Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin was on the receiving end of a heckler Sunday night who summed up his team's opening preseason game in the bluntest way possible.
"Breaking news," said the heckler during Philbin's post-game press conference on the field (according to the Miami Herald), "the Dolphins still suck."
It is hard to argue with that, especially on the offensive side. Miami's revamped offense turned the ball over on it's first play from scrimmage (on a bad handoff between QB Ryan Tannehill and RB Lamar Miller), and LT Jonathan Martin looked lost at times against Dallas' defensive line.
And that was against the Cowboys' reserves, as Dallas coach Jason Garrett sat all but one defensive starter on Sunday. During the first quarter (after which every starter had exited the field for the second unit to get work), the Dolphins gained 56 yards in 15 plays for 4 first downs.
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Indeed, probably the best news for the Dolphins' offense all evening was that the team's new uniforms looked crisp.
"I told the team I thought we would play better," Philbin said after the game. "That's obviously not the way you want to start any football game, I don't care if it's preseason, Game 1, the Super Bowl or any game in between."
Even so, this was still the first game of the preseason (with four remaining, starting Friday with a game at the Jacksonville Jaguars), and Miami played without either of its starting receivers, Mike Wallace and Brian Hartline.
Miami is focusing on the positive for now, namely that things cannot get much worse. "We can only get better," Miller said after the game. "We had a couple of mistakes that we left out there on the field and we’ve just got to come out and correct on the mistakes."
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