Dan Campbell Has Much to Learn If He Wants to Retain HC Mantle with Dolphins

Maybe it's not time to put the finishing touches on that "Dan Campbell: Miami Dolphins Head Coach" name plate for the door to his office.

Even before the Dolphins won two straight games, there was immediate optimism when Campbell was named interim head coach after the firing of Joe Philbin. Now, after a 33-17 Week 9 beatdown by the Buffalo Bills marking Campbell's second-straight loss, the Dolphins are faced with the real possibility that their coaching search might not be as easy as interviewing one minority candidate as a formality to naming Campbell the leader of the organization.

Campbell was thoroughly out-coached by New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick in the team's Week 8 loss and, once again, had some regrettable moments against Bills head coach Rex Ryan. 

Those moments included some time-management miscues that led to some points being left on the field and a penalty decision that might have also given the Dolphins an opportunity to get off the field.

The first of those moments came at the end of the first half. The Dolphins possessed the ball at their own 13-yard line with 2:26 remaining in the half and with all three of their timeouts.

They actually managed to get the ball inside the 10-yard line with 29 seconds left in the half, but running back Lamar Miller was tackled in-bounds and the Dolphins didn't use a time-out, instead hurrying to the line to get the ball snapped.

"In hindsight, yeah, I should have used a timeout there," Campbell said, per Chris Perkins of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. 

Granted, the Dolphins still had enough time left to score, and they had the ball at the 1-yard line with a chance to put it in the end zone, but they could have given themselves more options and more opportunities if they had used their three timeouts instead of only two.

But that wasn't Campbell's only missed opportunity on the day.

The next came on 3rd-and-4 with 2:36 left in the third quarter, with the Dolphins facing a 19-14 deficit. The Bills were called for an offensive holding penalty on an incomplete third-down pass. Instead of declining the penalty, which would have resulted in 4th-and-4 and a field goal attempt that would have put the Dolphins down 22-14, Campbell accepted the penalty and gave the Bills one last chance to convert.

That's exactly what they did. Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor hit wide receiver Sammy Watkins on a long pass and 44 yards later the Bills were up 26-14. 

What could have been a one-possession deficit at worst turned into a two-possession deficit that the Dolphins ultimately never overcame.

"I understand that questioning there," Campbell said, per Perkins. "It's hindsight again. [I'm] frustrated as well."

This kind of hindsight questioning is par for the course for any head coach. Next time, Campbell will probably be a bit more prepared to put the Dolphins in the best possible position to succeed. 

Like anything else, the first step is admitting that there is a problem. Campbell has done that, so the next step is working hard to improve.

Campbell is learning on the job. No one should expect him to be perfect right from the get-go. That being said, his imperfections are revealing a hard truth: The Dolphins head coach of the future may not be the head coach of the present.