The Miami Dolphins have played five AFC East game this season and the team has come up empty-handed each time. Their latest defeat came at the hand of the New York Jets and the final score wasn’t as close as it may indicate.
New York defeated Miami 38-20 to drop to 4-7 on the season, 0-5 in the AFC and 3-4 since interim head coach Dan Campbell took over after Joe Philbin was fired after Week 4.
Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick arguably had his best performance of the season on Sunday as he finished 22-of-37 for 277 yards with four touchdowns passes. Two of Fitzpatrick’s touchdowns were caught by receiver Brandon Marshall as he recorded nine catches for 131 yards and two touchdowns and abused Dolphins cornerback Brent Grimes all afternoon.
Dolphins’ quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw for 351 yards and three touchdowns, but a lot of those stats came when the game was already decided. Tannehill also had two turnovers, an interception and lost a fumble during the fourth quarter.
New York shut out Miami at halftime 14-0 and the team did not look back from there. In the second half, the Jets added on another 24 points to put the game out of reach.
”There’s nothing I can say that’s going to make that look better,” Campbell said. ”We got whipped. We got whipped the first time and we got whipped the second time. Those are the facts.”
Miami gained only 81 yards, eight rushing, in the first half. To make matters worse, the team lost four players to injury: center Mike Pouncey (right foot), receiver Rishard Matthews (ribs/chest), defensive tackles Earl Mitchell (calf) and C.J. Mosley (calf).
The Dolphins only rushed the ball nine times for 12 yards. That is the lowest total on the ground any Jets team has allowed all season.
One of the few positives for the Dolphins was the play of Jarvis Landry and rookie DeVante Parker. Landry caught 13 passes for 165 yards and he scored a touchdown. Parker had his best afternoon as a pro as he recorded four catches for 80 yards and he caught his first touchdown pass with seconds left in the game.
Now with five games left and unofficially eliminated from playoff contention, it will be interesting to see how the Dolphins play with nothing to play for other than pride.
“For us, we’ve just got to continue to believe in us,” Landry said. “We’ve got to find a win first and try to build some confidence, some momentum and hopefully things fall the way we need them to fall (about the playoffs). And we’ll talk about the rest later.”
Next week, the Dolphins will host the struggling Baltimore Ravens while the Jets play their rival, the New York Giants.
You can follow Antwan on Twitter at @antwanstaley
