Resiliency A Trademark Of 2016 Dolphins

Resiliency A Trademark Of 2016 Dolphins

- Antwan Staley

Digest Correspondent

The Oxford Dictionary definition of the term re-silience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. This season, the Miami Dolphins have been through several adversities along the way, but the team remained resilient.

Even before the 2016 regular season began, the Dolphins lost one of their best offensive linemen and leaders of the team, center Mike Pouncey, for the first four games of the season to a hip injury. Pouncey being out didn’t help the team get off to a great start to the season.

Miami began the season 1-4 and the only win came in overtime against the Cleveland Browns in Week 3. Many thought the Dolphins were headed for a top-five draft pick, but instead the team began to rebound starting with their Week 6 contest versus the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Despite being a touchdown underdog, the Dolphins defense held quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to 189 yards as they defeated the Steelers 30-15. That began an impressive streak of six straight wins for the Dolphins. Also in their win against the Steelers, a star was born in running back Jay Ajayi.

After Ajayi didn’t react well to not being the team’s starting running back, the Dolphins left him in South Florida for their Week 1 12-10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. When Ajayi returned, he didn’t receive a ton of playing time as he only had 117 yards in four games before the Pittsburgh game. From there, Ajayi went from barely being mentioned to one of the biggest weapons on the Dolphins offense.