Well, the Miami Dolphins did that thing again. You know\u2026 the thing where they go on primetime television and embarrass themselves for the whole world to see. Or maybe that thing where they play in cold weather and look completely inept on the offensive side of the football. There is also that thing where they play against an above .500 squad and prove why they don\u2019t belong in the conversation of best football teams in the National Football League.<\/p>\n
After a deflating 28-15 loss on Monday Night Football to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Dolphins are officially eliminated from playoff contention \u2014 which means no more \u201cin the hunt\u201d graphics for us. Sad face.<\/p>\n
Oh well. There\u2019s always next year, right? And in this writer\u2019s opinion, next year better look a lot different than this year\u2026 in more ways than just the quality of the product displayed on the field.<\/p>\n
Dolphins defense sets tone early<\/p>\n
Up until the final Steelers drive of the first half, the Dolphins defense was pitching a shutout while engaging in a tackling clinic against Pittsburgh. Defenders were flying around the ball, laying solid hits on their opponents, and showing that they didn\u2019t come to the frigid north to be frozen out of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Cornerbacks Rasul Douglas and Jack Jones were even getting in on the action on running plays where Steelers\u2019 backs were trying to bounce the ball to the outside. Of course, linebacker Jordyn Brooks continued to show why he is Miami\u2019s best defensive player \u2014 totaling 13 tackles, including two tackles for loss, a sack and a pass defensed for the contest.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, with no help from Miami\u2019s offense, the Dolphins defense began to unravel at the end of the first half, and their poor performance snowballed in the blistering cold of a Pittsburgh night during the final two quarters of play.<\/p>\n
Two former Dolphins help to dismantle Miami in primetime<\/p>\n
The Dolphins\u2019 slim chances of a playoff berth were dashed on Monday night, but to add insult to injury, two former Miami players contributed to their former team\u2019s demise while the football world was watching.<\/p>\n
Cornerback Jalen Ramsey\u2019s time in Miami ended unceremoniously this past offseason when rumors of his poor attitude surfaced following his trade to Pittsburgh. Tight end Jonnu Smith also fell out of favor with Miami\u2019s front office when he demanded big money after his quality first season with the Dolphins. Both players were sent to Pittsburgh ahead of the regular season, along with a seventh round draft pick, with Miami acquiring safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and fifth round draft selection in return.<\/p>\n
On Monday Night Football, Ramsey had a sack of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, plus a semi-viral moment when he laughed at tight end Greg Dulcich dropping a pass during a failed two-point conversion attempt late. The boisterous defensive back then proceeded to call Dulcich \u201cf**king weak\u201d while looking directly into the camera.<\/p>\n
Jonnu Smith would contribute to Miami\u2019s embarrassment by taking an Aaron Rodgers pitch to the house, scoring a rushing touchdown against his former squad early in the fourth quarter of an already out-of-hand game.<\/p>\n
McDaniel\u2019s clock management draws bewilderment from commentary team<\/p>\n
The Dolphins were down big to the Steelers in the fourth quarter of Monday\u2019s game, yet they still had a puncher\u2019s chance of pulling off some type of miracle comeback if the stars aligned properly for the team in the final fifteen minutes of play.<\/p>\n
Yet, the team seemingly waved the white flag much earlier than expected, with clock management so baffling that the commentary team of Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman and Ford C. Frick Award winner Joe Buck sounded absolutely befuddled while discussing Miami\u2019s lack of urgency while on offense during the final period of play.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins were content with scoring style points in an effort to make the score look not so one-sided for folks who didn\u2019t actually watch the game and witness the team curl up into a ball and admit defeat long before the clocks officially hit zero on the night \u2014 and ultimately the season.<\/p>\n
However, the only thing head coach Mike McDaniel actually did was make himself look even more incompetent with his job hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins once again proved the doubters right by playing poorly in primetime, getting blown out by a quality opponent, while looking like they\u2019ve never experienced cold weather before. The team showed that their win over the Buffalo Bills earlier this season was nothing more than a fluke, and the subsequent victories over poor teams didn\u2019t mean anything at all. What do you think the Dolphins need to do this offseason to get the team on the right trajectory moving foward? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter at @MBrave13. Fins up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, the Miami Dolphins did that thing again. You know\u2026 the thing where they go on primetime television…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,2798,125,124],"class_list":["post-85315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins-scores-results","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}