On Tuesday, Dolphins receiver Mike Wallace managed only one word regarding his desire for more deep balls -- “yeah” -- before P.R. staff intervened. On Wednesday, Wallace got out more than one word.
“I’m definitely worried about it because it’s game four,” Wallace said Wednesday, via Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald. “I’m not paranoid or anything but in Week Four it’s not the way I imagined my first four weeks going. Definitely not. I’m pretty sure it’s not the way anybody imagined it going. So for myself, and starting with myself, [quarterback] Ryan [Tannehill] and coaches, we all got to do a better job and find a way to make it work.”
With a win-loss record of 3-1, some would say that, all things considered, it’s working.
“I got to make big plays,” Wallace said. “That’s my main thing. I’ve been used to making big plays. And I definitely, definitely can make big plays. That’s what I do. That’s why I came here. That’s why they signed me. It just hasn’t happened so far for one reason or another.”
One reason has been the inability of the offensive line to keep Ryan Tannehill from getting sacked.
“I know one thing, we not going to be able to go through a whole year like that,” Wallace said of the lack of big plays. “We have to make big plays. We have to back defenses up. That’s what we have to do. Extra film work, different plays, whatever it is, whatever it’s going to take, we have to get it done. We have to make big plays.”
It’s hard to tell whether Wallace wants the big plays because big plays make him look better, or whether he believes big plays are the path to winning. Given that the Dolphins are contenders for the first time since 2008, chances are Wallace is thinking only about his own numbers.