The story repeats itself once again for Miami. Protecting a lead of less than a touchdown at around the 4 minute mark in the 4th quarter, has proven to be Miami's Achilles heel over the last few years. Almost like a curse defying logic, under different management, quarterbacks, coaches and even owners, nursing a small lead late in the fourth has become almost an omen of yet another loss to come. The low scoring game being played in Detroit on Sunday afternoon would become the latest loss for Miami, coming in the last few minutes of a game. The outcome of the game could have been predicted at that point.
The Lions' defense, as expected, harassed Miami's quarterback Ryan Tannehill all afternoon. Tannehill was sacked, knocked to the ground, hurried, and flushed out of the pocket for most of the afternoon but still, as testimony to the young man's toughness, he shook it off time after time and went back to the huddle to do it all over again. Missing from the Dolphins' typical arsenal of plays, was the abundance of read option plays being called. Starting Dolphin running back Lamar Miller was still recovering from a bruised shoulder, and consequently saw limited action after the first quarter, leaving the task of running and catching the ball coming out of the backfield to back Daniel Thomas and rookie Damian Williams.
Disaster stroke Miami in the 2nd quarter when starting left tackle Branden Albert was carted off the field with a leg injury. Head coach Joe Philbin reshuffled the offensive line which managed to give Miami QB somewhat decent pass protection after Albert's injury, but the running game struggled for Miami. It remains debatable whether it was Albert's injury or Miller's limited involvement after the 1st quarter, that rendered Miami's emerging run game less effective than usual, but a less effective definitely made Miami's offensive coordinator's job much harder.
Detroit's defense was all that was expected and kept Miami typically higher scoring offense to a mere 16 points. Mathew Stafford was accurate and elusive, qualities that served him well in avoiding the relentless pass pressure by The Dolphins, but up until late in the 4th quarter, Detroit's offense had been limited to one touch down and two field goals as the Dolphins were leading by the score of 16 to 13. The rest of the game can best be described as a deja vu of games and seasons from the past for the Dolphins.
When Miami got the ball back with a little less than 4 minutes remaining in the game, protecting a 3 point lead, they once again failed to get a first down as they went 3 and out, which made their tired defense have to now prevent Detroit from scoring, which they did not, and as it's happened before under eerily similar circumstances, the opposing QB marched his team down the field and scored the game winning touchdown with seconds left on the clock. The final score was 20 – 13 and the Detroit Lions now move to 7 -2 and Miami drops to 5 – 4.