Dolfan Radio | After Week 1
By Brad Michaels • September 14, 2026
Sit down a minute. I know how a 0–1 morning feels. I have had a lot of them. Yesterday was a loss. It was not a humiliation. Those are different animals, and if you have been around this team long enough you can tell them apart in the first quarter.
September 8, 2019. Brian Flores’s first game. Baltimore 59, Miami 10, at home. The Ravens put up 643 yards. We had 200. They held the ball for 40 minutes and 7 seconds. We had it for 19:53. Lamar Jackson went 17-of-20 for 324 yards and five touchdowns and never threw a pick. They scored 21 in the first quarter and 21 more in the second. By the time Josh Rosen came in, the building had already decided what the year was going to be. Fifty-nine points remains the most this franchise has given up in a regular-season game. The 49-point margin is still the largest beating in the record book. Flores said afterward that we had problems on offense, defense, and special teams, and that it started with him. He was not wrong. He was also standing in the middle of a teardown that had not even pretended to be anything else.
That is the picture people reach for when a new coach loses Week 1. I would like you to put it back on the shelf.
Las Vegas 27, Miami 13, on the road, in a building that was supposed to be a little loud and a little new. Final yards: Raiders 290, Dolphins 259. That is 31 yards. In 2019 the gap was 443. Miami averaged 5.2 yards per play. Las Vegas averaged 4.3. Read that again if you need to. We were more efficient. They were on the field longer — 34:53 to our 25:07 — because they converted third downs and we did not. They were 5-of-13. We were 2-of-10. That is the game. Not a collapse. A conversion problem on a first-year offense with a first-year starter, against a veteran quarterback who has been doing this since some of these kids were in middle school.
Kirk Cousins went 21-of-30 for 160 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. He was not sacked. Ashton Jeanty, three weeks off an ankle, ran 23 times for 102 yards and caught six balls for 45 and both of his scores through the air. Michael Mayer, filling in for Brock Bowers, caught six for 32. Jack Bech had the first one, a 15-yarder that capped a 16-play, 93-yard opening drive. That drive took 8:58. It was professional. It was not 83 yards in the air on the third snap of the year.
Malik Willis, first start in this building’s colors, went 15-of-27 for 220 yards, no touchdown passes, one interception, five sacks for 35 yards lost. Rating 66.9. He also ran six times for 39 and the only Miami touchdown, 14 yards, four plays after Cousins’s first pick, and for a minute it was 17–13 in the third quarter in somebody else’s house. Caleb Douglas caught five for 94. Malik Washington three for 53. Chris Bell one for 25 in his first real afternoon. De’Von Achane had 11 carries for 36 and four catches for 30. The run game was not what we wanted. It also was not Kenyan Drake getting four carries for 12 while the other fellow ran for 265.
In 2019 we rushed 12 times for 21 yards. Yesterday we rushed 18 for 74. That is not a banner. It is a pulse.
| Sept. 8, 2019 vs. Baltimore | Sept. 13, 2026 at Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | L 10–59 | L 13–27 |
| Margin | 49 | 14 |
| Site | Home | Road |
| Total yards | 200–643 | 259–290 |
| Yards per play | 4.3–8.8 | 5.2–4.3 |
| First downs | 12–31 | 13–21 |
| Time of possession | 19:53–40:07 | 25:07–34:53 |
| Third down | 3-of-10 | 2-of-10 |
| Rushing | 12–21 | 18–74 |
| Passing yards | 179 | 185 |
| Sacks taken | 3 | 5 |
| Turnovers | 3–0 | 2–2 |
| Red zone | buried | 1-of-3 / they 3-of-4 |
| QB | Fitzpatrick 14-29-185-1-1, then Rosen | Willis 15-27-220-0-1, plus 39 rush, 1 TD |
| Points allowed, Q1 | 21 | 7 |
| Points scored after half | 0 | 7 |
I have watched a lot of first games that were also last games for somebody. This one had names I want to see again.
Jacob Rodriguez led the football team in tackles. Fourteen of them. A rookie linebacker, first regular-season snap, and he was the one counting bodies. Chris Johnson, the first-round nickel, had 11 tackles, a tackle for loss, and two passes defended. Jordyn Brooks had nine and a quarterback hit. Dante Trader Jr. intercepted Cousins. Michael Taaffe intercepted him again. Two picks on a veteran who came in to manage a game. In 2019 we forced zero turnovers and gave the ball away three times. Yesterday the takeaway column was even. That is how a young defense tells you it is paying attention.
Douglas looking like a receiver is not a small thing on this roster. Ninety-four yards on five catches, 18.8 an attempt, long of 30. Washington found 53 on three. Bell got his. Willis, for all the holding the ball and the five sacks, still put 220 in the air and outgained Cousins by 60 passing yards. Cousins won the game because he found the end zone three times and we found it once. That is coaching and finishing. It is not the same as being uncompetitive.
Chop had one tackle. I am not going to dress that up. Year 3 has to be more than a third-down idea, and yesterday it was not. The rush put zero sacks on Cousins and two quarterback hits. That is the hole. Hafley will not pretend otherwise, and neither should we. A promising rebuild can still have a quiet edge.
It does not mean we are good. I picked this 20–17 the other way on Friday and they beat us by two scores. I can live with being wrong. I cannot live with pretending 13 points on the road is a moral victory and leaving it there. Third down was 2-of-10. The line did not move Maxx Crosby and Kwity Paye. Achane averaged 3.3. The fourth quarter was 0–0 and we never made them nervous again after 17–13. Those are real sentences.
Promising means the scoreboard still had a game on it in the third quarter of a first-year coach’s first road opener, against a veteran quarterback and a 100-yard back, without the other fellow’s All-Pro tight end to blame. Promising means we took the ball away twice. Promising means a rookie linebacker led the team and a rookie receiver led the passing game. Promising means 259 to 290 instead of 200 to 643. Promising means we scored after halftime. In 2019 we scored zero after halftime in our own building and they put Robert Griffin III in so he could throw a touchdown too.
Flores’s first Sunday was a statement that the cupboard had been emptied. Hafley’s first Sunday was a statement that there is a cupboard. It is not full. The plates do not all match. But you can eat off it without calling the fire department.
Next week will ask a harder question. It always does. For tonight I am an old man who has seen 59–10 and 27–13 in the same chair, and I know which one I would rather explain to a grandchild. The second one still needs work. The first one needed a priest.
Where were you when it got to 17–13? Leave it in the comments. I will be here.