I’m not even sure where to begin, so I’ll start at the top. Mike McDaniel had an enormous role in this loss.

Sometimes, you have to look at the detailed nuances of a mistake to see its gravity. Here is one such case. So forgive me as I go into the excrutiating detail here:

With the Colts leading by 3 late in the game and facing a 4th and goal from around our 5 yardline, Indy made it look like they were going for it, but then backed away and ran their kicker onto the field.

With all the Colts running back and forth, they would not have enough time to get the FG attempt off. Clearly their plan was to call a time out so their kicker could set up properly.

But Mike McDaniel was too stupid to understand this, and instead he himself called the timeout. That wasted timeout came back later and cost us the game.

McDaniel simply did not know the rules of football. And to compound this, he wasn’t even watching the field.

First of all, as soon as the Colts sent in the FG team, by rule, the Dolphins are allowed to take their time and get their proper subs in. You can’t have 22 offensive men on the field running around, trying to confuse the defense about if they’re going for the TD or the FG. Instead, you have to settle on your 11, and then the defense gets to counter with its 11.

That is a simple NFL rule that McDaniel didn’t know.

He had all the time in the world to get his FG defense out there, but he panicked. He didn’t know the rules and he panicked and he got conned into a taking a timeout. The announcers noted this, laughingly suggesting that there was no way the Colts were going for it. The Colts coach laughed at us too. Like many before him, they had suckered McDaniel into a bad decision.

In addition to not knowing the rules, McDaniel wasn’t even paying attention to the field. Because the Colts had so many men running back and forth, the referee did the correct thing…he stood right behind the center.

Let that sink in and watch the replay. The referee was standing by the center, not allowing him to put the ball in play. The ref was waiting patiently for McD to send out his FG defense team, but McD didn’t even notice.

For some reason, McD thought the Colts were about to snap the ball, even though the ball wasn’t in play yet! The ref was holding up play, and there was no reason for McD to panic. But he did.

The ref would not let the Colts snap the ball, because he knew that Miami was still entitled to make defensive substitutions. But blind and ignorant McDaniel was still in panic mode, running his fancy shoes down to call a timeout without even noticing that the ref on the field was holding up play.

The ref was literally giving McD all the time in the world to make a substitution, but McD called a timeout instead of simply sending out his FG defense team.

These are inexcusable mistakes for a third-year head coach.

As my regular readers know, I’m a bit more conservative than McDaniel, and I usually don’t agree when he goes for it so often on 4th down. But in yesterday’s game, McD made the opposite mistake.

With 5 minutes left and the Dolphins facing a 4th and inches from the Colts’ 37, McDaniel opted for a 55-yard FG. This helped doom the game.

It’s a long FG, and Sanders can be inconsistent. Gaining an inch on a QB sneak is not guaranteed, but it’s far more likely than a low-percentage FG. PLUS…and this part is big…even of Sanders made the FG, the Colts get the ball back with plenty of time to march down the field…which is exactly what they did.

Kicking the tying FG with 5 seconds left is the correct idea. Kicking it with 5 minutes left and you only need an inch? Wrong idea.

Other McD decisions haunted the team as well. With the Dolphins rushing the ball at will, having Jaylen Wright gash through the Colts for 12 yards at a time, we faced a first and 10 inside the red zone. It was a 10-10 game and Achane and Wright had us on the move. Until McD got cute.

For some ridiculously incorrect reason, McD called a FB plunge to Alec Ingold, who promptly fumbled the game away. That same play (which usually gets stuffed, by the way) is our bread and butter play for third and inches. But on first down?

Who the hell calls for a Fullback Dive from 13 yards away…on first down!

In fairness, McD is not the guy who dropped the ball. But he did insert the guy who dropped the ball, and he made a horrible play call. Even if Ingold held onto it, we got no gain.

Ingold, Mostert, and Sanders had the most glaring errors, but they had monster athletes from the opponents influencing them into split-second mistakes.

Mike McDaniel had no such excuses. He had time and resources and even referees helping him out, and he still blew this game.

To close on a positive note, I’ll give props to unheralded Tim Boyle. The guy led us into the red zone on three separate drives for zero points, all thanks to Ingold, Sanders, and McDaniel. He has outplayed Skylar and Huntley both. If Tua is unavailable Sunday, then Boyle has earned his start.

And a separate positive note on the defense, who held us into this game…again. Although I don’t know why Anthony Weaver went to prevent defense with 20 seconds left in the first half and let the Colts back into the game while we were pitching a shutout (probably a McDaniel decision), for the most part the players themselves were stellar.

4 Comments

  1. Thank you again for your perspective and analysis. Also the “fancy shoes” line made me laugh! I’m beginning to think the whole “cool guy” coach experiment is a failure. McD has allowed his players to be too close to him. There was a video clip of him goofing with Waddle, Tyreek, and ODB at some point in the game. Again, I’m not sure when it happened but it’s not a good look for a team with the caliber of players we have and the lackluster performance from them. Would a coach like Dan Campbell be okay with this team? I think not. And he certainly wouldn’t be goofing and laughing with them either. Anyway, Tua is most likely going to play this Sunday. We’ll see if the offense improves or we’re just the same ‘ol Dolphins.

    1. Author

      Somewhere in the back of my mind, I feel that McDaniel cares about how he looks on TV. The watch, the shoes with no socks, the designer track suit that don’t cover his full leg. He calculates his image, which distracts him from calculating what to do on 1st and 10.

      1. Not So much discipline with McDaniel.

        Sometimes it feels like the primary goal in of McD, Tua, Tyreek, and Jaylen is to have fun while fleecing the billionaire owner. How does that feel, Mr. Ross?

  2. And Gosh-oh-gosh, I am so tired of the wordy 7-layer dip that is the Um-McDaniel
    press conference….

    The other McDaniel play call that was infuriating was the 2nd and goal call. instead of rushing the ball, he chose a pass play that resulted in a sack. Fortunately, Junnu Smith scrapped and scored on the subsequent 3rd down dinky pass play from 10 yard line

    I do like that they ran the ball 40 times for the 2nd week in a row. Keep doing that!

    In fairness, they were successful with their game plan, but shot themselves in foot with fumbles and Bambi McDaniel decision making and penalties. If not for the Mostert fumble, Dolphins win the game.

    admin, you have documented well McDaniel’s poor poor in-game situation decision making over his past year and a half. He is really inexperienced and clueless.

    Looking back, I think their prolific and quick scoring offense masked McDaniel’s inexperience. his in-game mistakes were less consequential.

    I hope they continue to stick to the running game, rush at least 30 times a game. With concussed Tua back, we will have a better passing success to compliment the running game.

    Let’s Go Dolphins! 🐬

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