London Nightmare: Dolphins Blanked By Saints For Second Straight Ugly Loss
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LONDON (CBSMiami) – Things are going south in a hurry for the Miami Dolphins.
Fresh off a "garbage" effort by Miami's offense last week (according to head coach Adam Gase), the Dolphins looked just as bad on Sunday in a 20-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints in London, England.
Despite the consecutive losses in which the Dolphins looked out of sync and failed to generate any offense, Gase is maintaining his calm knowing that there is still a lot of season to go.
"It's not time to panic," Gase said. "We've been way worse than this. We want to figure out what's going on and then fix the problem, that's really the only thing we're worried about."
Things seemed to get off on the right foot as Miami took the opening drive down the field and had a first down inside the Saints' 5-yard line.
Then Jay Cutler threw an interception in the end zone on the next play and it was all downhill from there.
Photo Gallery: Dolphins Shutout By Saints
To Jay's credit, the pass was a fade to Julius Thomas that the tight end failed to make an effort for, leading to an easy interception.
Cutler looked better than he did against the Jets last week but the offense as a whole just couldn't get anything going.
Cutler completed 20 of his 28 passes but for just 164 yards and an interception. He was sacked four times.
As for Cutler's quarterback counterpart, Drew Brees was extremely efficient and completed passes to eight different Saints.
Brees finished 29 of 41 for 268 yards and a pair of second half touchdowns.
AJAYI DISAPPOINTING HOMECOMING
London native Jay Ajayi was beyond excited to play in his hometown.
Unfortunately, things didn't go his way as the Dolphins again played from behind and abandoned the run.
Ajayi finished with 12 carries for 46 yards. He also caught one pass for eight yards.
"We have a standard for running the ball and we're not living up to those standards," Ajayi said after the game.
TACKLING ISSUES
Tackling has been an issue with the Dolphins defense dating back to last season. It's again a problem for the unit as players are often in position to make a stop but cannot complete the tackle.
New Orleans converted on consecutive third and long plays in which a Dolphins defender made contact with the ball carrier well before the line to make.
NO ADJUSTMENTS?
The Dolphins racked up 86 yards of offense on their opening drive. They would pick up just 99 more during the rest of the game, including a garbage time drive that picked up 19 yards in the final minute.
THIRD DOWN AND OUT
Another game of struggles on third down for Miami's offense. The Dolphins went just 1-for-8 against the Saints on third down and are now a horrible 7-for-29 (24.1%) on the season, which is worst in the NFL.
KNEELING DOLPHINS
Three Dolphins players, Kenny Stills, Michael Thomas and Julius Thomas, took a knee for the Star Spangled Banner. All three stood up for the playing of the British national anthem.
