To Henry McKenna
FOX Sports AFC East Lighter
Mike McDaniel’s players will love the trust he shows them. With his narrow 16-10 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, McDaniel made no drastic decisions for his Dolphins in Miami on Sunday night.
It was an aggressive match for McDaniel. But it was also impatient.
The defense saved the offense with two fourth-quarter interceptions that sealed the game. Prior to that, the Steelers looked poised to challenge the Dolphins late in the game. Miami made Pittsburgh hang out.
On Pittsburgh’s penultimate drive, the Steelers faced 3–1 from Miami’s 15-yard line. They were so close to the end zone. But one mistake led to another and Kenny Pickett gave up football late in the drive. And with the Dolphins’ offense failing to pick up a first down, the Steelers already got his one shot. But when Dolphins cornerback Noah Igbinogen managed a red zone interception, Pickett spat the ball out again.
If there was ever a game where the Dolphins wanted to deviate from their Killshot identity, this was it.The Steelers were an inferior team. The Dolphins were supposed to use Pittsburgh as the right team. But the offense lost control of the game.
On the Dolphins’ opening drive, they looked to the pace to enjoy an absolute blast. The pass came out quickly. they were accurate. he was great That’s what made the close combat scoreline amazing.
That ability didn’t last long. And it centered on McDaniel and Tua’s inability to manage the game.
The most obvious situation was McDaniel’s decision to go for it at the 14-yard line in the third quarter at 4-and-3. Most analytics services showed little benefit to choosing it. He could simply kick his goal on the field, and he could also take the lead two possessions out of him if kicker Jason Saunders scored a goal. That way, they won’t sweat so much on the Steelers’ 4th quarter drive. But McDaniel did it, and the team didn’t pay off. The situational decision was a strange one.
“After that we had a lull,” he said after the game.
The play call was even stranger. It’s a handoff to Chase Edmonds who ran without profit. Edmonds has been one of the team’s least reliable skillful players this season, with Raheem losing a snap and a touch to his Mostert. And Edmonds ran behind left guard Liam Eichenberg, the team’s least reliable offensive lineman. It certainly wasn’t what you expected.
I didn’t like McDaniel’s behavior towards the end of the first half. Teams were reluctant to use timeouts. Even when the offense looked confused en route to a false start penalty, the team lost 5 yards, a timeout (which it took to stop the clock runoff), and 20 precious seconds. clock. Later in the drive they committed a late game penalty. Neither the players nor the coaches seemed crisp or organized on the drive.
Tua’s body of work showed his lack of maturity. He finished 21 of 35 (60%) for 261 yards and a touchdown. His stat line looked clean. However, he will find that the film has plenty of room for improvement.
First and foremost, he threw a shoulder in the first quarter and made unnecessary contact just weeks after suffering a severe concussion. And he admitted it.
With the lead throughout the game, he struggled to drain the clock, but instead rushed plays early in the 4th quarter play clock. He didn’t show his security off the ball powerfully as the Steelers dropped his four near-intercept shots.
“That’s something I shouldn’t do,” he told NBC after the game.
And he had problems with situational awareness. The Dolphins needed a conversion on the third and three, and he fired downfield for an incompleteness to Tyreek Hill, who was running the goal route. It’s a low percentage of play when you have to.
Tagovailoa also missed Hill on the Dolphins’ last proper drive (before kneeling the ball). The QB failed to hit a receiver on his third down, and Tagovailoa nearly threw an interception. The dolphins had to punt.
Finally, he picks a nit with Tagovailoa precision, but this seemed to get worse over the course of the game. . But he started making mistakes high up and behind them.
The Dolphins have the potential to become a true elite football team. There’s little time to panic, especially since they ended their losing streak with a win over the Steelers, and they’ll beat the Detroit Lions (1-5) and Chicago Bears (2-4) in his next two weeks. I have. So dolphins should be fine. But starting with the rookie head coach and his third-year quarterback, they have to show they’re more mature. They need to handle their lesser opponents cleaner.
Prior to joining FOX Sports as an AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter. @ Macken analysis.
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