Should Dolphins fans be worried after two-game slide? | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab discuss the Los Angeles Chargers win over the Miami Dolphins, and debate what level of panic Dolphins fans should be at after a second-straight ugly loss.
Video Transcript
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CHARLES ROBINSON: LA Chargers beat the Miami Dolphins 23 to 17. There's a few different things we can talk about here. But I just think it's interesting watching these fan bases, you know, bicker over, this game's somehow gonna prove--
FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah, yeah. Right.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --which guy is better. And, you know, really, frankly, I think the volume of it is Miami fans. All these Miami fans are pissed off. They're, like, Tua Tagovailoa, he's better than Herbert. People need to see it. It's, you know-- and then, he shows up in this game, and not as fine as performance. And I want to also note that a lot of this felt like it went downhill after we revealed the Frank Schwab stat of every game he starts--
FRANK SCHWAB: [LAUGHS]
CHARLES ROBINSON: --they win. After you revealed that stat--
FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --I think they're 0 and 2.
FRANK SCHWAB: That was only eight days ago--
CHARLES ROBINSON: [LAUGHS]
FRANK SCHWAB: --that we saw alive. Wow. That's kind of what I wrote about for this game. Or saying, like, what's happened with the Miami Dolphins the last two weeks? This was a team that they're right there with the Bills for the AFC East. And then they completely laid an egg against the 49ers. It's like, OK, well, whatever, that defense is really good. Sure.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Right, Sure.
FRANK SCHWAB: Totally understandable. Chargers ain't a good defense. The Chargers are a bad defense. Didn't have Derwin James. Didn't have Bryce Callahan. Obviously, Bosa was out. And Tua was terrible in this game. And I'm not gonna make this a referendum on his career and, uh, Tua's not a good quarterback, look at Sunday Tonight Football. But the truth is the truth. He was miserable in this game. He played as bad of a game you could play quarterback as a good quarterback that we've seen all season in the NFL.
This dude, at one point, in the third quarter, was 3 of 17 for 25 yards against a bad defense. I don't want to make this a referendum about Tua. Herbert's a better player. Whatever. I mean, that's been clear to everybody. Tua's in a much better situation, better coach, all that kind of stuff. Herbert's better. Tua's good. That's fine.
How much are you worried about the Miami Dolphins now? All of a sudden, they're 8 and 5. Like, they're still fine. Like, they're still fine. But you start looking at the schedule. They go on the road, they play Buffalo Saturday night.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yep.
FRANK SCHWAB: Probably gonna to win, maybe. I don't know, but probably not. And then they got some tough ga-- like, just tricky games. I think they play the Jets, the Packers, and then at the Patriots to end? Mm. it's a lot more dicey than it was eight days ago. It just seems like, I hate to say it, but almost like they've been exposed a little bit. And now you go in, you got to win some of these games. And they're gonna have to come up with a counterpunch.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Is this a case where teams were looking at what they were doing the first half of the season and kind of figured out some of it, you know?
FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: I mean, basically, to me, what you had to figure out is, how do we deal with Tyreek Hill? Which was what teams-- I feel like a lot of teams always struggle to figure that out with Kansas City. And they would go through pockets of figuring it out--
FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --you know? And Jaylen Waddle, same-- I think it's kind of same situation. So you have these two players. But Waddle, obviously, in this game, not nearly what you would expect. Tyreek Hill did some Tyreek Hill things. There's no doubt about that. But, yeah, just it was a-- it was a--
FRANK SCHWAB: It was bad.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --just laid an egg.
FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: And I don't know if this is, like, a Tua thing. But I will say this--
FRANK SCHWAB: I don't--
[SIGHS] This is where he's got to turn it around, right? Like, cause if he's that--
FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: --think he is.
FRANK SCHWAB: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
CHARLES ROBINSON: This is where you put your foot in the ground and you go get it.
FRANK SCHWAB: They could have a bad game. Guys have ha-- good quarterbacks have bad games. It happens, probably not this bad. But they have bad games, you bounce back. I mean, what you see now-- and pointed out on our broadcast often-- you're seeing cornerbacks, the teams are just saying, we're gonna press you. We're gonna disrupt your timing. We're gonna get physical with you. We're gonna play safeties over the top. Figure it out.
And I think this is as much, like you said, about Tua. I agree. This is just as much about Mike McDaniel. He was the genius--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Mm-hmm, yeah.
FRANK SCHWAB: --after 12 games, right?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Sure.
FRANK SCHWAB: And totally justified. He was off to a great start. OK, now teams have figured you out. What's your counterpunch?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Right, adjust.
FRANK SCHWAB: What do you have now? And I think Mike McDaniel will figure that out cause he's a really smart guy. He's a good coach. And Tua's gonna be fine, and Hill, and Waddle, and all them. But they're at a point in their season where it's got to happen fast. Like, you can't let a two-game losing streak become five, or else you're gonna be, somehow-- they were 91% to make the playoffs before this week, Football Outsiders playoff odds. You go from that to out of the playoffs? It's totally possible. I don't think it's gonna happen. But it's possible now. And it's got to be scary for the Dolphins to just be like, they've had this kind of dream season. And now, you're in this-- you have some issues right now. You got to figure out and figure them out fast.
