POLITASPORTS

Miami strolled into Buffalo riding a wave of increased enthusiasm and expectation; however, they floated home belly up. For one week Miami pretended to be the AFC favorites. Buffalo told the Fins “you may be us against Denver, but to us, you are Denver.” It was a sound clubbing as if Miami turned into a different marine mammal for sixty minutes on Sunday. This is the second season that the Dolphins have pulled into Buffalo believing they’re the top dogs in the AFC East, to leave deflated as the Hindenburg. This team was weighed in Buffalo, and they came up very light. Miami has two more games of significance before the bye week; Kansas City and Philadelphia. To convince me they are contenders, they need to win both. Otherwise, the Dolphins are just a second tier team with a sometimes exciting offense. Last week I called Sunday a test, Miami failed.

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Coaching: (D+); I argued internally if this should be an F or a D, I went with D+, which we all know is not a grade we like to give out. Scattered throughout the mess were just enough glimmers of hope to keep the grade above failing. And that is only on the offense, Fangio and his squad deserve something less than an F. I have stated all season that the defense is Miami’s greatest liability. On Sunday, they weren’t even good enough to be called awful. When the Dolphins exchanged opening touchdowns with the Bills on two consecutive drives I said “Miami can’t sustain this, they will crack before Buffalo.” My dad and brother scoffed, but in the end, Miami had no answers on Defense and that was the reason for the coordinator change. It hasn’t helped. No pressure, no run stop, no help, and no clue. The offense can’t shoulder the burden of this defense. The D-line has not been effective in creating pressure, Fangio prefers not to blitz, where is it going to come from? Without it, they are not competing with the Chiefs or Eagles, lets not think about beating them.

Coach McDaniel came up a little wanting in his play calling as well. On the first critical fourth down, after the failed challenge, the call was puzzling. It was fourth and very short, and McDaniel decides to 3 step drop his immobile quarterback. The play failed, Miami lost yards on the sack and all hope was squashed. The two point conversion was odd, I understand the logic, just not sure it set the right tone. If you hold the Bills to a FG then you’re only down two scores (14), but if you kick the PAT, then hold the Bills to three points you now have a chance to take the lead with two touchdowns. It was messy math on Coach’s part. McDaniel couldn’t figure out Buffalo’s Cover 2 defense. He never adjusted fully to the ground game even with Achane darting off twelve yards a touch! McDaniel may be a rising star, but he hasn’t ascended beyond the atmosphere just yet.

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Running Backs: (B); Achane was the lone Dolphin who swam outside the pod. Two consecutive games with multiple scores and over one hundred yards on the ground. His combined rushing stats the last two weeks are 26-304-4. That is 11.7 yards per carry, Sunday in upstate New York he averaged over 12 yards a carry. He is explosive and McDaniel and team need to get him more than 10/11 touches a game. He also added two more scores and fifty more yards receiving against the Bills and Broncos. Achane’s total touches, yards, and scores in weeks three and four were: 33-353-6. Those aren’t just Madden numbers, they are old school Madden numbers. Averaged over a season that would be 3,000.5 combined yards and 51 TDs, demolishing Sproles’ single season record of 2,696 yards and Tomlinson’s TD record of 31. Even averaged over 16 games he would break both records (2,824 yards and 48 TDs). Is it sustainable, no, probably not. But does it show he should be getting many more touches? YES. Mostert struggled only gaining 9 yards on 7 carries.

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Receivers: (C); Waddle coming back from concussion protocol was silent most of the game. At one point late, his only reception was off a pass that was deflected twice by Buffalo before Waddle dove under it before it touched the ground. Hill, too struggled to get separation and when he did make a catch (only three) he wasn’t able to escape for chunk YAC (yards after catch). I like Barrios, but if he is your leading receiver, things aren’t going according to your game plan. Buffalo dictated what Miami did all afternoon, including to whom they threw. Evident by Barrios also leading in targets, not only receptions. McDaniel struggled to understand the Bills’ scheme and therefore was futile in overcoming it. This grade is as much a reflection on the Head Coach as the receivers, but it was ugly all day. “The Greatest Surf on Turf” as I dubbed them after week two, well before Denver limped to town, floundered and flipped around Sunday trying to get back into the water and swim south.

