Ryan Tannehill Sinks Vikings In 35-37 Loss To Miami

The Minnesota Vikings were handed a loss on Sunday by the Miami Dolphins, who were led by their quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

This season, Minnesota’s pass defense had been one of their strong suits. Coming into this game, the Vikings were only allowing opposing quarterbacks to get an average of 216 passing yards per game, which was 6th best in the NFL. Young cornerback Xavier Rhodes continued to make strides in his development under head coach Mike Zimmer in this new defensive scheme. Things were looking up for the Vikings pass defense entering week 16 of the NFL season.

And then Ryan Tannehill came along and made the defense look plain silly. Here were Tannehill’s statistics for the game:

Dec 21, 2014; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill (17) runs off the field after defeating the Minnesota Vikings at Sun Life Stadium. The Dolphins won 37-35. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

47 pass attempts

35 completions

396 passing yards

4 passing touchdowns

1 interception

sacked twice

118.8 quarterback rating

Ryan Tannehill had one heck of a day. He targeted 8 different pass catchers in the game. Five of those players had over 50 yards receiving and only tight end Charles Clay gained more than 100 yards in the passing game (114 receiving yards). He completed 74.5% of his passes in the game, averaging 8.4 yards per completion.

Tannehill got a lot of help from his team’s running game though. The combination of Lamar Miller, Damien Williams, and LaMichael James pounded the Minnesota Vikings defense for 115 yards, which helped make the Dolphins play action very effective.

Minnesota will face another tough passing team on Sunday when the Vikings finish out their season against the Chicago Bears. Alshon Jeffery is always a nightmare to cover and tight end Martellus Bennett can be a yards after catch machine. Although the team has pulled their highly paid quarterback Jay Cutler, backup passer Jimmy Clausen shouldn’t have his passing abilities underestimated.

Let’s just hope that Clausen doesn’t have the kind of game next week that Ryan Tannehill did this week.

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