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Greg Cote: As Dolphins lose in Green Bay, narratives live and playoff hopes all but die

Greg Cote, Miami Herald on

Published in Football

MIAMI — Hold the “narrative” talk, please. If you think the cold weather in Green Bay beat the Miami Dolphins on Thanksgiving night, you are being too easy on the Fins by offering an excuse they don’t deserve.

Neither the wintry conditions at Lambeau Field nor the Packers themselves beat Miami as much as the Dolphins beat themselves in this 30-17 loss on Thursday night. Heck, 27 degrees at kickoff with no snow is closer to balmy weather for Green Bay as December bears down.

Miami entered the game an unpredictable half good, half bad like most teams with a 5-6 record, but it was the Dolphins’ bad self that made the unfortunate, ill-timed appearance — betraying the fragile hope many Dolfans had braved to have after three wins in a row.

Reappearing Thursday, for all to see: An undisciplined team making the same dumb penalties — to an unprofessional degree — and a defense that missed 20 tackles, a football felony. An embarrassment. Inconsistency, mistakes repeated ... these are things that can make a head coach wonder about job security.

The team we just saw does not deserve a postseason ticket.

“I love killing narratives,’ quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had said, alluding to his 0-7 record with temps below 40.

The whole league will be watching on the prime-time stage “to see who we are,” coach Mike McDaniel said.

Alas, the can’t-win-in-the-cold narrative has not left the Fins. And what everyone saw of McDaniel’s team was one that could not beat a good Packers team on the road to save its (realistic) playoff hopes.

Said Tagovailoa: “Presnap penalties, other penalties — the operation was not our style of play that we wanted to show in the beginning. I wouldn’t say any of the things like the elements are going to be used as an excuse.”

Even Tagovailoa could not deny the loss was a big hit for playoff hopes.

“As far as season hopes, this one was a tough one for us as a team,” he said.

McDaniel: “The weather was not a factor as much as our fundamentals. [As for narratives], there’s one way to change them. Now the naysayers will be louder. You carry that until you do something about it, and we didn’t tonight.”

At least one player, linebacker Jordyn Brooks, disagreed.

“I thought we were soft,” he said after the game. “I feel like the elements played a part in how we played.”

So the narratives live on, and the playoff hopes all but die.

That fragile hope withered fast this holiday night.

An inept first half killed it, burying Miami in a 24-3 hole. It was too late when the Fins roused themselves awake in the second half.

 

Fins forced a Green Bay punt to begin the game; then the bottom dropped out. Punt returner Malik Washington muffed it, failing to get a bead on it then having to launch for it. Pack had it at the Miami 9. Jayden Reed beat Storm Duck for the touchdown catch soon after for a 7-0 deficit and the exact start McDaniel must have dreaded.

Miami’s next possession featured two false starts and a botched handoff and was put out of its misery by a punt.

Then Josh Jacobs’ 1-yard TD run put the Packers up 14-0 and ended a first quarter in which Miami had all of five offensive plays.

The Dolphins managed a field goal before Reed’s second scoring catch made it 21-3 and then a Pack field goal made it 24-3 at the break. At 27-3 in the third, the best I can say about the Dolphins’ Thursday night was they didn’t quit. It is the solace of losers, all that is left.

De’Von Achane’s 14-yard TD play from Tagovailoa and Jaylen Waddle’s two-point catch made it 27-11.

Miami then had a shot at getting within one score but on fourth-and-goal from the Pack 1 yard line Tagovailoa got sacked.

Soon it was 30-11 before Tyreek Hill’s 12-yard TD catch then a failed two-point pass made the final score with three minutes left.

For Miami the night was a sad symphony of missed tackles, penalties, not enough defense, not much ground game, mistakes — and a failed effort to flip all the negative narratives, with everybody watching to see if you could.

“Self-inflicted wounds,” McDaniel described the night at halftime.

No excuse.

Tagovailoa had big numbers that were the residue of playing from behind: 36 for 45 for 357 yards and that pair of TDs.

But he failed to the kill the narratives as he had said.

The Dolphins now at 5-7 have five games left and must win at least four to get to 9-8 for any real shot at the postseason. They play the Jets twice, plus Houston, San Francisco and Cleveland. Not a ferocious closing schedule. But two more games will be on the road in cold weather. The margin for error just vanished.

Playoff hope didn’t quite die entirely for the Dolphins on Thanksgiving night.

But it sure felt like it did.


©2024 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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