It had the makings of an much more dominant, all-around efficiency than the Miami Dolphins had their final outing.
But after leaping out to a 30-0 halftime lead in opposition to the Houston Texans, left deal with Terron Armstead’s early departure attributable to a pectoral harm put a damper on Miami’s efforts.
Nonetheless, the Dolphins got here away with a 30-15 win over Houston on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium, which adopted the group’s 39-17 victory in opposition to the Cleveland Browns two weeks earlier on the opposite facet of the bye week.
Miami, which retook the AFC East lead attributable to its tiebreaker over the Buffalo Bills, gained its fifth consecutive sport and has its first 8-3 begin since 2001 earlier than the schedule will get robust once more in December. The league-worst Texans are actually 1-9-1.
The Dolphins’ 30-0 halftime lead was the second-largest the franchise has had over the previous 30 seasons, bested solely by a 41-0 benefit Miami had at half in a 2015 assembly with Houston.
The Dolphins protection allowed simply 32 Texans yards within the first half. The Miami offense produced factors on all however considered one of its possessions earlier than halftime.
But with out Armstead, the Dolphins have been unable to guard quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Tagovailoa was sacked 4 instances between the third quarter and ultimate drive of the primary half and had one other takedown that was negated by a facemask penalty.
Tagovailoa had one other strong outing, however wasn’t as sharp as he was in his previous three video games the place he had a quarterback score of 135.0 or higher every outing.
With coach Mike McDaniel pulling him for backup Skylar Thompson within the third quarter, Tagovailoa completed 22 of 36 for 299 yards, a landing and no interceptions. He broke the Miami document for consecutive passes with out an interception, ending Sunday sitting at 174, topping Ryan Tannehill’s earlier mark of 160.
The Texans had two second-half touchdowns, which have been adopted by failed two-point conversions, plus a subject purpose, get them inside two possessions, 30-15, with 9 minutes remaining. Their late rally was then stopped by a third-down sack from Jerome Baker that ended one scoring alternative. Their subsequent probability was ended by a Verone McKinley interception.
Miami opened up a 10-0 lead deep into the primary quarter when Tagovailoa purchased time within the pocket, slid out to the left and located tight finish Durham Smythe over the center for the 4-yard rating.
The Dolphins added to the benefit early within the second quarter following an Andrew Van Ginkel interception and 23-yard return to the Houston 3-yard line. Jeff Wilson Jr. scored simply off a handoff on the subsequent play, his third landing in as many video games since being traded to Miami on the deadline. Van Ginkel almost scored his second landing within the month of November after taking again Jaelan Phillips blocked punt in Chicago on Nov. 6.
Later main, 20-0, the Dolphins did get their defensive landing when cornerback Xavien Howard took a fumble compelled by security Eric Rowe 16 yards to the tip zone.
Miami missed out on one other landing alternative in between the 2 scores. Tagovailoa and Hill simply couldn’t join on a brief out on second-and-goal, and the Dolphins settled for a brief Jason Sanders subject purpose, his second of the primary half.
Sanders added one other subject purpose to finish the half and despatched Miami into the locker room with a 30-0 lead. Tagovailoa took an ungainly fall on a sack by the Texans’ Maliek Collins after Armstead left however stayed within the sport to start out the second half. He was then sacked three extra instances within the third quarter.
While that was occurring, the Dolphins protection surrendered back-to-back Houston scoring drives, one capped by a Dare Ogunbowale 3-yard landing run and the opposite a 25-yard scoring strike from quarterback Kyle Allen to tight finish Jordan Akins.
Allen completed 26 of 39 for 215 yards, the landing and two interceptions. The Dolphins gave up simply 36 dashing yards. Along with Baker, linebackers Jaelan Phillips, Bradley Chubb, Elandon Roberts and Duke Riley had sacks.
Hill, who had cramping points late in Sunday’s sport, and Jaylen Waddle had 85 receiving yards apiece.
The highway will get more durable for the Dolphins after breezing via a delicate a part of the schedule over the 5 consecutive wins. Miami has three highway video games in a row on deck, with back-to-back on the West Coast on the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Chargers, adopted by a visit to Buffalo to face the Bills.
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com