Another ugly Dolphins loss means season’s over
MINNEAPOLIS — Well, there’s no sense side-stepping the topic. Steve Ross’ season is about to begin.
There’s nothing quite like that moment at the end of a Miami Dolphins Sunday that marks the end of another Dolphins season and feels like the end of a lot of people’s jobs, too.
That’s something everyone’s grown awkwardly accustomed to around this franchise the past two decades. It’s how it felt again Sunday as Minnesota kept piling up the points in the fourth quarter and kept sacking Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill in what amounted to a public stoning.
This wasn’t just the football version of signaling to the waiter it’s time to leave this season, though it was that. Check, please.
This felt like more. It felt like everyone realized that, three years into this latest coaching and front-office regime, there’s not one part of the football side of this franchise that’s sustainable for winning. Not one.
Not at quarterback. Not on offense. Not on defense. Not on the sideline. Not in the draft room. And certainly not on the road, where the Dolphins’ malodorous lack of talent and consistent lack of teamwork got exposed again in this 41-17 loss to Minnesota.
It’s one thing to lose to a good Minnesota team. It’s another to fall behind, 21-0, in the first quarter of a needed game.
“We got whupped,” Dolphins cornerback Bobby McCain said.
It’s another for Tannehill to get sacked a franchise-high-tying nine times (though it wasn’t even a season high for the talented Vikings defense, which had 10 sacks against Detroit).
“Not blocking,” Dolphins coach Adam Gase said. “We just didn’t block well enough. We knew what we were in for as far as the pass rush. They just beat us.”
It’s another thing for the 30th-ranked rushing offense (85.4 yards a game) to plow over your defense for 220 yards.
“They did whatever they wanted, it seemed like,” defensive end Cameron Wake said.
And, finally, it’s one thing to lose and it’s another to fall to 1-6 on the road this year — with five of those losses coming by a defining, double digits.
“I don’t know if there’s one thing, specifically [for that road record],” Tannehill said.
That’s just it. It’s everything. They entered Sunday ranked 29th on offense and defense for a reason. Their 7-6 record and cheery playoff talk was built on a football miracle of Buffalo’s Charles Clay dropping the winning touchdown late one week and a Biblical miracle on the final play against New England the next week.
So Sunday wasn’t much of a surprise. And, yep, it’s almost time for Ross to fix what’s wrong. That’s a lot harder than just firing people. In fact, three years into a regime, with such obvious problems across the board, firing people is pretty much the easy part.
This really felt, for instance, like Tannehill’s last big game for the Dolphins holding the keys to the franchise. His big chance to show things can still go right came on first-and-goal at the 7-yard line just before half of a game.
Earlier Minkah Fitzpatrick gave the day hope with an interception returned for a touchdown. On second down, Tannehill needed to throw an open Danny Amendola into the end zone. He didn’t and then Amendola dropped it. On third down, he didn’t see an open Kenyan Drake for a would-be touchdown.
You only get so many chances on a Sunday like this. Tannehill looked awful and under pressure the rest of the day, completing 11-of-24 passes for 108 yards. Minnesota’s defense does that to quarterbacks.
Seattle’s Russell Wilson threw for 72 yards the previous week at home. But he got the win, because of his defense and running game. The Dolphins don’t have enough defense and couldn’t keep using their running game by the end.
“On to Jacksonville,” said running back Kalen Ballage.
He’s young. He sees a lot of open field ahead of his days, sort of like he did on that 75-yard touchdown run to start Sunday’s second half. But those who have been around know better.
The Jacksonville game and the Buffalo finale have little consequence now with the Dolphins all but pushed from the playoffs. And this team has problems far beyond missing the playoffs. They don’t have a winning unit on the field, the sideline or the front office.
So we’re where we were for years with H. Wayne Huizenga. Where we have been for most of a decade with Ross. The storm isn’t coming. It’s here again. Can the owner fix his football side?