Extra points: Seven more thoughts on the Dolphins’ seventh straight loss to the Bills
This was far from their worst performance of the month, but the Miami Dolphins’ 26-11 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday was still the endpoint of something.
It was effectively the end of their playoff hopes — they’d need an improbable run in the second half of the season just to have a chance to get in.
It was probably the end of this group as it’s currently constructed — the trade deadline is Tuesday and some sort of moves appear inevitable.
For Tua Tagovailoa, there’s still a chance it was the end of his time as the starting quarterback — Deshaun Watson still lingers
Here are seven more thoughts from the Dolphins’ seventh straight loss to the Bills:
1. The offense is still aimless. Tagovailoa shares some blame, certainly. His offensive line needs a lot of the blame, as well. On Sunday, the offensive coaching staffs ineptitude was on full display, too.
Who’s to blame doesn’t matter at this point, though. The issues are too numerous to solve in time for Miami (1-7) to put together any real sort of postseason push.
The Dolphins managed just 262 yards in Orchard Park, New York, and wasted a stout defensive effort against one of the most potent offenses in the league. Miami has now failed to crack 300 yards in 4 of 8 games this year. It’s the worst offense in the league.
2. Let’s start with Tagovailoa. The quarterback had two of the best games of his career in the last two weeks, throwing for 329 against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 17 and 291 against the Atlanta Falcons last Sunday. They were promising performances, but they came with one huge caveat: Those were two of the five worst defenses in the league.
Buffalo (5-2) provided a different sort of test. No one has allowed fewer passing yards than the Bils this season and they kept Tagovailoa from doing much more than throwing short passes. His first two drives were good — he threaded passes between defenders in the middle of the field and made one great sideline throw to wide receiver DeVante Parker — but he finished just 21 of 39 for 205 yards, no touchdowns and an interception.
Even his one long throw — a 40-yard pass to Mike Gesicki — came on a somewhat broken play, when he bought time on fourth down, stepped up in the pocket and flung a pass to his tight end down the right sideline.
It was the sort of play Miami can use to talk itself into Tagovailoa as its long-term answer, but the fact it took until his 14th start to finally complete a 40-yard pass could also be enough for general manager Chris Grier and owner Stephen M. Ross to talk themselves into...
3. Deshaun Watson. The shadow of the trade deadline still loomed over everything at Highmark Stadium. By Tuesday, the Dolphins could have Watson on their roster, Parker could be playing somewhere else and Tagovailoa could be... well, no one really is quite sure at this point.
Maybe Tagovailoa is one day the right quarterback to lead the Dolphins back to glory, but he’s certainly not going to this year.
No one is.
Miami needs to win the rest of its games just to crack 10 wins. It can only slip up once more to reasonably keep any sort of slim playoff hopes intact. Watson, who hasn’t practiced at all this season with the Houston Texans, isn’t going to step in and do it. Tom Brady couldn’t step in and do it with this supporting cast.
The only good reason there should be any urgency to get a Watson trade done now is if there’s a worry the market will grow this summer for Watson, who right now would only waive his no-trade clause for the Dolphins, multiple outlets reported.
There are 22 better reasons not to.
4. Watson is the subject of 22 civil suits, which accuse of him of coercive and lewd sexual behavior, including two alleging sexual assault. He’s not suspended right now, but there’s a good reason the Texans just make him inactive every week and why so few teams are actively pursuing an elite talent.
Again, Watson would make this team better, but there’s no clarity about his future in the NFL and this roster isn’t close enough to contending to justify trading three first-round picks — Houston’s reported ask — for him.
5. The issues start with the offensive line. When Tagovailoa got to go against the Jaguars and Falcons, he looked great because he had time in the pocket. Once they had to face elite competition again, the Dolphins’ mistakes were all exposed.
Tagovailoa took two sacks — on one, tackle Liam Eichenberg was simply much too slow to get off the line of scrimmage — and Miami ran for fewer than 3 yards per carry. The Dolphins used three first- or second-round picks on offensive linemen in the last two NFL Drafts, and those three are still unproven.
6. The coaching staff isn’t doing anyone any favors. The playcalling remains bland — it’s telling Tagovailoa’s biggest throw came when he made a spectacular individual play — and Miami was often disorganized Sunday.
Look no further than the Dolphins’ fumble just before halftime: Rookie wide receiver Jaylen Waddle was lined up wrong, Flores opted not to use a timeout and center Austin Reiter snapped the ball while Gesicki was in motion, and Miami potentially left seven points on the field when Buffalo safety Micah Hyde recovered a fumble.
7. It all overshadows one major positive. The giveaway was the beginning of the end, which was a shame because the defense finally looked the way the Dolphins expected it to at the start of the year.
Miami blitzed well and mostly played man-to-man coverage, star cornerback Xavien Howard said, and held superstar quarterback Josh Allen to less than 250 yards for only the third time all season. The Dolphins outgained the Bills in the first half and would probably have gone into halftime with a lead had they not fumbled with 24 seconds left in the half.
Instead, they lost for the seventh straight time, Flores took 45 minutes to come out for his press conference and Miami has less than 48 hours to figure out what it’ll do at the deadline. Whatever it does Tuesday can’t erase a season of on-field mistakes and years of personnel errors.
This story was originally published October 31, 2021 at 7:21 PM.
