Miami Dolphins blame game? Plenty on both sides of the ball

The Miami Dolphins gave up 40 points to the New York Jets on Sunday and in doing so dropped to third in the AFC East and have now lost two in a row. Naturally, we need to blame someone.

Welcome to the annual ‘Blame Game!’ The game was delayed by an improbable three-game winning streak to open the season but here we are, five weeks into the season, and the wheels are falling off the bus.

Relax my fellow Miami Dolphins fans, there is plenty of blame to go around! The truth, however, is the Dolphins are still in great shape heading into week six. Remember, we entered the season hoping this team would be at worse, 2-3, and at best 3-2. We are “at best” right now according to the social media know-it-alls. Now it’s not good enough.

There are no excuses for what we saw on Sunday. It wasn’t pretty and I’m not sold on Teddy Bridgewater’s ability to lead the team. In fact, through his play this year, I have seen no leadership quality and no look of a guy that is ready to make plays to create a quarterback controversy. So yeah, I’m not sold.

But, hey, no more commercials, let’s get back to the game.

On Sunday, Mike McDaniel said that the coaches will need to get together and fix what is wrong with the defense.

"It’s not nearly to the point of our expectations for sure. It’s something we have to figure out a way as a coaching staff and as players collectively to try to right that ship because there is a big component of this defense that we expect as a coaching staff to get turnovers. We’ll address it with a fine-tooth comb to see if we can improve that for sure.” – McDaniel post-game press conference courtesy of Miami Dolphins"

One thing that would help the defense, if we want to put some blame on that side of the ball, would be to score points offensively. Create long drives to give the defensive players a rest. It would also help if the defense was healthy. Missing Byron Jones has hurt but on Sunday, we saw how bad it is without Xavien Howard to.

Blame? There is no need to blame anyone. It sucks but injuries happen. If the defense is going to be held accountable for their play, so does the offense.

Miami’s offense, sans the Ravens’ comeback win, has not produced enough points to be considered great. We love to look at the motion and formation changes and there is an element of excitement for certain but where are the points? 20, 42, 21, 15, and 17. We can’t say it is all Tua because he finished weeks one, two, and three. Defensively, Miami has held the Patriots to 7 points, the Ravens to 10 points in the 2nd half, the Bills to 19 points, the Bengals to 27, and then the wheels fell off against the Jets.

On Sunday, the Jets posted 14 points in a matter of minutes thanks to a deep turnover by Skylar Thompson inside the 20.

So who is to blame? The answer is easy. It’s no one. The defense needs to play better especially up front where Jaelan Phillips and Emmanuel Ogbah are practically non-existent in terms of getting sacks. On offense, the line is still struggling, the quarterbacks don’t look great unless it’s Tua, wide receivers are dropping passes and Mike McDaniel is sending Tanner Conner into routes instead of Mike Gesicki.

We can’t blame the defense without blaming Josh Boyer who shoulders much of that failure and we can’t blame the offense without pointing at Mike McDaniel as well. But we also can’t point at either of them without pointing at Chris Grier who assembled the team, to begin with.

So yes, if you want to play this game, this early in the season, with an above .500 record, there is plenty to go around. Enough to really not warrant playing, frankly.