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The Miami Dolphins learned the hard way that sustaining excellence over the long haul is much harder than initially achieving it. Miami, after going undefeated in October, dropped its second straight November game -- an ugly, 37-3 loss to the Tennessee Titans.

There is no other way to explain this type of blowout other than to blame it on Miami’s youth, lack of maturity and perhaps overconfidence.

The young Dolphins entered this game as one of the darlings of the AFC after winning three of their past four. People were starting to mention "playoffs" and "Dolphins" in the same sentence for the first time in years. In addition, the lowly Titans (4-6) were coming to town after getting embarrassed by the Chicago Bears last week.

All of these factors set the Dolphins up for a very winnable game if they just remained focused and level-headed. Instead, it was the Dolphins who were shocked and embarrassed in front of their home fans.

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Let’s be honest: Miami overachieved in the first half of the season.

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The Titans came into the game on pace to set an NFL record for points allowed in a season, but they stymied Miami by intercepting Ryan Tannehill three times and recovering a Reggie Bush fumble to set up a touchdown.