A honest take on Miami Dolphins and Adam Gase after week 12
Following the gut-wrenching fourth-quarter collapse to the Colts, an honest and blunt approach will be made to analyze the Miami Dolphins.
Warning- This is going to be rough and it’s not for the optimist.
There has been a distinct moment in every Dolphin’s coach career where a game ended and it was apparent that the regime was over.
With Philbin, it was December 14th, 2014 when the Dolphins got WASHED by the Patriots during a playoff stretch collapse.
Tony Sparano’s fate was on the wall when he started high fiving and hugging players after field goals.
During Cam Cameron’s tenure it was when he was announced as the head coach and the fanbase looked around asking why.
Finally, Saban… well… it was when Saban ran out of the door to his private plane heading to Alabama. (I really hate Nick Saban)
Adam Gase’s game was today. It was a loss during a playoff run that was the fault of one man. It was the playcalling of two fourth-quarter 4 and outs that were so bad that even the mindless play commentators were left scratching their heads. These two blunders of play calls took a Dolphins team that, according to ESPN, had an 86.4% chance of winning with 8:38 left in the fourth quarter and saw the Colts score on three consecutive drives to steal a game.
Steve Ross is a competitive and proud man. He does not like losing and has invested SERIOUS money to get the Dolphins competitive. He prides himself as being hands off and trusting his staff. However, in this board game of billionaires, success cannot be bought, it must be earned.
Dynasties are not created cheaply. There are no home run free agents that come in and change franchises for long periods of time. Suh, McDonald, Stills, Wilson, Timmons, and Quinn are all guys Gase paid handsomely to come in and change “the culture”.
It makes me chuckle when I hear that phrase. “Changing the culture” usually refers to changing the culture of losing. It’s when a coach is at a loss of what to do with a group of players and fire sells a core of starters and brings high priced FA’s to “change the culture.” Sadly, it’s the first and last sign of a coach bleeding out.
When a regime seems to be as dysfunctional as the Dolphins currently are, there are lots of finger pointing.
“It’s Ryan Tannehill.”
“The training staff can’t keep players healthy.”
“Tannenbaum has more dead cap money than a cemetery drive-by shooting.”
“Matt Burke is a dud of a defensive play caller.”
“Players aren’t being yes-men enough”
2018 has brought a boatload of excuses and even more questions. However, if the common fan was tuned in to Sunday’s disaster of a fourth quarter, it was apparent what the broken cog is. Adam Gase.
Adam Gase and his coaching staff have taken a decently talented team and put them into positions that aren’t just bad, they are hilarious:
First quarter scripts have resulted in a drought of productive drives, until today.
Personnel decisions that have been questionable have ended up being changed in a panic. (McCain as outside DB, Kiko as MLB, McDonald opposite Rashad Jones, rookie Minkah playing every position on defense, Tunsil playing guard as a rookie, and the list goes on)
Defending his coordinators and staff as “his guys”
Bringing back old QB’s in hopes of rekindling magic instead of investing in young prospects with potential (Osweiler/Cutler)
The cherry on top is watching players leave Miami and praise the opportunity to do so.
If the NFL was a hospital, the Dolphins symptoms lead to one sickness: regime dysfunction from several areas. The cure for this is amputation.