Miami Dolphins vs. New Orleans Saints Game Recap: Offense Falls Flat Again

(London, England) – For the second week in a row, the Miami Dolphins (1-2) struggled heavily on offense en route to a 20-0 shutout loss to the New Orleans Saints (2-2) at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

This was the first ever shutout of an International Series in London game and the Dolphins’ first shutout loss since Week 16 of the 2013-14 NFL season when they lost 19-0 to the Buffalo Bills.

The Dolphins started off the game on a great note, as quarterback Jay Cutler and the Miami offense marched down the field on the game’s opening drive. Unfortunately, on first and goal, Cutler threw a horrible pass in the direction of tight end Julius Thomas that was intercepted in the end zone by Saints cornerback Ken Crawley.

From that point on, the Dolphins were simply unable to get anything going on offense. Cutler completed 20-0f-28 passes for 164 yards and one interception, while wide receiver DeVante Parker caught six passes for 69 yards on the day.

“Individual talent doesn’t really mean a whole lot on offense if you’re not working together,” Cutler said after the game. “You’ve got 11 guys with a common goal doing exactly what they need to do, but it’s orchestrated chaos out there. We’ve got to figure out how to do a better job.”

For the Saints, future Hall of Fame quarterback Drew Brees had a great day with 29-of-41 passes completed for 268 yards and two touchdown passes, one each to wide receiver Michael Thomas and rookie running back Alvin Kamara.

On defense, New Orleans held Miami to a dismal 186 total yards of offense on the day, which included four sacks of Cutler and two forced fumbles.

Despite another poor performance from Miami head coach Adam Gase‘s offense, Cutler remained optimistic about his team going forward.

“I don’t think we’re panicking now. I’m sure there are some people in this room that are panicking, but we’re not packing,” Cutler said. “We’ve played three games, two of them have been poor and one has been okay offensively, but I don’t think there’s any panic. If anything, there’s some frustration and there’s a will to go back to work, figure out what’s wrong and how we can remedy it.”

Dolphins star running back Jay Ajayi, who became the first NFL player born in the United Kingdom to play a game in London, finished the game with only 46 rushing yards on 12 carries.

For the Dolphins, star defensive lineman Cameron Wake recorded the lone sack for the Dolphins’ defense to go along with three tackles for loss.

Up next, the Dolphins will finally play their home opener Stadium when they host the Tennessee Titans (2-1, pending the outcome of their game later today versus the Houston Texans) at Hard Rock Stadium. The contest, which is scheduled to kick off shortly after 1:00 p.m. ET, will be broadcast regionally on CBS.