So, the Dolphins beat the 2nd worst team in the NFL bowl on Sunday. I guess that’s nice. I mean I will take the win, any fan would. However, it’s hard to get excited for a win to a team that bad after losing 7 straight. It doesn’t really inspire confidence when your left and right tackles got absolutely destroyed all game. Houston turned the ball over four times. The Texans tried everything in their power to give the game away because they are clearly in tanking mode and the Dolphins did everything in their power to try to give it right back. The Dolphins don’t own their own first round pick and jobs are on the line right now, so it does not benefit them at all to continue losing games. The Dolphins must have felt that they still owe the Texans for the Laremy Tunsil trade because every time it felt like momentum was swinging towards the Dolphins, the Dolphins coughed the ball up. Which is part of the reason the Dolphins only scored 17 points against such a bad team.
Five turnovers is a lot in an NFL game. Frankly, it’s a lot in a college and high school game as well. Ball security is something that is they teach and preach from the Pop Warner levels. Hold the ball “high and tight” and “with both arms” when running through contact. The Miami Hurricanes fumbled the ball three times on Saturday, and it felt like the sky was falling. What did the Dolphins do on Sunday in response to the Hurricanes lack of ball security? They told the ‘Canes “hold my beer,” I will see your 3 fumbles and raise you 2 interceptions on top of that!
Frustrating is an understatement. The Dolphins lack the fundamentals and foundational structure of a team that you would consider being just an elite quarterback away from being a contender. The Bengals back in the Andy Dalton era was an elite quarterback away. Dalton was surrounded by incredible talent, but they could only go so far when they had a backup level quarterback leading their offense. The Broncos, when Peyton Manning signed with them, was a quarterback away. The Tampa Bay Bucs, when Tom Brady chose them, was a quarterback away. The Cleveland Browns right now are an elite trigger man away. These Dolphins are a left tackle, right tackle, left guard, right guard, center, running back, x-wide receiver, slot receiver, edge rusher, inside linebacker, outside linebacker, nickel corner, strong safety, competent general manager, new offensive coordinator, and maybe an elite trigger man away from being a good team. That’s a lot of positions to fill for a team that had as much draft capital and cap space as it did the past two years to fill those holes and transform this team from the laughingstock Adam Gase left it as into a playoff team. Grier and Flores, two minority hires that I supported to get the jobs have simply have not gotten the job done.
So yeah, I will take the win. It just angers me that we waited this long to get back to our defensive principles of cover zero blitzes instead of playing so much zone coverages that made us 2nd to last in pass defense in the NFL. It angers me to watch Josh Allen get served some humble pie and we are not the ones serving it. Urban Meyer and the Jacksonville Jaguars did something on Sunday that we haven’t done in our last seven tries, beat Buffalo. I will try not to complain too much though. It was a good sports weekend for the 3-oh-5. The Hurricaness won, the Heat won, the Seminoles lost, the Panthers won, the Bills lost, and the Dolphins finally ended their losing streak. Let’s see if they can keep that same energy going against a tougher opponent with the Baltimore Ravens looming on Thursday night at Hard Rock.
