Miami Dolphins: 3 Takeaways vs. Raiders in Week 9

1. Mental errors continue

There has been a lot of bad to be said about the Dolphins this season. One of the biggest positives; however, has been that they haven’t shot themselves in the foot. They’ve been highly undisciplined this season, but that has taken the form of the offense not putting in the time or effort to learn the playbook. It’s come in the form of guys not knowing what their responsibilities are. Guys haven’t been on the same page all season. But what it hasn’t taken the form of is penalties. For all the mental errors the Dolphins have been making this season, it hadn’t come in the form of costly penalties. Until tonight.

Before tonight’s game the Dolphins were one of the least penalized teams in the league. On the season they came in ranking 28th in the league in total penalties. Sunday, however, was a completely different story. Especially in the first half, it seemed like every other play there was yellow laundry on the field. It cost the Dolphins a few key first downs, and defensive penalties kept the Raiders hanging around in the first half. Miami had plenty of opportunities in this game, but penalties bit them on several occasions.

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It was a new and different way for the mental errors to take shape, but it belies the overall complaint Gase has had with the offense all season, not having their head in the game. Gase can’t be happy with how the offense performed on Sunday night, in spite of the progress they seem to have made in just 10 days.