Cote: Leads blown, season lost in Dolphins’ embarrassment at Carolina | Opinion
The Miami Dolphins suffered their worst loss in a season of bad losses on Sunday in Charlotte, North Carolina — which is saying something considering the season-opening defeat set records for putridity and required the city of Indianapolis to fumigate against the stench the Fins left there.
This 27-24 loss to the Carolina Panthers was a new low as Miami sank to 1-4, any illusion of playoff hopes running away like Usain Bolt in his prime.
“We deserve for it to feel terrible,” coach Mike McDaniel said most accurately of this loss. “We thought we were prepared for this and clearly we weren’t. We got outgained by 200 yards running and you will not win with that. Critical mistakes at critical points in the game. We will be focused on getting that corrected immediately because we have no time to waste.”
Five games into a 17-game season, it’s getting late for that kind of talk.
Miami lost despite three touchdown passes by Tua Tagovailoa, despite a 2-0 turnover advantage.
“No one wants to start the season 1-4,” Tagovailloa said. “This feeling sucks. We gotta figure this out, and we gotta figure this out now.”
Miami led 17-0 on Sunday in the second quarter. Looked good. Then reality happened. The Dolphins defense happened, horribly so. A Panthers running back named Rico Dowdle was made to look like Walter Payton reincarnate by Miami’s sieve of a run D. He galloped for 206 yards on 23 carries and scored a touchdown. Embarrassing. Beyond that.
The Dolphins seemed, up 17-0, to take the win for granted. The lack of killer instinct killed them.
Are they, though? Evidently not.
Heads have rolled for less than this performance. If McDaniel does not survive this season, he might look back upon Sunday’s horrible collapse. And the questions will haunt.
How could Miami have run for 19 total yards against a bad run defense?
How can a Dolphins run defense be this atrocious?
Why did Miami not target Darren Waller in the second half after his big first half?
Wait. Did the Dolphins really punt, down three, with a minute left!?
A starving man will beg, borrow or steal for food. A Miami Dolphins fan should be able to relate this season when it comes to the hunger for winning, for something good to happen.
No impressive margin of victory would be required. No style points are given. You beat a lousy team, you party.
So it was Sunday in Charlotte, when, in a battle of 1-3 teams, the Dolphins were leading the 24-20 late. Miami had blown the big lead and was hanging on like a man on a high ledge. No matter.
A bad team might beat a worse team. Beats the alternative.
Then the Dolphins Dolphined again.
Miami is 1-4 today, the two-game win streak denied. It would have been two triumphs over gutter teams. Yes, but no parched, thirsty animal ever turned down a sip from a muddy puddle.
The Dolphins next play a Chargers team that lost to the Giants a week ago. Then it’s the Browns and Falcons. Optimism, anybody? No? Maybe? So it’s no.
Miami had fallen behind 20-17 with 6:10 left when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa — who played great — spun a 46-yard scoring pass to Jaylen Waddle for what looked like the winning score. The Fins at that point had not scored since mid-first quarter ... but scored when it mattered most.
Waddle caught six passes 110 yards in taking over as the No. 1 receiver with Tyreek Hill out for the seeason with a knee injury.
“We never look at it like receiver 1A or 1B,” Waddle said. “That’s more like a media thing or something. We all go out there and make plays.”
The first 1 1/2 quarters of the Dolphins game were near perfect. A 17-0 lead resulted.
The mandatory disclaimer, sure: It was Carolina. The Panthers are bad.
But Miami sought to prove it was a better kind of bad, and did, early on. In sequence:
Opening drive starring Waller’s 34-yard catch led to a 43-yard field goal and 3-0 lead. Bradley Chubb forced and recovered a Panthers fumble, leading to a De’Von Achane 10-yard scoring catch and 10-0. Then, a Minkah Fitzpatrick interception — Miami’s first of the season-- led to Waller’s 4-yard TD catch and 17-0.
It was then the reason Miami also was 1-3 began to show.
Poor defense both against the pass and run, amplified by bad tackling, led to a Carolina TD and field goal and a 17-10 game at halftime. The Dolphins’ D was hapless and hopeless against Dowdle and that rushing attack.
Dowdle’s 53-yard run to open the second half led to a 49-yard field goal and a made it 17-13.
“Here we ago again,” a multitude of Dolfans had to be telling their TV sets.
They had reason.
Miami could not hold the 17-0 lead it had, or then the 24-20 lead it had, and deserved to lose.
The bad team that thought it had beaten the worse team turned out to be the worse team.
This story was originally published October 5, 2025 at 4:29 PM.
