Troy Aikman slams Mike McDaniel, Dolphins for lack of urgency: 'About as ridiculous a fourth quarter as I've seen in a long time'

Troy Aikman was puzzled with what he saw from the Miami Dolphins in the fourth quarter Monday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers and decided to call them out on it. Specifically, he seemed to not understand their clock management strategy late in the fourth quarter.

Miami at one point trailed 28-3 in the fourth quarter before managing a couple of touchdowns to make it 28-15. But after failing to recover an onside kick, Pittsburgh took back over with 2:32 remaining.

The Dolphins still had all three of their timeouts after not using any on either of their previous two touchdown drives. They also had the two-minute warning upcoming. However, they burned all three of their timeouts despite forcing a three-and-out from the Steelers to take the possession back.

Aikman wondered why Miami didn’t keep any of its timeouts. That certainly put them in a bad position to potentially complete the comeback.

“I’m flabbergasted with what we’ve witnessed in this fourth quarter with the Dolphins and now they want to call timeouts?” Aikman said. “It is about as ridiculous a fourth quarter as I’ve seen in a long time.”

Joe Buck agreed with Troy Aikman that the decision-making from Miami coach Mike McDaniel was confounding. He recapped exactly what happened to lead to this point.

“They had the five-minute touchdown drive, that was the good part,” Bucks said. “They got in the end zone. But they were huddling up, taking the playclock down inside 10 seconds and now they try the onside kick and don’t get it. They’re calling their timeouts. They’re down by 13 points with two minutes to go and Aaron Rodgers was not happy with that tackle on the last play and Zeke Biggers, the rookie, landed on top of him.”

Ultimately, Miami took over at its own 3-yard line and got to the 22 in seven plays before time ran out and the game ended in a 28-15 loss. One can only wonder if it would have been able to do more had it kept its timeouts, but we’ll never know.

Instead, the Dolphins dropped a much-needed game to fall to 6-8 on the season. They were officially eliminated from playoff contention with the loss, which only makes the decisions down the stretch stand out that much more.

Pittsburgh, on the other hand, improved to 8-6 and is still in good position to make the postseason. The Steelers are in first place of the AFC North and take on the Detroit Lions next week.