Cote: Miami Dolphins blow it. Playoff hopes end in nightmare of Tua turnovers, DuBose injury | Opinion

The Miami Dolphins’ realistic playoff hopes expired Sunday in a loss in Houston. It didn’t feel like the biggest loss on the field that day.

Miami receiver Grant DuBose, 23, who had been activated off the injury list just this weekend, left the field strapped still onto a stretcher after a crushing hit to his helmet that underlined the NFL’s and this sport’s brutality. It happened in the third quarter of the Fins’ eventual 20-12 loss.

They cut off his jersey. They unscrewed the facemask off his helmet. The Texans’ crowd was silent. Dolphins players circled and knelt in prayer. We won’t speculate on the extent of the injury here, except to say it was difficult to not fear the worst while we waited and hoped for the best.

A Houston defensive back named Derek Stingley Jr. was the hero of the game for the home team.

With Miami driving in the fourth quarter for what could have been the tying touchdown, Stingley intercepted Tua Tagovailoa on a play from the Houston 20. It was Stingley again who intercepted Tagovailoa, again, on a snap from the Texans 23 with 1:37 to go, erasing Miami’s last hope.

Stingley’s grandfather, Darryl Stingley, saw his career end abruptly in 1978 with a spinal cord injury on a tackle during a preseason game for the New England Patriots.

The gruesome memory of that could not help but revisit as DuBose lay motionless on the field after the tackle by the Texans’ Calen Bullock that drew a personal foul flag.

“I heard some good news,” Tagovailoa said afterward. “He’s doing well and he’s recovering. I’ve been through something similar [concussions] and it’s no fun. We all understand it’s a physical, contact sport.”

Overriding thoughts willing DuBose’s full recovery dwarf much else about the game, although the importance of this game, and this loss, demand we talk football..

Miami at now 6-8 with the loss still has playoff hope, mathematically, though not plausibly.

“The team should not run from how this feels. It’s terrible,” coach Mike McDaniel said.

Fins defensive tackle D’Shawn Hand had said before this game, “We don’t got no more games to lose.”

He was right. They didn’t.

This was a crusher. It means Miami must win its three remaining regular-season games — and then hope other teams lose . The odds are astronomical. Sunday was the death of real hope.

And Tua Tagovailoa caused it.

His four turnovers — three interceptions and a lost fumble — caused it. There was little run support to help, but the mistakes wasted a great effort by Miami’s defense.

“I’m my toughest critic,” said the QB. “My fault. I gotta play better, protect the ball. That’s not what I did. That’s not how you win games in this league. Very disappointed how I played today. I just need to be better in all aspects.”

Houston directly scored 10 points off his turnovers and added another TD off a special teams mistake when Miami allowed a 35-yard run on a faked punt.

For Miami the game — and season — teetered in a first half won by Houston 13-6 thanks to a pair of Tagovailoa turnovers.

The Texans parlayed Tua’s lost fumble into a short field and 12-yard scoring pass, and later used a n interception and 68-yard return to set up a 23-yard field goal.

Houston added one other field goal, while Miami managed only a pair of three-pointers in the opening half.

In the third quarter the score off the faked punt made it 20-6.

Miami drew within the final score on Jonnu Smith’s short TD catch — ending the series that had been delayed by the DuBose injury.

That’s when the two late Stingley interceptions ended the game as DuBose lay in a Houston hospital.

“I know how important the season and this game is to our locker room,” McDaniel had said beforehand. “ “At this stage of the season, you know the stakes. I think the locker room is feeling the totality of that. I think the team is really fired up in the moment of truth.”

Despite all of that, the Miami Dolphins suffered a crushing loss on Sunday.

And left Houston hoping the loss of a football game was the worst of it.