A 1-5 start was not supposed to be in the cards for the Miami Dolphins this season.
The team was getting a full season of Tua Tagovailoa and returning after a 10-win campaign in 2020.
And this season did get off to a great start with a nail-biter of a win in Week 1 over the New England Patriots.
Then the Dolphins were shutout in Week 2 as Tagovailoa left with fractured ribs.
The team is now sitting at 1-5 and one stat in particular shows just how bad things have gone in Miami.
There's only one team in the NFL ranked in the bottom 5 of scoring offense and defense this season.
The Miami Dolphins
Offense: 29th (16.5 PPG)
Defense: t-29th (29.5 PPG) pic.twitter.com/0XxqjpcJEp— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) October 20, 2021
Basic math tells us your offense usually needs to score more points than your defense allows to win games.
The Dolphins offense is scoring two touchdowns fewer than the defense is allowing.
That is going to lead to bad results no matter what.
Not All About Tua
So much of the focus is on Tagovailoa and whether he is truly the franchise quarterback in Miami.
Sunday’s loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars put him in the spotlight even more, but he actually played well in his return from injury.
If anyone tells you Tua played bad on Sunday for @MiamiDolphins
-walk away & ignore them. Tua played very good-1 mistake-INT-boneheaded no doubt—but he made
-4 bigtime reaction throws under pressure
-3 great crossers
-4 awesome tight window throwsGTHOH that he played bad
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) October 19, 2021
The lefty went 33/47 for 329 yards and two touchdowns.
Yet he got no help from the running backs and the defense could not make a big play against Trevor Lawrence to save the game.
In fact, the team’s leading rusher is Myles Gaskin and he only has 176 yards on 39 carries.
Miami is not running the ball and defenses know exactly what is coming.
Tagovailoa has now appeared in a total of 13 games, which is far too few to make a strong determination about his play.
Making a change at quarterback and ignoring the fact the defense is allowing nearly 30 points per game would not change the fortunes in Miami.
It would simply be ignoring the real problems at hand.
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