Dolphins coach Adam Gase made it clear after Sunday’s loss to the Titans that he isn’t thinking about making a quarterback change and he spent some time Monday pointing in another direction to explain why Tannehill had a rough day against Tennessee.
Tannehill was 12-of-18 for 191 yards and two interceptions in the loss, but the stat that Gase pointed to on Monday was the number of times that Tannehill was hit by Titans defenders. Tannehill was sacked six times and hit a handful of other times during the game.
“I know when we have 18 dropback passes and he’s hit or sacked on nine of them and then the completions we do have, he’s got guys in his face,” Gase said, via the Miami Herald. “I’m supposed to blame him for that? I get a look at the whole picture. I’m calling the plays and I know what it’s supposed to look like and it’s not looking like that now as far as what’s going on around him. ... Everybody wants to blame that position. It’s the easy one to do because you can see completion, incompletions, interception. But when you hit your back foot and get sacked, there’s not much you can do about it.”
Offensive line play has been an issue for the Dolphins for a while and it didn’t help matters that left tackle Branden Albert and left guard Laremy Tunsil both missed Sunday’s game. Albert was ill and is expected back this week while Tunsil’s status is less clear after he aggravated a previous ankle injury when he slipped in the shower.
Gase said that it would be a different story if Tannehill was struggling while getting good protection, but that the protection needs to improve in order to make that kind of evaluation. With a decision to make on Tannehill’s contract shortly after the start of the new league year in 2017, they’ll need to make it one way or another over the remaining 11 games.
