Troy Aikman ripped the Miami Dolphins for what he referred to as a ‘ridiculous’ fourth quarter plan during the team’s 28-15 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on ‘Monday Night Football’ in Week 15.
Aikman’s comments came just before the 2-minute warning, when Miami sacked Aaron Rodgers and used its final timeout to guarantee itself one more possession.
‘I’m flabbergasted by what we’ve witnessed here in this fourth quarter with the Dolphins,’ Aikman said on ESPN’s broadcast of the game. ‘And now they want to call timeouts. It just is about as ridiculous a fourth quarter as I’ve seen in a long time.’
Aikman later clarified his criticism stemmed from Miami’s clock management strategy and lack of urgency during the game’s final frame.
The Dolphins trailed 28-3 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Despite this, the team orchestrated two methodical drives during which the offense repeatedly huddled and declined to operate with any sort of hurry-up attack to maximize the time remaining in the game.
That baffled Aikman, especially once the Dolphins – who were facing elimination from the playoff race with a loss – tried to kick the offense into high-gear trailing by two possessions with just a couple of minutes remaining in regulation.
‘This is just a bizarre last few series,’ Aikman opined. ‘They don’t go hurry-up. Now they’re going hurry-up and calling timeouts. It’s just, it’s hard to understand exactly what the philosophy or what they’re trying to do.’
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel was not asked about his end-of-game management during his postgame news conference, so Aikman may not get clarification on Miami’s strategy any time soon.