Despite another loss, the Dolphins’ end-of-season goal remains the same: ‘playoffs’
Part of Tua Tagovailoa’s comments following Sunday’s loss to the Houston Texans was taken out of context.
“We don’t take this game for granted,” Miami Dolphins quarterback caller said, later adding. “For us to say let’s go plan our trip to Cabo or let’s go plan a trip to Mexico, you really start to see the guys that want to be in the locker room, the guys that want to play for each other. I think that’s the guys we have in our locker room.”
Initially, Tagovailoa’s statement came off as his premature plans for a vacation once the season wrapped up. That, however, couldn’t be farther from the truth. Despite the Dolphins’ playoff chances being as slim as ever, they still remained focus on a postseason appearance.
“Playoffs,” nickel cornerback Kader Kohou said when asked what’s the team’s motivation. The approach, Kohou continued, has not changed. “Even if today they told us we have zero chance of playing in the playoffs… you still have to go out there and play a football game. There’s still an opponent across from us who is trying to beat us and we don’t want to go out there and put anything bad on tape.”
Miami’s postseason hopes took a huge hit after Sunday’s 20-12 loss to the Texans. Although the Dolphins defense played well, limiting the CJ Stoud-led offense to under 200 total yards, Tagovailoa’s four turnovers — three interceptions, one fumble — ultimately doomed the Dolphins. That loss, however, has the team motivated to win their next three games to at least have a chance at the playoffs.
“The lack of complementary football, that to me, is what this game will be remembered for by our team,” McDaniel said Monday afternoon. Rather than sulk and lament what could have been, the team wants to just push forward. “We have a locker room that’s very hungry to do right by their jobs, do right by team and that means let’s produce a three-phase output that we’re happy with.”
The Dolphins currently have 7% chance to make the postseason, according to The Athletic’s playoff projections. Still, they haven’t given up.
“My message to the team was not to run from how this feels,” McDaniel said after Sunday’s loss. “It’s terrible. It was a game that we thought we were ready to go win, and we weren’t.”
Unfortunately, the Dolphins will need a lot of help for a postseason appearance. As has been previously written, a 10-win season would have given the Dolphins their best chance at the playoffs. That’s no longer mathematically possible so as it stands now, the Dolphins would have to win out but also have the Indianapolis Colts lose once and either have the Los Angeles Chargers drop two games or the Denver Broncos suffer three consecutive loses.
“Obviously maybe some more things are out of our control, but we can control what we can control from here on,” defensive tackle Zach Sieler said Sunday. “That’s all we can do. We’re in this position now, and now we’ve got to play out and win the rest of these games.”
Miami will host a banged-up San Francisco 49ers squad on Sunday for their regular-season home finale. They will be on the road for the final two games to first face the Cleveland Browns then the New York Jets. ESPN projects the Dolphins to lose every game except versus the Browns.
“The standard is still the standard,” inside linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. said. “You could never take that for granted. We’re very blessed to play this game and any time you go out there and think anything less is when you know it ends for you and you don’t want that.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2024 at 3:28 PM.
