Livescore
It was the Dolphins vs. the Bills and the game clock on Sunday afternoon.
The Dolphins made their AFC wild-card round loss to the Bills one to remember, in more ways than one. Miami was surprisingly competitive in its 34-31 defeat, but head coach Mike McDaniel may hold more blame for the result than any player.
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McDaniel burned all three of his second-half timeouts in less-than-ideal situations, leaving the Dolphins with no timeouts for a crucial Bills drive that began with 2:22 left in the fourth quarter. The Bills would run out the clock with the Dolphins unable to stop it.
And all afternoon, QB Skylar Thompson and the offense frequently seemed late to the line of scrimmage, which put the team in tough situations.
A breakdown of when and why Miami burned its second-half timeouts:
Timeout 1: The Dolphins used their first timeout of the half with 1:21 left in the third quarter to avoid a delay of game penalty on second and-7.
Timeout 2: With 9:19 left in the game, the Dolphins used their second timeout to avoid a delay of game on third-and 10.
Timeout 3: On a third and-10 from their 14, the Dolphins didn’t break the huddle until five seconds were left on the play clock, leading to the third and final timeout being used with 4:13 left to play. The Bills led 34-31 at the time.
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In his postgame press conference, McDaniel went over the clock management issues and the team’s play-calling operation, saying that crowd noise was a factor along with other “compounding variables.”
“There was some crowd noise that had to do with mishearing some reading of digits of the wristband,” he said. “There was some issues within the huddles of communication and getting to the line of scrimmage.
“And there’s the excuse that you don’t use, that is a real compounding variable, that there is a multiple amount of different people in the huddle, where communicating — when you’re in a nice routine, or maybe there’s a group of offensive linemen that are being communicated to by the same person. When you have flux like that, it happens, it shouldn’t happen as much as it did.”
McDaniel also claimed that a key delay of game penalty on fourth-and-inches from Dolphins’ 48 with 2:29 to play was the result of the Dolphins thinking they had gotten a first down on the previous play. Miami failed to convert on the subsequent fourth-and-5.
“We were deploying a group of players for the first-and-10 call. It was articulated that, no, it was fourth down,” he said. “That miscommunication — that’s all the stuff that you do in this business. You never stop finding the things that you can improve on. And it was a piece of the reason why were unable to come out with a victory. But it definitely wasn’t the only reason.”
Thompson said the problems with getting plays called fell on him.
“I feel like the timing of like our operation in general today struggled at times, and I take full responsibility for it,” he said. “It was a loud environment, but we knew that going into it. I feel like there were things that I could have done better, to be smoother.”
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The Dolphins did manage to put up 31 points on a tough Bills squad, in Buffalo’s building and with their third-string quarterback. There’s certainly nothing to be upset about.
Time keeps on ticking, after all.
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