Dolphins play worst game in months, get hammered by Giants team on a nine-game skid
For the first time this year, the Dolphins looked like a team with its mind on January.
And we’re not talking playoffs.
An utterly lifeless third quarter by Miami turned a close game into a rout, as the Giants snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 36-20 victory.
The turning point: When Giants cornerback Sam Beal dropped running back Patrick Laird for a safety, the tipping point in a back-and-forth game.
The Giants went on to score touchdowns on three of their next four possessions. The Dolphins had no response.
Now, we’re not saying the Dolphins quit. In fact, people inside the locker room insist that wasn’t the case. But as the boulder bounded downhill Sunday, it was hard to tell the difference if they didn’t.
The Dolphins allowed 29 second-half points to a team whose last win came in Week 4. The Giants ran all over the Dolphins, going for 92 yards on 23 carries after intermission.
“We didn’t come out in the second half and play as a team,” Dolphins linebacker Jerome Baker said. “And that’s all it is. We didn’t execute. We didn’t come out with energy. Giants did do a great job of capitalizing on that. We can’t blame nobody. We’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror and this time we came up short.”
Two more weeks.
Two more chances to make it right.
And how the Dolphins respond in those games will reveal much about the character of their locker room, and the effectiveness of their coach.
Can Brian Flores continue to get the Dolphins to play hard, with the end of a brutal season in sight?
“You can’t let guys get down on themselves,” Dolphins center Daniel Kilgore said. “Keep fighting. It’s a long season. We said this before. It’s a long season. We still have a job to do. That’s to go out, perform well and try to win ballgames.”
Try, sure. But for the Dolphins’ long-term prospects, it’s best if they don’t succeed.
With the loss, the Dolphins fell to 3-11 and remained, for now, in the No. 4 draft spot. But if they lose out (they finish with the Bengals and Patriots), the Dolphins will pick no lower than third, by virtue of the Redskins and Giants, who are currently second and third, playing each other next week.
That shouldn’t be a problem given how the Dolphins looked Sunday afternoon.
After trailing by a field goal at the break, the Giants out-gained the Dolphins 187-19 and outscored them 16-3 in the third quarter.
Eli Manning threw three interceptions Sunday but got the win in what could be his final home start as a Giant.
Running back Saquon Barkley lit up the Dolphins for 143 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, completed 23 of 41 passes for 279 yards and two touchdowns, but did lose a fumble.
He’s been fine this year. Not great. Not terrible. Fine.
He’s helped the Dolphins win games they probably shouldn’t have, and has given Miami a better chance to compete than Josh Rosen, who hasn’t started a game in two months.
However, there are many compelling reasons to give Rosen another chance the final two weeks of the season.
Flores has repeatedly said Rosen is better in practice now than he was early in the season.
The Dolphins have lost four of their last five games and their red-zone offense has been brutal the last two weeks.
Rosen probably isn’t the team’s future. But Fitzpatrick, 37, definitely isn’t. Why not give the kid a shot? The Dolphins have been willing to live with growing pains from young players at basically every other position this season. Why shouldn’t their quarterback get afforded the same opportunity?
For now, those arguments have largely fallen on deaf ears. While there are plenty who would love to see Rosen get another crack at it the last two weeks, Flores — at least as of Sunday evening — doesn’t share that opinion.
When asked if he anticipates Fitzpatrick being the quarterback next week, Flores said “yeah.”
He has long argued that Fitzpatrick is starting because he gives his team the best chance to win. That’s a rationale one can understand, if not necessarily agree with. And that Dolphins’ coaching staff seems to have no appetite for playing Rosen just to improve its draft positioning. That would actually be tanking, something Flores insists he will never do.
And maybe he’s on to something. Because there’s no faster way to have your team quit on you than playing a guy you have long suggested isn’t ready to be on the field.
“I believe in all of these guys in the locker room,” said Dolphins linebacker Vince Biegel. “We want to get better. If you come to practice, we’re grinding. We work hard. The effort’s not the question. It’s being able to go out there and execute at a high level.”
This story was originally published December 15, 2019 at 4:14 PM.
