Will change my tune on McDaniel

IMO part of the equation on McDaniel being here for next year or not is the Tua contract situation. What caliber or candidate for head coach will take the job if Tua is returning? Or if Tua is cut and that massive cap number clogs you for a year or two.

It's not an impossible situation as the Broncos are showing, but it's also far from ideal. Could just be that a new GM keeps McDaniel for a year to get a personal read on him while navigating the tricky cap situation then reassessing after next year.

By all accounts though, Ross is pretty firmly in his camp.

 

Yeah I totally agree. As to the Bills, there are several reasons why I don't put too much stock into that game. Like you said, I think they took us lightly, also, divisional games are very often games that don't necessarily go to the overall better team, and I also think that most any NFL team can put it together for a one game here and there.

 

We've won four in a row, and I get it wasn't the toughest of schedules, but a win is a win in the NFL. Any win is hard, so saying we have to beat the best teams in the league isn't a realistic goal. Why? We could win by 50 against anyone on a perfect day...or they could beat us by 50 if they had a perfect day. It's not meaningless, but if you played the same team 10 times across 10 days, you'd get 10 very different scores.

So instead of, "We have to beat xxx team to show we're relevant," I look for, "We have to play consistent football across November and December." So far, we've done that, and I'm not going to change my mind if we lose 38-37 in a hard fought game this week. If we lose 38-7 and look horrible in all three phases, okay, that's a completely different story and I'm raising an eyebrow.

On the flip side, if we win 17-13 in an ugly game, I'm going to shrug my shoulders while calling it progress.

Now, I get that Pitt isn't one of the league's top teams at the moment, but they're a division leader and they've been as consistent as anyone in this crazy year. It's on par for us playing Dallas or Baltimore in recent years; a tough test, but it's not like knocking off Buffalo or KC. So we'll see...I just want consistent, aggressive play from a disciplined team.

I really wouldn't be shocked if we win out, but that depends on Achane being healthy.

 

Well, its hardly just McDaniel. The Dolphins have sucked in cold weather on the road for all of franchise history. Even Shula was below .500 in these situations, and there were even times when really good Dolphins teams lost to poor to mediocre ones late in the year in bad weather, and usually couldn't score.

The 1971 team, which went to the SB, lost to 6-8 New England and only scored 3 points against Baltimore late that season. The 1973 champs only scored 3 points in a loss to 4-10 Baltimore that season. The 1975 team only scored 7 @ Baltimore in a December loss that year. The 1977 team only scored 10 in a December loss at New England. The 1980 Dolphins lost to a 2-win Jets team on the final weekend that year.

Then of course once the schedule was pushed back several weeks in the late 80s, late season troubles at Buffalo and New England became an annual issue.

 

I always liked McDaniiel, though I had doubts that his style of coaching is sustainable, but he hasn’t lost the team once. He’s not good on challenges but improving, same goes for his game management. Look what he did with Tua, I don’t think there’s a lot of coaches that could have done that and after he saw that it didn’t really work he changed it and look at that offense now. Like you said if we win prime time against Pittsburgh, I‘m more than on board with McDaniel!

 

Not that a lot of the blame doesn't lay on the Dolphins themselves, but we've also been in a division where almost every year since 2003, one of our rivals is a super team. Its extremely difficult to overcome. The Dolphins never end up as a 9 or 10 win division champ like teams in other divisions do.

 

Well, we can't really change that. Just need to build the best team that we can around whoever we have and play smart.

 

Finish this run and we all support with excitement going into the offseason with our new identity

problem is we have a Qb who doesn’t care anymore

must show that he can beat the Steelers, it’s year four dealing with these narratives that are true.

get your team angry to play for 60 mins and whatever happens happene

 

Haven't watched much but if the Miami Dolphins are for real, they will need to prove it by running and stopping the run in "cold" weather. The stats say they are prepared for this type of game.

Will McDaniel put the offense behind the chains with his silly, at times, play calling? How many times can you run a Malik behind the line play? He needs to stop doing that in games where every possession matters. This to me would be a signal of his growth and maturing as a head coach.

Can Weaver get this young DL to control the line and force old man Rodgers to beat them? Fingers crossed.

 

Su yeah, historically I would have agreed with you. It's just that with this team under these coaches, we've seen plenty of wins against bad teams, and then for the most part consistently get blown out by the good teams.

So yeah, I'm happy with the 4 wins. If it turns out that we can actually consistently compete with the good teams with this yeah and the new mindset, I'd be ecstatic!! It would mean we don't have to start over.

So, don't think I'm rooting against this team being legit. I'm just not gonna believe until I see it.

 

Amazing how the Buffalo game just gets dismissed lmao. All everyone ever did was cry on here for the last five year that they can never and will never beat the Bills.

Anyway, I'm sure it will be the same if Miami dogwalks Pittsburgh. Something about Pittsburgh not trying or Rodgers being washed up.

 

You guys are unbelievable.