MIAMI — There surely have been bigger early games, Week 2-early, across the NFL’s century-plus or the Miami Dolphins’ 60 years in it.

Maybe. But I doubt that. Have not covered one, heard of one or felt one like what Sunday was at Hard Rock Stadium.

The weight of this game on the Dolphins was oppressive, heavy as hot anvils.

Sunday, down 12-0 early, booing heard, it was getting hotter, heavier. Heavy enough to crush hopes. To crush jobs.

It would get worse.

On a day when the Dolphins needed a victory like it was oxygen, desperation fell short.

Miami would rally for a late lead but blow it as a special-teams blunder allowed a 90-yard kickoff return touchdown in a 33-27 loss to division-rival New England. It was the Dolphins’ home opener at Hard Rock Stadium, and it was about as big as any second of 17 games can ever be.

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was pretty great — well, until that late interception.

The defense made its first stops of the season, forced its first punts.

Malik Washington was the hero for about 12 seconds when his 74-yard punt return score delivered a late lead.

And none of it mattered.

Miami had a final shot in Pats territory, had two straight dumb penalties and it ended with a sack.

Hapless. Hopeless.

Too harsh? Then prove otherwise, Dolphins.

“Damn frustrating, man. Self-inflicted wounds,” said Tyreek Hill after a strong game by him. “But pressure is opportunity. That’s how we gonna approach it. Don’t wanna be 0-2 but it’s fuel to the fire.”

“Really frustrating,” echoed Tua of that last botched series. “That whole thing was not up to standards. A mixup of communications. You can’t have what you didn’t earn. I don’t feel we earned this win. ”

Said coach Mike McDaniel: “I look at absolutely everything falling on me. Having said that, I’m very frustrated. Some coaches and players did not execute communication at a very dire point of the game. It was not acceptable. We had an opportunity to win the game and robbed it from ourselves.”

This still was a much stronger performance by the Fins than last week’s embarrassing 33-8 defeat in Indianapolis, but that was a low bar to leap. This glass isn’t half full. It’s shattered now. Fix it.

Fins were better than in Week 1 but still did enough to lose.

“Can’t wait ‘til the second half to get a [defensive] stop,” noted McDaniel. “Can’t have a monumental special-teams play followed by [giving up one].”

McDaniel had referred to “the gravity of this one,” meaning a players-only meeting, meaning Sunday’s crucial test. And the coach acknowledged, “This feels a lot different than 0-1 based on how we lost.”

At 0-2 now with a Thursday night game at nemesis Buffalo fast looming, all is closer to hell than well for Miami. Fix it.

If the sky was falling last week, now it has fallen. That is the angry and understandable consensus after last week’ season-opening loss in Indianapolis, as awful and as unprepared-seeming performance as I have seen from the Dolphins in many years, and now this.

I looked up just before Sunday’s game to see if in fact the sky had fallen.

What I saw up there was a banner that read, ‘Fire Grier, Fire McDaniel’ flying above Hard Rock, targeting general manager Chris Grier and coach Mike McDaniel, two of the jobs in peril. The small white plane circled — the stadium, the team, the season — like a vulture circling carrion.

Disgruntled Dolfans had raised $1,898 on a GoFundMe page to fly the banner. The page seeking donations referred to the “generational trauma” of following the Dolphins, whose fans last cheered a playoff victory on Dec. 30, 2000 — the longest such drought in the NFL.

Fed-up Dolfans were not limited to those who rented that plane. The Miami Herald ran a poll asking fans if they thought Grier, McDaniel and receiver Tyreek Hill all would still be with the team in 2026. When last I checked the “no” vote was winning by a margin of 97% to 3.

Understand something about polls: You could ask, “Are you in favor of love and happiness?” ... and not get a 97% margin.

This — the blanket perception of all-is-hopeless-and-fire-everybody — was the weight this win needed to help lift. It did not happen.

With an 0-3 start seeming inevitable and even with so much season left, it feels now like it’s Fins-as-in-finished for Miami.

It feels like Grier and McDaniel will need a miracle to save their jobs. It feels like trading Hill and a complete reboot might be in store.

“If I worry about my job security I won’t be doing my job,” McDaniel said afterward. “It’s very important to spend all my time working on how to do my job. I won’t spend one moment thinking about whatever people want me to think about. I’m thinking about this team. I believe in the players and coaches on this team. The NFL is about progressing through the season and through the noise.”

The honorary pregame Dolphins captains for this game were Hall of Fame offensive linemen Dwight Stephenson, 67, and Larry Little, 79. I might put ‘em in this lineup even at their ages. Or, wait — can either of them play cornerback?

The Dolphins trailed 12-0 but inched within 15-14 at halftime. Still, New England’s three scoring drives on three possessions meant Miami’s defense in the first 1 1/2 games had allowed 10 scoring drives on 10 opponent series. Zero defensive stops until, finally, the first one.

In the middle of the Pats’ first two touchdown drives Tagovailoa threw an interception that mercifully was negated by a penalty. On top of last week’s three-turnover game, he was booed, briefly but loudly.

Tua won back some faith, though, with an 18-yard scoring pass to Jaylen Waddle and a 29-yard scoring strike to De’Von Achane. The QB in the first half was a sharp 9 for 10 for 117 yards.

Again, none of it mattered. None of the better showing.

Tagovailaoa claims he hasn’t heard all the outside noise.

“I don’t have any social media. I go home, I’m with my kids, with my family,” he said. “Kids want to watch Disney Channel or Disney+, going to put whatever is on for them. So I wouldn’t say I get to hear a lot of that or see a lot of that, but it doesn’t matter anyways. Are they going to help us win the game? Are they going to help us lose the game? That starts within.”

Miami needs somebody to help it win a game, and the answer within does not seem anywhere to be found at the moment.

The doubters have been given ample reasons to doubt.

Only the Dolphins can make that begin to go away.

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