Play-calling vs. Raiders shows offense lacks identity

This is one of those instances where maybe two heads aren’t better than one.

The Miami Dolphins offense has struggled so far this season, and even though it’s early are we going to ignore that Miami’s offense has struggled for most of Brian Flores’ tenure as the Dolphins’ head coach?

Hell, the Dolphins offense has struggled for most of the past two decades.

But this year’s unit, which is being led by George Godsey and Eric Studesville, who share a co-offensive coordinator title and the responsibilities that come with it, has been hold-your-nose bad.

And too many plays during Sunday’s 31-28 overtime loss to the Las Vegas Raiders has me losing hope that Miami’s offense will eventually get its act together.

Not having the team’s starting quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, obviously isn’t ideal. And having a leaky offensive line certainly doesn’t help.

But the Dolphins kept shooting themselves in the foot with their play-calling on Sunday, and there have been too many snapshots of play-calling issues to make me optimistic that Miami will eventually blossom into a top-16 offense in the league this season.

What team throws a quick screen to a receiver standing in his own end zone on first-and-10 from the 1-yard line?

The Dolphins that’s who. And it resulted in a safety when the Raiders tackled Jaylen Waddle in the end zone in the first quarter. That play triggered the Raiders’ 12-0 run, which helped them come back from a 14-0 deficit.

“It wasn’t a good play. Dumb decision on my part and I take full responsibility for it,” quarterback Jacoby Brissett said, hinting that it was a quarterback-option call. “That was a tough one when you look back on plays [and think] what could alleviate this feeling we have now. That’s one I want back.”

But it wasn’t just that one pass. The run-pass-option offense has sputtered, with and without Tagovailoa this season, and that’s what this team’s base offensive package is.

The run game has been inconsistent. Miami rushed for more than 100 yards for the first time all season, gaining 133 on 27 carries on Sunday. But can that be the norm going forward, or is it an aberration?

Two wildcat runs from the 1-yard line with the game on the line?

That’s the best Miami can do? Screen passes to a tight end?

Since when has Mike Gesicki been a scrambler who makes people miss?

Before the Herculean fourth-quarter performance from Brissett, who had a pretty pedestrian game overall, the Dolphins offense scored one touchdown in three quarters. And that drive started on the 34-yard line because Raiders coach Jon Gruden foolishly went for it on fourthand-1 from Las Vegas’ 34, and the defense held.

Malcolm Brown rewarded them with a 24-yard touchdown run, which happens to be the best run of the season.

But let’s be honest, after three games the Dolphins have no offensive identity and lack consistency. I have to conclude play-calling has plenty to do with the unit regularly short circuiting.

In my 20-plus years covering sports, I don’t make it a habit of second-guessing play-calling.

While covering the Florida State Seminoles, the late great Bobby Bowden taught me there are too many factors, variables and match ups that coaches analyze, and they impact every single play. So its not fair to second-guess a play call, especially when you’ve seen the outcome.

However, I’m going to make an exception for the Dolphins because there’s a large sample size of second-guess-worthy calls.

If it wasn’t for a few miraculous lategame plays by Brissett, and a pass interference call in the end zone, the Dolphins would have suffered yet another embarrassing loss because the performance was much worse than the final score would indicate.

Even though the Dolphins defense ultimately lost the game by allowing the Raiders to drive down the field for the game-winning overtime field goal, there’s no way that unit should trust Miami’s offense.

At least not in the state that it is.

“We just got to execute better, practice better and we’ll come out with a win,” said receiver Will Fuller, who contributed 20 yards off three passes in his first game as a Dolphin.

While the jury is still out on Flores and his staff, I believe this team is well coached overall because there aren’t many instances where the game plan is flawed, and fewer where the team’s execution has been troublesome since the 2019 season concluded.

But this offense seems to have taken a step back from what Chan Gailey put on the field last year as Miami’s offensive coordinator, and these struggles are about more than who is behind center, the lack of a running game or the struggles on the offensive line.

This team has an identity issue.