The Miami Dolphins had the ball on their 12 yard line down by nine with 2:21 on the clock. Then shortly after the clock dipped below the 2:00 minute mark the Dolphins had a first down just outside their own 20 yard line. Joe Philbin had three timeouts in his pocket and the knowledge that after the half his team would get the ball back.

He opted to run, run, run out the clock.

Following the game quarterback Ryan Tannehill was asked about that two minute offense that ended at the teams 35 yard line on yet another Lamar Miller run. Tannehill directed the question in the direction of head coach Joe Philbin.

“As a competitor I wanted to take the ball down and score but that was Joe Philbin’s call,” Tannehill said in his post-game interview. “He wanted to get to half-time knowing we would get the ball in the 2nd half”.

To be clear, Tannehill wasn’t trying to call out his coach intentionally but there is little justification for Joe Philbin to waste three timeouts and two minutes of game play to get to halftime. Philbin addressed the same question in his post-game presser.

“We got the ball around I think the 15 yard line. We had about 48 or 49 yards on the day and I felt that I wanted to get the team back in the locker room and get back into the game,” Philbin told reporters.

To me this is what separates the pretenders from the contenders. Teams must be coached to be winners and this is not a winning mentality. This is not having faith in your team. Leave everything on the field and give your team a chance to do something. It’s possible that Tannehill could have thrown a pick six on the first passing play but isn’t that why your are out there? It’s a decision that many don’t agree with and it was a decision that gave more strength to Buffalo knowing that the team was simply trying to get out of town.

The Dolphins came close in the second half and it will never be known what might have happened had the Dolphins moved the ball into field goal range at the end of the 2nd half. What we do know is that their head coach didn’t try and instead felt better about literally wasting two minutes of game play and three time outs. That says a tremendous amount about the confidence he has in both his offense and his defense.