The Miami Dolphins are Close to Disaster

The Miami Dolphins are Close to Disaster

Another week and another frustrating loss for the Miami Dolphins. While last week they collapsed and allowed the Panthers to come from behind to win, this week they appeared to have flipped the script, clawing back from 26-13 down to make it 27-26 with less than a minute left.

Unfortunately for the Dolphins’ faithful, their defense once again proved that they are among the worst in the league and allowed the Chargers to march down the field and score a game-winning field goal to clinch the victory at 29-27. 

The game-winning drive allowed by the Miami defense was a microcosm of the season thus far. As Jaelan Phillips bore down on Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, it looked as if Miami was going to end the week in the winners’ column for just the second time this season.

Then Herbert was able to throw Phillips off and complete a pass to Ladd McConkey, who made a man miss and sent the Dolphins to 1-5. It was the fourth game this season where the Dolphins remained competitive but ultimately fell short.

They could easily be 3-3 or even 4-2, alive in the playoff race, but instead, it seems clear that this team will not be playing in late January, and now, self-preservation is taking over. 

Hard times reveal the truth of situations, and this 1-5 start began to chip away at the team’s first facade, which the players and coaches have presented. In his post-game interview, fresh off of throwing three interceptions, including one that sealed the loss, Tua Tagovailoa threw his teammates under the bus. 

“It starts with the leadership and helping articulate that for the guys and what we’re expecting out of the guys,” Tagovailoa said. “We’re expecting this, are we getting that? Are we not getting that? We have guys showing up to players-only meetings late, guys not showing up to players-only meetings. There’s a lot that goes into that. Do we have to make this mandatory? Do we not have to make this mandatory?” 

Players arriving late to meetings is nothing new to this team. Last season, Bradley Chubb made it known in his last interview of the season that players were arriving late. We’ve spent an entire offseason being told that this was corrected and the team was committed to winning and professionalism. Now it appears that this was a lie, covered up until the moment where it might get the heat off of someone, in this case a quarterback who has struggled with turnovers. 

As a captain and the presumed leader of the tea,m it was extremely unbecoming of Tua to throw that out there to deflect blame from himself. It was made worse when head coach Mike McDaniel was asked to comment on the revelation. 

“Player-led meetings are extra things outside of what I demand,” McDaniel said. “”We’ve been very accountable to me. It sounds like there was something on his mind with regard to the specific meetings with a couple of individuals that he was trying to get corrected by being direct with communication. I think that’s the only way to lead. As far as where we’ve been at as a program, I think we’ve opened the air on all of that and it’s very clear how we hold people accountable and what’s non-negotiable with all those things. Clearly, he’s sending a message, but from my standpoint, everything that I’ve asked of the guys, they have delivered on, and so I’m sure whoever he’s talking to, they’ll deliver as well, as he’s a direct communicator with his teammates.”

With that, McDaniel is drawing a distinct line in the sand; to him, players have been accountable if Tua is having an issue between him and his teammates. To me, it would appear that everyone is in self-preservation mode, desperately trying to get the blame off of them and onto someone else.

Ultimately, they are one team, however disjointed, and they likely will all suffer the same fate should the team continue their losing ways. Based on what we have seen the past two weeks, there is no reason to believe that this won’t be the case. The Miami Dolphins are once again a disaster and will likely be hiring a new coach this offseason. I have broken down some of the rumored names in my previous blog.

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