MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — I don’t know how, or if, Miami Dolphins coaches and players can keep this team together any longer. You get the sense things are falling apart, but still somehow being loosely held together even in the wake of Sunday’s potentially back-breaking 29-27 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
But at some point soon these players are going to realize that they’re not a good team, which is what their 1-5 record screams. At some point soon these players are going to realize, as I have, that their assessment of their talents a mere two months ago (I had them winning nine games) was off base.
And that’s when this thing falls apart completely. That day is on the horizon.
The Dolphins aren’t going to quit. The Dolphins have always been a team full of fighters under coach Mike McDaniel. I wrote in December about my admiration and appreciation for their fighting spirit. They battle. They like McDaniel. They respect McDaniel. They want to win for McDaniel.
But soon they’re going to stop listening to what McDaniel has to say because they’ll look at his 29-30 (.492) record as Dolphins coach, which includes his 0-2 showing in the playoffs as well as this season’s disappointing 1-5 start, and they’ll realize McDaniel’s words and methods are ineffective.
Things are already unraveling. Twice this past week Dolphins players have said the quiet part out loud. After Sunday’s game, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa acted as though he’d lost his mind.
What the heck was that stuff he said postgame about players not attending players-only meetings or showing up late to those meetings? He later clarified, saying he only meant to say players were late to players-ony meetings. Whatever the case, the postgame interview podium isn’t the time or place to bring that up (although as a journalist, I’m glad he said it in a public forum).
Tua’s words make the team appear disinterested and unprofessional. It makes McDaniel appear as though he’s lost control. You wonder how Tua can be so tone deaf to how these things play out in the real world. It’s inexcusable for a team leader to be that, well, stupid.
It was one thing for rookie defensive tackle Kenneth Grant to say publicly a few days ago that coaches are now attending defensive line players meetings. That makes the defensive line look weak and devoid of leadership. But Grant is a rookie. He doesn’t know what he can and can’t say publicly.
Tua is a vet, and a team leader. He should know better than to air such dirty laundry publicly. When things such as that happen it’s an indication that this house of cards built by McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier is being blown down, which seems to be the case.
By the way, I ran that scenario of coaches attending meetings by a veteran offensive player and he looked at me as though I was crazy. He said it must only be the case for defense, or the defensive line, because it hasn’t happened with offense.
Whatever the case, things along those lines make this team look weak and disorganized.
For what it’s worth, players still believe this is a good team. I talked to them during the past week, and I talked to them in the locker room after Sunday’s game. Of course, it seems to be stubborn pride speaking more than practicality.
I asked outside linebacker Bradley Chubb how he can convince himself that a 1-5 team still has what it takes.
“Ain’t no convincing,” he replied, “It’s just about what we believe, what we know. The record doesn’t reflect it, but we’ve just got to go out there and continue to believe it, continue to walk like it, continue to talk like it. Because we’ve got a talented team, we’ve got everything we need. It’s just about finishing.”
Veteran safety Minkah Fitzpatrick basically said the same thing when I asked about the mood of the locker room.
“We lost the game so we’re not happy,” Fitzpatrick said, “but there’s a lot of games left to play. We are a good team despite our record. That’s kind of where we stand.”
But how do you convince yourself you’re good when you’re 1-5?
“I don’t have to convince myself,” he said.
I asked left tackle Patrick Paul how he’d describe the locker room mood after the game and he summed it up in one word.
“Sadness,” he said. “You saw the emotional roller-coaster. Fifty seconds left, we stormed down, pulling out an 80-something yard score. Then, everyone saw the end result. We just have to find ways to finish.”
If only it was that simple. Find ways to finish. New England. Buffalo. Carolina. And now, the Chargers. The Dolphins had chances to win each of those games. But they lost.
The Dolphins will never quit. But soon they’ll quit believing. And that’s when it’ll be time to part ways with Grier, McDaniel, Tua and everyone else who played a major role in this disappointing season, and this disappointing era of Dolphins football. You get the feeling that day is coming soon.
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