There isn’t a whole lot of good that you’ll find on any given Sunday with the Miami Dolphins on the field. For the third consecutive week, Brian Flores’ Miami Dolphins unit completely flopped — offering uncharacteristically undisciplined play, too many chunk gains in crunch time to the opposition and an abysmally conservative effort on offense until the game was well out of hand. Miami fell at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts at Hard Rock Stadium by a final score of 27-17 — an embarrassing final note on a weekend that was meant to honor the late Hall of Fame head coach and Miami Dolphins legend Don Shula.
Instead, it was Shula’s first team who did him proud in Miami Gardens, with the Colts bouncing back from a lethargic start and piggybacking off of a late score in the first half to steamroll Miami.
But the Dolphins certainly did their part in the double-digit loss, too. Miami repeatedly shot themselves in the foot with penalties once again — the latest violation of one of the basic principles of what Brian Flores has preached to his team for the last 2 seasons: ‘Takes no talent’.
Playing smart, knowing your assignments and playing disciplined are supposed to be hallmarks of a Flores coached bunch. They’re nowhere to be found. Whether it was Brennan Scarlett jumping offsides on a 4th and short punt to gift the Colts a 1st-down (and points), punt returner Jakeem Grant muffing a punt and putting the Colts on a short field or Austin Jackson getting popped for illegal hands to the face on a chunk gain to WR Will Fuller (who left this game with a hand injury), Miami defeated themselves just as much as the previously 0-3 and injury stricken Colts did.
It’s hard to imagine where this Dolphins teams goes from here. But here’s what we do know: they’re an objectively bad team right now in just about every measure of success on the gridiron. And with the team in Year 3 of the Chris Grier and Brian Flores regime, that simply cannot be tolerated. It’s shaping up like a long year in Miami and there’s no end in sight to the bleeding with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on deck in Week 5.
