Miami Dolphins' season ends with 38-10 thud, leaving questions | Habib

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The New England Patriots in the Tom Brady years represented exactly what the Miami Dolphins wanted to be.

The New England Patriots in the Drake Maye years represent the same bloody thing.

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Patriots 38, Dolphins 10 was the final score of the final game of Miami’s season, which is about right if you’re measuring where each of these franchises are vs. where they want to be.

People in New England are still scratching their heads trying to figure out how the Patriots could go 14-3 this year, wresting the AFC East title from the Buffalo Bills, after winning four games last year.

More Dolphins: Instant report card for Miami Dolphins QB Quinn Ewers vs. Patriots

South Florida also is scratching its collective head over the Dolphins. Only it’s for the wrong reasons.

Where to now, Dolphins?

That’s the overarching question, yet everywhere you look for answers, you only have more questions.

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Will Mike McDaniel be back as coach?

McDaniel was asked postgame if he’d received any word from Stephen Ross, but he remained steadfast in keeping his discussions with the owner private.

“The conversations that I have with ownership I won't opine on,” McDaniel said. “But I think I'm operating the same exact way that I always have, which is no one's entitled to anything. I take the job serious and so I will aggressively attack the job tomorrow and like every day that I have the job. I think it's supremely important to not minimize your responsibility and what people need from you. I think realistically I understand the question and appreciate it but I'm going to keep my conversations with ownership to myself and ownership.”

Mike McDaniel is scheduled to meet with media on Monday

That leaves everybody reading the tea leaves, which, if the past several weeks are any indication, will tell you whatever you want them to tell you. As for cold facts? What we do know is that McDaniel is scheduled to meet with reporters for a wrap-up news conference at 4 p.m. Monday. Usually, teams firing coaches on Black Monday don’t trot that coach in front of the cameras and microphones. So read into that what you like, knowing that Ross may well plan to give McDaniel a fifth season but also could, theoretically, cancel the news conference.

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You may be thinking that’s a roundabout way of saying, well, we don’t know, but you were forewarned that questions outnumber answers, weren’t you?

Focus all you like on the McDaniel situation, but just know there’s a growing case to be made that it’s not the most critical question. We are in the opening hours of the search for a Dolphins general manager. That is the most critical decision facing Ross. And that after a quarter century of this team not winning a playoff game, the pick of the new GM has few parallels in franchise history in terms of importance.

Get the right guy and he won’t whiff in the first round, he’ll hand you De’Von Achanes in the third round and he’ll snooker the rest of the league every now and then in the seventh. He’ll work the salary cap, which, you may be interested to know, says that in 2026, the Patriots have $45 million in cap space while the Dolphins are $15.6 million in the red. So the 14-3 team is playing with Monopoly money while the 7-10 team has a wad of $3 bills.

Ross at last has caught on, which is why he’s bringing Troy Aikman aboard to assist in the search. He’s an outsider, a pick out of left field, but after all the starts and stops the Dolphins put South Florida through, aren’t we well past the time to think outside the box? Aren’t we also past the time for Ross to secure Aikman the way he did, reportedly bringing him in as a consultant without letting trusted advisor/fellow Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino in on it?

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Meanwhile, if the scouting department is indeed getting an overhaul, that too is a welcome change, because the upcoming draft is massive if the Dolphins are to get within sniffing distance of the Patriots.

This game never was going to tell us much about either team. It was never, ever going to be the deciding factor in McDaniel’s future. The Dolphins deserve credit for making a game of it for a half, but that’s the extent of it.

The hope throughout the week of practice was that the finale would at least give us more information about rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers. But when we woke up gameday to the knowledge that Achane and Jaylen Waddle weren’t playing, there went that idea.

Dolphins played without 14 starters, including MVP De'Von Achane

Here’s what you really need to know about this game: The Dolphins were without 14 players whom you logically could have/should have been expected to start. Want proof: Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Waddle, Achane, Darren Waller, Alexander Mattison (perhaps), James Daniels, Austin Jackson, Kader Kohou, Storm Duck, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Benito Jones, Chop Robinson and Jason Sanders.

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Playing behind that 8-ball, Ewers did OK, completing eight of his first nine passes, including a touchdown to Malik Washington.

“I thought I did a good job of I think number one, responding to challenges all three weeks,” Ewers said. “It's unfortunate whenever the season doesn't end your way and how you want it to end, but I thought I did a good job of kind of rallying the guys around me and kind of continuing to fight.”

Unfortunately, Ewers’ day ended on a note unlike how it began. Flushed out of the pocket, Ewers was chased down by linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson, who tackled Ewers in such a way that Ewers’ right knee was driven into the turf. Ewers rolled over, clutching his knee. Further tests are planned after the team returns home, but McDaniel said it “initially seems to be stable and doesn't seem to be what people would fear.”

By that point, the Patriots faithful, who are almost as foreign to losing seasons as Miami fans are to playoff success, turned Gillette into a pre-postseason party house, serenading Maye with chants of “MVP! MVP!” as the offense sliced through Miami’s defense once more.

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One question McDaniel must solve is how the Dolphins could go through a season outscored 130-27 in the third quarter. On this day, a reasonable 17-10 halftime deficit was transformed into a 31-10 laugher by the start of the fourth quarter.

So the Dolphins end this season 7-10, their worst record since going 5-11 in 2019, in Brian Flores’ first year.

They doubled their win total to 10 the next year.

If you’re looking for hope, that’s about the best to be offered.

If you’re looking for answers, be patient. That’s something you should have perfected by now.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Mike McDaniel's status unknown after Miami Dolphins fall to Patriots