Hill’s two big plays not enough to make up for Dolphins’ alarming struggles on offense
Tyreek Hill was the silver lining in an otherwise dismal night for the Dolphins’ offense.
With his first catch, he set a franchise record.
With his third catch, Hill delivered one of his signature explosive plays — a 60-yard touchdown catch on a deep throw from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
And his other touchdown — a 57-yard fumble return for a score — was one of the wildest plays in the NFL this season.
But if you ask Hill, who was hobbled by an ankle injury throughout the second half of Miami’s 23-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night, he didn’t do enough.
“I don’t think it was really the rhythm. I feel like all of us had an off night. That starts with myself, a leader on the offensive side of the ball,” said Hill, who was targeted 10 times, but finished with only four catches for 81 yards. “We just have to look in the mirror and take accountability. I’ll be the first one that takes accountability for my actions and not being there for my teammates when they need me.”
Hill, however, was in the perfect spot to help
the Dolphins with 8:45 left in the second quarter when he scooped up a fumble by running back Jeff Wilson Jr. and raced for an improbable 57-yard touchdown.
After Wilson had the ball jarred loose, several players, including offensive tackle Terron Armstead, piled up trying to recover. Armstead appeared to tap the ball out of the pile, which allowed Hill to pick it up in space and take off for the end zone.
“I was about to dive at first and then I saw Terron dive in and I said there’s no way I’m diving in there with him because if I had, he would have de-cleated me and I would’ve been out the whole game,” Hill
said. “Once he dove in, he kind of popped the ball right to me and I was able to make a play. It looked like he kind of saw me. That’s kind of crazy. Shout-out to [Terron] if he really tried to tap it out.”
But the play wasn’t enough to offset everything else that went wrong.
The Dolphins’ offense, which had been so explosive, has struggled mightily over the past two weeks in defeats against the Chargers and San Francisco 49ers.
On Sunday, the Dolphins were outgained 432-219 in total yards. They had the ball for only 20 minutes, 22 seconds.
Hill said he won’t point fingers at any of his teammates for the Dolphins’ recent offensive struggles, including Tagovailoa, who has had two of his worst outings of the season over the past two weeks.
Tagovailoa completed only 10 of 28 passes for 145 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions.
It took five attempts before he completed his first pass — a 13-yard toss to Hill on which the receiver broke Mark Clayton’s single-season Dolphins receiving yardage mark that had stood since Dan Marino’s recordsetting campaign of 1984.
On Hill’s second touchdown, he came free after Chargers cornerback Michael Davis tripped in coverage, allowing him to jog into the end zone after hauling in the pass from Tagovailoa.
But there were also multiple plays where the timing was off between Tagovailoa and Hill, including a throw in the first quarter when Hill didn’t turn around in time to reach the ball.
“This team is young, but this team is smart and we’re not going to point any fingers at nobody,” Hill said. “I think Tua played well enough to win this game and I feel like I have to make plays for him. I feel like I had a lot of drops out there that won’t be counted and they’re going to go against him. I have to be there for my boy.”