Miami Dolphins vs. Denver Broncos: Full Report Card Grades for Miami
If the test for Sunday's game was whether the Miami Dolphins could hang with the NFL's elite, then the offense passed with flying colors fighting valiantly in a 39-36 loss to the Denver Broncos.
The defense? Well, we'll talk about the defense in a bit.
It was a game that saw Ryan Tannehill go toe-to-toe with Peyton Manning. A game that saw Miami's offensive line—a makeshift unit whose right tackle is playing left tackle (and got hurt during the game), center is playing guard and right guard is playing right tackle—actually hold up well.
It was a game where wide receivers were the only real issue, and even then they had some good luck covering up some of their flaws (save for one).
Miami's offense performed exactly how it should perform to win the game, and if the Dolphins score 36 points on any other team, they win.
Unfortunately, the defense allowed 39 points, and there lies the problem in Sunday's game. Compound that with some bad play-calling on offense (leading to a period of ineffectiveness early in the fourth quarter) and questionable coaching decisions, then add Manning being Manning, and you have the recipe for disaster.
The game wasn't a disaster; it gave us optimism, at least for the side of the ball with the most amount of questions.
Only problem: It created questions on the side of the ball the Dolphins have counted on all season.
Here are the grades for Sunday's loss to the Broncos.
Quarterback
1 of 10
Anyone blaming Ryan Tannehill for Sunday's loss apparently has it out for the kid.
If you lose while leading an offense that gains 313 yards and scores 36 points while only committing one turnover (a dubious one that could've been a pass interference penalty and should've been caught by Jarvis Landry anyway), the loss usually isn't on you.
Here was Tannehill's afternoon: 26-of-36 passing for 228 yards, three touchdowns, one interception and a passer rating of 104.9.
He went toe-to-toe with Peyton Manning and stared down a great defense and almost pulled off the victory.
Truth is, if he puts up this exact same effort next week against the Jets on Monday night, he will be praised.
I didn't even mention his four rushes for 15 yards and a touchdown.
Tannehill was responsible for four out of Miami's five touchdowns. If you owned him in fantasy football (and started him), you probably won.
Grade: A-
Running Back
2 of 10
I have a legitimate question: When your running back is averaging 4.9 yards per carry, why don't you give him the ball more?
It felt like a flashback to the beginning of the season. Lamar Miller runs the ball well, then just like that, no more carries.
Granted, Miller did get stuffed on one or two runs in the second half. But just that: one or two runs. It wasn't consistent stuffing, just a few plays the Broncos sniffed out.
I was disappointed not in Miller's play, but in the fact that he only had 12 carries. You can't blame him for not doing anything with the ball when he never gets it.
Grade: B
Wide Receiver and Tight End
3 of 10
Now I'm back to being perennially disappointed in this unit.
I wasn't happy with the play of the wide receivers. Now the loss wasn't on them, but they weren't good.
Brandon Gibson had a great game on Sunday, but what made his game so "great" was that the two times he fumbled the ball, they bounced out of bounds.
Rishard Matthews also had a nice catch, run and fumble. Luckily for him, Lamar Miller recovered it, setting up a Dolphins touchdown.
No, Miami's receivers weren't bad, but I didn't like their performance, either. Too many drops, too many fumbles, too many missed opportunities.
Grade: C
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Offensive Line
4 of 10
Here was Miami's starting offensive line:
Ja'Wuan James, a right tackle, playing left tackle.
Mike Pouncey, a center, playing guard.
Dallas Thomas, a guard, playing right tackle.
Then James got hurt, prompting Jason Fox to play left tackle.
You know you've hit rock bottom when Fox is your left tackle, and it's even worse that at least twice during the game I thought aloud, "I wonder if Richie Incognito could help out."
No, he wouldn't. In fact, I was very impressed by the offensive line.
It's a makeshift unit made up of paper clips, Scotch tape, duct tape and glue stick-quality glue that somehow kept a very strong Denver defensive front at bay, holding it to only one sack.
Impressive.
