New York Jets vs. Miami Dolphins: Full Report-Card Grades for Miami
Embarrassing.
One word, one sentence, and the only one way we can describe the performance of the 8-8 Miami Dolphins in their 37-24 loss to the 4-12 New York Jets.
It was the most points scored by the Jets all season, and those points came not from offensive turnovers, but from defensive breakdowns, bad coaching decisions and almost perfect execution by the Jets.
It was a fitting end to a season that started off looking like a lame-duck season for Joe Philbin before blossoming into a promising season, only to come crashing down and setting up a 2015 lame-duck season for Philbin and his coaching staff.
Is the continuity sought after by Stephen Ross worth performances like this? The only continuity that seems to be ensured is 8-8 with December collapses.
Where do the Dolphins go from here? We'll have the entire offseason to figure it out and discuss. For now, let's look at this game, one that will linger up until July when training camp opens in Davie once again.
Quarterback
1 of 10
There is no one on this team I feel worse for than Ryan Tannehill.
No one.
After 16 games, I'm not afraid to say that he's a franchise quarterback.
Yes, I just went there.
I'll explain why later this week with the full stats from his excellent 2014 season, but first let me get to his stats from Sunday's game.
Tannehill completed 23 of 39 passes for 259 yards and a touchdown while making quite a few excellent throws and enduring six quarterback sacks and getting hit 11 times.
That's a gamer, especially when you consider that he had no interceptions and one fumble, a fumble that came late in the game once Ja'Wuan James was knocked out and he had to make do with Jason Fox protecting his blind side.
He misses Branden Albert, as do I, but overall, good game from Tannehill, who deserves so much better than this.
Grade: A-
Running Backs
2 of 10
Lamar Miller and his fellow University of Miami alum Duke Johnson should have drinks together sometime this week.
Joe Philbin and Al Golden should buy; it's the least they could do.
Miller had an extraordinary day on Sunday, running for 178 yards and a touchdown on 19 attempts, including a 97-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that put Miami up by 10 and, with even a halfway decent defense, would've shut the door on the Jets.
Poor guy, runs his heart out all season, breaks 1,000 yards despite not getting enough carries, yet is let down by his team.
Grade: A+
Wide Receivers and Tight Ends
3 of 10
With the wide receivers, this should be a day known for Brian Hartline's five-catch, 94-yard resurgence (in possibly his last game as a Dolphin), for Charles Clay's excellent touchdown catch and good day (also in possibly his last game as a Dolphin), for another great Jarvis Landry effort (in his 16th of hopefully many more games as a Dolphin).
Instead, two receivers who themselves might have played their final games as Miami Dolphins stepped up to deflect the attention from those players, and not in a good way.
First you have Mike Wallace, and this is really more about him. Wallace didn't record a single catch and was targeted once all afternoon before getting benched in the third quarter by the coaching staff, with Joe Philbin describing it this way:
"Philbin says of not playing Wallace (who argued with coach): "I always play the guys I think give us the best chance to win." Huh?
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) December 28, 2014"
If you think that doesn't make any sense (it doesn't, despite his lack of production the offense did suffer without Wallace going over the top), then allow yourself to read The Palm Beach Post's Andrew Abramson's transcript from the surreal press conference that saw Brandon Gibson answering questions on behalf of Mike Wallace, here's an excerpt:
"Q: Were you told that you could not play in the second half?
Gibson: Coming in the second half we were notified that Mike was not going to play the second half. Brian moved over to Mike’s position. I moved over to Brian’s position. Jarvis stayed in the slot.
Q: Mike, did you have a problem that you were targeted only one time in the first half?
Gibson: It’s obviously frustrating for any player. I’m used to being a player who can make plays down the field, middle of the field, short. Sometimes that’s how it rolls. Obviously that was due to the frustrations.
Q: And why is this happening?
Gibson: Just didn’t want my dog to say anything wrong.
Q: Do you expect to be back next year, Mike?
Gibson: That remains to be seen. I’m not really at liberty to discuss anything right now. Moving forward I plan on being a Dolphin as long as my contract allows me to be.
Q: Who was the difference of opinion between?
Gibson: Honestly, things that were communicated maybe misunderstood or said that things didn’t work out. It’s just a lot of communication. It just didn’t work out.
"
Keep in mind, Gibson is talking about Wallace, not himself.
I don't know what this means in the long term, but with Philbin sure to stay, hopefully the Dolphins can work something out with Wallace so that he may stay too (along with adding another wide receiver). The Dolphins are a better team when Wallace is on the field.
As for the grade? The other receivers were very good, so I can't say it's a total washout for the Dolphins in this category.
Grade: B-
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Offensive Line
4 of 10
Here was the second-worst aspect of the Dolphins on Sunday.
