Bad gets worse as calamity-struck Miami Dolphins lose another game and another QB | Opinion
Miami Dolphins fans awakened Sunday to the news Mercury Morris, a franchise icon and star running back from the 1972-73 Super Bowl championship years, had passed away the previous night at age 77 as the aging founders of this club’s glory days keep fading to memory one by one.
Dolfans could have used a morale boost from their team, a reason to feel good, on Sunday in Seattle.
They got hit with the opposite.
I’m not sure which was worse: The Dolphins’ overall sloppiness and dishevelment in a lopsided 24-3 loss to the Seahawks, or the team being down to its third-string quarterback as the sad day ended with Miami now 1-2 and its most important position rocked by calamity.
Star QB Tua Tagovailoa, out Sunday and for at least the next three games with a concussion, made the trip and stood on the sideline.
“Awesome seeing him out there supporting the team,” said defensive tackle Zach Sieler, who had a big game.
It was a shame Tagovailoa had to watch it, though. I know it had to be painful for fans.
His backup, Skylar Thompson, started but was knocked out with 9:35 left in the third quarter when pushed down as he released the ball. That exacerbated an earlier injury to his ribs sustained when sacked. Hindsight informs that Thompson should not have come back in after that sack, but he did.
QB No. 3 Tim Boyle, signed by the team only three weeks ago and elevated from the practice squad just this past week, finished the game.
Thompson after the game was unable to dress himself for the pain and seemingly will be out for awhile and likely also headed to the injury list and lost for several weeks. The Dolphins have Boyle and/or newly signed Tyler Huntley in the near-term future unless someone else is signed. (And I’ll say it again: Anybody got Ryan Tannehill’s number? This team needs a veteran backup!)
“It’s a long season. It’s Week 3,” said coach Mike McDaniel afterward. “But we have to get better collectively, starting with myself. I’ve never won a game with three points. But the rest of the league does not care [about our problems]. We have to get it figured out fast.”
The many fans who have never appreciated Tagovailoa quite enough and figured anybody running this offense could do as well should be doing a bit of reckoning today, a little reconsideration.
The quarterback situation moving forward is murky.
So is Miami’s very fragile standing in the early chase for an NFL playoff spot.
It wasn’t just Tagovailoa being out or Thompson getting hurt that caused what happened Sunday.
Oh, that was a bunch of it as the offense sputtered and stalled all day, converting only one of 12 third-down plays and 0 for 3 on fourth down.
But the defense was a first-half letdown, giving up 188 passing yards that dug a 17-3 halftime hole.
And Miami committed 11 penalties for 85 yards on the day. Many were on the special teams unit, whose coach, Danny Crossman, likely had the worst return flight of his career.
The Dolphins actually were fortunate to only trail 17-3 at the break after a first half as abysmal and unwatchable as any in recent memory.
Coach Mike McDaniel better hone his pregame talks because Miami has now been outscored by 38 points in the first half through three games.
The Fins’ pass defense was beyond awful Sunday in the first two quarters as the team was outgained in total net yards 223 to 87.n
As for the dumb mistakes, one sequence in particular saw the Dolphins rivaling the Keystone Cops for incompetence. (Google it, kids).
With the ball on thirrd-and-6 there was a false start by guard Liam Eichenberg, illegal formation by tackle Austin Jackson, another illegal formation penalty, and then — on fourth-and-39 — an unnecessary roughness penalty against Miami’s pratfalling special teams.
That latter erased a punt that had been down on the opponent’ 5-yard line and Seattle ended up with the ball at its 42.
It was mess, almost comical in the sloppiness and ineptitude.
“Eleven penalties for 85 yards … I have to look at that hard at how to play clean football,” McDaniel said. “They were self-inflicted wounds. We have to learn to handle the road better. The crowd was rocking. and we looked like it was the first time we’d see a hostile environment.”
Seattle scored on a long field goal, on two Zach Charbonnet runs and on DK Metcalf’s 71-yard catch.
Miami countered meekly with a field goal as Thompson managed only 52 yards passing and took two sacks, and Tyreek Hill had zero catches on two targets.
“It is not going smoothly in the first half for the Miami Dolphins,” said the CBS announcer in an understatement of the century nominee.
It was unfathomably painful to watch.
There is good news coming out of all this as I do the limbo, bending over backward to see the positive, to see the glass half full while acknowledging the glass is cracked and leaking. Here’s that good news:
The schedule from now until Tagovailoa’s likely return is not menacing. It’s home vs. Tennessee on Monday, Sept. 30, at New England, a bye week, at Indianapolis and home vs. Arizona, which is the earliest Tua could return.
If Miami can win at least two or three of those winnable games and Tagovailoa comes back as soon as possible and stays healthy, the still-young season might not be lost.
It felt like it was Sunday, for sure.
More so, when you saw Tua Tagovailoa in a ballcap on the sideline and then Skylar Thompson hurting badly and walking to the X-ray room.
As Seiler said afterward with blunt accuracy: “Football’s violent.”
Sometimes the optimism for your team or season doesn’t come easily. Sometimes you have to work for it.
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Miami Herald
Greg Cote is a Miami Herald sports columnist who in 2021 was named top 10 in column writing by the Associated Press Sports Editors. Greg also hosts The
Greg Cote Show podcast and appears regularly on The Dan LeBatard Show With Stugotz.
