Chris Perkins is putting most of the blame for Miami Dolphins loss vs Colts on Mike McDaniel

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Takeaways from the Miami Dolphins disastrous season opener vs the Colts on Sunday with Miami Dolphins columnist Chris Perkins.

Transcript

00:00Chris Perkins is a columnist for the Sun Sentinel, and he writes about the Miami Dolphins.

00:05You can read his work in the Sun Sentinel or on the Sun Sentinel app.

00:08Before we talk football, I remind you the best place to get geared up with Canes or Dolphins merch this season

00:13is Caneswear in Davie or online at caneswear.com.

00:19Perk is on the Toyota of Hollywood hotline.

00:22Chris, what do you do with that Dolphins loss from Sunday?

00:26What do you do? If you're the Dolphins, if you're fans, if you're the media, what can you do with that?

00:35Man, well, look, the fans are salty.

00:38The fans are, I mean, salty isn't even the word. Fans are pissed.

00:43Fans want blood. Like, I was on Twitter last night. Fans are pissed.

00:47This is as mad as I've seen Dolphins fans since I've lived here.

00:51I've moved here in 1997. If you're the Dolphins, you watch the film and you get this mess corrected.

00:58If you're the media, you just sit back and hope that this thing gets corrected

01:03because clicks go down when the Dolphins lose. Clicks go up when the Dolphins win.

01:09So I need the Dolphins to win here, Hawk. I need them to get this thing corrected.

01:13And, Perk, Hawk joked yesterday about, oh, they thought this was a fourth preseason game,

01:20which I can't even argue because they weren't ready to play.

01:22Like, the X and O's of it was bad. Everything was bad. You lose by 25.

01:28Why weren't they ready to play a football game?

01:32Prader, I don't know. I have no idea. They looked unprepared, disinterested,

01:37looked like the game plan was bad.

01:39But, look, this is what we saw against Jacksonville in that third preseason game, isn't it,

01:44where the first-team offense was not prepared against Jacksonville's second-team defense.

01:50And I just kind of wrote it off. You know, I just kind of thought, well, you know,

01:54they'll get it corrected by Indy. They didn't come close. They were worse.

01:58They were actually worse. And I don't know what's going to have to happen here.

02:04I mean, it looks like it was total system failure, right?

02:08The offense, with Tua's turnovers and a lack of a run game and no Tua to Tyreek connection,

02:15which I figured wasn't going to be there.

02:17They haven't thrown all through training camp and the offseason.

02:21The defense, I don't know what happened to that front seven.

02:23I guess I overhyped them and overestimated them,

02:26but I thought they were going to be the key to the game.

02:28And then special teams, Matthew Judon running into the punter, extending that drive.

02:34It turns into a 17-play drive that results in a field goal before halftime,

02:40gives them a 20-0 lead.

02:41They convert a third and eight and a fourth and two on that drive.

02:45Total system breakdown.

02:48They've got to get this corrected because, look, as I wrote in the Sun Sentinel,

02:54this is an almost must-win game against New England.

02:59Now, there's no such thing as a must-win Week 2 game,

03:02but you know they're not going to win next Thursday in Buffalo.

03:06That's a loss.

03:07They're 1-6 against Buffalo in the McDaniel era.

03:10They've lost six straight all four games up in Buffalo.

03:15So if you lose this week, you might as well pencil them in at 0-3.

03:19And at that point, everybody better take cover.

03:22And because of that perk, because there's no such thing as a must-win,

03:26I'll say it's probably a little unfair to do this right now,

03:29but I'll ask you because, as you said, fans are out for blood

03:32when they're doing the blame pie, when you're cutting up the pieces of the blame pie.

03:36I'll start at the top.

03:37Steven Ross, I think, deserves a piece of that blame pie.

03:40Chris Greer, the general manager.

03:41Mike McDaniel.

03:42Tua Tunga-Vailoa.

03:44Is it all equal parts, though?

03:46Is it all equal parts when you're cutting up the blame pie?

03:49Because, in my opinion, it is.

03:51Like, it starts at the top, but then you can take issues with the personnel

03:54Chris Greer put together.

03:55You can take issue with how Mike McDaniel didn't have his team prepared.

03:58And you can take issue with the fact that your starting quarterback

04:01that you paid a lot of money to just didn't look ready to play

04:05and didn't look like the guy you paid a couple years ago.

04:09Yeah, no, you're right, Solana.

04:11Those are the four that you're going to point at, you know, most commonly

04:15because they're the four big names in your organization.

04:20Steve Ross ultimately has to be held most responsible because he's the guy

04:25who hired the most important, well, the second most important person

04:29in the organization, Chris Greer.

