Mike McDaniel Has Silenced His Doubters… For Now
Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images
Last week, Mike McDaniel caught a lot of flack for not being able to adapt his offense to his backup quarterbacks. Pro Football Network’s Matt Cannata had a post on X where he compared McDaniels to his fellow contemporaries. Cannata noted how Matt LaFleur, Kevin O’Connell, and Shane Steichen were all able to adapt their offenses and win games with their backups, while McDaniel went 1-6 without Tua Tagovailoa under center.
Kevin O'Connell lost his starting QB and the Vikings are 4-0 with Sam Darnold.
Matt LaFleur lost Jordan Love and the Packers went 2-0 with Malik Wilils.
Shane Steichen lost Anthony Richardson on Sunday and won the game with Joe Flacco.
Mike McDaniel is 1-6 without Tua. pic.twitter.com/p4qS7rZuZg
— Matt Cannata (@CannataPFN) October 1, 2024
Although some of the criticism was warranted, some people jumped off the bandwagon too soon. There was a vocal minority of the Phins fanbase who were calling for McDaniel’s firing after the Miami Dolphins’ loss to the Tennessee Titans. That’s not even including trolls using the Dolphins’ downfall to compare the coach to Bill O’Brien, Cam Cameron, and Adam Gase out of bad faith, purely for the fun of it.
Needless to say, things haven’t been going great for McDaniel. That was the case until last week, when he reminded everyone that he is still one of the brightest young minds in football. With Tyler Huntley starting for the second consecutive week, Miami was finally able to establish some rhythm offensively against the New England Patriots as the Dolphins came out of Foxborough with a win on Sunday. It wasn’t always pretty, but getting the win was crucial for McDaniel to cool down his hot seat heading into the bye week.
Huntley looked a lot more comfortable running the Dolphins offense compared to last week. An emphasis on a quick-strike game worked well for him, and he did a good job of working the intermediate areas of the field and getting the ball to his playmakers. Huntley only rushed for 7 yards on three attempts, but that’s arguably that’s a good sign. Rather than trying to constantly make something out of nothing with his scrambling ability, the former Baltimore Raven felt comfortable enough to play within Miami’s structure and manage the game. An extra week of learning the offense made all the difference.
With a healthy Raheem Mostert back in the starting lineup, the Dolphins were able to establish the run against a leaky Patriots run defense that has allowed an average of 158 rushing yards over the last three games. The run game remained effective even without their leading rusher De’Von Achane, who left with a concussion in the first quarter. Rookie Jaylen Wright and the veteran Mostert combined for 166 rushing yards, averaging 5.1 yards per carry.
Coaches often say things like: “We need to get back to the fundamentals,” and it does feel a bit cliché, even when they’re right. McDaniel showed on Sunday that there’s real value in getting back to the basics, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. That’s what the team set out to accomplish heading into Sunday, and it worked.
“It was a huge point of emphasis to really hone in on our fundamentals and the technique.” McDaniel said post-game. “To the credit of the offensive line, they punched some holes, but I think the running back room was ready to put the team on their back.”
Credit to McDaniel for scheming a way to get a win with his new backup quarterback and helping the Dolphins gain some ground in the AFC East. Now the challenge is to be a lot more consistent than they have been these last couple of games. Miami was unable to get anything going in the run game against the Seattle Seahawks and the Tennessee Titans. Achane was the lead back in place of the injured Mostert and averaged 2.1 yards per carry in that two-game stretch.
Miami’s struggles in the passing game have been well-documented, so let’s try not to beat a dead dolphin too much. Let’s just point out that over the last three games, the Phins’ offense averaged 132.3 pass yards per game, which ranks 31st in the league in that span. The only team that has had fewer pass yards over the last three games is… New England, who the Dolphins barely beat. McDaniel and company won’t win many games if that trend continues.
Miami’s lack of offensive consistency is a legitimate concern moving forward, even when Tua Tagovailoa returns to action. In the small sample size of games that Tua played in, he threw for 338 yards against a Jacksonville Jaguars team that we now know isn’t very good. The following week he struggled, throwing for 145 yards and three interceptions against the Buffalo Bills. Beating up on inferior competition and struggling against winning teams has been a theme throughout Tua’s career, and that’s what he showed in the two games he was healthy this season.
Tyler Huntley on today's much-needed win
“Man, we needed it. The city needed it, our team needed it, everybody in the locker room needed it and that’s what we came out here to do and we got it.” pic.twitter.com/ktydK6rEBC
— Dolphin Nation (@Dolphin_Nation) October 6, 2024
That being said, these last three games have definitively proven the Dolphins are a much better team with Tua than without. When asked what it felt like to finally get a win, Huntley said: “Man, we needed it. The city needed it, our team needed it, everybody in the locker room needed it and that’s what we came out here to do and we got it.” One win isn’t going to completely absolve McDaniel from criticism, but the Dolphins are entering the bye week with a 2-3 record and renewed playoff hopes. That should be enough to silence his doubters, at least for now.
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