Thursday night’s loss led to another round of speculation about whether the Dolphins will make a coaching change, but dropping to 2-7 didn’t lead to a move before Mike McDaniel’s Friday press conference.
McDaniel met the media to discuss the 28-6 loss to the Ravens and one of the questions he fielded had to do with whether players are still listening to the message that he’s sending them as the head coach. Thursday night’s loss featured the kind of frustrated mistakes one would associate with a team that’s tuned out, but McDaniel said he does not believe that is the case.
“I would say so because they just used my messaging,” McDaniel said, via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. “Understand the details are the nitty gritty. I think the message is getting through . . . sometimes those details are being lost in the heat of battle. We did it the week before, but didn’t do it this week.”
The Dolphins missed the playoffs last season and they’ve been even worse this season, so it feels like major changes are inevitable in Miami. Whether they start to happen before Tuesday’s trade deadline or the end of the regular season, it seems all but certain that there are going to be new messages and messengers at some point in 2026.
The Dolphins had their best day of the season in Atlanta in Week 8, but there was no carryover from their 34-10 win over the Falcons to Thursday night’s game against the Ravens.
Instead of Tua Tagovailoa throwing four touchdown passes, it was Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson lighting things up and the Dolphins were back to making the kind of errors that have been commonplace during their 2-7 start to the season. Those mistakes included a false start on a fourth-and-1 in the first quarter that led the team to change plans and try a 35-yard field goal.
Riley Patterson missed the kick and the Ravens went up 14-3 a short time later. They would go on to win 28-6 and many of the Dolphins fans that stuck around through the end could be heard booing the home team over the course of their latest loss. When the game was over, head coach Mike McDaniel lamented his team’s inability to handle the “controllable” elements of the game and said he couldn’t blame fans for having that reaction.
“Personally, you want to dictate the terms,” McDaniel said. “You want to fix stuff, and, yeah, it sucks. That sucks. All of that does. I think it’s a pretty consistent formula of fans enjoy winning. Our expectation is that we have to do the work and do the right things for fans to enjoy the experience, and, unfortunately, we didn’t do that tonight, so we’ve got to get back to work to give them something to cheer about.”
Cameras caught Dolphins fans wearing popcorn buckets on their heads in a twist on the old paper bags that used to pop up in the stands of losing teams and there’s no legitimate reason to think or hope things are going to get any better for the team this season. That’s led to speculation that McDaniel may not have to worry about fan reaction much longer, but he’s still the one hearing the jeers for now.
Ravens fans made themselves heard in Miami on Thursday night.
In the first quarter, the Dolphins faced a fourth-and-1 at the Ravens’ 12-yard line and lined up to go for it, but offensive lineman Larry Borom false started. After the five-yard penalty, the Dolphins missed a 35-yard field goal, coming away with no points on a drive that looked like it was heading for the end zone.
After the game, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said he thought that false start was caused by fans of the visiting team cheering so loudly that Borom was struggling to hear his calls, and that afterward the Dolphins’ offense had to adjust.
“I would say with the Ravens fans, it maybe got a little muffled with my cadence and the crowd noise,” Tagovailoa said. “We talked about that on the sideline after and got that corrected.”
The Dolphins haven’t given their fans much to cheer for this season, so it’s unsurprising that plenty of tickets were available for the visiting team’s fans. And those fans made a difference in the Ravens’ win.
After a Week 7 road loss on a Sunday afternoon in Cleveland dropped the Dolphins to 1-6, owner Stephen Ross opted against making any changes. A Week 8 upset of the Falcons seemed to stop the bleeding.
Now, after a sluggish 28-6 home defeat before a national, prime-time audience, the tourniquet has come loose.
So what will Ross do?
The Dolphins are 2-7 and, as a practical matter, eliminated from playoff consideration. Barring a miracle. The mini-bye has arrived, two games before the team’s annual week off.
Will Ross make a major change as to coach Mike McDaniel, G.M. Chris Grier, or both?
These are fair questions to ask. Every year, roughly 25 percent of the league ends up looking for new head coaches. Coaches and General Manages get fired all the time. It’s the life they’ve chosen. The only question at this point for the Dolphins seems to be when, not if.
So when? That depends on Ross. Maybe he wants to ride out the bad season, to take his lumps in order to improve the team’s 2026 draft positioning, in every round.
The status quo is becoming a hard sell at Hard Rock Stadium. The boo birds were flapping their wings repeatedly on Thursday night. Paper bags were on the heads of plenty of fans. One guy poked two holes in a popcorn bucket.
It becomes embarrassing. It becomes non-sustainable. The fans eventually want something, anything. They want the owner to do what they would do.
At this point, the fans would say, “Enough.”
Will Ross?
Next up for the Dolphins is the annual visit from the Bills, followed by a trip to Madrid for a game against the Commanders. Before that, Ross will have to decide whether to stay the course.
Or whether to dramatically alter it.
Lamar Jackson is back, and so are the Ravens.
Jackson threw four touchdown passes, and Baltimore won its second consecutive game. The Ravens beat the Dolphins 28-6 to improve to 3-5.
Miami fell to 2-7, raising a question about the future of coach Mike McDaniel.
The Ravens led 14-6 at halftime despite the Dolphins having more yards (225 to 109) and fewer punts (one to four). Jackson, playing his first game since Week 4, worked off the rust.
The third quarter was all Baltimore as the Ravens outgained the Dolphins 166-39, outscored them 14-0 and held the ball for 11:10.
Jackson’s touchdown passes covered 2 and 20 yards to tight end Mark Andrews, 3 yards to tight end Charlie Kolar and 9 yards to Rashod Bateman. It was his second four-touchdown game of the season, and he has 14 for the season.
Jackson went 18-of-23 for 204 yards, and he ran for 14 yards on five carries. Eight players caught a pass, led by Zay Flowers’ five catches for 64 yards. Derrick Henry had 19 rushes for 119 yards.
Miami shot itself in the foot, going 0-for-3 in the red zone and turning it over three times. The Dolphins’ third drive foreshadowed what was to come: Right tackle Larry Borom had a false start on a fourth-and-1, prompting the Dolphins to send in the field-goal unit and Riley Patterson missed a 35-yard try.
Tua Tagovailoa completed 25 of 40 passes for 261 yards and an interception, with Jaylen Waddle catching six for 82. De’Von Achane ran for 67 yards on 14 carries and caught six passes for 39 yards.
The Week 8 slate saw 12 of the 13 games decided by double digits, with only the Jets’ 39-38 win over the Bengals close. Week 9 began Thursday night, and it continued the disturbing trend of blowouts.
