Dolfan Radio | Quarter Pole
By Brad Michaels • October 6, 2026
Four games is a quarter. We are 0–4. The team has been better every week. The problems that cost the games are still the problems.
I wrote 4–13 before a snap was played, and I have not moved off it. That is not doom. It is the year I thought we were in. A young team can get better and still be 0–4. Both of those are true this morning.
Las Vegas was 27–13, and we were not in it long enough. Santa Clara was 35–13. We played a half, then the boot and the play-action got us and the second half was not a football team. Kansas City at home was 24–10. Better, and we still went for it on fourth down from our own 45, down seven, with six minutes left, after the defense had been the best thing on the field. Minneapolis was 15–10. They did not score a touchdown. Reichard kicked five. We scored ten in the third and nothing in the fourth.
The margin came down. 14, then 22, then 14, then 5. I am not going to pretend the 49ers game fits a straight line. The last two do. A 15–10 road loss to a 3–0 team and Brian Flores is not the same game as the opener. Say that. Then say we still have not won.
| Week | Game | What it was |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | at Raiders, 27–13 | Not in it long enough. |
| 2 | at 49ers, 35–13 | A half, then it came apart. |
| 3 | Chiefs, 24–10 | Better. Fourth-and-from our 45 was the wrong call. |
| 4 | at Vikings, 15–10 | No touchdown allowed. Kick coverage did not get there. |
The rush showed up in Minneapolis. Four sacks on Kyler Murray. Chop Robinson had one and three quarterback hits. Zach Sieler had two. Josh Uche had one. I asked for two before that game. They got four. That had not happened in the first three weeks.
The defense has played two fairly strong games, Kansas City and Minnesota. We lost both. We were also in both longer than we were in Las Vegas or Santa Clara. Against the Chiefs it was 24–10 and the defense was the best thing on the field until we went for it on fourth down from our own 45. Against the Vikings they did not score a touchdown. That is not a finished defense. It is a defense that has been better the last two Sundays. Say that, and then fix what is still wrong.
Ollie Gordon ran nine times for 100 yards and the touchdown, with a 53-yard gain, on the road against that Vikings defense. He can run. That was good.
Fans are already saying Malik Willis is not an NFL starter. We are four games in. I am not handing him the job, and I am not burying him off 9 of 17 for 85 yards against Brian Flores. There is more to a Sunday than a ball that is not completed.
How much time does he have to throw? The line is just beginning to get its legs under it. Flores lives in the backfield. If the picture is late, the throw is late. Are the receivers getting open? Caleb Douglas was out in Minneapolis. Malik Washington led us with 5 for 67. That is not a group winning outside. Is he missing reads? Some of them, yes. A quarterback who has time and an open man and still does not throw it is missing a read. A quarterback who is hit because the protection did not get there is a different problem. Watch the rush before you watch the incompletion. Four games is not a verdict. It is a start. The line has to give him a pocket. The receivers have to separate. Then we can talk about the throws he is missing.
We miss Achane. He tore his ACL against Kansas City and he is done for the year. Jaylen Wright carried it five times for 7 yards in Minnesota. Gordon at 11 a carry and Wright at 1.4 is not a running game.
The question is the line, not the name on the back. Are the linemen creating a hole? Are they staying in their gap? Are they winning the line of scrimmage? Gordon’s 53 says there was a crease on that play. Wright’s 7 yards on five carries says the crease is not there on a normal down. If the line is not staying in the gap, the back has nowhere to go and the linebacker is in the hole. If they are winning the line and Wright is still at 1.4, that is the back. I have not seen a hole every snap. That is what has to be fixed, or Gordon wears out and we are asking Willis to win it in the air against a rush.
This is still a huge problem. Jacob Rodriguez had 18 tackles, 9 solo, and a pass broken up. Jordyn Brooks had 13, 5 solo. Those are outstanding numbers. Rodriguez should be in the Defensive Player of the Week talk. Here is why the 18 is that high. T.J. Hockenson caught 13 for 119. Addison caught 4 for 52. The defensive backs are guessing. They jump a route, the tight end sits down, and Rodriguez gets to the ball after the play has already been given up. That is a tackle. It is not a stop.
