The addition of Bill Lazor was supposed to do wonders for the Miami Dolphins offense. A head-scratching decision by Joe Philbin flew in the face of any such optimism on Sunday against the Buffalo Bills.
Trailing 9-0 with 2:21 remaining in the second quarter, the Dolphins took possession at their own 12-yard line with all three timeouts. Miami opted to run the ball six consecutive times in an effort to run out the clock.
They succeeded.
Philbin explained his curious play calling immediately after a 29-10 loss to the Bills. He stood by his thinking when asked by reporters on Monday.
"At that point in time I believe we had 45 yards of offense and three sacks in the first half," Philbin said, according to ESPN.com. "The last thing I wanted to do was go in the half down 16-0. So I told (offensive coordinator) Bill (Lazor) I wanted to run the ball every single play and get to the locker room and make some adjustments and get it to a one-possession game, which is exactly what we did twice in the third quarter. That was the reason we did it."
Lazor played the good soldier when asked his opinion on the team's ultra-conservative strategy.
"It has nothing to do with my wishes," Lazor said. "I thought what coach Philbin decided to do worked. Because when you think about it, we had our struggles in the first half. He decided to run the football. At halftime we talked. I think we got settled down in some ways. We made a couple adjustments, not that many, and we came out with two straight scoring drives."
OK then. Philbin can try to rationalize it all he wants, but his decision sent the wrong message to his team.
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