Dave Hyde: As Bills and Jets add needed help, Dolphins need crucial answers now

Dave Hyde, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Oct 15, 2024

Published in Football

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Somewhere over the long football weekend in which Bill Belichick made fun of the New York Jets and Buffalo’s Josh Allen maintained control of the AFC East, a tremor of new went through the division.

The Buffalo Bills won again, then traded for Amari Cooper.

The Jets showed some life, then traded for Davante Adams.

Even the Patriots took a step, a small one, toward tomorrow.

The Dolphins, meanwhile, need answers today. This next practice. By Sunday in Indianapolis, for certain, considering the season again will have the feel of the end of a gangplank. Can they again stop the plunge into cold water?

There’s still plenty of season for the Dolphins to reclaim their way. A 2-3 record isn’t a death sentence. Even division opponents adding prime pieces isn’t a prime problem.

But the Dolphins haven’t played well in any game while having the easiest NFL schedule thus far (opponents have a league-low .400 win percentage). Three of their five games were against one-win teams. Tennessee beat the Dolphins for their only win.

See, its not just the quarterback situation behind an injured Tua Tagovailoa that’s been botched to date. Coach Mike McDaniel said the question he delved into before their last game, a win at New England, was, “Why are we 1-3?”

He updated it to 2-3 this past bye week and peeled back the involved layers for answers. The material evidence sits in front of everyone.

Last in scoring. Last in penalties per game. Second-to-last in red-zone touchdowns. Twenty-ninth in third-down conversion percentage. Twenty-seventh in sacks. Twenty-third in turnover margin. The special teams squad that ranked 31st last season has picked up there again.

Some good news: The defense leads the league in stopping teams on third down. That’s a nice number, even as an outlier.

“We got better before we played the Patriots, and my expectation is that we have a collective understanding of how that got better — not to be confused with what we want or our desired result,’’ McDaniel said. “There was no magic fairy dust that got that better; our operation and our communication was better because we put the work in at that, and so my expectation is to see all of my teammates double down on that and to improve up what we improved upon.”

The Dolphins found a running game against New England with 193 yards on the ground. That’s a useful idea, especially with Tua out another week. But the Dolphins defense also was shredded to 7.9 yards per carry by the Patriots. Indianapolis surely noticed that, considering its own quarterback issues.

The goal isn’t so much to win the season in October. It’s not to lose it here. It’s to keep possibilities alive for December.

“The most important, absolute, non-negotiable is you have to be playing your best football at the end of the year for you to like the results of the end of the year,’’ McDaniel said. “I think what has to be done in this bye week is the same thing that’s had to be done in the last two, is that we have to as coaches and players collectively evolve and have our best football at the end of the season.”

Two late games are against the Jets. They evolved some even while losing to Buffalo on Monday night. Adams gives quarterback Aaron Rodgers the kind of familiar receiver their offense needs. Belichick, speaking on the ManningCast during Monday’s game, addressed the overarching problem of the Jets in discussing fired coach Robert Saleh.

“I’m not a big Jets fan, in case you don’t know that,’’ Belichick said. “I thought Coach Saleh really did a good job with this team. … That’s kind of what it’s been there with the Jets. They’ve barely won over 30 percent in the last 10 years. The owner being the owner … ready, aim, fire.”

Belichick’s former New England team welcomed quarterback Drake Maye with the kind of three-touchdown loss rebuilding teams love to celebrate. Maybe it’s a ray of hope?

Buffalo remains atop the AFC East and added some marginal help in Cooper. He’s better than any receiver they had. He gives Allen a respectable option downfield.

The Dolphins sit three games behind Buffalo already. But Buffalo isn’t their target coming out of this bye week. It’s themselves. Their penalties, their discipline, their involved problems through five games that need answers with so much season still in front of them.