The Miami Dolphins’ frustration is growing after their loss to the Tennessee Titans

MIAMI GARDENS — Just when the Miami Dolphins thought the night couldn’t get any worse on Monday, Jaelen Phillips limped off the field with a no-contact injury.

Miami was in the middle of an ugly, forgettable 31-12 blown tape loss to the Tennessee Titans when Phillips, the Dolphins’ best player who had been working so hard to return from an Achilles tendon injury suffered last Black Friday, stopped as he began to rush quarterback Mason Rudolph.

By then, the outcome was no longer in doubt, not when the Dolphins’ offense had gone from formidable to pathetic, which, by the way, goes much deeper than the loss of starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

“We have talent, but we have to put in the work,” said veteran lineman Emmanuel Ogbah. “We can’t keep losing. I’m tired of (crying) losing.”

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This loss was especially frustrating at Hard Rock Stadium in prime time against a winless team that had played all but two series with a backup quarterback.

“It’s frustrating,” said 17-year-old defenseman Calais Campbell. “We are not a good football team right now. We have to be better.

“Everybody, coaches, everybody, we have to look in the mirror and ask ourselves what we have to do to win the game. Everyone has to think about what we can do individually to win the game.”

Perhaps Campbell should have delivered that message to Miami’s two captains, receiver Tyreek Hill and safety Jalen Ramsey, who eluded the media late Monday night.

Dolphins captains shy away from media following defeat

That says a lot about athletes who hide in the back when things aren’t going well. Leadership is not one of them.

The Dolphins (1-3) have lost three in a row, their only win coming against the undefeated Jacksonville Jaguars in a game where Miami was mostly outplayed and was lucky to win at home.

But this isn’t about Tua Tagovailoa coming back from another concussion. Sure, losing the starting quarterback has some impact on the offense, but we’ve seen some teams overcome that difficulty… like the one that walked out of Hard Rock Stadium on Monday with its first win of the season.

It’s about a flawed team with the oldest roster in the NFL.

And an offense that didn’t quite cook the game and played Tua halfway through.

The offensive line – the unit’s general manager, Chris Grier, insisted before the season that he wasn’t concerned and mocked the media for even suggesting such a thing – is a mess. This is the main reason why the league’s highest point total has dropped to a low in 2023, averaging just over 11 points per game.

“You have to score points to win games,” safety Jevon Holland said. “But that’s not my job. It’s not the defense’s job to give the ball to the attacker and that’s all we can ask for. We will just continue to support them. Let’s continue to give them opportunities to score. “

And with only six teams scoring more points than Miami, the problem becomes the combination of an offense that can’t get in the end zone and a defense that can’t keep opponents out of the end zone.

The Dolphins were the first team to allow the Titans to score at least 30 points in their last 38 games, or 1,002 days.

“It’s a results-based business that we’re all a part of,” said defender Alec Ingold. “Running away from it just because you’re not getting results is, in my opinion, a sign of weakness. We have to lean into this uncomfortable moment to see what kind of team we are and what kind of people we are.”

The Dolphins, who have never led this season (their only win came in their last game against Jacksonville after trailing for all 60 minutes), seemed to never be involved in this game.

Not when Titans starter Will Levis left the game in the second quarter. Not at halftime, when there were five field goals in the first half (three by Tennessee’s Nick Folk) and the Dolphins gained 77 total yards.

And even as Tyler Huntley, Miami’s last desperate move to atone for Grier’s inexcusable decision not to upgrade the quarterback room, knowing Tua’s injury history, scored from one yard out. That touchdown early in the fourth quarter ended a drought that had lasted more than 10 quarters.

According to Holland, Mike McDaniel’s message to his team was “stick together.” We’ve seen many teams with high expectations crumble when frustration levels start to rise.

And while few, if any, teams have disappointed and embarrassed more than the Dolphins, who have continually squandered promising seasons, one thing they haven’t had to do since 2021 is face that kind of adversity in the first month season. season.

September used to be dolphin month

The Dolphins team under McDaniel was almost unbeatable in September.

Until this year.

“Nobody will get out of this but us together,” Campbell said. “This is football. We lost three in a row. We’re not a good football team right now and we need to be better.

“But the good thing is that we have a lot of football ahead of us and it all comes down to work. I told the guys after the game that work will get us through this.”

Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and golf reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].

The Miami Dolphins’ frustration is growing after their loss to the Tennessee Titans

Dolphins captains shy away from media following defeat

September used to be dolphin month

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