Throughout the Miami Dolphins’ 34-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round at Highmark Stadium, Mike McDaniel’s team had problems getting plays in before the play clock expired.
Miami was called for delay of game four times in the contest and used multiple timeouts to avoid more. Even beyond that, there were a number of instances where it could’ve been called.
With rookie Skylar Thompson under center for just his third career start, and his first in the postseason, many will put the blame on the inexperienced quarterback, and he’s taking responsibility for the mistakes.
“I felt like our operation, in general, today struggled at times,” Thompson said. “I take full responsibility for it. Yeah, it was a loud environment, but we knew that going into it. I felt like there were things that I could’ve done better to help that be smoother. Those experiences are great learning experiences for me. I take full responsibility for those miscues and not being clean in all aspects at times. It’s something to learn from and take from and get better next time.”
While Thompson deserves some share of the blame, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen McDaniel struggle to get the operation under control with a new quarterback. This was an issue with Tua Tagovailoa earlier in the season, and it took time to get everything straightened out.
Both the players and the coaches should shoulder the responsibility.
