The Miami Dolphins are a sinking ship at 1-5, full of finger pointing, dysfunction and daily questions about the head coach’s job security. Every week they seem to find new, creative ways to lose football game and this past week was no different.
After taking the lead on a Darren Waller touchdown with less than a minute remaining in the game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Dolphins did the one thing they simply couldn’t do: they gave up a huge play to let the Chargers into field goal range.
You saw it:
This week, instead of calling out his teammates for being late to players-only meetings and creating more questions than answers, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick decided to take some responsibility for the long catch-and-run by Chargers’ wide receiver Ladd McConkey.
Minkah Fitzpatrick breaks down the McConkey play
On Friday, Fitzpatrick tried to explain the coverage breakdown that led to the 42-yard play that was essentially the back breaker for the Dolphins. The good news for Dolphins’ fans is that he took responsibility and didn’t blame coaches and teammates.
“It’s a Cover 1 with a robber, like a rat,” Fitzpatrick said. “On those mesh plays you usually get cut. I saw a little ways over with the mesh coming back my way and I heard a cut call, but he was talking to the high guy and not to me. I fell off on it thinking he was talking to me and I’d seen the mesh coming from across the field free so I thought the guy across the field dropped his guy as well. It was a miscommunication. I’ve got to stay on my guy and know that I wasn’t the one getting cut.
“We’ve been doing that since the first game to be honest. We just haven’t been running it as much because two of our nickels went down. Now I’m pretty much the full-time nickel so I think it’s been a good look. I’ve been more involved in the game and getting action early on and getting to cover and getting to show my versatility.”
Nick Saban agrees with Minkah Fitzpatrick on accountability
Former University of Alabama head coach Nick Saban coached both Fitzpatrick and Tua Tagovailoa in college. He knows them both, and while he praised Tua for how he handled his own screw up, he chastised him for the screw up in the first place.
“I am proud of the way (Tua) handled it but one of the things I always try to tell our players is ‘you never criticize another player,’ and in my entire coaching career you never, ever saw me criticize one of our players,” Saban said on the Pat McAfee Show this week. “:I think everybody’s got to take responsibility for what they can control and if you start worrying about things that you can’t control, that’s going to start effecting things that you can control.
“But if everybody takes responsibility for their own self-determination and do what they can do to make the team better — I was really shocked that Tua did what he did, when he threw some guys under the bus. And maybe they’re not playing the way they should play, I’m not taking up for the guys. But you don’t say that about your teammate. I really was proud of the way he came back and sort of took accountability for making a mistake.”
He took accountability for something he shouldn’t have done in the first place? Got it. The Dolphins need more Minkahs and less Tuas.
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