If Mike McDaniel had one chance to clap back at the crowdsourced banner carrying ‘Fire McDaniel,’ Thursday Night Football was the day. He’d tell the team it did not matter if it was 0-2 or 2-0 entering Week 3; their single goal was to reverse the course against the charged Buffalo Bills in the nationally televised game. The Dolphins needed it. The HC needed it.

McDaniel has landed far away from being a guy who led the Dolphins to 20 wins in his first 33 games. Today, he’s a coach who struggles against good teams, who can’t win on the road, and whom the bookies are betting on to get fired this season. A win against the Bills would have been an answer to every doubt. But come Thursday night, it remains a ‘would have been’. Sean McDermott’s squad surged ahead for a 3-0 start to the season, leaving the Fins reeling with a 31-21 loss. How did McDaniel take that?

“His piss was hot,” Tyreek Hill revealed in the post-game presser. A reporter had asked the WR how the head coach had reacted after a third straight loss in the season, while the pressure built. Hill’s admission was no exaggeration. 

Entering 2025, McDaniel boasted a 3-14 record against the winning teams. Further, with players such as Jalen Ramsey and Jevon Holland removed, the Dolphins looked like a team with limited ceiling. Where team owner Stephen Ross once uttered ‘Super Bowl,’ the expectations remained rather bleak for McDaniel’s 4th season in Miami. The coach’s only option remains to go big before the front office starts hearing the crowd.

Just before Sunday’s game at Hard Rock, a small rocket flew overhead with a banner asking for McDaniel to be replaced. So yes, the coach has a fire lit under him. But while the memories of the 70-point win over the Broncos may have begun to fade, and the ‘McGenius’ questioned, Hill hasn’t given up on his coach just yet.

“To see how he coached, and to see how he led me today, was a beautiful thing,” he added in the same press conference. The Dolphins had their moments in Thursday’s loss. Bills’ offense may have been efficient, but Miami did not let them dominate. With just 3:06 minutes in the 4th quarter, Tua Tagovailoa & co. even had the chance to tie the game. But that’s where the disaster struck. 

Mike McDaniel addresses the mistake that proved costly

On 1st and 10, with the scorecard reading 21-28 in Bills’ favor, Tagovailoa tried to find Hill’s fellow WR Jalen Waddle with the ball, but LB Terrel Bernard came out of nowhere to intercept the pass. It was a play that looked eerily familiar. It was the QB’s third straight game with at least one interception. This one, however, helped the Bills capitalize with a 48-yard field goal, and the Fins never recovered. 

While many were ready to lay all the blame on the QB, McDaniel wasn’t having it. Not really.

“I wanted to protect the ball, and I think the quarterback has to be responsible for it,” McDaniel said of the crucial interception. “However, I wish I could just put it on him. It’s a tough job to do when there’s someone in your face. Everybody needs to do better.” This was the coach admitting his frustration, a sort of desperate, yet communal, acknowledgment that the team’s struggles were a hydra with many heads. 

But here’s the thing: the Fins are not willing to lay down arms just yet. According to Hill, the team was motivated. “Do you want to be remembered for throwing in the towel?” Hill mused, adding, “Or do you want to be remembered as the team that started 0-3 and turned it around?” Hill’s words hint at a collective desire to pull out of this nosedive. The Fins showed that kind of fight, tying the game at 21-21 on a Tyreek Hill touchdown, a 5-yard Tagovailoa catch where he beat Christian Benford.

The defense, which had looked completely outmatched at times in the first half, particularly against James Cook — who finished with 108 yards on the ground — stiffened after the break, forcing two punts. Yet, despite the flashes of brilliance, they couldn’t get it done. The team’s time of possession was 28:13, compared to Buffalo’s 31:47, which meant fewer opportunities for the offense to get on the field and score. In the end, it was a battle against a team and, perhaps, against themselves.

The season is still young, and the Fins have a chance to turn it around, but the feeling of falling short, of being so close, is the kind of thing that can eat at a team from the inside.