Mike McDaniel deserves credit for rally over Ravens, but so does guy who hired him | Habib

BALTIMORE — After a game as frenetic as any the Dolphins have ever played, it’s easy to forget.

Easy to forget a goal-line stand led by linebacker Sam Eguavoen in the second quarter, denying the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson a touchdown via video review after it had been initially called a score.

Easy to forget Eric Rowe wrestling with Pro Bowl tight end Mark Andrews to deny him a first down by a yard, forcing a critical three-and-out in the third quarter.

Easy to forget a fourth-down tackle on Jackson by Elandon Roberts and Trey Flowers.

And easy to forget one guy who didn’t make a tackle, didn’t complete a pass and was largely out of sight during Sunday’s 42-38 victory over Baltimore.

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That would be Stephen Ross. Team owner, remember?

He’s the guy who went out on a limb by hiring Mike McDaniel when there were plenty of hot head-coaching prospects he could have pursued. Any number of them might also have the Dolphins 2-0 today, just as any number might have had the Dolphins hovering around the mediocrity we’re used to.

If you’re going to give Ross grief for some of the other moves he has made over the years, you have to give him credit for this one.

Let’s take a minute to absorb McDaniel’s handling of this team as it prepared to step into M&T Bank Stadium, a place they’d never won and once left as 49-point losers.

The night before the game, McDaniel laid out his vision for what Sunday afternoon might look like. It wasn’t pretty. He basically told them they could get hit in the mouth. They could fall behind. And that none of it mattered.

What did matter was what they would do about it.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Comebacks like Miami Dolphins' against Baltimore Ravens are unheard of

The point isn’t McDaniel is clairvoyant, because if he were really good at this stuff, he would have said Tua Tagovailoa would throw for 469 yards and the winning touchdown with 14 seconds left. He would have blurted out the number 711. Entering this game, NFL teams were 0-711 when down by 21 or more points in the fourth quarter.

The Dolphins made sure there will be no extending that run to 712.

Seriously, McDaniel couldn’t have been more on the money in preparing his players for whatever may come. Isn’t that a coach’s No. 1 job?

“It’s something we all kind of expected,” McDaniel said of the tone of this slugfest.

McDaniel’s Saturday night talk actually was an extension of a theme he’d been cultivating.

“He was talking about it the whole week,” said receiver Jaylen Waddle, the recipient of the winning TD. “I think he preached adversity. He said, ‘It was going to come. They have a great team, a great quarterback, a great defense. Adversity was going to hit at some point in the game.’ It hit early.”

Like 13 seconds early. The Ravens took the opening kickoff 103 yards. By halftime, they were up 28-7.

“We needed halftime to regroup,” Waddle said, “and came out with a different mindset.”

Tua Tagovailoa outperformed most Dolphins QBs in fourth quarter alone

Even McDaniel’s halftime talk stuck to the theme “that if we ever get down against these guys, we know that you’re not looking to put your head down,” Tagovailoa said. “We’re always going to be in the game.”

Always going to be in a game? When was the last time the Dolphins had a right to feel that way?

I’ll make it easy for you. Since Dan Marino retired, never.

Tagovailoa went 13 of 17 for 199 yards and four touchdowns Sunday. Most Dolphins QBs post-Marino couldn’t do that on Madden. Tagovailoa put up those numbers in the fourth quarter.

That is in no way saying Tagovailoa is Marino. It just means that for one afternoon, he played like him. And you can’t put your name up there with Dolphins legends without starting somewhere. Sunday could turn out to be the greatest game in Tagovailoa’s career or a sign of things to come. This week, you’ll hear infinite chatter leading up to the showdown vs. Buffalo by both sides of the Tua argument. The fact is, neither side knows, even now, what his career path will be.

“That is what you get into sports for,” McDaniel said. “I think it was a moment that he will never forget. That hopefully he can use moving forward.”

We don’t know what follows in the head-coaching career of McDaniel either, only that his 2-0 start puts him alongside Jimmy Johnson as the only Dolphins coaches to start two for two. Not to mention, McDaniel beat two Super Bowl-winning coaches, Bill Belichick and John Harbaugh, to get to this point.

We know that McDaniel’s guidance has given license to everyone in the facility to be themselves again. To feel good about their contributions. To work hard but also to work smarter (just witness his shorter but crisper practices). To play with youthful exuberance but veterans’ poise. It’s a tricky balance but one that this 39-year-old coach handles with aplomb.

The victory wasn’t even an hour old when running back Raheem Mostert and cornerback Xavien Howard began talking about the Bills. Different coaches have different approaches to what the rest of us would consider a monster game, a statement game. McDaniel's?

"The biggest message is that you don’t ignore the obvious," he said. "The Buffalo Bills have won the division and done an unbelievable job in all three phases, so what better for the Miami Dolphins that’s a young team that is really invested and they’re very eager to play football? What better opportunity than playing the best and seeing where you’re at? So I think you don’t hide from it. I think you embrace the fact that they’re a good football team and that there’s one way to be put in the category of good football teams: You beat good football teams."

For now, the Dolphins are 2-0, undefeated in the division and in the conference. Their comeback for the ages against the Ravens is forcing team publicists to scramble rewriting the record book.

One coach gets to say I told you so.

So too one owner who believed in that little-known coach.

Hal Habib covers the Dolphins for The Post. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Credit Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross for hiring Mike McDaniel