Dolphins start 0-2 — again
DAVIE (AP) – It didn’t matter that the Miami Dolphins had an overwhelming statistical advantage in their Monday night game against the Indianapolis Colts. On Tuesday, they still found themselves in a familiar position – 0-2.
Dropping the first two games is becoming a bit of a tradition for the Dolphins, who did it for the fourth consecutive season. Notching the first win Sunday at San Diego (1-1) could prove a tough task for Miami, facing a short week and coming off a 27-23 loss to the Colts.
The Dolphins couldn’t beat Indianapolis and Peyton Manning even though the Colts had the ball for less than 15 minutes. Miami converted 16 of 22 third- and fourth-down situations, rushed for 239 yards and still managed to lose.
“Nobody is world champion after two weeks,” linebacker Joey Porter said, “but we’re not good enough to give games away.”
Manning took advantage of breakdowns in the secondary to throw for 303 yards and two scores. Now the Dolphins face San Diego’s Philip Rivers, who threw for a career-high 436 yards in a 31-26 loss to Baltimore.
“I know he threw the ball 50 times the other night. They didn’t try to run it too much. They played without LaDainian (Tomlinson) and threw the ball a bunch,” Miami coach Tony Sparano said.
“I think a lot of Rivers. He is a big, strong guy that stands in there. He doesn’t watch the rush and makes some outstanding throws. He made some big time throws the other day in the ball game. San Diego has been a physical team year in and year out, and they run a lot of physical, hardball, downhill run stuff.”
When the Dolphins started 0-2 last season, new coach Sparano turned to the wildcat for a 38-13 upset win at New England. Miami went on to win the AFC East title.
The wildcat’s still effective – the Dolphins used it 12 times Monday for 107 yards, all on the ground.
For the second week in a row, Miami had trouble covering the tight end. Colts tight end Dallas Clark had seven catches for a career-high 183 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage.
“We know we can play better defense than this,” said safety Gibril Wilson, who missed a tackle on Clark’s score.
A week earlier, Atlanta tight end Tony Gonzalez caught five passes against Miami for 73 yards. Now the Dolphins must brace for San Diego’s Antonio Gates.
“We didn’t play Dallas the way we played Tony,” Sparano said. “We won’t play Gates the way we played we played either one of those guys. We will continue to change it.
“At some point in the game, it doesn’t matter who is covering the tight end – I am talking about everybody – you have to win individual matchups. I think that sometimes that is the deciding factor. You have 10 guys doing a good job and one guy doesn’t win his individual matchup and that is where you get beat.”
Still, game film from Monday night will show a better effort than in the Dolphins’ opener, a 19-7 loss to the Falcons.
“The film would show you the bad and the film would show you the good,” Sparano said. “There was a lot of good things done out there yesterday, there really was, on both sides of the ball. And there was some bad things done on both sides of the ball. … It’s just there were some things not done well enough.”