Fins leave Minnesota in defeat, and it means change coming
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, surrounded by his entourage, walked quietly out of U.S. Bank Stadium with his head hung, hands in his pockets and wearing the look of disappointment late Sunday afternoon. He looked defeated. He looked like his team played. Terrible. And that picture says a lot about what this season has devolved into and what comes next. Because this game looked and felt like the end for these Dolphins. And Ross, like it or not, is going to have to clean up whatever he can of this messy situation.
Following Sunday’s 41-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the Dolphins seem bound for an offseason of significant change.
Oh, sure, the season isn’t officially over. I suppose there’s an outside possibility this team that failed to show up in the first quarter, trailing 21-0 after Minnesota’s first three possessions, could rally in the season’s last two games (not likely). But then what? What good would that be? Because all the hard work and hoping and praying for
a 2-0 finish would mean the Dolphins might (not happening) go on the road for a playoff game. They’d pack their horrible road record and unreliable road personality and soft road mentality and go do what?
We got a glimpse of what on Sunday: A blowout.
“We got our [butts] whupped,” cornerback Bobby McCain said succinctly.
Playoff teams go one direction late in December. The 2016 Dolphins went that direction. They won late. They won on the road. They won against odds.
These Dolphins are headed in a different direction.
They’re headed toward a breakup in the offseason. They’re headed toward Ross making decisions about his franchise. And rightfully so.
Start with that defense. Because it is broken. And at times it is embarrassingly inept.
I’m talking receivers running free inept like Stefon Diggs did on his 13-yard touchdown. We’re talking massive running lanes in the middle of the defense inept. We’re talking folks are about to have harsh evaluations leading to firings kind of ineptness.
The Dolphins’ defensive line is about to change. Because that’s a lot of money invested in a group that doesn’t produce consistently.
The secondary needs an upgrade.
And the defensive coaching staff is going under the microscope after the season with their jobs at stake. Is that fair? Absolutely. Look, that was the NFL’s 30th rushing offense that just ran for 220 yards against the Dolphins.
“It’s not like we’ve been dominating the running game anyways,” coach Adam Gase said, as if accepting how terrible the run defense has been. “We just had to hold off better than what we did. And we didn’t. Just wasn’t good.”
Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins just spent a week listening to Minnesota talk radio talk about what a terrible free agent acquisition he has been. And against Miami he finished with a 112.2 quarterback rating.
Here’s what’s worse about the performance this defense put on tape: It threw off the delicate balance of the Dolphins’ inconsistent offense. That’s bad news for defensive coordinator Matt Burke.
Much of this season, the Dolphins D has basically been victimized by an offense that isn’t consistent or explosive in the least, and that’s a problem for Burke. But when the defense simply folds and that affects Gase’s offense, that’s a problem for Gase.
And Gase is Burke’s boss.
“We just couldn’t stop them,” Gase said. “Couldn’t stop the run, and they were able to do all their play-actions off of that. That was the last thing we needed to happen, was get behind like that. That puts us in a different mode on offense.”
The mode the poor defense put Gase’s inconsistent offense in is catch-up mode. Which means passing mode.
And that’s a disaster for a team that doesn’t have an elite quarterback and whose offensive line is patchwork. The Dolphins have been getting by picking their spots, throwing short, passing 18 to 20 times the past few weeks since Ryan Tannehill returned.
They had to throw 24 times on Sunday, and they had to look for deeper routes to gain yards in chunks, and the Vikings knew the Dolphins were going to do it. That’s strike one, two and three right there.
So Vikings got after Tannehill.
“Not blocking,” Gase summing up the problem. “We had a couple of chances when guys were open. We don’t get it off. We just didn’t block well enough. We knew what we were in for as far as the pass rush. They just beat us.
“Protection-wise we were just horrible.”
Interestingly, the Miami offensive line this season set itself apart as if it was going to be special. They looked good in the preseason and apparently got feeling pretty good about themselves. They even erected barriers with retractable belts in front of their spaces in the locker room so that no one could come in their area without permission.
That’s the kind of stuff a great, accomplished offensive line can do without seeming arrogant. With this group, it really is ridiculous.
The Vikings, by the way, didn’t ask permission to invade the offensive line’s space or area. They got nine sacks anyway.
Those nine sacks tied the record for the most sacks allowed by a Dolphins front in a game.
I would tell you anyone not named Laremy Tunsil on that line that played or watched from the sideline or inactive list Sunday should be worried about not being around next season.
I’m not saying this loss is on the offensive line, by the way. Because it’s the quarterback’s job to get rid of the ball quickly when he knows his line is overmatched. Tannehill didn’t do that. It is the coach’s job to find other ways to move the football than simply put a bulls-eye on the quarterback’s chest — especially when the quarterback isn’t reacting quickly of his own volition.
Gase didn’t do that save for a bubble screen one time and a couple of rollout passes. So the failure is shared. “It starts with me,” Tannehill said, stepping up. “We can all play better. That is disappointing when you have a big opportunity on the road. Came in confident we were going to play well, and things unraveled quickly for us. It’s a disappointment, and it’s frustrating.
“I cannot put my finger on what made that happen or what could have prevented it or slowed it. But it’s a disappointment. I love playing this game. I love competing with these guys, and I love winning. To come out and have this game go the way it did hurts.
“It’s disappointing and frustrating.”
That’s how it typically feels when change is around the corner.