Well, we’ve reached a enjoyable milestone round these new-look Miami Dolphins.
Their offense was electrical once more in beating Chicago, 35-32, on Sunday.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa handed for 302 yards and three touchdowns and hasn’t thrown an interception within the three video games since coming back from concussion protocol.
Receiver Tyreek Hill surpassed 1,000 yards receiving Sunday, and had his fifth sport over 100 yards in simply the ninth sport of the season.
Even newcomer Jeff Wilson Jr., who hadn’t scored a landing this 12 months whereas with San Francisco, scored a landing in his first Dolphins sport, diving as Tagovailoa stated, in that “Reggie Bush pose.”
All these massive numbers and defining moments and nobody appeared to note too laborious. No one sees the enjoyable sufficient. That’s the milestone, too.
It’s like after years of watching offenses shake and cough like a foul engine individuals one way or the other assume a 30-point day is an anticipated a part of a Dolphins ticket, like Zac Brown singing, “I’ve got my toes in the water,” or Morgan Freeman’s character dropping a line of knowledge.
Oh, it hasn’t reached the ho-and-hum stage to scoring simply fairly but. Tagovailoa, as an illustration, was requested about being in a sport the place Chicago answered their scores to the ultimate drives.
“We were playing 60 minute and, offensively, we weren’t looking at the scoreboard,” he stated. “Every time we got the ball, we wanted to score.”
He was then requested in regards to the state of the taking part in area contemplating he slipped a few instances. And then about his first massive miss of the day, on fourth down within the fourth quarter to tight finish Durham Smythe on the doorstep of a game-cementing landing.
“I’ve got to do better,” he stated.
Sure, that play mattered. But right here’s the purpose: This is enjoyable to observe. The Dolphins (6-3) had six red-zone journeys Sunday on drives of 75, 75, 64, 75, 20 and 68 yards. It’s telling, too, that after a season after the Dolphins couldn’t even title their offensive coordinator that coach Mike McDaniel’s X’s and O’s have receivers operating free all day.
Chicago quarterback Justin Fields, in the meantime, had hassle discovering anybody open. Sure, he then simply tucked the ball and ran. And ran. He had 178 yards speeding — and solely 123 yards passing — in lighting up the scoreboard.
This hometown level is the Dolphins protection hasn’t traveled properly this 12 months: 38 factors allowed at Baltimore, 27 at Cincinnati, 40 on the New York Jets (admittedly not all of the protection’s doing), 27 at Detroit and now 32 at Chicago.
If you wish to say that’s not ok, I’m with you. There’s a late-Eighties really feel to this for older Dolphins followers, of Dan Marino’s offense solely capable of take a workforce to this point. But there’s time for this protection to emerge.
If you additionally wish to say dragging a few unhealthy defenses like Detroit and Chicago up and down the sector the previous two weeks isn’t the measuring stick, I’m with you there, too. The offense didn’t shut out Sunday’s win as Tagovailoa missed a pair passes.
But that league-worst Detroit protection the Dolphins torched final week? Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers put up solely 9 factors towards it on Sunday.
Chicago protection, too, isn’t precisely the Monsters of the Midway after shedding two key gamers to trades. And you possibly can’t dismiss two unhealthy passes on the finish, the one to Smyth and a subsequently underthrown one to deep-and-running-free Jaylen Waddle. Either one may have sealed the sport.
But the underside line is the Dolphins gained once more on the street. Buffalo misplaced on the street to the New York Jets on Sunday to make the AFC East race fascinating because the web page flips to the second half of the season.
If the Dolphins make the playoffs, the protection should enhance and the commerce for Bradley Chubb has to point out one thing greater than it did with one sort out on Sunday. But it’s clear this passing sport will tempo the way in which.
This workforce scored greater than 30 factors in consecutive video games the previous two weeks for the primary time since 2016. McDaniel has delivered the offense he talked about final spring, the one constructed on Tagovailoa’s accuracy and receiving velocity, the one which seemingly has open receivers all sport lengthy on some Sundays.
Like this newest one in Chicago.
“We’ll look at the films and then get ready for … who do we play against?” Tagovailoa stated afterward.
Cleveland, he was instructed.
“And then we’ll move on to the Browns,” he stated. “Sorry, I legit forgot.”
One massive sport at a time, proper? They aren’t going to attain like this each Sunday. They can’t. But the way in which they’ve moved the scoreboard of late offers this protection time to search out some solutions — and shouldn’t be ho-hummed prefer it’s been round for years.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com