Not close: Compare the Dolphins to teams on NFL’s Conference Championship Sunday
The NFL wants you to believe the myth that its worst team is thisclose to its best team, so no fan base should be perennially disappointed because there’s always next year. And next year might just be championship awesome for any of the league’s 32 teams.
That idea should excite Dolphins fans. Because perhaps next season that will be true about your team.
Except that next season hasn’t come in over a generation.
And this year is going to be a rebuilding year.
And you spent Sunday watching the New England Patriots, Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs playing football.
And if you can put away your optimistic fanaticism, you know the Dolphins aren’t anywhere on the same level as those teams.
Did you watch Sunday’s games? It was inspiring to see football played at that level -- although it was officiated at a pee-wee league level.
The precision of the New England running game.
The play of that offensive line.
The raw ability -- and that’s really what it is -- of Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
The accuracy of Drew Brees.
The freakish rise of Alvin Kamara from a good player in college at Tennessee to a great player in New Orleans.
The Rams’ refusal to wilt in a hostile venue. Their execution of wholly different plays out of the same offensive look.
And the coaching excellence among those teams.
Awesome.
New England offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia is perhaps the best NFL assistant you’ve never heard of. That Patriots’ line was magnificent on Sunday as quarterback Tom Brady’s uniform was nearly as clean at the end of an overtime victory as it was at the beginning of the afternoon.
Even after playing the NFL’s most productive pass-rushing defense.
The Patriots ran 94 plays in Sunday’s AFC Championship game. The only one that lost yardage was a kneel-down at the end of regulation.
New England’s line, you’ll recall, was excellent early during that dynasty’s rise to prominence and then took something of a dive. Now it’s back to excellence.
I have an explanation for that. Scarnecchia was there early. Then he retired. Then he came out of retirement.
Sean McVay? It’s not that he’s smart, although he is. It’s not that he’s courageous with his play-calling, although he is.
It’s the exacting way he demands execution. That team executes offensively like few really have in recent memory. And if a player isn’t up to doing that on a particular game day, like star running back Todd Gurley apparently wasn’t on Sunday, McVay finds someone else.
Look, coaching matters.
It’s the reason we sometimes see players leave Miami and go on to better things elsewhere.
Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh has been outstanding for Los Angeles the past half-dozen games or so.
Running back Damien Williams scored three touchdowns for the Chiefs on Sunday.
Ted Ginn has played in 12 playoffs games since being traded by the Dolphins. The Dolphins have played in one playoff game over the same period. So he was good enough for playoff teams, but not the Dolphins.
Bottom line: The quality of play and depth of excellence on multiple levels I saw Sunday were simply sobering.
Because I compare it to what I’ve seen for years from the local professional team.
And this is where I tell you the Dolphins beat the Patriots last season. Remember that? It happened on Dec. 9. Miami won that game 34-33.
That suggests the Dolphins can compete with anybody on any given Sunday.
Wrong.
Before you think that means the Dolphins are close to the Patriots on any level, you must consider that afterward, the Dolphins collapsed. They didn’t win again and that was enough to get Adam Gase fired.
The Patriots haven’t lost since.
“We’ve been through a lot this year,” New England quarterback Tom Brady said after Sunday’s win over Kansas City. “Down but not out ... We found a way to play at our best our last four games. Buffalo, Jets, had the bye, played great against the Chargers, and we played really well today. And we’re going to need one more great game.”
To hear this should be frustrating for Dolphins fans. Because great teams seem to climb to that plateau toward the end of the season. They get better the longer they’re together, the longer the season goes.
The Dolphins often play their best football early in the season and then fade.
It has been happening a lot over the years. So it’s not a coincidence.
Because great teams get smarter and become multiple. They not only do some things really well, they expand the volume of things they do really well week to week.
The Rams can throw it to three or four different guys without missing a beat.
The Saints can run, and did so more than just about anyone in the NFL in 2018, and they can obviously pass.
The Patriots have Brady. And yet they open the game Sunday with a drive that was so run-oriented it reminded of the 1972 Larry Csonka, Mercury Morris, Jim Kiick Dolphins. And that was the second consecutive game they did that.
It was eye-popping.
And when Kansas City adjusted and decided they would not allow the run to shred them any longer, the Patriots passed the ball.
And to whom?
I mean, Julian Edelman?
Phillip Dorsett?
Chris Hogan?
The latter day Rob Gronkowski who is not the same as the Gronk of five years ago?
This boggles the mind that these guys put up points like they’re a machine. But it strongly suggests the success teams like the Patriots chase is not necessarily just about raw talent but also precise execution. And Intelligence. And technique.
Their guys don’t typically false start.
Or jump offside.
Or do dumb things like get ejected from games.
(I remind you the Dolphins have had multiple players disqualified from the season-finale each of the last two years.)
Now, prepare because the next few sentences are going to sting:
For years Miami fans have talked about the need for a star quarterback to make their team great again.
And that is simply a hope that has no basis in truth.
Because a great or elite quarterback is only one ingredient necessary to make the Dolphins championship caliber. I remind you the Dolphins had Dan Marino, and for most of his 17-year career the team was not championship caliber.
It also takes audacious coaching.
It also takes outstanding offensive line play.
It also takes a good or at least good-enough defense.
Yes, you can get by without several of these and win in the NFL. But I remind you, the goal is no longer to finish 9-7 and back into the playoffs. The goal is no longer to go 10-6, go the playoffs, and get blown out in the wild card round.
The goal is Super Bowl.
The Chiefs have the most productive quarterback in the NFL in Mahomes. He threw 50 TD passes during the season. He’s not going to the Super Bowl despite throwing three TD passes on Sunday.
Drew Brees has been amazing for as long as most remember. And when his defense was a mess and he had no running game, the Saints were 7-9 four out of five years from 2012-2016.
So, yes, you need a great quarterback.
But a team with a great quarterback and a poor offensive line, or poor defense or struggling coaching staff is an incomplete team.
And with this in mind I look at the Dolphins.
They don’t have a great quarterback.
They don’t have a great offensive line.
Their defense was 27th in points allowed and historically awful in multiple other categories.
And, my God, they don’t even have a head coach right now. They won’t be able to fully hire New England linebacker coach Brian Flores until after the Feb. 3 Super Bowl -- assuming he follows through and takes the job.
So are the Dolphins close to championship contention?
Let me count ...
They’re about 10 outstanding players at the right positions and a high quality coaching staff away from that. And that’s not even counting that need for an elite quarterback.
A reminder: That doesn’t take into account how fluid a team is in that good players today can age and not be that good good or even on the team tomorrow. And did I mention the necessary experience (time) needed for new, young additions to reach a high level of proficiency?
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross a couple of weeks ago signaled Miami’s coming reset and rebuild and talked about waiting it out for perhaps a year, or two, or even three before the Dolphins could seriously contend for a Super Bowl.
I don’t know if the Dolphins can do the work in three years. But it’s not happening this year or next. Because the Dolphins need so many upgrades and experience in so many areas, it is just impossible to get it done in a couple of years.
Beyond that, the Dolphins would immediately need a couple of drafts that rival the Pittsburgh Steelers drafts of the early 1970s -- including a 1974-quality draft -- to get on that championship path.
In case you’re not familiar, in 1974 the Steelers drafted Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, Mike Webster and Jack Lambert in the first five rounds. All of them are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
When the Dolphins do something similar, you’ll know their march toward Super Bowl contention has begun. Until then?
Not close.
This story was originally published January 21, 2019 at 1:17 AM.
