New York Giants

Miami Dolphins: Takeaways from loss to Giants

Published Dec. 15, 2015 1:19 a.m. ET

foxsports

By Yousef Abu-Ulbeh

The Miami Dolphins lost to the New York Giants 31-24 Monday night. The Dolphins had one of their best offensive performances in weeks with a consistent balance between pass and run and did not fall behind early in the game. The Giants’ Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. were just too much for the Dolphins to overcome Monday night.

The Dolphins should not give up on Lamar Miller going forward

In games where the Dolphins have established the run early, Lamar Miller has come to play. In the last year of his rookie contract, the Dolphins should look to keep him on the roster going forward. Jay Ajayi is a versatile backup and could serve a Jeremy Langford, Karlos Williams-type role for the Dolphins going forward with Miller being the feature back. Miller has looked strong in the games he’s been given extensive opportunities to run the ball. The Dolphins have been behind so much this year and have had so much drama surrounding the coaching situation that Ryan Tannehill has had to throw the ball more than the team would typically like him to causing them to shy away from Miller over the course of the games.

The Dolphins playoff chances are over

Although the Dolphins' playoff chances are over at 5-8, they have a lot to look forward to moving forward the next few years with this young group of players. On offense the combination of Tannehill, Miller, Jarvis Landry, and rookie DeVante Parker could create one of the more dynamic offensive combinations in football with them all starting to click. Dan Campbell hasn’t done enough to secure a head coaching job going into next season so the Dolphins should look to find a head coach that has had success in the past as a head coach. Someone like John Harbaugh if he gets fired or Norv Turner if he wants to move away from coordinating would both be good head coaching options for the Dolphins moving forward with the dynamic playmakers they have on both sides of the ball.

The secondary has not come to play the last few weeks

Against the Dallas Cowboys, New York Jets, and Monday night against the New York Giants, the Dolphins have struggled to control their opponents’ passing attack three of the past four weeks. It seems like they have lacked communication and got mixed up in their coverages multiple times tonight and in the past few weeks. This is a group led by veteran Brent Grimes, and a group that has dealt with multiple injuries this season. But it is also a group that has made huge plays down the stretch to help win games. Brandon Marshall had a field day against the Dolphins two weeks ago and Odell Beckham Jr. had a monstrous performance with a secondary failure in coverage allowing Beckham Jr. to score an 84-yard touchdown that would end up winning the game for the Giants tonight. The Dolphins need to clean up their secondary play if they want to try and win out this season and finish at .500.

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