Kelly: Dolphins’ weapons shooting blanks against Ravens | Opinion
An end zone fade to a 5-foot-9, 191 pound scatback while he’s being covered by the best safety in the NFL?
Really?
That’s the call coach Mike McDaniel chose to make on fourth-and-2, down eight points to the Baltimore Ravens late in the second quarter, seemingly calling a fade for De’Von Achane while he’s being covered 1-on-1 by Ravens All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton, who is 6-foot-4, 218 pounds.
“I didn’t see him throw the ball. That’s why I was confused,” Achane said after the game. “It’s not designed for me, but I do have a fade.”
Was that the best play the Miami Dolphins could have called on in this Thursday night embarrassment of a game to the Ravens, which manhandled Miami to a 28-6 win?
“There was a multitude of failures in that critical situation on that one,” McDaniel said, acknowledging that the primary target ran the wrong route. “I was super confident that wouldn’t be the case, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken that risk.”
Sure, it’s a short week, one that only featured walkthroughs of plays. That’s the norm for a Thursday night game though.
Indeed, the Dolphins offense was playing its second game in a row without two of the team’s four most dynamic weapons — receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Darren Waller — who are both on injured reserve.
And Julian Hill, the team’s top in-line tight end, missed his second straight game because of an ankle injury.
It didn’t help that Ollie Gordon II, the rookie tailback who stepped up last week and delivered 66 offensive yards and his first touchdown reception in a win over the Atlanta Falcons, left the game earlier that quarter because of an ankle injury he sustained when a Ravens defender clipped him at the end of a play he was blocking on.
Because the Dolphins chose not to activate Jalen Wright for the game — instead going with five receivers and two tailbacks on the game day roster — the Dolphins seemingly had to abandon the two tailbacks package that was effective in last week’s win over the Falcons.
The way McDaniel called plays Thursday night it looked like Miami was running out of packages, available formations, and playmakers on Thursday night.
That had to be the reason a fade got thrown to Achane in a situation that could have gotten the Dolphins back in the game.
McDaniel was being aggressive, going for the seven points instead of settling for the three points a field goal would provide, which fits his coaching style. But that might have been one of the worst play calls in his four-year tenure as the Dolphins head coach.
And keep in mind, during my two decade career as a sports reporter and columnist, I rarely ever question or criticize play calling. But that throw, which Tua Tagovailoa launched into the back of the end zone on a route Achane either stopped on, or got jammed so bad his forward progress was halted, makes no sense.
When was the last time a fade worked for McDaniel’s team?
At this point I’m viewing that fade as a cry for help.
Ask yourself what weapons do the Dolphins presently have on offense outside of Jaylen Waddle, who caught six passes for 82 yards, and Achane, who contributed 106 all-purpose yards on 14 carries and six receptions?
Gordon stepped up last week, and now his ankle injury might impact his availability. He was walking around in the locker room without a limp, but you never know.
So who was left Thursday night?
Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Tagovailoa act like strangers on the field. I highly doubt the Dolphins’ starting quarterback even knows his real name considering everyone on the team calls him NWI.
Malik Washington has gotten plenty of targets this season, especially in Miami’s stretch without Hill, who sustained a season-ending knee injury in week 4, but the second-year receiver entered Thursday night’s game averaging 5.4 yards per reception.
His three receptions for 48 yards and the fumble he lost in the fourth quarter in scoring territory didn’t help his cause.
Miami intended to give Tahj Washington a test drive replacing Hill as the type of run-after-catch weapon that demands a defense’s attention, but he also fumbled and lost the ball on Miami’s very first drive, on a play that happened to be his very first NFL reception.
A deep pass to Tahj Washington was later intercepted in the fourth quarter, producing the team’s third turnover of the game.
“It was what I’d been waiting for, and working for,” said Tahj Washington, a 2024 seventh-round pick, who missed his entire rookie season because of a knee injury. “Unfortunately you want to have an impact when you get the opportunity, then do something like that. But I’m no stranger to adversity. I’m just going to get back to it and be ready for the next [opportunity].”
At this point, the only players Miami hasn’t tried to jump-start the team’s stagnant offense with are tight ends Tanner Conner and Greg Dulcich, receivers Dee Eskridge and Cedrick Wilson Jr., and fullback Alec Ingold.
That’s how troublesome Miami’s arsenal of weaponry has become.
At this point the Dolphins best offensive set is its jumbo package, which features six offensive linemen on the field. Most teams use that package for run plays in short yardage situations. The Dolphins are using it for everything, even though it reduces the amount of available weapons Tagovailoa gets to target on the field to four, and sometimes three.
But at this point, desperate times call for desperate measures, and that’s where this two win team is.
This story was originally published October 30, 2025 at 11:37 PM.
