Misery in Minny! Dolphins lay another road egg, get romped by Vikings 41-17
The Dolphins’ season probably ended with Sunday’s 41-17 no-show loss to the Vikings.
It sure felt that in the locker room afterward.
Yes, there were the obligatory long faces when the cameras were on and tape recorders rolling.
Yes, some took it as hard as Kenyan Drake, who basically blamed himself for the pitiful showing by the offense.
“Whupping our ass [in the trenches] — that’s what they did,” Drake said. “Down in and down out. We’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves, ‘How do we want to finish the season?’”
The problem is, the sense was the Dolphins know their season is already over, even if the NFL calendar insists two more games remain.
This did not have the feel of a devastated team. There were more than a few jokes and smiles as Dolphins players changed. Robert Quinn posed for selfies with Dolphins fans on his way to the bus.
And who could blame them?
They know how to read the standings.
They knew their only real chance was to win out.
Instead, they started the game with the worst quarter of the Adam Gase era — outscored 21-0 — and things didn’t get much better from there.
The offensive line was a sieve, with Ryan Tannehill sacked a team-record nine times.
The Dolphins’ run defense was no better, allowing the Vikings to run all over MIami for 220 yards and three touchdowns on 40 carries.
But we should have seen this coming.
It’s not in this team’s DNA to win on the road.
This was Miami’s sixth straight loss away from Hard Rock Stadium, and most of those games haven’t been close. Their average margin of defeat during that stretch? 17.7 points per game.
Of course this is an issue that predates 2018. The Dolphins are 7-17 on the road under Gase, with all but three of those losses by double digits.
And no one in the organization can explain it.
“S---, if I had that answer we would have already had that magic recipe by now,” defensive end Robert Quinn said. “No. I don’t know why. I wish I could give you a better answer.”
Here’s a guess: Average teams play well at home.
And on the road they have moments like the one that essentially killed the team’s playoff hopes:
When Aldrick Robinson roasted Torry McTyer on a 40-yard touchdown pass that put the Vikings up three scores five minutes into fourth quarter.
“I wasn’t lined up,” McTyer explained.
But let’s not scapegoat here. The defense was bad, yes. The Dolphins surrendered 30 or more points for sixth time and 400 or more yards for the ninth.
Yet that should not obscure the fact of how absolutely dreadful the offense was.
In the five Miami drives that followed a 75-yard touchdown run by Kalen Ballage to open the second half, the Dolphins combined for minus-27 yards.
Ryan Tannehill (11 of 24 for 108 yards) was not good.
But he also had no time to throw.
The Vikings sacked him an absurd nine times, each one more violent than the last.
We should have seen this coming after the opening drive.
The Dolphins nearly got blown out of the building before the game could even begin.
The Vikings scored touchdowns on their first three possessions — a 13-yard pass from Kirk Cousins to Stefon Diggs, a 13-yard run by Dalvin Cook and a 19-yard run by Latavius Murray — and were up 21-0 after the first quarter.
But Miami clawed back in, starting with a pick-6 by Minkah Fitzpatrick midway through the second. And when Ballage raced 75 yards to the end zone on the first play of the second half, the Dolphins were back within a score.
That’s when the Vikings took over, and the Dolphins’ basically season ended. Minnesota improved to 7-6-1, while Miami fell to 7-7.
The Dolphins’ loss, combined with wins by the Steelers, Ravens, Colts and Titans, left the Dolphins just a five-percent chance of making the playoffs, per FiveThirtyEight.
In truth, that seems about five times too high.
“The playoff picture is in someone else’s hands right now, but you never know,” tackle Laremy Tunsil said. “Miracles do happen.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2018 at 4:06 PM.