Miami has to figure out who has the tight end in those situations. Hafley said the communication has to be better after San Francisco. It is still the fix. A young secondary that guesses is a breakdown, not a scheme. Know the call. Know the man. Rodriguez cannot be the cleanup for a coverage that was never there.
This unit is a dumpster fire. It is inexcusable. Minnesota returned three punts for 51 yards, long 36, and two kickoffs for 70, long 47. The opening kickoff went 47. Pinion averaged 45.8 on six punts, so the punt itself was fine. The coverage was not. We have already given up kickoff returns of 45 and 50 this season. A short field is how a team kicks five field goals and never needs the end zone. Cover the kick. That is the job before Cincinnati.
Then there was the muff. On the opening punt Malik Washington muffed it inside the 10. He was fortunate. Zemaiah Vaughn touched it before it was recovered in the end zone, so it was a touchback instead of a safety. Jaylen Wright muffed the kickoff after the first field goal and picked it up. A muff that almost becomes a safety is not a bad bounce. It is a job that was not done.
Nine penalties for 55 yards in Minneapolis. Aaron Brewer said the ones that put you behind the sticks are beating yourself. He is right.
Holding and pass interference are physical. A man grabs a jersey, or he hits a receiver before the ball is there. The rest of this is mental. False starts. Alignment. A block after the whistle. The illegal block above the waist on Julius Wood that moved us from a touchback to the 10. Those are breakdowns. You knew the rule before the snap. You did not follow it.
Shula had the least penalized teams in the league. Not among the least. The least. In 1972, and a lot of years after it. He treated a flag as a missed assignment. We have to fix this. You cannot ask a young offense to convert third-and-long because somebody jumped, and you cannot ask the defense to hold a field goal drive that started with a penalty. Know the call. Know where you are.
We are 0–4 and the draft talk is already in the room. Arch Manning may stay at Texas another year. He has the eligibility. He told People this week he is taking it day by day. Eli, asked about it on October 2, said the Mannings used all of their eligibility, and that the point of college is to be in college and get better every year. Peyton played out his years at Tennessee. Eli played out his at Ole Miss. That is the family pattern, and they are talking about it with him now.
I am not building the 2027 roster in October. If he stays, he stays. If he comes out, we will know where we pick when the season is over. A quarterback discussion four games into a young team does not change Sunday. Cincinnati is the game. The draft is not the coverage, and it is not the line.
Week 6 is a bye, so this is not four straight Sundays. The next four games are Cincinnati at home, the Jets on the road, the Patriots at home, and Detroit at home.
| Week | Game | When |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Bengals at Hard Rock | Sunday, October 11, 1 p.m., Fox |
| 6 | Bye | |
| 7 | at the Jets | Sunday, October 25, 1 p.m., CBS |
| 8 | Patriots at Hard Rock | Sunday, November 1, 4:25 p.m., CBS |
| 9 | Lions at Hard Rock | Sunday, November 8, 1 p.m., Fox |
Cincinnati is 2–2. Joe Burrow threw for 428 yards in a 22–17 loss at Jacksonville, with a touchdown and two interceptions. Ja’Marr Chase is in the concussion protocol and day-to-day. Tee Higgins is day-to-day with an adductor (groin) injury. I am not picking that game today. The Friday sheet will tell us who is actually on the field. If Chase and Higgins play, it is a different Sunday than if they do not. Either way, this is the first real chance. Home. A team that is not 4–0. If the win is coming in this stretch, it has to be against the Bengals.
The bye is for the things that keep showing up. Cover the kick. Know the tight end. Get Wright into the run game so Gordon is not the whole plan. Then it is the Jets and the Patriots, which is the division, and then Detroit, which is the game that tells you whether the improvement is real. A young team can look better against a Flores defense and still not be ready for the Lions. We will know more on November 8 than we know today.
1993 stays in the featured slot until we win a game. The Bengals preview comes after Friday’s injury report. This is the quarter. That is the next one.