’17 Dolphins: Undisciplined, too little talent
The late Oakland Raiders owner, Al Davis, would approach a coach or player after a game and ask why they won or lost. The idea was to make them understand what was working — or needed work on. It’s a good exercise, especially after another dismal Dolphins season.
Buffalo, Tennessee and Kansas City aren’t more talented than the Dolphins, yet are in the playoffs. Why? Let me answer why the Dolphins lost.
1. Lack of football IQ. Undisciplined? Selfish? Not enough diligence to details? Yep, yep, yep. But for all their other sins, if they didn’t play so dumb they’d have made the playoffs in the marginal AFC. They ranked 31st in penalties (eight of the 10 most penalized teams missed the playoffs). They tied for third-worst with a minus-14 turnover margin (nine of 10 teams with the worst turnover margin missed playoffs). Throw in lapses in professional focus shown by Jarvis Landry’s fight in the finale, and you get the idea. If coach Adam Gase doesn’t correct this, nothing else matters.
2. Lack of points. Duh, right? But as that great coach, Winston Churchill, said: Every complex question has a simple answer. Nine of the 10 top-scoring teams are in the playoffs this year. Seven of the 10 defense that give up the fewest points are. So what’s the quickest path to the playoffs? Score more. The Dolphins offense was 28th in scoring 17.6 points a game. The defense was 29th in yielding 24.6 points a game. Together, they explain a 6-10 season.
3. Ryan Tannehill was
injured. Sure, this could be the top answer. The Dolphins brass thinks if Tannehill was healthy this year, they would have made the playoffs. Did his absence cost the three needed wins? Jay Cutler was miscast as some season saver. Still, take the starting quarterback off most teams and it’s a painful season. For every Minnesota this year, there’s a Green Bay, Indianapolis, Houston and Miami. It wasn’t just Cutler, though … 4. DeVante Parker and Laremy Tunsil flopped.
Throw in tight end Julius Thomas, if you want, to illustrate the offense’s problems. But Parker and Tunsil are first-round draft investments. Parker had one touchdown, no 100-yard games and a deflating 11.8-yards a catch this year.
Tunsil had nine pre-snap penalties and a fifth-most 12 penalties overall. The larger issue: Throw in Ja’Wuan James not being missed when Sam Young played right tackle and the Dolphins got the minimum from their top picks in 2014, 2015 and 2016. 5. The “winning culture.” Something’s wrong inside this locker room. Gase was lauded for creating this a year ago. That fell apart this year. It wasn’t just staggering stories like line coach Chris “cocaine platter” Foerster or linebacker Lawrence Timmons going AWOL. When Jay Ajayi got traded, several players said they were unhappy he was traded but happy he was in a better spot. Huh? Landry’s emotional outbursts were an sore issue inside the team, even veterans such as Kenny Stills and Mike Pouncey criticized him for Sunday’s fight that led to two Dolphins being ejected.
6. Coaching. Gase is smart and talented, so he must be smart and talented enough to realize he had too much on his plate this year. Maybe this humbling will do some long-term good. Everything failed. Staff. Contracts. Player evaluation. Team discpline. Play-calling. Only he knows what exactly went wrong with his offense and whether he has enough veteran smarts handling the defense. 7. One Pro Bowl player.
That’s safety Reshad Jones. Ndamukong Suh deserved it as much. The larger point is both Jones and Suh turn 30 in the next couple of months. And …
8. No new, star talent emerged on a marginal roster. Some players made strides. Xavien Howard and Jordan Phillips in the last quarter. Defensive tackle Davone Godchaux was a good fifth-round find. Firstround pick Charles Harris did enough that two scouts
said he’ll be fine. But star impact? Kenyan Drake was the year’s best story, but he simply replaced Ajayi’s impact last year. Most players took steps back: Tunsil, Byron Maxwell, Kiko Alonso, Timmons, Thomas … 9. Glaring deficiencies.
Last in converting third downs (31.7 percent). Opposing tight ends caught a league-high 94 passes. The defense ranked 26th in sacks and offense ranked 22nd in giving up sacks. The defense ranked 28th in interceptions. The offense ranked 26th in yards passing per attempt. We could go on. And on.
10. Vegas, baby. Even before Tannehill’s injury, oddsmakers put the overunder bet on wins at 7.5. They pointed at the close wins in 2016 and didn’t see “character” or “resiliency.” They saw another lessdiscussed term on winners: Luck. The Dolphins weren’t so lucky this year. Maybe next year.