No brave talk here, season is done

When it was over, when Tampa Bay celebrated with a meaningless touchdown as the clock ran out, several Miami Dolphins stood on the field, bent over, as if they couldn’t believe the day they’d just witnessed.

But we could. Anyone who has watched this team for the past 15 years has seen some version of Sunday before, many times, though maybe not with this many turnovers (five) or penalties (17) that confirm a team in full disarray.

We know what Sunday meant, too, this 30-20 loss to a decidedly bad Buccaneers team. It meant a season that’s been listing since the opening kickoff in September is officially sunk. It’s done. It’s just where the fingers get pointed and how the draft position is affected from here on out.

Maybe, looking back, the season was sunk when starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill tore his knee for a second time in August. Certainly, looking back, it spoke of locker-room problems when running back Jay Ajayi was traded to Philadelphia.

But the Dolphins who haven’t assembled one complete game this year would have to assemble good, full games to the end to resuscitate this year. That’s not happening. Just like nothing is getting fixed as this year moves on, either. Five turnovers? “We’ve got to catch the ball,” Dolphins coach Adam Gase said. “We’ve got to hold onto the ball.”

Seventeen penalties — one off the franchise record?

“Pre-snap stuff — it’s just ridiculous,” Gase said. “That’s something that we made a big emphasis on this week on both sides of the ball. Obviously, we didn’t handle it very good on offense.”

And the defense? Well, it had one drive to claim the day. Tampa Bay was on its 25-yard line. Tie game. Three minutes left. Get a stop here, hand the ball back to the offense and hope for the season can live for another

Sunday.

Instead, America’s Back-up, Ryan Fitzpatrick, beat the Dolphins in his third uniform. A Bill. A Jet. And now as a Buc, he completed 2-of-4 passes for 55 yards on that final drive to put the Bucs in winning field-goal range.

The feared pass rush? Non-existent. Any stars stepping up to make a play? Nonfactors. And the key play, a 24-yard pass to the Bucs’ third receiver, Chris Godwin, was made right in front of one of the Dolphins best players in safety Reshad Jones.

“It was a good throw and catch,” Jones said. “He made the catch and they kicked a field goal.”

And Tampa Bay is 4-6 now. Same as the Dolphins. And they’re both going to end in the same place, which doesn’t lead to January but to a long line of questions and accessing of blame.

Here’s a question: All that time when everyone (including me) said Jay Cutler wasn’t a problem? Well, it was obvious again Sunday he was a problem. No, two of his three interceptions Sunday weren’t even his fault, as Gase alluded. DeVante Parker slipped on one and had the ball bounce out of his hands on another, leading to another question about just what the Dolphins have in him.

When Cutler left at halftime with a concussion in a 20-7 deficit, Matt Moore entered and the offense clicked. Moore was unstoppable. Everyone suddenly was. Moore threw for 282 yards in the second half. That’s more than Cutler threw in all but one game this year.

“You have to open it up a little bit, obviously, with the score the way it was,” Moore said.

Not that it mattered by the end.

“I never felt like they really just flat out stopped us,” Gase said. “It was always something when we had a drive where we didn’t do anything on offense.”

That’s how you lose to bad teams. It’s how the Dolphins beat bad teams like the Chargers (missed field goal) and Jets (awful interception) earlier this season. That’s what stings Sunday more than anything — the Bucs aren’t any good. Then again, neither are the Dolphins. There will be a lot of brave talk from here. They can pull it together. They just need to fix the mistakes. There’s still time to be good.

But you know. I know. Anyone who’s watched the Dolphins for so many lost years knows when they’ve seen a season sink. Just as it did Sunday.

Dave Hyde