Kelly: At what point is staying the course counterproductive for the Dolphins? | Opinion
You want someone to be mad at.
You need somebody to be offered as a sacrifice to the football gods for your pain and suffering.
You desire a valid reason why the Miami Dolphins are yet again a bottom-feeder in the NFL courtesy of this 2-5 start.
“The biggest opponent we have to overcome is ourselves each and every week,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Monday, the day after the Arizona Cardinals pulled off a come-from-behind fourth-quarter 28-27 victory that spoiled Tua Tagovailoa’s return from the concussion that sidelined him a month.
You plead for someone to tell you everything is going to be OK, even though it hasn’t been for two decades with this franchise.
We covet the reassurance that the Dolphins aren’t lost again, somewhere in the wilderness hoping to be rescued. But there’s nobody who can be trusted to do so.
In fact, we’re inching closer to the survival portion of this journey, where it’s every man for himself.
“Everybody has to play better,” said receiver Tyreek Hill, who was targeted once in the second half of Sunday’s loss. “At the end of the day it’s got to mean something to you. It’s got to.”
Tagovailoa is back, and so is the scoring, but the losses keep stacking up.
This time it’s the defense that buckled to the pressure of a red-hot Kyler Murray, who led the Cardinals to two scoring drives in the fourth quarter. And the way this Dolphins season has been going, it will probably be something else next week.
Next Sunday the Buffalo Bills have a chance to put a nail in Miami’s coffin, providing a death blow to the goal the Dolphins had about dethroning Buffalo, winning the franchise’s first AFC East division title since 2008.
That’s 16 years ago, and even that achievement was watered down because Tom Brady sustained a season-ending knee injury in New England’s Patriots opener that year.
So that means South Florida’s NFL franchise, which hasn’t won a playoff game since 2000, hasn’t been relevant — not for winning — in two decades?
But this year was supposed to be different. However, all this season has done is remind us that all the forward progress Miami made under Mike McDaniel was fool’s gold.
It was shiny bling that looked nice when being shown off in front of company, but it produced a rash that over-the-counter medicine can’t cure.
This franchise needs a doctor, a healer, someone who can be trusted to build a solid foundation like what Bill Parcells did when he took over in 2007, when Miami hired the wrong man (Cam Cameron over Mike Tomlin) and it led to a 1-15 season.
That season was the first time I learned what a dysfunctional football team looked and felt like.
It laid the foundation for how toxicity, unhealthy franchises operate.
This isn’t that.
The 2024 Dolphins are a team that lost its Pro Bowl quarterback (Tagovailoa) and Pro Bowl tailback (Raheem Mostert) for the first month of the season, and struggled to score points as a result.
Then they lost two backup quarterbacks, and the offense grinded to a halt.
Sunday’s restart with Tagovailoa at the helm was encouraging, but far from the solution to this season’s problems.
Keep in mind these Dolphins are a forced fumble (Jaguars win), and a smaller foot size (Patriots win) from being winless this season.
That hints they should be fortunate that this dismal record isn’t worse.
But there’s still fight with the Dolphins team because they know they have been better than they have shown, better than they have played thus far, which means there’s still signs of life. Problem is, we need to get to the root of what the real issue is.
These struggles aren’t about the Dolphins’ offseason decision not to retain Andrew Van Ginkel or Brandon Jones.
Or Miami’s unwillingness to sign Christian Wilkins or Robert Hunt to $100 million contracts.
Or the team’s selection of Chop Robinson in the first round, or its choice not to upgrade the offensive line with a quality veteran.
It isn’t about signing an injured Odell Beckham Jr., or the choice that was made to ride with Skylar Thompson as the backup quarterback.
Miami’s issues are on-the-field execution, penalty prone performances, and coaches and players falling short of meeting expectations.
General manager Chris Grier might be the scapegoat who eventually pays for all the losses, but it has been the people on the field who are letting this franchise down.
It’s Tagovailoa throwing three interceptions in the earlier loss to the Bills. It’s Mostert and Alex Ingold’s two costly fumbles in this month’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts, and its the defensive collapse to the Cardinals.
The minute that changes maybe the trajectory of this season changes.
Winning and losing becomes a habit, part of your culture, and this year’s team has found a way to lose games, not win them.
What they must avoid is feeding into those losses to avoid falling into another “That’s so Dolphins” type season.
“Stay the course, stay together,” defensive lineman Calais Campbell said about what’s on the horizon for the Dolphins. “At the end of the day, nobody’s going to come and get us out of this hole. It’s just us. Ain’t nobody coming to save the day.”
This story was originally published October 28, 2024 at 3:58 PM.
