Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel said it perfectly. This game is 1/17 of this NFL season. If we lose, we can’t beat the good teams. If we win, we’re going to the Super Bowl. None of it matters. Look, to us Dolphins fans, we crave a win like this, need it. We hate the chatter, from NFL fans, pundits, commentators, everywhere it can be heard. The Dolphins aren’t a legit contender because they can’t beat anyone who is a contender. So far, to be fair, they’re right. We haven’t defeated a winning team this season. We beat the Chargers (3-4) in a shootout Week 1, we beat the Patriots (2-6) twice, we scorched the Broncos (3-5), we lost to the Bills (5-3), beat the the NY Giants (2-6), defeated the Carolina Panthers (1-6), and finally, lost to the Philadelphia Eagles (7-1). The teams we’ve beaten are a collective 11-27, and the teams we’ve lost to are 12-4. I think we all feel like it’s time for us to show up big against a team that is true contender, and this week, nothing better than facing the current Super Bowl Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Last week, Mike McDaniel played it conservatively. He activated C Connor Williams, but chose to rest him and start C Liam Eichenberg, who by the way, played his best game. He continued to rest LT Terron Armstead, and perhaps his wisest move, activated DB Jalen Ramsey and gave him limited snaps of game action so he can dip his toe in the water and get a feel for game action after being out the entire season. This week, it seems as if Terron Armstead will be back at LT, Connor Williams will be back at C, G Lester Cotton will be playing LG, while G Robert Hunt has vowed he’s playing Sunday, he’s never missed a game. RT Austin Jackson, who gets very little press, has been a constant at RT, and has played admirably. DB Xavien Howard was also rested last week, and it appears as if he will suit up. There has been a lot of talk that Jalen Ramsey will be charged with defending Chief’s TE Travis Kelce. That’s a difficult matchup, but Kelce is unquestionably Mahomes’ favorite target, and a key to their offense. If Ramsey can limit Kelce’s production, Rashee Rice is the next weapon the Chiefs use, hauling in 30 of 39 targets for 361 yards and 3 TD’s. Kelce has 54 receptions for 583 yards and 4 TD’s. Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney are the other receivers, besides of course the 2 RB’s, Isiah Pacheco and Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
Our defense is on the upturn, no doubt about that. We’re getting guys healthy, guys like Jaelan Phillips, and of course, the huge addition of Jalen Ramsey. Bradley Chubb is getting hot, and with Phillips healthy, and Andrew Van Ginkel also in the mix, that’s 3 guys, including the ever present Christian Wilkins and Zach Sieler that need to be accounted for. Chubb quietly leads the Dolphins 5 sacks, and is tied with AVG for most TFL with 7. Christian Wilkins has 11 QB hits followed by 10 by AVG. Chubb is right behind with 9. Chubb usually gets the bad chatter, but perhaps that isn’t entirely fair. We also missed S Jevon Holland who didn’t clear concussion protocol but will be back this week, and my fave Nik Needham, who played a minimal amount of snaps last Sunday, might see a larger role against KC this Sunday. If Ramsey is charged with covering Kelce all day, that leaves either Eli Apple or Kader Kohou on the opposite side of Xavien Howard, who by all accounts will be playing Sunday. Raheem Mostert is still dealing with an ankle injury, but is most likely going to play. Jeff Wilson Jr. is back and saw some carries last week , 5 to be exact. He’ll probably #2 on the depth chart behind Mostert until rookie De’Von Achane returns from IR, scheduled for Week 11.
This game is a huge matchup for the NFL, a true marquis game in front of the whole world in Germany, the 2nd game that will be played there. Last year, The Seattle Seahawks faced off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Munich, but this will be the first game played in Frankfurt. The Chiefs are mild favorites as they the “home” team, at -1.5. That’s showing a lot of respect for the Dolphins, although I know some here think we should be favored. This is a good test for this team, there should be a playoff type atmosphere in this game, the NFL fans in Frankfurt Germany are stoked to get NFL action back, their last taste of American Football since the Frankfurt Galaxy played in the NFL Europe league which ended its run in 2005. I’d love for the Dolphins to make a statement, that we are relevant, we can beat a contender. It doesn’t mean that we will be going to the Super Bowl, but it doesn’t hurt our chances of it either!
GO DOLPHINS!!!!
Finsmob Unleashed 
I left slatterys
Went to the subway
Came back
And we scored
Do I have to keep doing that routine
Yes please
There’s a GLIMMER of hope. But our D has been out on thr field for too many downs. We’ve bent and will surely break quite soon?
This would be a great place for a big play by Phillips….or anybody really. Gotta get KC off the field here.
Got any lottery numbers Randy 😉
Fangio has got to get aggressive at this point. We want a turnover.
