3 things learned in the Miami Dolphins soul shattering loss to the Patriots
By Matt Serniak
The Miami Dolphins were not ready to play yesterday in the biggest game of the season.
Let me first say that Mike McDaniel is a good coach. He’s smart, knows how to design an offense, and the players enjoy playing for him.
But, we have seen multiple instances of the team not looking like a team that has any clue of what they’re doing. From the constant uses of timeouts within the first 7 minutes of a game to the unbelievable non-hit rate of challenges, while also somehow not challenging the obvious ones, McDaniel consistently does the obviously wrong thing.
I don’t know if it’s because the coaches upstairs can’t tell him what’s going on in during the game, which makes zero sense, or what the reason for the persistence of communication issues is. I just don’t know how every game stuff happens that we clearly see from home but the guys at the game don’t. Is there no way that anyone up in the booth can watch the TV version to tell them what we see?
How do you not challenge the Tyreek Hill catch in the 1st quarter? Would you have definitely won it? I don’t know. I just know there was a decent case that it was a catch that would have put the Dolphins in New England territory early in the game.
But the worst part of all this unpreparedness is all the miscommunication on both sides of the ball. Tyreek Hill, multiple times, had no idea what he was doing or where was lining up. It created penalties and the aforementioned uses of timeouts. How does that happen in week 17?
Same thing on the defensive side of the ball. The Jakobi Myers TD catch had Duke Riley covering him and that happened because the Patriots shifted out of a run look to a passing look. That’s the kind of stuff that happens in high school not in the NFL unless you’re a dumb team.
This is week one of training camp type of stuff that is getting messed up on New Years Day. This is for teams like the Cardinals, not a team that can get into the playoffs with a win.
Like I know you care but how do you not care enough to let the mental side of the game not be on point?