Offense, Defense, or Special Teams? Or Coaching? Pick your poison.
Reader Sean sent me a very sad statistic yesterday: The Colts scored on every single one of their possessions. Every one!
That has not happened in the NFL since 1977, when many of us weren’t alive.
I knew our defense would be bad. Chris Grier giving us a secondary full of castoffs, rookies, and undrafted no-names was very dangerous. Even if all these j.v. guys were healthy, it would be a terrible secondary. But when they started dropping likes flies (Artie Burns, Storm Duck), it went from bad to worse.
On top of that, throw in the fact that Grier made little effort to keep Jevon Holland nor Jalen Ramsey. (The handling of Ramsey is a whole nother discussion, compounded by the way they handled Jonnu Smith. More to come).
Anyway, it was not a surprise that our defense is abysmal. But it WAS a surprise to see just how low it could get. Just how bad. Just as humiliating.
We put up 70 points on the Broncos 2 years ago, but at least their defense stopped us a few times. The colts “only” scored 33, but they scored every single time they touched the ball. Ouch!
Even though I knew we had the worst secondary in NFL history going into the game, I naively thought that our pass rush would make up for it. Nope.
Except for a sack by Bradley Chubb, the pass rush was nonexistent. We made Daniel Jones look like an NFL-quality quarterback instead of the bum that he is.
As usual, we made no adjustments. As usual (for the past 25 years) we cannot cover a tight end. Whether it’s an unknown rookie TE, a legitimate star TE, or some random 4th-string TE, the Dolphins never assign a decent slot corner to cover a simple crossing pattern by the TE.
On our only “stop” of the day, Matthew Judon decided to run into the punter, which negated the stop and took away whatever life we may have had left.
If he had not run into the punter, we were set to get the ball back, and the offense certainly would have scored. That’s a joke. We were not going to score.
The offensive line looks as bad as ever, and made worse when yet another starter went down. Sadly, the two plays where the line looked good and finally gave Tua some time were the two interceptions. Yes, on both of his interceptions, he had plenty of time to throw the ball. Unfortunately, he made ghastly throws.
In between those picks was a devastating fumble. A defender had a free shot at Tua because Achane missed his block by a mile, and Tua had no pocket presence nor ball protection when trying to escape. The result was a fumble, of course, and a recovery by–adding insult to injury–Xavien Howard.
The passing game seems identical to the failed passing games of last year. No one is getting open fast enough. No one is getting yards after their catch. No one is burying their opponent with a huge block. It’s just really bad.
Both teams had months and months to prepare for this game and to plan things out. On the Colts’ opening possession, they immediately threw to their rookie tight end for a huge gain. It was as if–believe it or not–they knew for months that they were going to open their season with this play, and they practiced it.
The Dolphins, on the other hand, don’t plan. They wait to see what the defense is doing and then plan a play. McDaniel was a step behind all day long. No leadership. Wasted timeouts. 12 men on the field. Not challenging a play that the refs missed.
He is not a leader. He should not be a head coach. Stephen Ross has never learned a lesson.
Welcome back, Admin. Sorry I could not attend game chat. I listened to the game, and that was Gawd Awful Ugly.
In the end reality wins. It just took awhile.
All of the narratives, reframing, PR, social media influencing cannot hide the underlying
reality that McDaniel is not a good coach and that Tua is not a great QB. We have discussed this ad nauseam, so no need to relitigate.
In Tua’s defense, I think he might succeed in an offense that is run-first primary, and pass-second secondary.
But this performance yesterday was awful and leads me to the opinion that he should retire.
I heard QBR of 2.7 for the game. IMO, I think we need to seriously consider yesterday’s performance a consequence of his multiple concussions. A cognitive relapse of some sort. it might also explain why his turnovers come in bunches, as Omar Kelly was noticing. it’s a concussion symptom, IMO.
—
At least the 2nd game was a bit better for Tua. But I keep remembering on the first drive in both games, he threw a pick. We were lucky in the 2nd game because there was a Pats penalty.
So glad to see you again. Thanks for your website. I love it. Yes, I’m shocked and I don’t think even the most optimistic fans can find a silver lining because there isn’t even close to one. I mean with all the talent we have to lose to the colts in the first place(journeymen quarterback at that) no matter by how much is bad but to get blown out wow just wow!!!!!!!!! Real bad season coming because we all had this penciled in as a win with their brutal second half schedule where we had to be 6-2 or 7-1. We definitely counted Buffalo in Buffalo as a loss. If we lose next week against New England we need to start the rebuild for the millionth time. No sense in not getting a head start the season is over at that point and it would be foolish to believe or say anything else
Assuming we lose to the Bills, we have two bad opponents after that. THEN we will truly know how bad we are !
Hey Admin, I loved this post. It made me both laugh and cry. Because it is spot on. The overall vibe in South Florida is very bad for the Dolphins. Talk radio is talking about how well we respond this weekend against the Patsies- a game which we are favored to win by two points. However, there is talk that a loss against the Patsies and the Bills could results in McD leaving the stadium without a job. You know it’s bad when former Dolphins players – OJ McDuffie, Kim Bokamper, and Joe Rose, voice how unenthused the team looked and played. So, McD could be on the chopping block very soon if there is not a dramatic shift. We’ll see. Also, some more off field drama with Tyreek. See link: https://www.tmz.com/2025/09/08/tyreek-hill-ex-domestic-violence-allegations/
Also, a fun fact – Tyreek’s last reception of over 30 yards was against Jacksonville – the game when he was arrested outside the stadium.
Can things be any worse???
Yes, they can get worse. Just wait till Thursday night !