Dolphins' Tua Tagovailoa, Mike McDaniel say 'no moral victories' despite improved effort in loss to Bills

The Dolphins gave themselves chances at pulling off the upset but instead fell to 0-3

Despite trailing for most of the contest, the Miami Dolphins stood squarely within striking distance of their first win in a 31-21 road loss to the Buffalo Bills on "Thursday Night Football," keeping the game within reach until the final minutes. They scored first, rallied from two deficits and maintained a 21-21 tie halfway through the fourth quarter until they were doomed by a roughing the punter penalty and an ill-timed interception from Tua Tagovailoa. 

On the heels of a season-opening drubbing from the Indianapolis Colts and the home divisional loss to the New England Patriots, this was their best effort of the season. However, the Dolphins, now 0-3, made it clear after the loss that they are not accepting any moral victories. Hanging in late against a Super Bowl contender on the road was a step forward. But it still was a loss.

"I'm never proud of a loss," coach Mike McDaniel said. "We came here to win. I refuse to take moral victories as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. It wasn't good enough, so that's where I'm at."

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Tagovailoa looked more comfortable on Thursday than in the previous two games and made a number of clutch plays, escaping the pocket and finding receivers for improvisational conversions. A late interception dashed the Dolphins' hopes of forcing overtime or taking a lead, however, and raised Tagovailoa's turnover tally to an NFL-high four on the year.

"No moral victories, that's for sure," Tagovailoa said. "There's definitely some things that we can take away that is good, that's up to par within our standard of how we operate within the offense. And then with how the defense wants to operate, as well, getting the stops. When they get those stops, we gotta capitalize on that and allow ourselves to get points when we get those opportunities.

"Never good to lose regardless of how a certain individual may have felt they performed. This is a team sport. We win together, we lose together."

The playoffs are already almost entirely out of sight for Miami. Since 1990, only 2.4% of teams that started 0-3 reached the postseason. The disastrous start has the Dolphins on pace for their worst year under McDaniel. If not for moral victories, what do they have to play for over the next 15 weeks? For one, McDaniel will work toward shoring up his job security. He has arguably the hottest seat of any NFL coach and is on pace to miss the playoffs for a second straight year.