This Grim Analysis Illustrates How the Dolphins are in 'Bigger Trouble' Than Just Being 0-1

I could easily be accused of merely wish-casting here, due to the fact I've now produced back-to-back posts about how dire the situation is with the Patriots next opponent:

And if you think that, if you believe I'm simply projecting my own hopes that the Dolphins are an unfixable mess because the Week 1 Patriots looked like a Community Theater production of "Patriots 2023-24," let me set you straight, right here, right now, Hoss. 

You're right. 

If Mike McDaniel's Dolphins are going to implode, there's no time like the present. Even in the best of times, the Patriots trips to Miami have played out like Don Shula once helped an old beggar woman who turned to be an enchantress, so she granted him a wish. And his wish was to curse the Patriots every time they visit Sun Shark Joe Pro Life Orange Land Player Stadium. So the Pats could use a break.

And according to media reports and analysis, that break may finally have come:

Athlon Sports - The 33-8 final in Indy’s favor did not completely reflect how out of hand the game could have been. …

The Colts could have scored more, if only they had more opportunities. As it was, the Dolphins became the first team in the NFL in at least 47 years (since 1978) to allow scores on every opponent drive. It was good for Mike McDaniel’s team that the Colts only had seven drives. …

[Daniel] Jones became the first quarterback to record at least two rushing touchdowns, one touchdown pass and no interceptions in his first start with a team since… well, since Jones did the same in his first start with the New York Giants on Sept. 22, 2019. Between those two games, Jones had become a spot starter at best, but Miami made him look like an every-year First-Team All-Pro. 

That was the Dolphins’ defense. The Dolphins’ offense was similarly beleaguered, as quarterback Tua Tagovailoa completed 14 of 23 passes for 114 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 51.7. And it’s not like Tagovailoa was taking chances downfield. It continued one of the NFL’s great dichotomies — how can the Dolphins have a quarterback this incapable of throwing deep consistently, when they also have the best deep receiver of his generation in Tyreek Hill, not to mention 2021 first-round pick Jaylen Waddle, and free-agent acquisition Nick Westbrook-Ikhine? Three great deep receivers and no great deep passing quarterback is a recipe for frustration.

Per Next Gen Stats, Tagovailoa failed to complete any of the three passes he attempted under pressure, and both of his interceptions came from clean pockets. …

And that’s why the Dolphins are in bigger trouble than one bad game would seem to indicate. Because the entire offseason was about everybody being pissed off about everybody else, and nobody seeming to want to take accountability for the issues at hand. …

[T]his was not a one-week blip. The 2025 Dolphins were heading right into this freight train all offseason, and the time is past for any hope that it was a light at the end of the tunnel. 

All this as Rex Ryan is calling McDaniel "Nerd Boy":

… and analysts on every basic cable show are talking about him like he's walking the coaching Green Mile. It's going to take a hell of a turnaround, a historic course correction, to salvage McDaniel's Dolphins career. The one that made him side a media darling just a couple of years ago. Without that improbable change of fortune happening soon, the guy who was supposed to usher in a whole new era of head coaching will only be remembered for an 0-2 postseason record and his fashion sense:

All style, little to no substance. Like I said, if this is all true, if the Dolphins are going to collapse like a Jenga tower, there's no time like the present.