For the second straight year the Miami Dolphins opened the season 1-2. Sunday's 41-14 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills at home was particularly disheartening following an offseason of optimism.
Coach Joe Philbin took ownership of his team's lackluster start to the season and rudderless performance in the home opener.
"It's my responsibility to get this team to reach its potential," he said following the loss. "This was not a good performance. I take responsibility. As a team, players and coaches, we have to do a better job and it starts with me. It's really simple. We got two ways to go. We can start saying, you're the problem, I'm the problem, he's the problem, we're the problem, or we work together and come up with some solutions and play better football. That's really where we are as a team."
After splashy offseason signings of Ndamukong Suh and a remade passing corps had many believing the Dolphins could compete for the AFC East crown, Philbin's team has fallen flat on its face. Miami has done almost nothing positive through three weeks. The Dolphins are one Jarvis Landry punt return touchdown away from being 0-3.
"It's the third game of the season, and I wish we were playing better, but we are what we are right now," Philbin said. "There's no magic potion. If I had a magic potion, I would have brought it out early. Going into the game, we were fifth in the NFL in scoring defense. Obviously, we're not going to be that coming out of the game."
Last season after a similarly dismal 1-2 start, Philbin openly pondered benching quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Like a spark from a dragging muffler accidentally starting a mini-brush fire, the Dolphins won four of their next five games following the coach's threat.
This season Philbin has no invisible carrot to dangle in order to wake his team out of the malaise. But if they don't snap out of their funk soon, the coach could be the first this year to lose his job midseason.
