I’ll credit the defense for keeping us alive in the loss vs. the Chiefs. They didn’t play exceptionally, but there were three straight drives where we stopped them. That’s a moral victory!
The offense is still not very good. Malik Willis is proving to be average at best. It seems like every deep ball he threw was into double coverage, where our WR wasn’t even close to being open. I don’t know why he’s throwing those balls instead of running or just waiting for someone to get open. The short crossing routes are better for him, but his long game makes me miss Tua and Hill. A lot.
Now onto our inept head coach.
First, how the hell does Hafley only dress two RBs? This is a ludicrous game plan, and they proved me right on only the 5th play of the game. Asking tiny WR Malik Washington to take RB snaps when Ollie Gordon had to leave the game was simply embarrassing. For all of Hafley’s talk about discipline and good decision-making, he has to start by looking in the mirror…AND looking at the fact that every other roster in the NFL has three or four active RBs on game day.
Hafley’s clock management was horrendous. End of the 1st half, we were in field goal range on 4th down and 5. Maybe Hafley didn’t trust Patterson to make a 57-yarder. I get that. Then the other option is to go for it. Malik is decent at picking up 5 yards here and there, and it was a makable distance.
Hafley did neither. He took a delay of game penalty and punted the ball to Mahomes.
At this point, it worked out well, because we pinned them deep. We stopped them on first down. Any other coach in the NFL would have used his timeouts in hope of getting the ball back at midfield with maybe 30 seconds left. But not brainiac Hafley.
He refused to take advantage of the fact that the Chiefs were pinned deep. He let them get away with it. Amateur coaching mistake.
Skip ahead to the second half, and this time Hafley decides to go for it on 4th down. The play call came in late. The offense was scrambling into position, confused. The play clock was clicking down 3, 2, 1… Surely Hafley would call a timeout to discuss this important 4th-down play, right? Nope. He refused to use a timeout in a situation where the whole world saw that we were hurrying weren’t lined up correctly. The result is just what you’d expect. A failed play. KC’s ball.
Asking a head coach to have a proper, sound knowledge of basic football strategy is NOT too much too ask. But clearly our coach doesn’t have it.
Admin, I agree with you on some of this, especially the Hafley criticism.
Dressing only two running backs was a mistake, and having Malik Washington taking snaps at running back after Achane went down was something that should never have been necessary. Some of the clock management was bad. The fourth-down operation was sloppy. Hafley absolutely has things he needs to clean up.
But I think we’re missing the forest for the trees here.
This is a completely new organization. New GM. New head coach. New coaching staff. New systems. A massive amount of roster turnover and one of the youngest teams in football.
We’re three games into this thing.
I don’t think the proper question right now is whether they’re making mistakes.
Of course they’re making mistakes.
The questions I’m asking are:
Are they learning? Are they improving? Are they developing players? And are they competing?
Against Kansas City, I think the answer to all four was yes.
Miami had 329 yards to Kansas City’s 334. We possessed the football for more than 34 minutes. We ran 67 offensive plays to their 49. We ran the football 31 times.
And despite everything that happened, we were sitting there late in the third quarter down 14-10 to Kansas City.
That’s not insignificant.
Especially considering what happened on the opening drive.
Achane gets hurt almost immediately and is gone for the year.
That’s our best offensive player.
The entire offensive game plan could have fallen apart right there.
It didn’t.
They kept running the football.
Ollie Gordon got 17 carries. Willis ran it nine times. Miami finished with 31 rushing attempts.
That’s something I’ve been screaming about with this franchise for years. How many Dolphins teams have we watched abandon the run the minute something went wrong?
This staff didn’t.
And look at the offensive line.
Willis had been sacked nine times through the first two games.
Kansas City didn’t sack him once.
That’s not a moral victory.
That’s improvement.
And I think we’re being a little too hard on Willis.
Was he great? No.
Were some of those deep throws questionable? Absolutely. There were balls where he probably shouldn’t have challenged double coverage.
But I’m not nearly as bothered by the missed deep balls as you are.
I WANT him throwing some of those balls right now.
The only way Willis and these receivers are ever going to develop timing on those routes is by throwing them in real games.
This isn’t Tua throwing to Tyreek Hill after years of working together. These guys are learning each other while playing NFL football.
If Willis misses five of those throws today and six weeks from now he’s hitting two or three of them, that’s development.
Think about this exact Kansas City game if two of those deep balls connect.
Suddenly 329 yards becomes 400+.
Suddenly a 14-10 football game looks completely different.
That’s what I’m looking for right now.
And the defense deserves more credit than I think you’re giving it.
Where the hell did Jacob Rodriguez come from?
I’m not ready to call the kid Zach Thomas, but my God, he LOOKS like Zach Thomas sometimes.
He’s everywhere.
Six tackles. Three tackles for loss. And he picked off Patrick Mahomes.
He’s flying around the football field like somebody shot him out of a cannon.
That’s exactly the kind of young player you hope to uncover during a rebuild.
And then there’s Chop Robinson.
Late in the third quarter, we’re down only 14-10 and Kansas City is backed up at its own 5-yard line on 3rd-and-9.
