The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the brakes off the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football. However, there was a glimmer of hope for Miami. After Mike Tomlin's team held a 28-3 lead early in the fourth quarter, the Dolphins nearly had a chance to climb back.
Miami scored a touchdown on its first series of the fourth quarter. Then, after a quick Steelers three-and-out, the Dolphins punched the ball into the endzone again—making it a 28-15 game. After the Steelers chewed just 28 seconds off the clock on the following series, the Dolphins quickly got the ball back with 2:14 remaining on the other side of the two-minute warning.
But there was zero urgency to score from Mike McDaniel's Dolphins.
This sent ESPN color commentator Troy Aikman on a rampage. Aikman didn't hold back in expressing his disgust for the Dolphins' lack of late-game urgency and called their final few series 'bizarre.'
"I'm flabbergasted by what we've witnessed here in this fourth quarter with the Dolphins," Aikman said late in 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."
"This is just a bizarre last few series. 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."
NFL fans should thank Troy Aikman for speaking his mind in the Pittsburgh Steelers' MNF game
There aren't enough national broadcasters like Aikman these days who are fearless when calling things out that need to be said. There was no reason for the Dolphins to be huddling up late in the fourth quarter with their season hopes hanging by a thread. That was the time to get aggressive... and Aikman ripped into McDaniel and his team for their pitiful plan.
This wasn't the only time the color commentator and Hall of Fame quarterback pointed blame during the Steelers vs. Dolphins game. After a Pat Freiermuth catch in the second half, linebacker Jordyn Brooks was flagged for taunting as he briefly stood over the Steelers' tight end after laying a hit that stopped him short of the first down marker.
"I personally didn't see anything after the play," Aikman said during the broadcast. "That's ridiculous. I mean, that's not much. That's not much at all, in my opinion."
The penalty on Brooks resulted in a fresh set of downs for the Steelers, who would go on to score on this drive.
Kudos to Aikman for laying into coaches and officials instead of walking on eggshells. When folks around the NFL mess up, Aikman has been an honest voice expressing what football fans are feeling in the moment. Good for him. We need more of this.