
Well, the touchdown didn't shock me, as it was on a 48-yard pass play in the first quarter—a play that featured Grimes covering Johnson perfectly. Sometimes no matter how good your defense may be, you just have to accept that you're going up against a freak of an athlete.
I knew Johnson would have a good day, so the key was stopping Golden Tate. With Cortland Finnegan, Miami was able to do that. But Finnegan got hurt, and it was up to Jamar Taylor.
All of a sudden, Tate saw more targets and more catches, including a key first down that was wrongfully spotted earned in the fourth quarter of the final Detroit drive.
Overall, I'm not disappointed by the secondary's effort. We learned just how good Grimes really is (note, one of the best in the NFL), and just how important Finnegan is to Miami's defense.
Grade: B+
Special Teams
8 of 10
What did Detroit's two fake punts in the game say about Miami's special teams?
To some, it said a lot. To me, it said nothing.
It said nothing, because the thing about fakes is that they work due to the element of surprise. Notice how it didn't work the second time. Now why is that?
I won't take points off for that. Instead, I see Caleb Sturgis having a perfect 3-of-3 day with a 50-yard field goal, and I see Brandon Fields having a good day with an average of 47 yards per punt.
I see Jarvis Landry with a big kickoff return to start the second half, while Detroit only gained 16 total yards on three punt returns.
There was also a blocked field goal.
Overall, great day for special teams.
Grade: A+
Coaching
9 of 10
I'm not going to bash Joe Philbin for this game. Dare I say, I thought he did a good job. The play-calling was very good.
You might say the Dolphins didn't run a lot, but with the way the offensive line was dominated at the line of scrimmage and the fact that Lamar Miller wasn't healthy, they made do with what they had, and had it not been for a couple of execution gaffes, it would've worked.
The play-calling on the second-to-last drive was also very good. No, they didn't go too conservative by running the ball on first and second down of the drive.
First down got them five yards and a Lions timeout. Second down gets them two yards and a second Lions timeout had Damien Williams fallen forward instead of trying to become Marcus Allen circa Super Bowl XVIII.
Detroit still called the timeout, but had Williams fallen forward and gotten it down to 3rd-and-3, then the playbook opens up, as the Lions wouldn't have been able to be as aggressive as they were on 3rd-and-6 (an obvious passing down).
It could have resulted in either an easier completion or a run play that would've taken time off the clock, forcing Detroit to take its final timeout and possibly even getting Miami a first down.
As for the use of timeouts: Had Philbin not used those timeouts on the final drive, Miami likely doesn't get the ball back. You have to give your team a chance to pull off the win—and yes, I was against him using that last timeout.
This one's on the defense at the end (and the bad spot on the Golden Tate reception), not the head coach.
This was a B coaching performance. You may disagree and think Philbin blundered the game, but this wasn't like Green Bay. He did the right thing.
Grade: B
Final Grades
10 of 10| Positional Unit | Grade |
| Quarterback | B |
| Running Back | C |
| Wide Receiver and Tight End | D |
| Offensive Line | D |
| Defensive Line | B |
| Linebacker | B+ |
| Secondary | B+ |
| Special Teams | A+ |
| Coaching | B |
| Final Grade | B- |
Was this a disappointing loss? Absolutely.
However, the injuries are what hurt the team, and it was the injuries that lost Miami the game more than anything.
The Dolphins lost their Pro Bowl-caliber starting left tackle on a freak accident. Per CBSSports.com's Jason La Canfora:
"Early diagnosis for Brandon Albert is a torn PCL and MCL I'm told. Dolphins expect him to be out for the season. Was having a great season
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) November 9, 2014"
That's the big loss from this game. Had it not been for that injury, the loss would still be disappointing, but we'd take out the good from it.
Miami's next opponent is Buffalo, and that's the game it has to win. Buffalo plays like Detroit defensively, and it's always given Miami problems.
Yet Miami handled Detroit's defense well, save for some dropped passes and bad decisions by running backs. If they can withstand Detroit the way they did, the Dolphins can withstand the Bills, whose offense is a lot weaker.
The Dolphins must win that game, and on Sunday—despite the loss—they showed us they can.
Statistics provided by NFL.com.
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