04:31But really, I guess if we're just going to talk actual unfield product,

04:37it's Mike McDaniel.

04:38Because Mike McDaniel didn't have them prepared.

04:41Mike McDaniel hasn't made any changes to this predictable,

04:45one-dimensional offense.

04:47This offense is all about Tua to Tyreek.

04:50And you guys know the number where I'm going to cite.

04:52Since 2023, the Dolphins are 11-0 when Tyreek has 100 or more yards,

04:587-17 when Tyreek has 99 or fewer yards.

05:03Tyreek had 40 yards on Sunday, so it was predictable.

05:06The Dolphins were going to lose.

05:08You've got to establish a run game, Mike McDaniel.

05:11You've got to establish some physicality, Mike McDaniel.

05:15You've got to have your team prepared, Mike McDaniel.

05:19Now, look, Chris Greer shops for the groceries,

05:22but the unfield product, that's Mike McDaniel.

05:26He's got to take most of the blame for the unfield product.

05:30But, you know, Steve Ross is the owner.

05:33He's the guy who hires all of those people.

05:35So, I guess it's just hard to blame an owner for that unfield production

05:40that we saw on Sunday.

05:43So, I'm going to put most of it on Mike McDaniel.

05:46And the puzzling thing – well, not puzzling, Perk.

05:49I won't say that.

05:49The interesting thing that I saw was when they interviewed Xavier Howard,

05:53and he kind of – he said the cheat code.

05:56Pack the paint.

05:57They're not throwing out.

05:58Pack the paint.

05:59We've got two interceptions over the middle.

06:00You can't run with all those guys inside the hashes.

06:03Like, Xavier, I don't know if he knew he was doing it on purpose,

06:06but he really told the league the cheat code to this offense, didn't he?

06:10Yeah.

06:10But, you know what, Channing?

06:12I mean, I think the league has known it since the start –

06:16since the end of 2022.

06:18You know, the Chargers and San Francisco kind of set the mold

06:22of how to defend this team.

06:24And everybody else followed it in 2023.

06:28And, look, as great as that offense was in 2023,

06:32and we know they were the number one offense and they scored 70 points,

06:37they were one and six against playoff teams,

06:40and the average score of those games was 32 to 16.

06:43They scored two freaking touchdowns per game average against playoff teams,

06:49and that's a seven-game sample.

06:51That's almost half your season.

06:53The book was out, and either Mike McDaniel ignored it

06:57or he didn't believe it.

06:59But, I mean, when you're only getting two touchdowns a game

07:02over a seven-game sample, you needed to change something going into 2024.

07:08I thought, and I still think, you need a run game.

07:11You've got to force them to respect your run game.

07:14You've got to force them to bring that eighth man into the box.

07:19Then you can go over the top and make some deep throws.

07:22But you need some power.

07:24You need some aggression.

07:25You need some force.

07:27This is tackle football.

07:29And, you know, the fact that they cut Chris Brooks

07:31and the fact that Alexander Madison got hurt to start this year,

07:36that hurt the run game.

07:38But you still had Ollie Gordon on Sunday,

07:40and you didn't run him straight up the middle

07:44and establish any force or any power.

07:47You didn't take advantage of the two guards that you got,

07:50Jonas Avainaya and James Daniels.

07:53And now James Daniels is gone with a pectoral injury.

07:56So I don't know what happens to that up-the-middle run game this week,

08:01but I would like to still see Ollie Gordon start off running it up the middle

08:06and for this team to do something different,

08:09which is establish physicality right from jump.

08:13Do you think that's what we'll see Sunday?

08:16No.

08:17I think we're going to see some force feeding to Tyreek.

08:20I have no reason to think they're going to change.

08:23They haven't done it in, what, how many regular season games have they played?

08:27I can't even do my math, 17, 52 games, right?

08:3017 times, three plus one.

08:32We haven't seen it.

08:33Yeah, because McDaniel is 28 and 24 in the regular season.

08:37I just, I would like to think we're going to see something different,

08:40but I have no reason to believe it.

08:42When you've got that big a sample size,

08:45I just don't think the message has sunk in,

08:47and it probably won't ever, unfortunately.

08:50And something else I've seen, because like you said,

08:52everybody's mad that McDaniel should give up plate calling.

08:55Will, I don't think he'll ever do that.

08:57Do you think he would ever give up the plate calling duties?

08:59Because if he's not,

09:00now he's just standing there on the sideline with nice shoes on.

09:04Right, exactly.

09:07And some nice glasses, don't forget that, too.

09:09No, no, that would crush his spirit.

09:11That would break him.

