Not trying to stir the pot, but how do you account for the 3 4th quarter/OT losses this year, in which they couldn't come back and win? Do you feel like the offense is finally getting hold of the system Philbin installed, and that accounts for the better performance last week? Just looking for some consistency, as they really haven't been very good this year late vs. any other year if they're 1-3 in these kinds fo games. -EK
I'm not saying they are better at coming back, I'm saying they are better suited for it. Tannehill was a part of the problem for at least one of those games, I even selected Tannehill as the goat for the Tennessee game because I thought he did a VERY poor job of attempting to come back in that game and never established anything offensively. In the Buffalo game he didn't do well either, but I thought Miami shouldn't have been behind in that game to begin with and I thought Bush and the offensive line were horrendous in that game. They never were really that far behind and should have been able to just play their normal offense and catch up, not have to rely on Tannehill to throw the ball but they never got the run game going at all and forced Tannehill to throw way too much. Tannehill did get the passing offense going a bit at times, but then threw a couple of terrible picks to kill drives too. I never said that Tannehill played well in those games because he didn't, he played poorly, but he wasn't the only one and I didn't think he was the main culprit.
The defense has to do their part too though. You can't come from behind if everytime you score the defense gives up a score and in some of those OT losses Miami was actually ahead. The defense should not have allowed Arizona to come from behind to tie the game so I didn't blame Tannehill for that OT loss. Yes I know Tannehill threw a pick and fumbled once, but both times the line failed to pick up blitzing players which got him hit and forced both of those turnovers.
So to answer your question, it's a multitude of things, not 1 thing that explains why they haven't been able to come back in games or win close games, but in the Seattle game everybody did their part. The defense did their part, the offensive line did theirs, Bush did his and Tannehill did his. The special teams nearly screwed it up by giving up that kick return, but the offense bailed them out. I'm not giving Tannehill all the credit, but he deserves a lot because he did play quite well in that 4th quarter and the fact that he's a rookie was impressive. At the beginning of the year most people thought Tannehill had no business starting, by the 4th quarter of that Seattle game he was looking like a seasoned vet. Yes, it was only 1 quarter, but it was a HUGE quarter against one of the best defensive backfields in the NFL. I'm sorry but if you are not impressed by that then you're not giving credit where credit is due.
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