What a fecking play
THERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Fucking penalties
Still burning way too many TOs because we take so long getting set with all the damn motion.
Not the best throw but Hill should have caught it
That’s a costly time out
UK,
It’s okay for Chubb to make a play too. Just what we needed there. 🤙
Please call another Randy
It’s a game again
Oh yeah…uh-huh. Game on you barbecue eating sumbitches!
MOSTERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Weeeeeee
Let’s go!
I’ll say one thing about this team (which MM said actually) – this team’s heads don’t go down
My head was down
Don’t mind saying mine too
Gotta stop Pacheco… he’ll eat the clock.
Chubb fired up
We got lucky he dropped it
Darth Kader caused the drop
Still, great coverage by Kohou who did deflect the pass
Clock management is key right here.
I want to see an angry run by Mostert
There’s some serious beer being guzzled in Frankfurt
Whew
Yikes!!!!
That was a scary pass after a scary fumble
This is a scary game. Thought Halloween was finished
Of course it’s Jones
We just can’t have nice things?????
Please hit Waddle for a deep ball with Hill drawing all this coverage!
OK. Make them go 3 and out, and we still got a shot.
Just need 2 miracles. Quick stop and quick score. Even then best we can hope for is OT
UK,
I’ll take OT!
What a play by Chubb
i cant believe they didn’t run it
Arrogance
Randy – EVERY day of the week
omg Mostert. Run ou5 of bounds.
I stopped to catch the end of this.
Your car or your heart Herd
Possibly both. 😂
🤣🤣🤣
Here we go!!!
Piggie yer team is a mess this week
There’s an angry run by Mostert
🍺
🍻
There’s your angry run Mike
11 angry men
Expecting a jail breakblitz
Ugh
wow
Fuck
Unbelievable
Our season in a play
FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😡
Here comes 2nd place
Well that’s a shot to the junk.
BAHAHAHAHAHAHA! What a fucking way to lose after all that. What a fucking joke this team is.
^
14 points
Defense played pretty great today.
Agreed after that first drive which was execrable
The pundits will call this another blow out
No they won’t. They will call it our inability to beat a winning team, which they will be 100% correct on.
They can call it what they want. They can only get a rise out of someone if he/she lets them.
Well I call Ed for three losses and have nailed all of them … undefeated going forward
And we lose with a whimper
McDaniels play calling was suspect today. No more evident than us running it down their throat on the last drive, and then four straight pass attempts to end it. Just perfect.
I owe you beers 🍺
Wouldn’t like to be the Raiders with Achane back
It was only a matter of time until a Williams snap cost us a game
I would have kept feeding the ball to Mostert
See above…
Thank you sir. I’ll gladly share them with you!
Colleen Wolfe makes me feel better about this loss.
Tua has the ball slip on a wide open TD, then doesn’t corral the errant snap
It’s concerning
Fool’s gold. Small in big moments. That’s the culture.
Our defense gave up 14 points. If our offense didn’t shit the bed, we could have won this by 2+ scores
But we didn’t. That’s the problem. There are so many “we could haves” in our losses, but we can’t get it done.
You don’t have to convince me- I’ve been saying this since the Bills
I know- we are on the same page Cav
If anyone told us we would be 6-3 and fighting for first place at this point we would have all signed up for that
I agree. When the Broncos upset the Chiefs (and embarrassed them) my first thought was “uh, oh” … and we saw “uh, oh” on that first drive. Fins had a good 2nd half. Strip-fumble-lateral-TD ended up being the difference.
It’s better than what we’ve been subjected to for the last two decades
We are solidly going to make the playoffs
Completely
And we will be 11-3 in a few weeks
Shit the Bed. I still think this team can get better. Achane comes back and gives our run game a whole different feel (over Wilson or Ahmed).
Did Cedric Wilson run the wrong timing route or was that for real a “slip” from Tua’s hand?
Keep in mind… we were without our starting Guards today.
Silver lining
We don’t have the factor a new Connor Williams contract into the off-season
I was just typing do we want to pay him as the top center in the league when his snapping issues show up every fucking game
Difference in the game was the strip fumble TD
Beer to you
Difference in the game was the Tyreek fumble scoop and score vs his old team.
That hurts as well.
yup. just responded to a Ken post with same thought. The fact that we kept Chiefs from scoring in 2nd half is a positive.
Our biggest issue as a team seems to be SLOW starts to games!!
Yep, one big TO was the difference. It was at least a 10 point swing and possibly 14. That’s the ball game.
Rhino, looked like a slip. Wilson did not hesitate on his route. Ball just floated it seemed like. Wilson had his man beat for the TD.
