The Phinsider
You know things are bleak when your team is embarrassed by the Cleveland Browns.
Both teams entered Sunday’s contest with 1-5 records, coached by men who were considered on the “hot seat” by many insiders covering the National Football League. Only one coach had his team prepared to play in what amounted to an Ohio Valley hurricane — and that coach was not named Mike McDaniel.
The Dolphins got their butts handed to them in Cleveland on Sunday — dropping their sixth game of the season, this time by a score of 31-6 to a team that was averaging 13.7 points per game through the first six weeks of the season.
Sunday’s game may have been the most shameful loss in the Mike McDaniel era. Multiple heads should roll after this epic failure — yet we continue to wait for owner Stephen Ross to make any changes. What a sad state of affairs it has become for a once-proud franchise.
Typically, win or lose, we still try to find something positive to discuss in the early portions of this column. However, this week, there will be no good — only bad — and really, really ugly.
Tua Tagovailoa is not the same player in 2025 that he was in 2022 and 2023 — his first two seasons playing for Mike McDaniel.
For the second straight week, Miami’s quarterback tossed three interceptions en route to a soul-crushing defeat for the Dolphins.
Despite what he may think, Tagovailoa’s turnovers do come in bunches — and this season, those bunches are coming more frequently. Through seven games, Tagovailoa has just 11 touchdown passes, but has thrown 10 interceptions. He has topped the 300 yards passing mark just once — week two against the New England Patriots. He mustered just 100 yards passing against Cleveland before being taken out of the game in favor of rookie passer Quinn Ewers in the fourth quarter.
If Tagovailoa continues to play this poorly, the organization will have a big decision to make regarding the 27-year-old’s future with the franchise as early as this offseason.
Miami committed seven first-half penalties against the Cleveland Browns — a classic tell-tale sign of an undisciplined squad. During Mike McDaniel’s tenure as the team’s head coach, the self inflicted wounds in the form of backbreaking penalties have been excruciatingly consistent for a team that can’t seem to find any consistency anywhere else on the football field.
Many of Miami’s penalties on Sunday allowed a team led by a rookie quarterback in Dillon Gabriel to continue drives on offense — putting points on the board for the Browns in the process.
Both Jaelan Phillips and Zach Sieler — two supposed leaders on Miami’s defense — were called for roughing the passer penalties which gave Cleveland automatic first-downs on two separate occasions. Minkah Fitzpatrick — Miami’s leader in the secondary —...