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Defense: (F); I have given this Defense grades of D+, B+, and A+. The “group grade” portion has inflated their grade over the first quarter of the season, but it all came crashing down on Sunday. No matter how “fiery” your offense may be, teams aren’t going to win many contests giving up forty eight points. I said after week one “if Miami wants to start making the Dean’s List, they need to address the defense” a month in, and the defense still has much work to do. Kohou had two mind numbing penalties, the late hit and the pass interference. Both extended drives that lead to scores, neither are acceptable. The pass interference was the most frustrating because had he only turned to find the ball, it would most likely not have been called and he may have come away with an underthrown pass. Instead he face guarded and made contact with the receiver, instant flag. Chubb has not lived up to the trade. Miami struggles to rush from the edge leaving little room for Sieler and Wilkins on the interior. Miami must pressure opposing quarterbacks or they will lose more games than they win, figure this out. In two games against quality starting QBs Miami has allowed a QBR over 100 (Allen’s was near perfect) and completing 70% of their passes. Miami has five more games left on the schedule against quality (above average) QBs, Allen, Jackson, Mahomes, Prescott, and Hurts; they will not win any of them if the defense plays like it did on Sunday and week one. Those teams, unlike the Chargers, are too good if their offense can score.

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Special Teams: (C); Sanders converted both his PATs and Bailey punted the ball well with a 46 yard average. Miami did fail to convert a two point conversion, which technically, is “Special Teams” even though it was the regular offense attempting to score. Barrios did well on the kicks he was able to return. Miami’s kick coverage wasn’t spectacular allowing one twenty five yard return. It was forgettable. That is just what the team needs to do, forget this game.

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Quarterback: (C-); Tua continues to play as one would expect from a quarterback of his caliber. Player ranks are all subjective. Look at any teams draft board and that will be obvious. Teams have differing metrics when evaluating talent. I called Tua “a quality QB” and I stand firm he has not risen above that threshold. I have said he may, this isn’t definitive and many will disagree. Let me throw in a couple more “quality” quarterbacks for comparison: Kirk Cousins, Dak Prescott, Lamar Jackson, Herbert, Burrow (falling), Hurts (rising), these are all “quality” starters in the NFL. Purdy (rising), Lawrence, Watson (demoted here), Stafford (also relegated), and Goff (rising) make up the “solid starter” bunch and then below that are the YIKES! crew, this is the largest crew in the NFL. The Elite group only has two members Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. Burrow was heading here, but either that calf is worse than we’ve been told, or he was playing WAY above his head for two years. I tend to believe its the calf. Tua is steady in the Quality camp. I’m not sure he has the physical gifts to elevate to “Elite” no matter what the Dolphins achieve with him as their starter. Flacco, Rypien, Dilfer, these are all Super Bowl winning quarterbacks, I don’t believe anyone is calling them “elite.” Winning alone doesn’t earn promotion.

Tua still makes questionable decisions and his interception on the second drive of the second half which could’ve cut the lead to seven? Was gut wrenching. It lead to a microscopic field for Buffalo and an insurmountable three touchdown disadvantage. His deftness in the pocket is also suspect. He could have avoided huge sacks on a couple of occasions by getting rid of the football. On two fourth downs he didn’t even attempt a pass and instead just volunteered the sack. It was a frustrating day for the Miami QB. He needs to improve to beat the Giants this week. I did like that he picked up some quality yards on broken plays, mobile he isn’t, but peppering in 3-4 take offs a game on broken down plays will help keep the secondary and edge rushers honest.

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Officials: (C-); There were a few calls that seemed a bit “ticky-tacky” such as the Kohou pass interference. The call though that was the most glaring was the third down play when Barrios stretched the ball over the line to gain but was ruled short. McDaniel challenged, which he should’ve done, and though the video appeared to confirm Barrios did in fact get the ball pass the marker, was not over turned. Even the announcer Tony Romo believed it should have been a first down. The below images are two different games from Sunday, one ruled short, one ruled a first down, it is mind boggling. Did the officials call the play on fourth down that lead to a six yard loss? No, no they did not. But converting here would have given Dolfans hope for another four to five minutes, and Sunday, Dolfans could’ve used it.

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Overall: (F+); I was giving out A plus plusses for the wins, only fair I give this garbage an F. All told, the offensive play was enough to keep Miami in this game, it was the defense that is responsible for the blow out. Would I have thought twenty would be enough, no, but scoring twenty SHOULD NEVER result in a twenty eight point drubbing. I stated earlier this season that if Miami could keep teams to twenty five or fewer they would win most of their games due to the offense. When you allow a team to score on their first four drives without so much as a Field Goal stop, even the Dolphin’s offense can’t keep up. Sunday is a must win verse the Giants. This team can’t lose consecutive games, not after that humiliation. They must win, get to four and one and keep knocking off the teams you should beat and we’ll worry about scoring an upset later. If Miami falls to 3-2, the aroma of last year will start to permeate South Florida and the sea-saw repeating record of 2022 will be back. Win three lose three, win five lose five, etc etc etc. No thank you. Stop the Skid now. FinsUp. 16-1 is still possible.

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