Miami Dolphins Joe Philbin, “I Need To Do A Better Job”

The Miami Dolphins lost a very close game to the Green Bay Packers and afterwards head coach Joe Philbin told reporters that he needed to do a better job. After the loss to Detroit, “I need to do a better job”. Here we are again, a loss at home to the Baltimore Ravens and Joe Philbin is saying, “I need to do a better job.” Ya think?

I want to like Joe Philbin the coach because I really like Joe Philbin the man. He is a great guy and one of the nicest men I have met in my life but being nice doesn’t win football games and it surely doesn’t inspire greatness. Nice is, well, nice and nice guys like Joe Philbin, finish last.

No one says Bill Belichick is nice and he is looking to win another Super Bowl or at the very least looking to go to another one as the top team in the AFC. Don Shula is a great guy, a very, very, nice man. In the locker room? Not so much. On the field, yeah think again. Being nice is great off the field but it doesn’t work on it. Not when grown men playing a brutal game are going to emulate your character on the field.

I honestly don’t know what to do with Joe Philbin. His team has come close to beating some of the best teams in the NFL. Green Bay, Denver, Detroit, and while they looked lost for three quarters to Baltimore they should have won that too, losing yet another lead in the 4th quarter. At the same time however, this is the same Joe Philbin who’s team had to come back against the New York Jets, winners of two games all year. The same team who lost to the Buffalo Bills handily and put up no fight against the Kansas City Chiefs who boast no wide-receiver weapons and were running their 3rd string running back.

Has he shown enough to keep the continuity going? Has he improved enough to warrant another season with the hopes that he can take the division from the Patriots? To be honest, I’m not so sure anymore. I was a few weeks ago.

The issue for me here is that the Dolphins are not chasing the Patriots for the division they are chasing Wild Card births. We all talked it up about how a Patriot loss would put them one game up on the Dolphins and next week would be for the division title but the Patriots took care of business and won the Dolphins did not and while they do not have better personnel on the field, they are far better coached. For the Dolphins it hasn’t been about division titles since 2008 when the team used the Wild Cat to shock the NFL. Fittingly it ended with a first round loss to Baltimore.

So here we are again wondering if this team has the make-up to move forward and not back. Would coaching shake-up the team and knock them off the rail of consistent mediocrity or is the rail leading the Dolphins down the right path just a longer trip to get there? Joe Philbin doesn’t inspire, at least not outwardly. When the players realize that week in and week out mistakes are costing the team a game then there is an issue. That issue needs to be fixed before the team continues to waste more seasons.

Many will point to continuity and that keeping Philbin for another year means the Dolphins, who are still young, can grow more into these systems and that it’s going in the right direction. It’s fair to also say that things may have been different had the team not suffered so many injuries to key starters along the way. That is very true but all teams take those kinds of hits. Great coaches, even very good coaches overcome those obstacles. That’s not to say Philbin can’t, he just hasn’t done so when it has counted the most.

The game on Sunday was an embarrassing loss that will have a ripple effect the rest of the season. A loss to New England and many fans will not show up for the teams home game against the Vikings and may not for the New York Jets. Stephen Ross has a  decision to make. A tough decision. Change directions now or risk having to do so next season. One thing is for certain, this team can no longer come up flat when it matters. Losing two games to close out the 2013 season with the playoffs on the line and now losing potentially two more in a row to knock themselves out of the playoffs is not good. It borders on ridiculous. Good teams close this team can’t. Is Joe Philbin the reason? Maybe not but it is his job to fix the problem. In four games this year, he hasn’t.