Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel on blowout loss to Colts: ‘The good news is I don’t see how it could be worse’

The Dolphins play the Patriots and the Bills in a five-day span, so McDaniel’s words will be put to the test

The Miami Dolphins delivered the worst performance of any team in the NFL in Week 1, as Daniel Jones and the Indianapolis Colts blasted them in a 33-8 home loss at home.

The offense sputtered, failing to create the explosive plays they’ve been known for under Mike McDaniel, while the worst fears about the defense were realized as they allowed the Colts to score on all seven of their possessions. On Monday, McDaniel met  said it was not a fun day of film work, as they watched 93 of the 136 plays from the loss and few of them were good.

That said, he was trying to take some positives away from the game as he didn’t see how things could get worse and the Dolphins got their wake up call out of the way early.

“I think the positive is that it was a miserable experience,” McDaniel said. “It was embarrassing, flat out. And in that, there’s nowhere to hide. It’s almost, within the game, it’s almost good that it wasn’t reachable, that we were -4 [in turnover margin], that as a team we have to — I was really looking forward to seeing the stuff we worked on diligently, and I didn’t see any of it and that’s a problem.

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“I would say the good news and the positive is I don’t see how it could be worse,” McDaniel added. “And I also believe in the coaches and players to get it fixed. It’s just a shame. You work behind the scenes for months on end and you don’t show any of it. It’s frustrating. But that can be a good thing. You could tell, as frustrating as it was, the team didn’t splinter and the effort still remained. There’s things there, but overall — I’m not trying to paint a glossy [picture], I’ll call it what it is. It was embarrassing and not anything paying fans sign up for.”

Nihilist McDaniel produces some incredible quotes, like noting this offseason that it was a good morning because we were all one day closer to death. In this case, McDaniel blends a little nihilism with optimism, a rare combination, to try and find the bright side of a woeful performance.

McDaniel noted that he felt the issues Miami had were not with effort but application of that effort, noting the team didn’t play cohesive team football and that players were trying to make plays themselves rather than simply do their job and trust in the collective.

With the Patriots up next on the schedule, McDaniel may be correct in his assessment it won’t get worse in Week 2, but looming on the horizon is a Thursday night trip to Buffalo where things could absolutely get worse than a 33-8 loss. If that goes poorly, you can bet Bills fans (and others) will pull this quote out and make it go viral.