If you were inclined to believe the Miami Dolphins simply don’t have what it takes to beat the elite teams and that their record and rankings have been artificially inflated, Sunday was your closing argument.
The Dolphins fell behind the Kansas City Chiefs by three scores at halftime and then ruined their rally with back-to-back boneheaded plays inside the two-minute warning to lose 21-14 Sunday in Frankfurt, Germany.
It was Miami’s third loss in as many tries this year against teams with winning records. Their six wins have come against teams that had a combined 13 wins entering Sunday’s 1 p.m. action.
And with the bye in Week 10, the Dolphins get to spend the next fortnight hearing nothing but talk about them being frauds.
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The mistakes the Dolphins made Sunday certainly make the argument easy. Their offense managed just 14 points, 292 yards, and went 3 of 12 on third down.
Tyreek Hill lost a fumble late in the first half that Chiefs defensive back Bryan Cook returned for a touchdown.
Miami committed six penalties for 45 yards — and each one seemed to negate a big play.
And in the game’s waning moments, Tua Tagovailoa had Cedrick Wilson Jr. open for a touchdown but threw the ball where he wasn’t. Then, on the next play, he and Connor Williams botched the center-quarterback exchange, ending the game.
So yeah, there’ll be some doubters going forward — no matter how good the defense played or how much fight they showed to claw back into the game after a 21-point halftime deficit.
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“We’re all very aware,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “We knew going into the game that if we’re gonna lose, what the narrative would be. And that’s fair.
“We shouldn’t feel entitled to high opinions from the masses. We have to earn that confidence.”
McDaniel’s players were on the same page.
“If we’re going to say we’re the No. 1 offense in the league, we’ve got to make plays when it counts,” said Hill, whose eight catches for 62 yards Sunday were far below the standard he has set this year.
Added Dolphins pass rusher Bradley Chubb:
“It’s frustrating for sure, you know, ’cause you wanna win these big games. It’s not like, ‘Oh, we’re playing these guys this week, let’s go out there and lose.’
“We play our hearts out to the whistle. You see it in this team, we got fight. We got everything that you possibly need from a championship-caliber team.
“We’ve been in every single one of them, but at the end, we just find a way to not execute our standard. I feel like if we execute our standard for 60 minutes, it’s gonna be hard to beat us, you know what I mean?
“And, we just got to keep finding ways to, like I said, stay in these games and make it close. [But] making it close is not good enough for us anymore. So we just got to find ways to win.”
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