The key contributors to a 23-20 loss in Indy

I'm going to make this quick and painless so I can take the rest of the night off.

1.  Third down defense.  I've never seen anything like that today, and I've watched my fair share of football games.  13-19.  That's what the Colts did on third down today against this (formally) second ranked defense on third down.  That's nearly 70%.  That, folks, is atrocious.  Think that's bad, how about this stat- of those 13 conversions, six of them were on attempts of ten yards or more.  If you can't get off the field, you're not going to win games, it's that simple.

2.  The secondary.  Sean Smith was bad today.  He was beat all day long, and it was no more evident than on a 31 yard TD strike to T.Y. Hilton in the third quarter.  Smith had a chance to make us all forget about his day, when he hauled in a would be interception in Colts territory late in the fourth quarter, however, Smith would eventually drop the ball.  Colts receivers were WIDE open all day long, on every down, in every quarter, on every play.  The secondary was terrible today.

3.  The defensive line.  Andrew Luck had all day to throw, I'm not kidding.  The rookie rarely had any pressure on him, with the exception of a Cam Wake strip sack in the third quarter.  Besides that, he had a clean pocket all day and exposed the Fins defense whenever he wanted.  Again, just not good enough.

4.  The offensive line.  Awful.  Ryan Tannehill is lucky he got out of this game healthy, because the rookie was on his back all day long.  Jake Long may have played his worst game as a pro, giving up at least one sack (the official count has not come out yet), getting beat on the edge throughout the game, and getting called for a couple holding penalties.  It doesn't stop there, however, as the run blocking was equally as bad.  Reggie Bush, with the exception of one run, was stuffed all day, as was Daniel Thomas, and that's coming from a defense ranked 27th against the run.

5.  The penalties.  8 penalties for 79 yards.  Enough said here.


This was a game Miami should have very well won.  Even when trailing late in the fourth quarter by a field goal, the Fins had not one, but two chances to at least tie the game and came up short both times.  Ryan Tannehill was good today, but on that final drive his accuracy was not.  He missed an open Davone Bess and an open Daniel Thomas on back to back plays.  That's not the reason the Fins lost this game, however.  The defense did not come out to play today, plain and simple.  The secondary was bad.  The pressure was bad.  And the third down defense gave absolutely, unequivocally the worst performance I've seen in a long, long time.

This next three games just got a lot more important for the Miami Dolphins.

Adios.