09:12That's where he really gets competitive.

09:15That's where he really gets fired up.

09:17That's his thing.

09:18He loves calling plays,

09:20so I don't think he'll ever give that up.

09:23And let me say this, kind of on a different note.

09:26I'm the idiot who picked these guys to win nine games,

09:30and I'm the idiot who still says they will win nine games.

09:33I'm not going to jump off of my prediction after one week,

09:37but, man, they better win this week.

09:39They better win this week,

09:41or I might have to make some adjustments.

09:42But I am still going to stick to nine games.

09:46I'm not going to bow down to overreaction Monday,

09:49overreaction Tuesday, overreaction Wednesday.

09:52I might bow down to overreaction week two if they lose, though.

09:56Kirk, I had them at 12 wins, maybe 13.

10:00I had two of them as MVP.

10:02I had Tyreek Lurton with 2,000 yards.

10:07McDaniel coach of the year.

10:09McDaniel coach of the year.

10:11Yeah.

10:13I'm in way deeper than you, man.

10:18Way deeper than you.

10:19Yeah, we're all in it, man.

10:20We're all in it.

10:22No, not Solana.

10:23Solana's the only guy.

10:24Solana's the only guy who stood strong and said,

10:27nope, don't believe in Greer.

10:29I don't believe in McDaniel.

10:30I don't believe in Tua.

10:32Yeah, and you know what?

10:33I don't believe in them for success.

10:37I said that nine wins is mediocrity.

10:40That's not a successful season.

10:42It's a winning record, but it's just more of the same.

10:45It's more mediocrity.

10:46The mediocrity we saw under Philbin, under Gase.

10:49I guess a little bit under flow after they stopped tanking, but that's mediocrity.

10:55That's not good.

10:56I don't think nine wins was going to get you to the playoff, and I wouldn't have considered

11:01nine and eight a good season.

11:04And having said that, I mean, they're looking pretty dang good right now.

11:09But right now, I mean, after that beatdown, they took.

11:13So, yeah, I think you'd have to take that and be happy at this point.

11:17But really, I mean, the goal for a successful season remains winning a playoff game.

11:24Anything short of that is mediocrity.

11:26And while it wouldn't be a failure, you could still have a good season winning nine or ten

11:32games.

11:34It's not what you're looking for.

11:35This is year four of McDaniel and Greer and Tua.

11:39You need to win a playoff game to show some progress.

11:42And that's looking pretty grim right now after one game.

11:46And Hawk probably gave me a little too much credit there, Perk, because I think you and

11:50I were along the same lines.

11:51Like, they're just an okay football team, which is why I was disappointed.

11:54But I refused to take a victory lap after what I saw the other day.

11:58It was just sad.

11:59Would you agree?

12:00Like, that wasn't even, hey, this team has major holes, major flaws.

12:04We all knew that.

12:05That was sad.

12:07Man, I understand when you say the fan base is out for blood.

12:12I get it.

12:12We all take this stuff too seriously anyways.

12:14But I get it, man.

12:15That was genuinely disheartening to watch that team go out there and not even have a

12:20chance at any point in that game.

12:23That was regression.

12:24I mean, it was terrible.

12:26And here's the thing is that, you know, you thought last year was kind of the low point

12:32because of all the injuries.

12:34You know, I picked them at nine and eight because I said, given reasonable health, they should

12:40be able to win nine games.

12:41If their starters are decent.

12:43And the backups, if they have to go to a lot of backups, then it's all over because these

12:47backups are the worst that I've seen in the McDaniel era.

12:50But I figured you could have reasonable health and go nine and eight.

12:55They had reasonable health on Sunday.

12:58They weren't anywhere near a nine and 18.

13:01That's what was so disheartening.

13:03And that's what was so troubling that you weren't even playing up to a nine and eight

13:07standard with all your horses out there.

13:09Right.

13:09Tua, Tyree, Waddell, that front seven.

13:13What the heck happened to that front seven?

13:16I mean, one set.

13:17Are you kidding me?

13:18Like, they just got stonewalled.

13:21So, yeah, that was I understand why fans are pissed off because, yeah, you're right,

13:28Solana.

13:28That was what they showed out.

13:30There was nothing close to what you expected starting off the season with probably the

13:37best health you're going to have for the next few months.

13:40It was terrible.

13:42Front seven could have used that Van Ginkle salad, huh?

13:45Oh, man.

13:47Chris Perkins from the Sun Sentinel.

13:49Read Chris Perkins' work in the Sun Sentinel, Sun Sentinel app, sunsentinel.com.

13:56Thanks, Perk.

13:57All right, fellas.

13:58I'll talk to you.

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