Dolphins hammered by a terrible team at a time they’re supposed to be showing improvement

After this terrible performance in a 36-20 defeat was over, the Miami Dolphins were admitting this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.

It is the middle of December and this team is supposed to be improving steadily now. This team is supposed to be playing its best football. It’s supposed to be pointing in the right direction because the young talent is supposed to be developing and getting it.

Except that hasn’t happened the past couple of weeks.

The Dolphins have lost back-to-back games here and this latest one, against a terrible team that hadn’t managed a win since September, was perhaps the most depressing loss since those consecutive blowouts by Baltimore and New England in September.

Because this loss came at the hands of a putrid New York Giants team that had lost nine consecutive games and in many respects is worse than the Dolphins.

“We didn’t play well,” head coach Brian Flores said. “Dropped passes, penalties, we kind of beat ourselves in a lot of areas.”

That’s not what you want to hear when the expectation in this year of very low expectations is gradual improvement even when they don’t lead to, you know, wins.

Flores talked about how his pass rush, ranked last in the NFL, was mostly absent once again because the only time the Dolphins collected a sack is when 38-year-old Eli Manning as much dropped to the turf as was taken to it by linebacker Sam Eguavoen in the first half.

The Dolphins coach lamented how his offensive line was kind of, sort of holding up in the first half. But then the Giants, tied for 22nd in the NFL in sacks this year, decided to start blitzing.

And that elementary strategy freaked the Dolphins out.

Ryan Fitzpatrick was sacked twice in the second half, and starting left guard Michael Deiter was rotated out of the lineup again, and when Fitz wasn’t getting sacked he was running for his life or hurrying throws so as to avoid sacks.

“I felt in the first half we did a good job from the protection standpoint,” Flores said, as if starting a tale that has an eventual twist. And here’s the twist:

“They brought a few more blitzes in the second half, we struggled to pick them up, and conversely for us, I thought we had a little bit better rush in the first half than we did in the second half,” Flores added.

And did I mention Fitzpatrick thought the team didn’t show up in the second half? Because that’s what he said.

“The second half was brutal,” the Miami starting quarterback said. “That’s tough a place to be in where you can’t get anything going and you’re running on to the field and running back off with the punt or the fumble or whatever it was. This game is so much fun but it’s difficult, too. Today was a tough day.

“When guys come to the NFL they learn it’s a very humbling game. You think you’ve got it, you’re going to get knocked down. It doesn’t matter how many wins you have or how many wins the opponent has, you have to come out and play every game.

“And we didn’t show up in the second half today.”

Soak all this in. Marinate in it.

And then ask yourself what are the Dolphins accomplishing this season? Because whatever it is wasn’t apparent on Sunday.

In past weeks when the Dolphins were still losing much more than they were winning, the thinking was, well, at least a lot of young players are getting an opportunity. And a culture is being established, and the team is letting future stars begin to shine.

Except this game the Dolphins broke the team record for most players used throughout the season with 80 after six more players that hadn’t ever played for Miami before got in the game. And you know what that means?

Unfortunately, a lot of inconsistency. And not a lot of excellence.

“There’s been a lot of moving pieces this year,” Fitzpatrick noted. “Part of it is guys come in and get a chance to play and some have stepped up and some haven’t. And the coaches are showing how well they can coach with bringing guys up to speed as fast as possible.”

Yeah, we saw guys such as Marcus Sherels, Zach Zenner, Chris Lammons, Isaiah Prince, Ken Crawley, Xavier Crawford, Mark Walton, Andrew Donnal, Robert Nkemdiche and others come with some hope they might be unearthed as diamonds. But the team soon decided they had been mining pieces of coal instead.

And as the roster turns over and over and over, how can anyone say there’s a culture being established for the future? Because even many of the guys who have been lucky enough to stick with this 3-11 team are not going to be on it next year?

(Because if they are on the team next year, it means not enough meaningful upgrade was made in the offseason so as to avoid another terrible season).

Look, we’re looking for something, anything positive to say about these Dolphins this year. Because it has very seldom been the brand of football they play.

So people like me are feeding fans hungry for good news with the possibility young players are turning into to something. Those players are showing something today that might matter tomorrow.

Except that’s not happening in a lot of important areas.

Deiter, for example, was just benched for the second time in two weeks. He started Sunday’s game while Keaton Sutherland -- last week’s starter -- was a healthy scratch. And when the offensive line wilted, and not just because of Deiter, by the way, the rookie left guard was pulled.

And Evan Brown, with the team all of two weeks after spending time on the Giants practice squad, was inserted. Now here’s a guess, Brown won’t be the starter the final two games because Deiter was eventually put back in the game, before he was taken out again.

Juggling guards, by the way, is not good. And it suggests the Dolphins have a big question at the position Deiter was picked in the third round to wholly address.

And the position Deiter was drafted to protect? Well, the quarterback job will continue to belong to Fitzpatrick next week, Flores said.

So the veteran apparently continues to be better than 22-year-old Josh Rosen, who was a first round pick last year in Arizona and cost the Dolphins a second-round pick this year and a fifth-rounder next year.

Defensive end Taco Charlton, the former Dallas Cowboys defensive end ,was a feel-good story for a minute until his edge setting showed holes and pass rushing didn’t make up the difference. So he was a healthy scratch two weeks ago.

Well, good news, because Charlton was active against the Giants.

The bad news? Charlton had one tackle despite the fact the Giants snapped the football 62 times.

Former first-round pick Charles Harris, meanwhile, was a healthy scratch this game. Flores gave the same reason for that move as he had for Charlton last week. It was a “game-plan” decision, he said.

Let me give you the translation for “game plan” decisions: Not good enough to play.

This should not suggest everything is going wrong. Vince Biegel, acquired from the New Orleans Saints in the Kiko Alonso trade, has improved and is producing. He had an interception this game.

But that’s not enough. It obviously wasn’t enough on Sunday when the defensive backfield got torched and the offense was inefficient ...

...and a terrible team hammered the Dolphins.