Despite having all of Miami's 11 turnovers this season, QB must overcome adversity


By Omar Kelly, Sun Sentinel Commentary

8:10 p.m. EDT, October 20, 2013
MIAMI GARDENS—

Ryan Tannehill steps were slow, and painstakingly labored.

He had a limp in his stride, a bag of ice in his hands, and a disenfranchised look on his face leaving the Miami Dolphins locker room.

It was clear the Dolphins starting quarterback hadn't just taken a physical beating during Sunday's 23-21 loss to the Buffalo Bills. He'd also been flogged emotionally after producing three costly turnovers in the Dolphins' first division loss.

The last of which cost the Dolphins the victory, and sends Tannehill's team on a three-game losing streak heading into next Sunday's road game against the New England Patriots.

"Its tough," said Tannehill, ...


Considering the Dolphins were at mid-field and needed to kill three minutes, why not continue to run the ball? Why exactly were the Dolphins passing on second-and-8 from the 50-yard line with a one-point lead?

Tannehill acknowledged he checked into a pass play after seeing the Bills defense in an eight-man front, which means they were committed to stopping the run.

"It was one of our pass concepts," coach Joe Philbin said. "It was something we'd done a bunch of. It was a base concept, a play we felt we knew and a play we felt we could execute."

Tannehill described the play as "great" and pointed out the Bills have given the same coverage to the formation all game. Hartline was running a comeback route, and Tannehill was waiting for him to stop before throwing the pass.

"If we have another half-second, no one is talking about this," said Tannehill ...

The Bills were playing 8 in the box A LOT... and there were hardly any deep routes called. This much I could see from my seat live at the game. We barely called deep routes and the Bills played 1st and 2nd down mostly with a safety near the line of scrimmage.

The one time we did go deep to Wallace it connected well.

all the evidence points to horrible playcalling.

Accoading to the article it was a run call but RT audibled into a pass.

all the evidence points to horrible playcalling.

Accoading to the article it was a run call but RT audibled into a pass.

Tannehill doesn't have true audibles. He gets a "check with me" type play the same as what Jimmy used to have Marino run. The Bills were stacking the box all day long so in that situation the QB is supposed to check out of the run. I would have still run it, though.

The roll outs were working.

Tannehill acknowledged he checked into a pass play after seeing the Bills defense in an eight-man front, which means they were committed to stopping the run.

Teams are going to continue to blitz him

The Bills rarely blitzed Tannehill.

Teams are going to continue to rush 4 and drop 7 until the offensive line proves it can pass protect. Teams have very little reason to blitz Tannehill.

On that last blitz, he made the wrong read. He had a big play, wide open where Clay cleared the LB before he fumbled. Had he made the correct pre-snap read, he would've hit clay and we'd be celebrating a win instead of this. Right now, if I were a DC, I would feed him a steady diet of blitz. If all he's going to do is hit a 7 yard comeback pattern if I'm sending the house...I'll take those odds every time.

We were in max protect. Tannehill should have had the extra second needed to make the play. Clabo should have blocked his man and didn't. He should be benched.

The roll outs were working.

yup, he plays his best football in that style of game. We should be using him like Rothlisberger.