The run stats will tell you that the offensive line looked great. Don't be fooled.
Six sacks, 11 quarterback hits. That's what I'm looking at.
The good news is that the fixes to the offensive line will be a bit easier this season than it was last season, as Branden Albert will come back, shifting Ja'Wuan James back to right tackle, while Mike Pouncey will return to center, which we now know is his better position.
The question is the guards, who have been awful all season. Miami should be able to address this in the offseason, and if they do, expect good things from the offense.
Grade: F
Defensive Line
5 of 10
I say this every week, but it bears repeating because they always seem to one-up (or is it one-down) themselves every week.
This is the worst we have seen the Dolphins defensive line play.
It was brutal to watch what was once a dominant unit become doormats, barely getting pressure on the quarterback, failing to stop the run and just looking bad all afternoon.
Surprisingly, they did record one sack and nine tackles for a loss. That seems like a misprint considering how bad they looked.
So I was wrong, this wasn't their worst effort. In fact, it was average. It's the rest of the defense that looked worse.
Grade: D
Linebackers
6 of 10
This is what we feared with the Dolphins linebackers at the beginning of the season.
Missed tackles, missed opportunities, poor coverage.
They weren't even that horrible on Sunday, it just looked that way, but for good reason.
They, along with the rest of the defense, managed to help make Geno Smith look like a Pro Bowl quarterback, as they were certainly no help in operation "get no pressure on the quarterback."
Just an atrocious effort.
Grade: F
Secondary
7 of 10
This unit was just terrible.
Well, outside of Reshad Jones, who forced a Geno Smith fumble by taking a stiff-arm. Other than that, nothing remarkable from this unit.
How did Brent Grimes make the Pro Bowl? Eric Decker managed to make him look foolish. Before that, he made Cortland Finnegan look foolish.
What made the Dolphins secondary look the most foolish though: that dumb soft-zone scheme they run. It's supposed to force turnovers, which it did not. Instead, it just left wide receivers wide open, allowing them to go where they wanted to go when they wanted to go there.
I'll just say this: Miko Grimes had better keep her mouth shut before she ever thinks of blaming anyone but the defense for Miami's collapse, like she blamed Ryan Tannehill earlier this season. From the looks of it, the Dolphins defense is responsible for blowing four games this season.
This defense needs a massive overhaul.
Grade: F
Special Teams
8 of 10
Where do we start?
Let's leave Brandon Fields out of this; he was fine averaging 50 yards per punt.
Now on to Caleb Sturgis, who missed a long field goal in the third quarter and who had some of the worst kickoffs I had seen in an NFL game.
Jarvis Landry was also terrible, as he set the tone for the game by taking out a kickoff return from 10 yards deep in his own end zone. It was a bad decision which led to a short Dolphins drive.
His other returns weren't anything to write home about, either.
Bad day for the Dolphins special teams unit, one only made worse by falling for a fake punt as if that was something that the Jets don't ever do (news flash, they do).
Grade: D
Coaching
9 of 10
One man in this picture just endured a disaster of a season and will wind up losing his job.
One man in this picture just had a triumphant victory over his team's longtime rivals.
They're the same man, and the better coach, a coach who had less talent to work with.
Rex Ryan worked Joe Philbin like a speed bag on Sunday, the third consecutive game in which this happened (yes, the Dolphins did beat the Jets earlier this season, but they were still out-coached in that game).
Any trick that could be used was used, and his team was better prepared and played better.
Coaching does matter, and we saw that on Sunday.
Joe Philbin will stay, barring Stephen Ross being willing to make himself look like a fool and changing his mind (note: Jeff Ireland was going to stay last season too).
That might be a noble sacrifice to make.
At the very least, Kevin Coyle has to go. In no known universe should Geno Smith be the best quarterback in the league, which is what he is this week after completing 20 of 25 passes for 358 yards and three touchdowns with a quarterback rating of 158.3.
That's a perfect quarterback rating, by the way.
Grade: F
Final Grades
10 of 10
| Position Unit | Grade |
| Quarterback | A- |
| Running Backs | A+ |
| Wide Receivers/Tight Ends | B- |
| Offensive Line | F |
| Defensive Line | D |
| Linebackers | F |
| Secondary | F |
| Special Teams | D |
| Coaching | F |
| Final Grade | F |
What other grade could we give this performance? Despite good play on offense, bad coaching decisions (yes, benching Wallace was a poor decision, the offense sputtered afterwards) and horrid defense lost the game for the Dolphins.
Now, I do have one more grade: the fans' grade.
Grade: A+
Thank you for a wonderful season covering the Miami Dolphins through the live blogs and report cards. See you all next season, which hopefully will end with a different result.
Statistics provided by NFL.com.
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