Five Things I Think I Think About the Miami Dolphins - Week 6

insensate (adj) - lacking animate awareness or sensation

Miami is painful to watch.

I wish I had a good joke or fun angle here.

I do not.

So how about we hunt for something redeeming? It’ll be like going after a snipe.

Defense is anchoring the team

Through the first half of the game, the Colts’ drives were as follows:

3 and out
3 and out
Fumble
3 and out
5 plays and a punt
3 plays for 36 yards and a 52 yard field goal

That certainly feels like a recipe for success.

Unless, of course, you are the current version of the Dolphins’ offense, dead last in the league in average points scored.

Tyler Huntley did his level best. He was 7/13 for 87 yds, 1 TD, 0 INTs before leaving with a shoulder injury. Not exactly world beating, but quite possibly enough to be Colts beating when it was all said and done.

Alas, he relinquished his duties to one Jimothy R. Boyle who didn’t play terribly, but didn’t play well enough to score any points either (though he’d have led them to 3 if Jason Sanders hadn’t missed a 54 yard field goal, like ya do).

By the way, has anyone ever looked at Tim Boyle’s record as a starter? People love to say wins are a quarterback stat, so this stat is fascinating: He was 4-15 over four seasons at two different colleges and is 0-5 in the NFL. That’s 4-20, aka 17%.

How well does this guy practice?

The defense eventually relented and allowed a bunch of rushing yards, but truly, if the offense wasn’t an anemic hellscape of ineffectiveness, their performance would have been more than satisfactory. And ‘more than satisfactory’ is a threshold miles above where the team sits almost everywhere else.

Commitment to the run almost pays off

Coach Mike McDaniel has been criticized for his playcalling and that’s because it’s been bad and he should feel bad.

This week, however, he had a game plan (for better or worse) against Indianapolis and he stuck to it, despite being rewarded for it with two fumbles, one by Raheem Mostert and another by Alec Ingold.

Miami ran the ball 40 times against 26 pass attempts. The plan was obviously to ‘pound the Dwayne Johnson’, as it were, and it racked up 188 yards. The offensive line opened up running lanes and the backs took advantage. It looked downright competent.

He didn’t even take any unnecessary risks on 4th downs this week. So that was a nice change.

But, then he used that stupid FB dive again. Twice. And a game changing fumble at the IND 15 yard line was the result of the second. Isn’t that special?

I can’t really fault MM too much here, at least in the game planning aspect. He knew he was rolling with a backup quarterback, attacked with the run game and, if it weren’t for the fumbles (assisted by choosing the wrong back near...