National Football League

Everything comes together for Dolphins in dominant shutout of Chargers

Published Nov. 2, 2014 7:37 p.m. ET

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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- In search of their fifth victory of the season and third in as many games, the Miami Dolphins ended up finding something much more special in their 37-0 victory over the San Diego Chargers on Sunday.

Capturing their first shutout since Dec. 10, 2006, when they defeated the New England Patriots 21-0, defensive tackle Jared Odrick says that his team finally found the elusive "white rhino."

"You look for a shutout every game," Odrick said. "It's kind of like that white rhino, or the white elephant, you've got to find it. You have to find it, and we found it today. It took a lot. A lot of focus, a lot of energy and a lot of emotion, and we've got to do that every game."

Playing in what Odrick called a "playoff game" as the team approached the midway point of their season, the Dolphins' performance Sunday was fueled by added emotion as the team rallied behind head coach Joe Philbin, whose father died Friday.

Coming together in support of their coach to play what many players described as a perfect game, Miami's dominance seemingly personified their 2014 credo: "stronger together."

"When somebody is going through something like that, it's hard on somebody, especially when it's your leader," Odrick said. "Naturally, when you're in a group of people like that, you want to be able to pick up that emotion and use it, and we did. We channeled it, everybody did.

"Anybody that would have lined up with us today would have had some major problems."

For four quarters at Sun Life Stadium, the Dolphins defense gave quarterback Philip Rivers and the Chargers offense more problems than they could handle.

A five-time Pro Bowl selection, Rivers completed just 12 of 23 passes for 138 yards while throwing a season-high three interceptions. He had thrown just five interceptions in his previous eight games.

Cornerback Brent Grimes, who returned an interception for a touchdown in Miami's Week 8 victory over Jacksonville, again found himself in all the right places, as he picked off two arrant throws from Rivers.

Grimes, who now has four interceptions on the year, was quick to credit the team's dominance at the line of scrimmage for his easy day in the secondary.

"First of all, I want to thank our D-line, who played incredible; linebackers too, for getting to the quarterback, and just pressuring him, not letting him step up and make easy throws," Grimes said. "We just play with technique in the backend and made plays when we had the chance to."

Rivers, who was sacked by defensive tackle Randy Starks on the first play of the game, admittedly had no answers for the Dolphins defense both during and after the game.

"Shoot, they just beat us, they flat out beat us. For 60 minutes, they wore us out," said Rivers, who entered the game with the third-highest passer rating in the NFL. "There's really not much to explain other than we played poor and they got after us, they played very well."

Just like his day had begun, Rivers ended the afternoon on his back after being sacked by defensive end Olivier Vernon with 2:16 left in the third quarter. Losing a fumble on the play, he was pulled from the game in favor of backup quarterback Kellen Clemens.

"I think this is the best I have seen this team play as far as complementing each other in all three phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams. I think everybody played well and got it done," said safety Reshad Jones, who finished the game with one interception.

Now boasting a 5-3 record and tied with the Buffalo Bills, who were idle Sunday, for the second in the AFC East, the Dolphins defense will look to build off the dominating performance as they begin the second half of their season.

And while they may not find another "white rhino" anytime soon, defensive end and captain Cameron Wake believes that a complete effort week in and week out will always put the team in a position to win.

"As the time ticked on, we got closer and closer to it, and that was in the back of our head," Wake said of the shutout. "But at the end of the day, you want to go out here and play this game as a team, like I said a complete game, special teams, offense and defense as one unit. I think if you play like that, then you're hard to beat."

You can follow Jameson Olive on Twitter @JamesonCoop or email him at JamesonOlive@gmail.com.

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