Grade: A-
Defensive Line
5 of 10
So you know how the key to stopping Peyton Manning is to keep him under pressure? Where was that? Why was Cameron Wake being dominated by a second-string right tackle?
Why couldn't Earl Mitchell and Randy Starks get any push against an interior offensive line that was maligned all week?
Where was Olivier Vernon? Why was Miami's only sack courtesy of Mile High Stadium's turf?
How come C.J. Anderson was able to look like Terrell Davis in 1998?
This was a pathetically poor performance from the unit that usually messes up the bell curve in my grades.
Grade: F
Linebacker
6 of 10
Miami's linebackers weren't as bad as the defensive line, but you also saw how usually the great play of the defensive line allows the linebackers to look better than they're supposed to be.
The Broncos took advantage of crossing routes and little dink-and-dunk passes that should be covered by the linebackers in their offense. This plan was effective.
The linebackers also spent more time chasing the running backs that got past the defensive line than they did stopping them.
Then that tackling. It was horrendous.
Grade: F
Secondary
7 of 10
I feel terrible for Jamar Taylor.
He made one mistake all game, but it was a big one, as he bit on an Emmanuel Sanders five-yard fake route, then got burned when Sanders ran it deep and was able to lay out and catch a nice pass from Peyton Manning.
This was on 3rd-and-20 from the Broncos' 42-yard line. Biting on the fake also caused him to be called for illegal use of hands.
Even if Sanders did catch the ball there, he had another 15 yards to go to get the first down, and Taylor is a good tackler (plus Reshad Jones was in the area).
Bad mistake, and one that helped turn the game around, as Miami would've been up 11 going into halftime instead of only being up four.
But other than that, a fine afternoon from Taylor, who unfortunately suffered bad luck in the second half, as Andrew Abramson of The Palm Beach Post is reporting that Taylor will likely miss the rest of the season with a shoulder injury.
As for the rest of the secondary, just atrocious.
Jimmy Wilson was deplorable, giving Denver free yards with three dumb penalties in the game.
One penalty was for a horse-collar tackle that had no reason for being made, and another was for a shoving match.
The unit as a whole was horrendous to watch, as crossing routes upended it, and Manning was Manning against it.
Grade: F
Special Teams
8 of 10
I was convinced the Dolphins would win the game after a tremendous special teams play in the third quarter, which would lead to a touchdown a few plays later.
The play was Brandon Fields punting it 52 yards, followed by a fumble recovered by John Denney.
This grade would be an A, but a good return in the fourth quarter by Omar Bolden lowers this grade.
Grade: B
Coaching
9 of 10
I wasn't happy with Joe Philbin's coaching performance.
I didn't see any discipline or intensity from the defense. I saw poor second-half play-calling on both sides of the ball.
I saw Philbin the way I've seen him in the past: incompetent and clueless, wondering why it's not working out for him.
Philbin has made great strides throughout the year, and in this game I can't even say he was outcoached. Did you see John Fox's performance? That was just as brutal as Philbin's, but when Peyton Manning is your quarterback, it's best that you get out of the way.
What I can say is Philbin's coaching could've been a lot better.
It definitely should've been better from defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle, and while O-coordinator Bill Lazor had some moments of brilliance, his second half left much to be desired.
(I still want Lazor coaching the Hurricanes next season, though.)
Grade: D
Final Grades
10 of 10| Positional Unit | Grade |
| Quarterback | A- |
| Running Back | B |
| Wide Receiver | C |
| Offensive Line | A- |
| Defensive Line | F |
| Linebacker | F |
| Secondary | F |
| Special Teams | B |
| Coaching | D |
| Final Grade | F |
Everyone thank the defense for dragging the grade down to an F.
Three F's on one unit is unheard of. That goes to show what a pathetically poor performance the defense put on Sunday.
As for the offense, it was good, and it inspired tweets like this:
"Win or lose, Tannehill has looked great this game
— SI NFL (@si_nfl) November 24, 2014"
This was the truth. Now if only in the final five games of the season we could see Sunday's Tannehill with the Dolphins defense we saw in the first 10 games of the season.
Statistics provided by NFL.com.
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