Miami Dolphins Week Two: Don’t Hope Too Hard

Alright, Dol-fans, calm down. Everything will be okay.

I know week one was rough. Believe me, I allowed myself to forget that Dolphins fans aren’t supposed to have nice things and got my hopes up for the first time in a decent while.

How’d that go, you ask?

Poorly. But thanks for asking!

Listen — as painful as the 21-11 week one loss to the New England Patriots was, Dolphins fans are far from being without hope. There were some good things from Sunday — a solid first outing for several rookies, Christian Wilkins’ big day, and Jerome Baker’s 16 tackles — amid a game where Miami never seemed to find any sort of rhythm.

Let’s be honest, the fact that the Dolphins were even in this ball game heading into the fourth quarter is a positive given how bad the team looked compared to the Patriots.

Another positive (if you can call it that) is that Ryan Fitzpatrick may be due for a better game after last week’s subpar, three-interception showing. For better or worse he’s as streaky as they come, and the law of averages would suggest that even if not this week, he’ll show some more Fitzmagic soon instead of Sunday’s rendition of Ryan Fitztragic.

This all to say that not all is lost. No, the team shouldn’t fire Chan Gailey after one game. And no, Tua won’t be thrown to the wolves before Coach Flores gets a chance to work out the kinks. Because believe me, every team has kinks to work out after week one.

I won’t sugarcoat Sunday’s performance for you, but I would venture a guess that this team will only get better as the season progresses — that’s exactly what happened last season when the team started off its first two games by getting outscored a combined 102 points to 10.

Let me say that once more: The first two games of 2019, the Dolphins were outscored 102 to 10.

The fact that they finished the season as 5-11 was nothing short of a small miracle.

The Dolphins have oodles more talent than they did in 2019, so give Flores and co. a few more weeks before we start sounding alarms. This is still a rebuild, after all. These things take time.

In a word, be patient. I know you’re tired of hearing it, but week one is often a funky time and this team is young. Like, seriously young.

Sundays unlike last week where your mood isn’t destroyed by a football game that you have no control over, where your friends can’t make fun of you because your team lost again, where you don’t hang your brand-spanking-new Tua jersey back up, dejectedly, in the closet instead of showing it off after the game — they’re probably coming.

Just not this week (surprise!).

This week’s opponent is the Buffalo Bills, who put an absolute shellacking on Adam Gase’s putrid Jets to start the season. I hate to say it, but the Bills are a good team this year. The Dolphins have the talent to compete in this game, but a victory shouldn’t be expected from any fan who doesn’t want to get their heart broken (again).

As far as what to expect this coming Sunday, it’s pretty simple: The Bills are going to watch tape from week one, realize that the Dolphins got turned into mincemeat by the Patriots’ rushing attack, and probably craft a similar gameplan.

The worst part is that the Bills have the personnel to do it, too.

Cam Newton ran the ball 15 times week one. Josh Allen ran it 14 times.

Newton didn’t pass often against Miami but was effective when doing so. Allen passed all over the Jets secondary for a career-high 312 yards and has much better receivers at his disposal than Newton. We all saw Josh Allen’s astoundingly awful miss in the endzone last week on Twitter, but he was actually quite impressive as a passer overall.

And lastly, the Patriots wore down the Dolphins defensive front with a withering deluge of zone-reads and power runs. The Bills took a similar approach last week with lots of misdirection in the run game, designed QB runs, and screens.

This is all to say that unless Coach Flores can fix what went wrong last week, the Fins will be in for another slow, painful death on Sunday thanks to a leaky run defense.

One last scary stat: The Bills ran 81 plays on Sunday. Eighty-one. The average is generally somewhere in the sixties, so this shows you how the Bills were able to move the ball with tempo and relative impunity against the Jets. The Dolphins will have to be ready to get off the field if this is going to be a game at all.

Before you think that I’m not giving Miami any chance on Sunday (if it’s not too late), there is some good news: Two of Buffalo’s key linebackers, Tremaine Edmunds and Matt Milano, and dealing with injuries; Buffalo’s kicker missed two attempts last Sunday, which could be important if this game stays close; and Josh Allen lost two bad fumbles last week during rushing attempts.

A lot would have to break the right way for the Dolphins to pull off the home-opener upset, but it’s certainly possible. A few timely takeaways from fumbles or air-mailed Josh Allen passes, a missed kick to grant Miami good field position, or a few missing players on defense for Buffalo, and the game could be closer than most people think.

Just don’t get your hopes up — at least, not yet.

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