The Dolphins have faced two teams with winning records so far. They've not only lost both games but were handled. The Bills curb stomping them back in week four, 48-20, and the Eagles physically overwhelmed the Fins 31-17 Sunday night.
Mike McDaniel spoke about these "measuring stick" games and falling short.
"Listen, you are your results, and until you prove otherwise, you've got to be willing to hear the consequences of the results," he said. "I hear that, and I know that we'll continue to hear that until we change it. The most important thing to me is that we come out of that game with learning lessons to give us more confidence moving forward. I sensed a football team that knew exactly why they lost. Felt like it didn't surprise them that they lost because you didn't do the little things that you have to do to win the football game against a really good team. And that just builds up hunger. We'll see how we apply that this week against the New England Patriots, which is literally the only thing, amongst all the things, the only thing that matters to us."
Despite the final score, the Dolphins controlled the Pats in their week two matchup. It's been almost as if the Fins could pull any lever when they needed it, at least offensively. In most cases, that's what they've done against the subpar teams this season - they get cooking and stay in the kitchen whipping up bacon and eggs and french toast and pancakes and whatever the hell else they want (I just got hungry. Mmmmm, bacon).
I know McDaniel's offense put up 70 against the Broncos, and that skews the numbers, but they're still absurd. In the five wins, Miami is averaging just a smidge over 40 points and nearly 520 total yards per game. We know with their explosive receivers that the passing game is a serious threat, but the rushing attack has shown dramatic improvement from a year ago, especially in this sample size, hitting for 189 per. The Pats found themselves susceptible to a couple of big gainers back in September, including the long touchdown run by Raheem Mostert that proved to be the game-winner.
Against Philadephia, that run game was largely absent despite an effort to stick with it. McDaniel wanted to credit the Eagles but also pointed out that his guys could have been better.
"They weren’t hesitating at all, so when you play a talented front that is aggressive by nature, you have to be on your p’s and q’s, and when you’re not, it takes opportunities away. It takes the amount of run calls away. The complexion of the game changes, so there are a lot of things to take away from it. I didn’t see a situation where it was like, ‘OK, we can’t block people at all.’ But we were getting some negatives that we’d gotten used to this season as being substantial gains that definitely affected our overall production for sure.”
With that in mind, I take a closer look at that part of the Dolphins' attack against Philly and elsewhere and throw a wrinkle at the end. (Breakdown below)