Snap did not look all bad.
damn. It wouldn’t hurt as much if I could pile on Wilson lol
The ball inexplicably slipping as Tua threw to a wide open C Wilson was also the difference in the game
When he released the ball, I jumped up and yelled TD, because Wilson had his guy beat from jump, then the ball went the wrong direction, I was like WTF happened?
And yet another game without an INT. We have 4 INTs on the season, and there’s only one team that has fewer: the Titans with 2 INTs.
Let’s look at it this way. At no time during this game did any NFL fan say this Dolphins team is the team in the AFC going to the Super Bowl. We just don’t rise to the occasion. We were missing 2 guards, but so what? That’s no excuse. It just isn’t
Agreed
We didn’t lose this game, because two guards were out
Exactly, the guards didn’t cause our offense to destroy itself that last series of downs. It was players not executing at a high level (or an average level) at the most important time of the game. A TD was there for the taking on 3rd down, and who knows what might have happened on 4th? not us, because we couldn’t even execute the running the play.
Just like losing to the Bills in the playoffs last year when we couldn’t execute another damned 4th down and lost the game coming out of a time out- same exact shit.
Post game talking about Mahomes, but outside of that first drive we pretty much shut/slowed him down.
Chiefs defense won this game. period. We had our chances and couldn’t execute in critical moments down the stretch.
Per usual Rhino. We’ve seen this movie before.
Guys,
We lost a 1-score game to the reigning Super Bowl Champs. We didn’t get blown out today like we did against the Bills and Eagles.
Some of y’all make it sound like we just lost 0-40.
Yes, this fucker stings me too, but let us have some perspective.
What makes any of us sound like we lost 40-0? Nobody is saying we got destroyed like we did against the Bills. It isn’t hard to discern the difference between those two games.
I’m pretty sure even those of us who are the most pessimistic know we’re a playoff team. We’re just not a top team
See my reply to Brian below…
See my reply to Ken 😉
Got win division above all else, so I guess I’m a Cincy fan on this Sunday.
We played the Chiefs who have the best QB in the NFL. They have been to 5 consecutive conference championships and 3 of the last 5 SBs, winning 2 of them. We lost by one score and were in till very end. All the negativity is a bit of an overreaction right now
^
Read my post above
It isn’t an overreaction. Our offense hasn’t been able to execute against top teams since the Ravens game last year- or sort of the Bills a week later.
Our defense played excellent in this game and kept us in it. Until we see our offense execute and play well in a big moment, why should we believe it will change?
Disagree and we have played well against good teams since. The 2nd Bills game last year. The Chargers opening week. Pats have a good D and we handled them twice. Overall we can play with anyone. This is one game. One week and it is not indicative of anything
Our offense did play well in Bills 2 last year- I’ll give you that. Chargers aren’t a very good team. But, again, this isn’t one week, this is a continuing trend in the biggest moments.
We’ve played 3 winning teams this year and are averaging like 17 points a game in those games.
M13,
We can’t beat good teams, that’s the perspective. We aren’t going to play the 6 teams the we beat if we make the playoffs, we are going to play the types of teams that we consistently lose to, that’s what I’m worried about.
Mistakes build resilience. We will learn from these mistakes. If we can iron the hiccups out now, it makes us better when the playoffs arrive.
*glass half full*
But the other playoff teams are doing the same thing. The Chiefs lost to the Broncos and we beat them 70-20
The Chiefs don’t have anything to prove. The Dolphins offense still has to prove it can execute in big games.
Every team has to prove itself every game
The Chiefs have done it before and they, their fans, and the rest of the NFL know they can do it.
The Dolphins haven’t proved they can do it in the big moments. It’s been one fail after another. Until we walk the walk, it’s just talk..
Doing before doesn’t win games. Each week is a new game. It doesn’t matter what happened in the last week
I understand that you don’t walk into the game and it is given to you, that you need to execute.
My point is the Chiefs can do it. They have proven it. Everyone know they can do it. And when the games are win or go home, they will prove it again, and either win or be a tough out. It isn’t hard to believe that.
We hope the Dolphins can do it, and in every big moment so far the fail. We still have to prove we can do it. The Chiefs don’t have to prove they can do it because they already have, over and over again for years.
As Hulkster stated earlier, the sky is not falling.
We played the Chiefs who have the best QB in the NFL. They have been to 5 consecutive conference championships and 3 of the last 5 SBs, winning 2 of them. We lost by one score and were in till very end. All the negativity is a bit of an overreaction right now
——————
Tell that to the Broncos
Officially official: I can’t stand Patrick Mahomes. He’s the new primadonna of the NFL, taking the mantle from Tom Brady. He’s such punk.
*such a punk
I think what bothers me most about this game is how danged good our defense played and we only needed a halfway decent performance from the offense to win this game, and they just came up really flippin’ small again. It keeps on happening against good teams.
