That Dolphins halftime speech must have been some kind of fire and brimstone sermon. Something along the lines of Henry V's Saint Crispen's Day address. The pre-game speech, meh, not so much. It was probably more along the lines of, "Okay men, we're gonna go out there and we're gonna pull down our pants, and we're gonna take a massive shit right on the field! Ready? Who's with me? Team on three! One-two-three TEAM!"
So how did the Dolphins manage to crap all over their playoff chances in their 27-20 loss to Houston yesterday? Let us count the ways:
1. There was a failure to adjust to uber-receiver Andre Johnson lining up in the slot on Houston's 4th and goal from the Miami 10. Everyone in the building knew Johnson was going to run a skinny-post into the endzone against an undersized Nate Jones. Everyone, except of course, the Dolphin defense. Result: Johnson scores a TD, giving the Texans a 10-0 start.
2. There was Ricky Williams' continuing insistence on giving the ball
to the other team. Chad Henne attempted a pass to Williams on a short
dump across the middle. The ball ricocheted off Williams' fingers.
Result: Houston's Brian Cushing makes the interception.
3. There was Lousaka Polite's tripping penalty late in the second half.
Result: A huge momentum swinging 60-yard touchdown pass from Henne to
Ted Ginn Jr. is negated.
4. There was the fact that the Dolphins defense let someone named Arian
Foster have a career day against them. Foster is Houston's
fourth-string running back. Result: Foster finished the game with 97
yards and a touchdown. Leave it to the Dolphins to make any opposing
practice squad player look like a future Hall of Famer.
5. There was the fact that they allowed 27 points in the first half. It
kinda makes it hard to win football games when you spot the other team
that many points, even when you come out and play much better in the
second half. Result: Ah fuck it, you get the point!
It was a tale of two halves - both good and crappy, but mostly crappy.
With the season on the line, and playoff hopes at stake, the Dolphins
up and decided it wanted to party like it was 2007 and got itself
trampled to the tune of 27 points in the first half alone, with the
defense laying down and giving up a whopping 307 total yards. Again,
this was all in the first half.
The second half featured a comeback attempt by Miami. But their
20-unanswered point-scoring spree was mostly a mixture of too little
too late and some bad calls by the officiating crew. But let's face it,
the refs didn't make the Dolphins give up 27 points or make them give
up over 400 total yards. To make things worse, thanks to their once
again delving into the fine art of supreme sucktitude, the Dolphins
have opened the door for the Jets to make the playoffs. Thaaaat's
right. Meanwhile, the Fins have to hope the Ravens, Jets, Jaguars and
Texans
all lose next week while they beat the Steelers. Here's hoping they
don't spot Pittsburgh three touchdowns to start the game, for starters.
