Raheem Mostert, Jaylen Wright, and the Miami Dolphins ground game saved the day.
But their late heroics in Sunday’s 15-10 victory over the New England Patriots should not totally obscure just how terrible the Dolphins looked for much of the day.
Bad wasn’t the word to describe Miami’s mistakes Sunday. These miscues would have been bad in Pop Warner. These were professionals Sunday committing inexcusable acts of incompetence.
The Miami Dolphins’ Many Mistakes vs. the New England Patriots
The Dolphins against the Patriots:
- Threw an interception that led to New England’s only touchdown
- Fumbled three times (losing one)
- Took at least six points off the board with critical errors
- Committed six penalties for 54 yards
- And put together one of the worst special teams performances in recent franchise memory
Danny Crossman should feel heat after his special teams had a remarkably bad first half. Lowlights included a procedure penalty on a field goal attempt, botched snap on another field goal attempt, a blocked punt, and missed a 41-yard field goal attempt that Jason Sanders clanged off the upright.
Put another way: The Dolphins won by five. It shouldn’t have been nearly that close.
legendary snap from the dolphins pic.twitter.com/MsdWShfFXe
— Fastbreak Breakfast (@fastbreakbreak) October 6, 2024
We’re not saying that it’s time for Mike McDaniel to fire Crossman after years of subpar play by the Dolphins’ special teams.
What we are saying is the approaching bye week would be the perfect time to do so.
Asked postgame how the Dolphins’ special teams units will be evaluated, McDaniel replied:
“Very critically. I think you have to assess the common denominators. The thing I was proud of is you have several things that don’t go your way, you hit a post, and you have a snap that you wish you could have back, but I think we were able to get several very crucial points after that.
“So the resolve. You don’t want to have to test your resolve every week, but that was an important piece. And then, you know, you give up a blocked punt, but then had complete faith that that would get corrected and that we would be able with the game on the line to get New England to burn their timeouts and trotted that same unit back out there.
“So those are things to build upon, and they’re much easier to do in the win column. I think that that gives you the opportunity to really assess the common denominators because that’s what you’re trying to find.”
Dolphins’ Miscues on Offense
Pointing fingers is easy. Pointing them at oneself? That’s a bit harder.
And the Dolphins’ offense had its own share of mistakes.
The most egregious?
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When center Aaron Brewer snapped the ball before quarterback Snoop Huntley was ready on third-and-3 from the Patriots’ 25 late in the first half.
The ball shot well past Huntley. By the time Dolphins fullback Alec Ingold recovered, they were back at their own 47, erasing another likely three points from their total.
So what happened?
“We were executing a no-huddle play,” McDaniel explained. “[Huntley] was communicating to the line of scrimmage and communicating to the offensive line what the play was. Then after he did that, he was communicating to the Z receiver.
“Brew[er] thought he heard the cadence, which Snoop hadn’t given any sort of indicator of a cadence, but he thought he heard one. So he snapped it, which is why it was a gigantic negative. Moving the ball pretty well, but it was one of the three drives in the first half that you felt like you should have points in some way, shape, or form on that drive hoping to convert and get in the red zone and score a touchdown.
“So that was part of the things that we got in our own way, which is why it’s — you can clean those up all day, but you know, for our team we needed to find a way to win a football game with that adversity right in our face, which is what I was happy about.”
