Mike McDaniel on strange Josh Allen play: ‘We’ll be in talks with the league’

Just before the halftime break in Thursday’s showdown between the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, quarterback Josh Allen was involved in a strange play. A botched snap exchange led to Allen bobbling the ball on an attempted kneel, and after he picked it up, he flipped it to an official as the clock ran out.

The play was controversial in the sense that some people seem to think Allen’s knee wasn’t down when he had the ball and that the play should have been live.

The play caught the attention of Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel, who said the Dolphins will “be in talks with the league” but haven’t received any feedback yet.

While the play might have looked like a live ball when it happened, a closer look at the footage seems to reveal a moment where Allen’s knee was down after he regained control of the ball, which would mean the play was ruled correctly.

Even if the Allen play was ruled incorrectly, that can’t be pointed to as the reason the Dolphins lost the game. In fact, much of the blame for Miami’s loss should rest on the shoulders of its star quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa. The Dolphins had the ball down just seven points with a few minutes remaining in the fourth, but a Tagovailoa interception killed the drive and led to a Bills field goal.

The interception continued a disturbing trend from Tagovailoa this season. He has thrown no fewer than one interception in all three of the Dolphins’ contests.

Ultimately, it might not be worth the hassle for McDaniel to go back and forth with the league over a call in a game the Dolphins have already lost. Instead, he should maybe spend that time speaking to Tagovailoa and making sure that the quarterback isn’t in his own head.

Of course, for a team that’s 0-3, the Dolphins can’t blame all of their issues on Tagovailoa, as they have flaws across their team. If they’re going to save their season, they have a lot of work to do.