Dolphins, Blog Return After Much Needed Bye; News and Notes

After 85 days of training camp, practice, preseason games, and regular season games, I'd say the bye week came at a near perfect time for the Miami Dolphins.

The team last met last Tuesday before taking five days off to regroup, get healthy, and, as Joe Philbin put it, do some "self-evaluating."

They entered the bye week at 3-2, coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Baltimore Ravens, and very much in the AFC playoff race (in-fact, if the season ended today they would hold the 6th and final playoff spot.  But it doesn't, and it's too early for that kind of talk.).  Ryan Tannehill has been excellent thus far in every game besides New Orleans, and has, as I wrote about last week, kept this team above water despite three key things:

A lack of a running game.

Several key defensive players being injured (Cam Wake, Dimitri Patterson, Paul Soliai, Dannell Ellerbe, Nolan Carroll).

And, of course, an offensive line that's allowed a league high 24 sacks.

Without Tannehill, this team could, and probably would, be 0-5 right now.  But the kid has clearly taken control of this offense, led game-winning or game clinching drives in two of the three wins, and improved in several key areas (accuracy, completion percentage, rating, yard per attempt, turnovers).

So today, after five days off, the Miami Dolphins (and, in effect, The Dolphinsider) returned to Davie fresh, revamped, and ready to get back to work.  They find themselves in sole possession of second place in the AFC East, with the next two games coming against division foes.  What does that mean?

It means these next two games take on an entire new level of importance, as division games tend to do.

Now that you're all caught up, lets get to the day that was for the Miami Dolphins, as Bills week has officially begun:

• Cornerback Dimitri Patterson returned to practice for the first time in about a month.  If you remember, Patterson played a near perfect game in week one, intercepting Brandon Weeden twice.  However, Patterson hasn't seen the field since.  All signs point to the CB coming back this week.  That would be HUGE for this defense.
• Miami starting linebacker Dannell Ellerbe did not participate in practice and worked on the side with trainers. Ellerbe injured his shoulder in last week's loss to the Baltimore Ravens and his status likely will be up in the air until later in the week.
• Dolphins defensive tackle Paul Soliai and backup tight end Michael Egnew were both absent today due to illnesses.
• Cameron Wake practiced IN FULL today.  He did everything, from position drills, to team drills, and all reports had the Pro Bowler looking 100% for the first time in weeks.  It appears the bye week served Wake very, very well. This is the best news fans could have hoped for coming off this bye.
• There were NO changes to the offensive line today.  It appears, for now at least, Joe Philbin is going to stay the course with the likes of Tyson Clabo, John Jerry, Mike Pouncey, Richie Incognito, and Jonathan Martin.  
• Mike Sherman offered up some interesting tidbits today, most noticeably when talking about the sacks Ryan Tannehill has taken:

"Hits on quarterbacks are down, it's just that sacks are up," Sherman said. "At the end of the game you ask Ryan how he's doing and he says, 'I feel fine.' The less hits you have on your quarterback that he doesn't see are as damaging in relationship to his health. And it hasn't been an inordinate number, ironically. We don't count sacks as hits because it's a sack and we obviously have to clean it up because sacks change field position and in the last game we were minus-35 yards on offense. We certainly cannot afford to do that."

Well, good.  I'm sure that makes Ryan Tannehill feel better...

Good to be back.

SIX days.