BY NICK ST. DENIS
To many, it's not necessarily about how you start, but how you finish.
To Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin, it's about the whole picture.
Two days after the playoff-hopeful Dolphins capped off a late-season collapse that saw them lose their last two games to divisional opponents -- both of whom were out of the postseason race -- Philbin was asked about what weight the team's finish holds on organizational decision-making moving forward.
"We probably have 2,500 snaps on film — offense, defense, special teams," Philbin said, via The Palm Beach Post. "We certainly have to evaluate all those snaps, what we did as coaches, how the players executed as players.
"We certainly need to make changes, adjustments, tweaks, additions, deletions. That’s part of the whole process. I’m confident there will be, but I’m not right now, there’s nothing to be addressed right now. Certainly we’re going to look at everything."
Asked more specifically on whether he puts more stock into how the team finished, considering the circumstances, Philbin's answer was more direct.
"Again, not necessarily," he said. "We’ll look at the whole body of work."
Philbin can go on about the" process" and insist that the first fifteen weeks were just as important as the last two, but the fact is that when the stakes were higher, his team faltered.
The Dolphins got off to a 3-0 start but then lost four straight.
Miami battled back to get itself into position for a playoff berth.
Consecutive
wins over the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets to finish the regular
season would've guaranteed Miami a spot in the postseason. And after the
Dolphins lost to the Bills, they still had a shot to get in with a win
over the Jets and some help.
They lost again. And that was it.
"Week
17 and we had an opportunity to get into the playoffs," Philbin said. "Had we played
better and won the football game and then when you get in the playoffs
you have an opportunity to compete for a championship.
"So we’re not
there yet but we are close. But we’re not there. We have a ways to go."
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