Chop absolutely explodes through and crushes Mahomes as he’s releasing the football.
Watch that play.
He doesn’t hit Mahomes in the head. He doesn’t go at his knees. He’s not late. The contact comes basically as the ball is leaving Mahomes’ hand. And as they’re going to the ground, Chop actually extends his arms trying not to drive his full body weight through Mahomes.
Flag.
Roughing the passer.
I hated the call.
Now, there was also defensive holding on Sieler on the play, so I’m not going to claim that the roughing penalty cost Miami a safety or automatically cost us possession. That’s not what happened.
But look at the situation.
We’re down 14-10.
Kansas City is at its own 5 on 3rd-and-9.
Chop has just gotten home on Mahomes.
Without the defensive penalty, Kansas City is very possibly punting out of its own end zone and Miami has a legitimate chance of getting the football somewhere around midfield down four points.
Get a field goal and it’s 14-13.
Get a touchdown and Miami is leading Kansas City going into the fourth quarter.
That’s an entirely different football game.
I’m not saying Miami definitely wins.
I’m saying we were close enough that individual plays still mattered.
That’s important.
This wasn’t a 35-7 game where we’re digging through garbage time trying to find something positive.
We were legitimately in the football game.
And Chop didn’t just make that one play. As the game went along, he started showing up more. He started generating pressure. He and Rodriguez combined to blow up another play for a six-yard loss.
That’s what I’m talking about when I say I’m seeing development.
Rodriguez is emerging.
Chop is beginning to affect games.
The offensive line just went from allowing nine sacks over two games to allowing ZERO against Kansas City.
The defense put together three consecutive stops against Patrick Mahomes.
We lost Achane on the opening drive and STILL ran the football 31 times.
And we were four points behind Kansas City late in the third quarter.
Those aren’t moral victories.
They’re developmental markers.
There’s a difference.
And maybe that’s where you and I are looking at this team differently right now.
We’ve spent twenty years watching Dolphins teams make the same mistakes over and over again. So I completely understand why every mistake immediately feels like:
“Here we go again. Same Old Dolphins.”
Believe me, I’ve been there too.
But I don’t think we should become so conditioned to looking for dysfunction that we fail to recognize improvement when it’s happening right in front of us.
For the first time in a long time, I’m watching a Dolphins team where I see young players playing their asses off.
I see an offensive line improving.
I see a coaching staff that didn’t abandon its running game when its star running back went down.
I see a defense starting to make plays.
I see young players like Rodriguez emerging.
I see Chop Robinson starting to become disruptive.
And most importantly, I’m seeing something improve every week.
That doesn’t mean Hafley gets a pass.
Dressing two running backs was stupid.
Fix it.
The clock management was bad.
Fix it.
The fourth-down operation was sloppy.
Fix it.
Willis threw some balls he shouldn’t have thrown.
Fix it.
That’s what this season is for.
If we’re ten or twelve games into this thing and Hafley is still making the same clock-management mistakes, we’re still dressing two running backs, Willis is still throwing hopeless balls into double coverage and these young players aren’t progressing, I’ll be standing right beside you asking what the hell we’re doing.
But we’re THREE GAMES into a complete rebuild.
I’m not going to evaluate that the same way I’d evaluate a veteran team that’s been together for four years and is supposed to be competing for a Super Bowl.
Right now I want to see trajectory.
And so far, I see it.
That’s why I came away from this game feeling differently than you did.
Our best offensive player went down on the opening drive.
We’re playing Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City.
We’re starting a quarterback who’s still learning this offense.
We’re playing kids all over the field.
And those guys didn’t fold.
They kept coming.
They played their asses off.
It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a Dolphins team lose and still felt like the guys wearing those uniforms genuinely gave a shit about what was happening on that football field.
I saw that Sunday.
So I’m not celebrating 0-3.
I’m not lowering the standard.
Eventually this has to turn into wins.
But I’m also not going to spend an entire rebuild looking for evidence that these are the Same Old Dolphins and ignore the evidence that maybe—just maybe—we’re watching the beginning of something different.
Don’t give me moral victories. Give me development.
Right now, I’m seeing development.
Now let’s see what they do with it.
Good points and well spoken. As the week went on, my feelings toward Hafley intensified, and I became angrier as I re-watched his clock decisions. When we had the Chiefs pinned deep before halftime, I assume his thought process was just to let the clock run out and take the ball after halftime. That’s not a bad option if the ball were at midfield. But they were back deep. Calling a timeout gives Mahomes an extra play. He can be dangerous. I get it. But what is the worst that can happen on that play? Mahomes throws a 95-yard bomb? Very very unlikely. Anyway, let’s hope the player improvement continues. As you guys know, I am a HUGE believer in continuity. Imagine coming into training camp one year and already knowing the system inside and out. We NEVER seem to have that. McDaniel had 3 different defenses in 4 years. This means rookies and veterans alike had to start from scratch 3 different times. There was no “let’s get to work” when camp started. Instead it was, “Let’s learn a new defensive philosophy for the 3rd time.” Right, Matt Burke? Right, Anthony Weaver? Right, Vic Fangio? etc.
So even if the players don’t improve every single game, just having familiarity with the scheme as time goes by can only help.