South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
1-3 start familiar spot for Miami
Dolphins look to turn season around again starting with Bucs
MIAMI GARDENS — The Miami Dolphins have been in this position before. Just last year.
They started 1-3, and the season looked like it was headed for a lost cause. They were playing on the road against the previous year’s NFC representative in the Super Bowl, and 1-4 appeared likely as a 9-point underdog against the San Francisco 49ers.
Sub out the Niners with the defending Super Bowl-champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and make it 10 points the Dolphins are expected to lose by, and that’s what you have ahead of Sunday’s 1 p.m. kickoff at Raymond James Stadium.
Miami, when in a similar position last year, stunned San Francisco, 43-17, and it got the team rolling on a five-game winning streak and wins in nine of the next 11, finishing 10-6.
“I think that was a coming-together game,” said cornerback Nik Needham. “I think the games last year when we lost were just like this year, beating ourselves. It’s not like the team just outplayed us. We have too many little, minor mistakes that end up having a big impact on the game. Just focusing on deleting those this week and going out there and competing and see who’s the better team. I think that will help us out.”
Sure, there are ample differences between the situations. For one, the 2020 49ers proved not to be nearly as formidable as the 2019 team that lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl played in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. They finished 6-10 last season.
The Buccaneers, returning most of the title-winning squad that then prevented the Chiefs from going back to back, don’t appear primed for the same drop-off the
49ers had. Last year’s Niners went into that game already showing signs of a demise off a Week 4 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
These Bucs are 3-1, but they have looked beatable. Just last week, the New England Patriots, the only team the Dolphins have beat, went down on a late field goal that hit off the upright no good in a 19-17 Tampa victory.
“Just no panic,” said linebacker Elandon Roberts. “We believe in the formula. We believe in the coaches. We believe in the locker room. You can’t panic this early in the season. I’ve seen people start out 5-0 and now you don’t make the playoffs. Around this time, the only people that usually panic are [the media] and whatnot. That’s why we ignore the noise outside of the building and just continue to do what we do, and that’s take it one day at a time. Once we start stringing things together, we’ll be just fine.”
Tight end Mike Gesicki appreciates the challenge of overcoming early-season adversity.
“I think that you learn through your struggles,” he said. “If everything is easy and it comes easy and you don’t ever go through tough times, you don’t learn through adversity. Me personally, in my career, both dating back to college, and now as a professional, nothing worthy is ever going to come easy. I think that if you continue to put your head down and keep working and stack good days on each other, good things are going to turn out eventually.”
Both last year’s 1-3 start and that of this season have come mostly with the Dolphins’ other quarterback aside from Tua Tagovailoa. Last season, it was veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick behind center before Tagovailoa was ready as a rookie to take over the offense. This time, with Tagovailoa fracturing his ribs early in the Sept. 19 loss to the Buffalo Bills, backup Jacoby Brissett has led the offense.
Brissett, however, hasn’t looked anything like last season’s Fitzpatrick. He struggled to get the passing game rolling until deep into the fourth quarters of the past two losses to the Las Vegas Raiders and Indianapolis Colts, trying to bring the Dolphins back from down multiple scores. Brissett faces his rookie-year mentor in the Bucs’ Tom Brady as the two played together with the Patriots in 2016.
The Dolphins likely have just this week to get by with the expectation that Tagovailoa can return for Miami’s Oct. 17 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, once he’s eligible to be activated off injured reserve.
In what could be Brissett’s final start before he has to make way for Tagovailoa’s return, he’ll look to get Gesicki and wide receiver DeVante Parker, who is questionable with a hamstring injury, involved early against the Buccaneers’ worst-ranked pass defense that is missing three starters in the secondary.
Defensively, the Dolphins could receive a boost to their 27th-ranked run defense with nose tackle Raekwon Davis expected to be activated off injured reserve and play. Miami also dodged a scare to its cornerback rotation as Xavien Howard and Byron Jones both practiced fully on Friday after being limited this past week with Jones missing Wednesday drills all together.
Dolphins coach Brian Flores, who has familiarity with Brady through 15 years together in New England, has pushed a message of looking at oneself in the mirror this week.
“Are we doing everything, am I doing everything I can?” Flores said. “Am I making the sacrifices I need to make to help this team the best way I can? I think that is something that some guys are asking themselves.”
Said tight end Durham Smythe of coming back from a 1-3 record: “We know it’s possible. … If we can be more on top of things and more consistent, things will start to click and hopefully we can go on a little bit of a run.” ...
The Dolphins elevated veteran defensive linemen Jabaal Sheard and receiver Isaiah Ford to the game day roster for Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers on Saturday.