It was about a month ago, in a conference room near his office in Miami Gardens. New Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel wasn’t just answering a question about others doubting his ability to fulfill his new role. He even raised the subject himself.
He had heard the whispers that, being shorter and lighter than most NFL coaches, he would struggle to command a team if something went wrong. That he wouldn’t be able to put a room full of alphas back on track. That it was only a matter of time before the 39-year-old Yale-educated, San Francisco-born racing game savant turned out to be overwhelmed.
McDaniel told me on a hot August day that he was ready.
“That’s how I see what work is, it’s in the most difficult times when people are going to be the most uncertain of themselves or the team or really anything – that’s is my time when I’m supposed to lead,” he said. “It’s the moment that gives you a goal. Whatever I become is what it is, but I know I’m going to try to be as good as I can be. And to be that, I have to be that Nobody. That’s where you part.
“Why are you the person for the job? Well, it’s set in those types of times. That’s what’s cool about the job. I just wait for these things to happen all the time, because I know they happen. And that’s where you define yourself, really.
So far, so good. Last week, the Dolphins came back from a 35-14 deficit in Baltimore to win 42-38. This week, the result was perhaps even more dramatic. They survived a Bills-laden team that had seemed unstoppable for two weeks in a steam room that doubled as Hard Rock Stadium. That added to the two wins McDaniel had already recorded over the Super Bowl champion coaches and gave Miami the top spot in the AFC East heading for a Thursday night showdown with the defending conference champion Bengals.
Best of all, when those big moments came, his dolphins reacted in the most important way.
The newly dubbed Butt Punt happened with 1:37 to go. Miami was up 21-17 and in position to force the Bills to drive the field for a touchdown. Instead, Thomas Morstead kicked the back of personal protector Trent Sherfield, and he ricocheted out of the end zone for a safety. Now all the Bills would have to do is return the free throw, step into the field to win the game, and leave Florida.
This is where the worst has happened for the Dolphins in the past. Now is where, thanks in large part to McDaniel, Miami expects the best.
We’re three weeks away and we still haven’t had a missed Sunday. Which leaves us with plenty to cover in this week’s MMQB. In other parts of our coverage we will have:
• Lamar Jackson, Kirk Cousins and the Three Deep Colts.
• Jalen Hurts’ explosion exceeds 10 takeaways.
• Why Tyler Van Dyke is the poster boy for the Quarterback Class of 2023 to lead Six From Saturday.
And much more, after we have you completely up to date with everything that happened in Miami in The Lead.
Mike McDaniel and his team have been up to the task so far.
Megan Briggs/Getty Images
The easiest thing for McDaniel to do this week would have been to frame the game against the Bills as a chance for his Dolphins to announce their arrival as a true competitor to the AFC. This this would be the turning point, with the hope that the team would manage the week with that kind of intensity and then come out of it by validating those season-opening wins over the Patriots and Ravens.
The problem with that, however, would come down to McDaniel’s sense of the moments that would define him and, ultimately, his team. Long story short, if Miami valued a seven-game losing streak against the Bills so much and failed to do so, where would that leave the Dolphins? And even if they found a way to win, where would that leave the players with a four-day turnaround before their game on Thursday night?
McDaniel therefore approached the matter with easy confidence, telling his players that they had done the right things so far, at the start of the season, and that they had to keep doing the right things. And that while the game against the Bills would give them a chance to see how far they’ve come and give them a good measuring stick, when it’s over, the plan would remain the same.
“It causes guys to not really think about what things have been like, and just believe in the process we’re going through and believe in who we are as a team right now,” says a staff member. “And kind of just go out there and play freely, not be really tight about anything, just let people be themselves and go play for each other. The guys did that, man. We have quality players in the squad who are capable of playing at a high level.
So when the Dolphins played solid defense in the first series of the game and the Bills still went for 75 yards in 10 plays, it wasn’t the end of the world, nor was a punt from their 35 on the next possession. And sure enough, even though Buffalo had rushed nearly twice as many plays as Miami in the first half (42-23), had nearly twice as many yards (216-109) and had 16 first downs to 10 of Miami, the Dolphins held their ground. and entered the half tied at 14.
This happened mainly because the Dolphins took advantage of their own opportunities – one was scoring a touchdown three plays after a Jevon Holland tape sack from Josh Allen, recovered by Melvin Ingram – and killed those of the Bills, stopping two workouts that advanced into Miami territory. without points (not counting the final possession of the match, on which the time has elapsed).
Miami’s defense was on the court for 90 plays on Sunday — Allen’s first-quarter backpack for the Netherlands was their biggest play.
Jim Rassol/The Palm Beach Post/USA Today
And from there, after Tua Tagovailoa was knocked down and temporarily out of the game (we’ll have more on that in the takeaway), the Dolphins defense had to win the day.
Early in the game, Miami, like under Josh Boyer, tried to throw a bevy of flashing looks at Allen. But the Bills had sketchy answers, so the Dolphins adjusted some of their game plan on the fly and became less aggressive in tackling Allen as the game progressed. But the broader strategy has remained the same.
The key was to try, in football terms, to constantly change the image and do it in such a way that Allen was looking at one thing before the snapshot and something else after the snapshot. And the Dolphins also stuck their corner of the world, Xavien Howard, on Stefon Diggs, to force Allen to deepen his progressions. The hope then was that Allen would start playing street ball again and that the Dolphins would be disciplined and not burn out.
That, of course, was a challenge because chasing and facing Allen in million-degree heat is little more than light training. Still, the Dolphins were there, getting four saves after the Bills got to the Miami 2’s first base with 2:36 left. And then the Butt Punt happened, and McDaniel got the moment he was waiting for.
No coach wants what happened with Morstead at the end of the game. The Dolphins defense was, predictably, gassed, and sent them back there three plays after the Bills ran on a 17-play record (the one that was stopped at the goal line) n Wasn’t the way anyone shot that ride.
But that’s where conditioning in the South Florida heat all summer would pay off, as would the staff’s approach to ordering players to keep cutting corners on what worked.
Holland and Nik Needham made plays early in the run to run precious seconds off the clock, and in the end it was just a matter of the Dolphins surviving the mighty Bills late. A waiting penalty with less than 20 seconds left pushed Buffalo back into midfield and into their own territory. In the final game, Isaiah McKenzie might have had the sideline, but he tried to shake off a defender and got stuck inbounds, ending the game.
Megan Briggs/Getty Images
And so McDaniel had another one of those moments he hoped would come, where his team faced adversity against a top-flight opponent and rose to the occasion.
This, of course, is only 3–0. Much can and will change over the next three months.
But for now, Miami is succeeding where it has often failed in the recent past. And as far as big steps that could be taken by McDaniel at this early stage, that was a pretty big one.
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• The 0–3 Raiders might wonder what could have been
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