Dolfan Radio | Week 3 Recap

Better. Not Finished.

By Brad Michaels • September 27, 2026

Sit down a minute. The gates opened. The aqua showed up. For the first time this year the building was ours, and the team that walked into it looked more like a football team than the one that left Santa Clara. They still lost. Kansas City 24, Miami 10. I picked 27–16 on Friday. I was close on them and a little kind on us. I can live with that. What I will not do is pretend a one-score game into the fourth against the old Chiefs is the same as getting run out of two road buildings. It isn’t. It also isn’t a win.

They have gotten better every week. That is not a slogan. Week 1 was windows we did not finish. Week 2 was a real first half and a third quarter I still have not made peace with. Sunday they answered the first 17 snaps after Achane’s knee gave out, ate nine and a half minutes, and tied it 7–7 on Ollie Gordon from the 3. They held the ball more than 32 minutes. They were 8-of-15 on third down. Yards were 321 to 331. They were 14–10 going into the fourth against Patrick Mahomes in our house. I have been in this chair since 1970. I know the difference between a beating and a game you are still in.

How the afternoon went

Walker scored from 10 on their first series, four plays, 67 yards, 2:06. Then Achane planted the left leg on an 11-yard run, the leg went, and he was done for the day. Non-contact. Knee. Wright was already inactive. So it was Gordon, and Gordon finished the drive. Holding on Will Kacmarek. Ineligible downfield on Austin Jackson. A drop. They kept coming anyway. That first possession is the picture I am keeping from this Sunday.

Mahomes found Walker from five early in the second and it was 14–7. Sneed punched a ball loose and fell on it before half. Rodriguez picked Mahomes, which is the kind of play I wanted from that kid when I wrote the preview. Patterson made it 14–10 from 37 to open the second half. For a little while Hard Rock sounded like Hard Rock.

Then the flag. Third-and-9, Kansas City on its own 5, late third. Chop beat his man, the ball was gone, he went down on Mahomes without driving him into the ground, and they threw roughing anyway. Body weight. Ticky-tack. That was a punt. Instead it was 15 yards and a first down, and they walked it down the field and Butker made it 17–10 from 34. I am not blaming the official for a 14-point loss. I am saying that call was nonsense, and it took a stop we earned.

Then the one I cannot let sit. Down seven. About six minutes left. Your defense has just been hot. Kansas City is fading in that heat. Fourth down from your own 45. Punt. Trust the room that just got you the stops. Get the ball back still inside one score. They went for it. Karlaftis picked Willis. Five plays later Mahomes found Kelce from 11 and it was 24–10 with 2:55 left. That is not a young player lining up in the wrong gap. That is a decision. The building emptied the way it does when the math is finished.

What still has to get fixed

Guys have to know where to line up. That is not a scheme speech. That is the first thing you learn and the last thing you are allowed to forget. Ineligible downfield. A hold in their territory on a drive that already had enough working against it. Michael Taaffe wrapping Kelce long enough for illegal contact on a snap that should have been a field-goal try. You cannot play Kansas City and guess.

The secondary has to cover and it has to know the assignment. Rice finished with seven catches. Kelce only needed a couple of them to hurt us, and the last one ended the afternoon. I like what Rodriguez did with the interception. I need the rest of that room to play like they have seen the picture before the ball is snapped.

Penalties are going to kill us. Eight flags, 64 yards. Some of those are young. Some of those are sloppy. The sloppy ones are the ones the Coach would have stopped practice over. I do not need to put his name on every paragraph. The standard is still the standard.

Special teams is still behind the other two sides. Gordon brought the opening kick out of the end zone and Miller got walked for holding, so the 17-play masterpiece started at the 9. That is how you make a good drive harder than it had to be. Coverage and returns have to grow up with the rest of this roster or they will keep handing people free field position.

The rush was there. Chop was back in the Guardian Cap and he won his rep on that third-and-9. We still have to finish. Getting Mahomes on the grass is the next step, not the first one. We took the first one today. The flag was garbage. The work is not finished because a referee had a light trigger.

And you do not go for it on fourth down from your own 45 when you are down a score, the defense is playing, and the other fellow is gassed. Punt. Live to get it back. I have watched this franchise long enough to know the difference between aggressive and impatient. That one was impatient.

The year is still the year

Achane’s knee is the one I will wait on before I write anything cute. Non-contact, first quarter, our best skill player. Gordon showed he can carry a drive. That helps tonight. It does not replace Achane if this lingers. I am not going to guess an MRI from this chair.

I wrote 4–13 in September because I live here. Sunday did not change the math of the season. It changed the tape. These kids are not the team that got 59 and 43 put on them in 2019. They are also not ready to beat Mahomes when the fourth quarter asks a finished question. Both of those things can be true. I have loved this franchise long enough to hold both without flinching.

1993 stays featured. We have not won one. Home was not sweet enough. It was louder, and they were better, and that is not nothing. Leave what you saw in the comments. I will be here. Same chair. Same team.

Sunday, Sept. 27. Hard Rock. Chiefs 24, Dolphins 10. Scoring: Walker 10 rush, Gordon 3 rush, Walker 5 catch, Patterson 37, Butker 34, Kelce 11 catch. Achane out, knee, first quarter. Wright inactive. Chop expected and played. Douglas inactive.