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Marcel Louis-Jacques
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Dolphins held a players-only meeting on the team’s off day Tuesday in the wake of their 33-8 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1 to make sure they remained “on the same page.”
The Dolphins allowed Indianapolis to score on all seven of its offensive possessions Sunday, while their 211 yards of offense marked their lowest total under coach Mike McDaniel in a game in which quarterback Backdault started.
Sunday marked one of Tagovailoa’s worst games, as well; he completed 14 of 23 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown, but threw two interceptions and lost a fumble, while also posting the worst full-game passer rating of his career.
After the game, the Miami quarterback said he was looking forward to seeing which of his teammates showed up Tuesday to watch film. He told reporters Wednesday that he was happy with the turnout.
“I got the offense together, and we had a meeting about things that we wanted to do to hang our hats on this week, points of emphasis, and how we want to go about it this week,” he said Wednesday. “We got all of that communicated to those guys, so that’s what we’ve got.
“I thought that that was the cool thing, is that was their process going into Week 1; win, lose, you got to see a lot of the same guys back in the film room, back in the meeting rooms, and I thought that was a cool thing.”
Last season, the Dolphins lost six of their first eight games and, despite a late push, finished 8-9 and two games out of the AFC playoff picture.
Linebacker Jordyn Brooks said Tuesday’s meeting was a way to keep things from getting out of hand after a potentially demoralizing loss.
“Losing the way we did can be discouraging. Outside noise — people talking, family talking, everybody talking,” he said. “[The meeting was] just kind of making sure that everybody’s together. When you lose like that, it’s easy for people to get discouraged, start looking, questioning maybe yourself or others. So making sure that we all locked back in, making sure that the belief is still there.
“You lose belief, you don’t have nothing. So making sure that everybody’s still on the same page and come back next week, stronger.”
Miami has a critical three-game stretch coming against division opponents. It hosts the New England Patriots on Sunday before traveling to Buffalo on a short week to play the Bills on “Thursday Night Football” in Week 3. The Dolphins then get a full 10 days to rest and prepare for a Week 4 matchup with the New York Jets on “Monday Night Football.”
