The Miami Dolphins entered their Thursday Night Football showdown against Buffalo, desperately needing a win to silence growing criticism. Instead, they fell to 0-3, while the Bills cruised to 3-0, leaving Mike McDaniel facing a firestorm of criticism from fans and media alike. Despite showing flashes of resilience against Josh Allen’s powerhouse offense, Miami’s defensive struggles and Tua Tagovailoa’s inconsistent play has everyone questioning McDaniel’s system. However, NFL analysts are pushing back against the narrative.

Tom Pelissero came to Mike McDaniel’s defense Saturday on The Rich Eisen Show, highlighting a reality most fans refuse to acknowledge. “I mean, there’s not enough said, and I don’t mean to just be a Mike McDaniel defender here, but there is not enough talked about with the hoops that Mike McDaniel has to jump through on a week-in, week-out basis to design a game plan for a quarterback who can’t get hit,” Pelissero explained. That simple statement captures Miami’s entire offensive dilemma in one sentence.

The numbers from Thursday night’s loss tell a brutal story. Miami averaged just 4.2 yards per passing attempt against Buffalo, and that was actually the correct game plan. The Dolphins had no choice but to play it safe with Tua Tagovailoa, whose injury history has essentially neutered the offense. Remember, this is the same quarterback who led the NFL with 8.9 yards per attempt in 2022. Thursday night, he managed less than half that number.

Pelissero drove home the restrictions McDaniel faces daily. “You can’t have him design runs. You can’t really run quarterback sneaks. We’ve seen some of the, in relative terms, the least athletic quarterbacks in the NFL get exposed at times as runners,” he noted. Those limitations force McDaniel into coaching with handcuffs on every week. The “Horizontal Tua” approach kept Miami competitive against Josh Allen’s powerhouse Bills, but barely. Buffalo had multiple chances to blow the game open but failed to capitalize. Tua’s late interception looked like something a college quarterback would get benched for making. Consider this scenario—McDaniel’s 3-14 record against good teams isn’t pretty, but his quarterback has regressed from league-leader status to liability. Dozens of backup quarterbacks could probably deliver similar results without the catastrophic turnovers.

Dan Orlovsky pinpoints how Tua Tagovailoa lost his confidence and elite anticipation

Miami’s 0-3 collapse has everyone searching for answers, but Dan Orlovsky thinks he’s found the smoking gun behind Tua Tagovailoa’s dramatic decline. While Cam Newton blamed the quarterback’s contract extension for creating complacency, Orlovsky identified something more fundamental — Tua has completely abandoned the instinctive approach that made him special.

“I think with Tua, it looks like he’s lost his superpower. Tua’s superpower has always been to cut the ball loose before you should cut the ball loose,” Orlovsky explained on ESPN’s NFL Live. “No one has sought the defenses faster. And I’ve watched Tua the last two weeks, and it feels like he’s waiting for guys to get open, see them open, and then throw the football, rather than what’s been his greatest asset: throwing the ball before they are open, moving guys to open those windows, and cut the ball loose.” The change is jarring for anyone who watched Tua dominate in 2022. He used to carve up defenses by trusting his reads and firing passes into tight windows before receivers completed their breaks. That anticipatory throwing style separated him from average quarterbacks and made Miami’s offense explosive.

Orlovsky suspects the Week 1 disaster against Indianapolis triggered this mental shift. “And I don’t know if it’s because of that first week of a horrid performance on the road against Indy,” he added. “But he’s a guy who’s always said, ‘I trust my guys, I see them open, and I cut it loose.’ And right now, it looks like he’s waiting specifically for a player like Tyree Hill to get open and then cut it. His eyes right now are reactive rather than proactive. I want Tua to get back to playing his style of quarterback.” Tua’s transformation from proactive playmaker to reactive game manager explains Miami’s offensive struggles perfectly. Until he rediscovers that killer instinct, the Dolphins remain stuck in mediocrity.