Why Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel wants his best players to make mistakes early
Two of the Miami Dolphins’ best players made mistakes against the Buffalo Bills when it mattered most.
Coach Mike McDaniel, however, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“If you had to pick as to whom you’d want to make mistakes like that early in the year — all things equal, if you had to pick and you’re a supreme pessimist so you mandated it — it would probably be those types of players, the leaders of the team,” McDaniel said.
Any coach will tell you that one play won’t decide the game. Still, it certainly did not look that way when the Dolphins lost a Thursday Night Football showdown to the Bills 31-21. Two of the lowlights included Zach Sieler’s roughing-the-kicker penalty that eventually led to the Bills’ go-ahead touchdown, as well as Tua Tagovailoa’s interception on a potential game-tying drive. For McDaniel, it’s about holding the captains accountable so they can better lead their teammates.
“Heavy is the crown, so if you’re a player that we depend on, if you’re one of the captains or some of the best players on the team, I hit them between the eyes in front of the team because part of the reason they became captains is that they responded in the appropriate way in the development of this team in the offseason,” McDaniel said, emphasizing that he would rather have mistakes made now rather than later in the season when the playoffs are on the line. “You’re only as strong as your ability to not get obsessed by results and focus on how we do things and the consequences of certain things in certain games.”
After a Josh Allen incompletion with less than 11 minutes in the fourth quarter and the score tied at 21, the Bills lined up to punt. Sieler’s mission was simple: bull rush the long snapper to push him back into the punter. The star defensive tackle bypassed the long snapper so quickly that he decided to dive and try to block Cameron Johnston’s punt.
Unfortunately, Sieler’s momentum sent him crashing into the punter, resulting in a 15-yard penalty and automatic first down. Five plays later, Allen found receiver Khalil Shakir for a 15-yard touchdown.
“I got to be better,” Sieler said. “Can’t make stupid errors like that, and we got to learn from each and every play. Can’t put ourselves in positions like that, and I can’t do that. Obviously, I got to learn how to work through the punt rush and going through all that and falling to the side. Not one play determines the game, but it sure does feel like pretty bad sometimes.”
With the Dolphins now down 28-21, Tagovailoa had little more than seven minutes to lead the offense to a score. A pair of third-down conversions put the Dolphins in scoring position as they made it to Buffalo’s 21-yard line. That, however, was when Bills defensive tackle Deone Walker quickly got by Dolphins guard Daniel Brunskill and into Tagovailoa’s face, forcing the franchise quarterback to fire a pass toward Jaylen Waddle that linebacker Terrel Bernard easily snagged.
“I think that was a really good play by the defender, had some color in my face trying to maneuver the throw as well,” Tagovailoa said. “Ten out of 10 times, if we’re looking at that same thing, I think I’d still try to work that timing of hitting that spot, and I think that the linebacker made a great play on that.”
Although costly, the mistakes by Sieler and Tagovailoa did not ultimately lose the game for the Dolphins. Several factors — the defense’s lack of stops in the first half, the offense’s four three-and-outs, Tyreek Hill’s dropped deep ball — contributed to the loss. Still, McDaniel needs to be able to be tough on the leaders for the rest of the team to understand the importance of mistake-free football.
“The captains need to be able to assert their pressure on the younger guys and they need the younger guys to accept bottom line coaching in team atmospheres, so I will be approaching it that way and we’ll go through all of those situations,” McDaniel said. “The team has gotten better in a couple of weeks and is getting to the point where you can reasonably expect to be able to go to a game on Sunday and have the expectations to win through good football; however, there are still things that we are falling short of and we’re trying to make sure it’s not the same thing over and over.”
