Tortured Dolphins Fan: Will it be Embarrassment or Progress?
Plus, we talk with a 42-year-old E-commerce account manager who has to go 30 years back to come up with a good Dolphins memory.
For last Sunday’s Tortured Dolphins Fan column, I spoke to Chris Altieri, a 34-year-old physical therapist in Miami who has been rooting for the Dolphins all his life. This week, we take a look at where the Dolphins stand heading into today’s game against the Texans, then talk to Adam Kramer about the 1990s Dolphins.
In a way, last week’s loss was easier to digest. Losing to the Bills, even by double-digits for the third time in the last three meetings, should be expected, while losses to the Jaguars and the Falcons by a combined five points are flat-out embarrassing.
Next up is the Texans, a team with the same 1-7 record and keen eye for a lack of talent as the Dolphins. A loss to Houston would fall under the embarrassing category, and likely set Brian Flores’ head-coaching seat on fire.
After all, the Texans are run by a front office that has long been considered the most clueless and dysfunctional in the NFL. One many believed the Dolphins swindled out of valuable draft picks for a left tackle. A front office that, even when gifted a top quarterback, the kind of difference-maker for which the Dolphins have been searching for 20 years, failed to build a winner around him.
Deshaun Watson will play for neither team when the two organizations meet this afternoon at Hard Rock Stadium. The trade deadline mercifully came and went without a deal, but that also means the futures of both organizations remain in question.
That’s an offseason matter. For now, all that is left is to play out the schedule and re-evaluate. At 1 p.m., only bragging rights of not having the worst record in the AFC are at stake.
Should the Dolphins lose, it will be the franchise’s most humiliating loss since, well, three weeks ago in London.
It will have been Tua Tagovailoa’s fourth game back from injury, and Miami’s eighth straight loss. The “unlucky bounce” excuse goes out the window, if it doesn’t smell like dog poo already.
Should the Dolphins win, there may be reason for careful optimism. It would mean that Tua didn’t make a boneheaded throw to cost them the game. That the offensive line managed to protect him and that the defense managed to give the offense decent field position. That the coaching staff installed a game plan that went beyond scripting the opening drive.
But it would also have come against the Texans, which doesn’t count for much outside of another tally in the win column, which at this point is pretty meaningless.
Opportunities to find meaning are ahead. The Baltimore Ravens loom next Sunday. After that, a four-game angel food cake sampler of the Jets (twice), Panthers and Giants, with a bye week in between. This is a chance for Miami to get right, to show progress. It also acts as a red carpet into mighty matchups against the Saints, Titans and Patriots.
Those final three games will be a stress test of whatever it is the Dolphins figure out over the next few weeks, starting today against the Texans. Will they limp into those matchups embarrassed, broken, and with perhaps an interim head coach? Or will they begin to turn the corner?
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TDF: 30 Years Since the Last Good Memory
This week for Tortured Dolphins Fan, we talk to Adam Kramer, a 42-year-old E-commerce account manager in Ashburn, Virginia who grew up in South Florida. If you’d like to talk about your own tortured Dolphins fandom, direct message me on Twitter.
How did you become a Dolphins fan?
I grew up with an older brother and a father who were very much into sports and obviously the Dolphins, back during the mid-80s, early-90s were not only the biggest thing in town, they were pretty much the only thing in town — outside of the Hurricanes. Dan Marino was pretty much my sports idol growing up. So it was kind of a natural thing to just gravitate towards that and become a Dolphins fan living down there.
What’s the first disappointing memory that comes to mind?
The first thing that comes to mind is the 62-7 loss to Jacksonville in Marino's last game. I mean, that was just kind of the ultimate punch in the gut, seeing his career come to an end like that. And then after that, it's been pretty much the entire time from about ‘02 on. We had a couple of good years with Fiedler starting but then it's just been disappointment after disappointment for the most part.
Why do you think that is? If you could try to diagnose the problem over the last 20 years?
I think it's multiple things. One has just been not being able to create a good offensive line. I'm sure you hear this all the time. Over the last 15 years, I think we've had one or two years where we've got a solid offensive line, and I think those actually would correlate with the years we've gone back to the playoffs. And it's been a coaching carousel. Ever since [Stephen] Ross took over the team, he's been great about opening up his checkbook, but he just seems to be blindly loyal to the people in the front office and coaches who are just not getting the job done.
What is your best memory?
The first playoff game that I have vivid memories of us winning was the game against Kansas City, I believe in ‘91. Down by two touchdowns, and Marino brought us back with, I think, a touchdown pass to [Mark] Clayton with four minutes left in the game. And then the Chiefs were driving down the field and they actually got to the field goal range. Christian Okoye — who just was always destroying us back then — had a great run. And then there was a holding penalty. I'll never forget it. There was a holding penalty on David Szott. That name is etched in my memory forever. And it brought the ball back and Nick Lowery's kick was “just short” in the words of Al Michaels.
Then I think it was the next year, my dad took me to the AFC Championship game — the game we got run roughshod by the Bills. Even though we lost that game, I just remember being there. The stadium was electric and it was just cool thinking like Hey, if we win this game, we're going to the Super Bowl. So even though the game overall was a disappointment, I just remember being a kid in that environment was amazing.
What has been the toughest part of this season?
Just falling so far of expectations. The offensive line taking a massive step back, the defensive taking a step backward. Tua getting injured and not being able to get those games under his belt. I know all over Twitter people are like Oh, Tua stans. I'm a fan of this kid. I think he's shown a lot of resilience coming off his injury from college, not having a true preseason and camp and everything his rookie year. And I honestly think the kid has a ton of promise, but his defense is doing him no favors, he's got no running game and he's got no offensive line. I don't think if you put any quarterback back there they would succeed. Everybody's like Oh, an elite quarterback would make it work. I kind of think that's bullshit.
What do you hope to see from the organization going forward?
The playoffs are shot, there's no realistic chance for that, so what I would like to see this season is just improvement. Something to show that they haven't given up. I want to see [Mike] Gesicki extended. And then for next year, we have a decent amount of cap room. As far as a coaching change or a GM change, I'm 50-50 on it. I know Flores comes from the Belichick school, doesn't really ever show emotions. I would like to see more emotions out of my coach. He's very monotone in the press conference. And [GM Chris] Grier, I feel like he's just hiding behind Flores. He needs to speak to the media more and explain some things.
Would you recommend that someone raise their kid as a Dolphins fan?
It's funny, there was a guy on Twitter who mentioned his son is about to be born and was like “Another Fin fan!” I wrote back to him, “Why would you do that?!” But in reality, if I had my own kids, yeah, absolutely I would raise them to be Dolphins fans if they were willing. It's just one of those things where I'm stupidly loyal.