What Mike McDaniel Learned About His Miami Dolphins Sunday

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Carolina Panthers-Miami Dolphins box score looked exactly how most envisioned it would.

The Dolphins beat a far inferior team at home by 21 points. They outgained the Panthers by 128 yards and averaged 2.1 more yards per play.

But 15 minutes into the game, the script couldn’t be more different. The Dolphins were down 14 points and started the game with back-to-back three-and-outs.

Ultimately, they regressed to the mean.

But it wasn’t inevitable — certainly not for a franchise that has famously laid some eggs in recent years.

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Miami Dolphins Rally Past Carolina Panthers

The offense got its act together. The defense started bullying the trenches.

And a two-touchdown deficit flipped into a three-score win.

Now, the Dolphins can’t start that slow next Sunday against the Eagles and expect the same result.

Mike McDaniel on the Miami Dolphins showing the traits of “a winning team” on Sunday pic.twitter.com/fikB28QkcL

— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) October 15, 2023

But Sunday’s win wasn’t meaningless to those responsible for it. Quite the opposite, actually.

“I thought this game was a special game for us because we fell short of expectations early, and so you learn a lot about your team in moments like that, and what I saw was a team that nobody was giving rah-rah to each other at all, but no one was questioning, ‘Hey, guys, we’ve got to pick it up,’ insinuating there was a lack of effort,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said after the game.

McDaniel added:

“It’s second to the win, but the next most important thing that we got from this game was that — half of NFL football is controlling your emotions. Do you get panicked, or do you go in the tank when things don’t go your way, or vice versa? Do you let off the gas when you have a two-score lead early?

“Those things are ever present in my mind as the team develops because I know to get to where you want to go, you have to be able to play football for four quarters and have circumstances be irrelevant.

“It was a big day for our football team, and I think the guys knew it. They didn’t bat an eye.”