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Marcel Louis-Jacques, ESPN
MIAMI — After his team’s 31-12 loss Monday night to the Tennessee Titans, “everything is on the table” for Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, who forecasted changes to the NFL’s worst scoring offense through four games.
The Dolphins scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter Monday to snap a 10-quarter drought without one, and is averaging just 11.3 points per game this season. Their 1-3 start is their worst under Mike McDaniel, who said the team was “not even close to good enough.”
“I have to look at the tape. There was a tremendous disconnect between preparation and execution,” McDaniel said. “So, there was a multitude of contributors to it, I believe, but I have to check the tape out. Bottom line is it doesn’t matter what we’re doing behind the scenes. On the field that’s not even close to good enough, so you just have to go back to the drawing board and assess very critically.”
Miami finished with just 184 total yards against the Titans, 85 of which came on its lone touchdown drive of the night. It converted on just 2-of-12 attempts on third down, dropping it to 3-of-24 over its past two games.
The Dolphins also committed 10 penalties, giving them 21 over the past two weeks.
Starting in place of the injured Skylar Thompson and Tua Tagovailoa, quarterback Tyler Huntley completed 14-of-22 passes for 96 yards. It was Huntley’s first start since signing with the team in Week 3, and several miscues with star wide receiver Tyreek Hill marred his performance.
Huntley was charged with a fumble on the Dolphins’ opening drive, when a dropped pass by Hill was ruled a backwards pass after a replay review. He badly underthrew Hill on what could’ve been an 80-yard touchdown shortly before halftime, then overthrew him for what would’ve been a 77-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
“You know, they’re great receivers,” Huntley said. “I’m a pretty good quarterback, so I just got to hone into being on time with them and get more reps on it. That’s the only way we’re going to build is if we get more reps.”
McDaniel said the Dolphins’ playbook was “abbreviated to an extent” for Huntley, but overall thought the former Pro Bowler “did some good things.”
Tagovailoa remains on injured reserve for at least two more games, and the Dolphins have scrambled for answers without him. Wide receiver Jaylen Waddle said it’s up to the team’s playmakers to be “extra open” for their quarterback in situations like this, while fullback Alec Ingold said the responsibility for the team’s offensive struggles doesn’t just fall on the quarterback’s shoulders.
“It’s a performance-based industry. I think every man here has a job we have to execute,” Ingold said. “The quarterback is obviously a very important piece of that puzzle, but we need 10 other guys to be performing and executing. It’s a performance-based business that we’re all a part of, so I think it’s more than fair and I think that’s where you know we’re doing the same thing internally. And to shy away from that because you’re not getting the results I think is weak-minded and I think we have to we have to attack that; we have to lean into this uncomfortable moment to see what type of team we are and what type of human beings we are.”
Since 1966, 403 teams have started a season with three losses in their first four games; 25 of them made the playoffs that season, including the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots in 2001. However, only 12 of the 263 teams that started 1-4 made the postseason — so there is some historical pressure for the Dolphins when they travel to New England in Week 5.
Safety Jevon Holland, who was on the Dolphins team in 2021 that started 1-7 before finishing 9-8, said the experience a few seasons ago taught him how to approach their current slump.
“You really just got to stick together, kind of just revert back to all your fundamentals,” Holland said. “That’s what it is really about. Whatever is happening now or happening the week before, you just have to let it go and move on to the next week. You have to have a clear conscience and have an open conversation just about what needs to change or what needs to happen. Have a real conversation with each other and move on.
“That was like a main message was stick together, trust that it’s going to turn around at some point, and we’re just kind of in this slump.”