And to lose on downs with a slipped ball pass and a bad snap fumble. It wasn’t some great defensive performance on that last series, it was buffoonery
I can’t and won’t disagree with ya there, Bro. All I can say is that we will (or BETTER!) learn from our mistakes.
That was a really annoying way to end the game
TBH, I was proud of our defense after that first drive. The second TD they gave up came on a long drive and they were gassed.
They held Kelce to 3 rec and 14 yards. No KC receiver had more than 34 yards receiving.
I felt from our defensive perspective, the game was about adjustments and we outcoached them.
They ate us up the 1st drive, we adjusted and contained them. They adjusted on the long drive with the 3 TE sets, and wore us down on that drive, we adjusted and held them down the rest of the game.
It was extremely encouraging. If our defense can start to put games like this together in stretches and become a top 5 defense, then who knows what can happen.
Wonder if any reporters will ask Tua about the ball slip in his presser?
I would rather have lost to the Broncos, and beat the Chiefs. As Cav said, that you have nothing to prove. They can lose to the Broncos, that’s fine, they are the defending Super Bowl champions. They approve they could beat the team, the good team, when they need to. We have not done that yet. Until we do that, we are going to be an average NFL team. I’m not saying that we can’t do that, but I’m saying we haven’t done that yet, so we aren’t that team yet. Hopefully we can meet at some point.
When beating a team with a winning record matters is in the playoffs. Until then it’s just window dressing. What matters is the overall W-L record
Right now I think the Dolphins are the team equivalent of Lamar Jackson. We’re going to win a lot of regular season games, lol.
Hopefully we can continue to grow and put it together on offense
Tua was off on a few passes today
I posted last week about something I read about a former HC that said “the key to having a very good team is winning the games that you’re supposed to, and winning half of the others .” We aren’t doing that. We are 0-3 in those latter games.
Ken, usually you and I agree on most things, but I don’t agree with what you said about beating teams when it matters in the playoffs. We need to beat teams with winning records before that. If we do not beat a team for the entire season that has a winning record, we are not going to be confident going into the playoffs. That’s just a fact they need to prove to themselves that they can do it.
I am old enough to remember the 72 Dolphins. They had a cream puff schedule. Barely beat the Steelers in the playoffs and many were predicting they were going to lose to a really good Redskins team. But none of that mattered
The 72 Dolphins beat 2 teams with winning records during the season that year. Through 9 games, this team hasn’t.
It was a cream puff schedule. They beat no one of significance. I think one of those teams was the Jets who were pretty mediocre that year
Ok, I’ve processed the loss. Now I get to marinate in it for two weeks. I have no doubt we’ll clobber the Raiders, and we should go on a run since the next 5 games are against subpar teams. The Jest defense may give us problems though and two of those games are against them. At worst we should split there and win the other 3.
We should be 10-4 at worst going into the Dallas game.
The Jets are the team I worry about most in the upcoming schedule. That defense is unreal
^
Best defense in the league IMO, and I’m not sure it’s even close. It’s pretty amazing they are 4-3.
If our offense can put up some numbers on them, it’ll go a long way to alleviating my concerns.
Their defense is the reason they are 4-3.
Ugly way to lose.🫣
This team just isn’t very good. We’ve had one of the easiest schedules in a long time to get those 6 wins. Fun to watch though until we play real teams. Vic Fangio was a great hire.
To expand on what New Age said.
We are 6-3, but:
Our current strength of schedule (SOS) is .451 which is the easiest in the AFC and 6th easiest in the NFL.
More telling:
Our current strength of victory (SOV) is a petty .283 which is lowest in AFC and 2nd lowest in the NFL just ahead of the Giants. Dolphins and Giants are the only teams below .300 in the NFL.
You don’t control the schedule. You just play the games. Win as many as you can
Don’t start throwing around statistics to prove our point Mike…
I like what I’m seeing from the defense. We’re starting to tighten things up.
We held Mahomes to a scoreless 2nd half. How many times has that happened?
How many years of coaching success has the KC HC had?
McDaniel has had one and a half.
He’s learning every game.
Our 3 losses have shown steady improvement.
We’ve all been predicting a bad snap would lose us a game.
There it was.
If Williams has any pride, he’ll fix it.
Or move him to guard and play Eich at center.
Agreed Tim. The defense is really starting to take shape. This is right around the time last season where Thombs started to figure our office out. McDaniel needs to do a better job of anticipating this, and having ways to counteract it.
We can’t keep losing OL either. The Bills, Eagles and Chiefs all have good defenses. We have to get some more chemistry on the OL and that starts with staying healthy. It’s a different group every week.
NEW BLOG UP!!
You got that one up quick. I’m a little scared to look, lol.