South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Pressure creates opportunities for win
Defense enjoys timely plays from key standouts
Kyle Van Noy’s football week began with a rough fall flat on his back, and a game-changing interception falling from just within his grasp.
It ended celebrating a fumble that miraculous ended up in his hands right after he forced it, which helped the Miami Dolphins put the finishing touch on their first win of the season.
Van Noy ’s strip -sack fumble on Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew led to a touchdown for the Dolphins offense on the next possession, propelling Miami to a 31-13 win at TIAA Bank Field on Thursday night.
And it helped the Dolphins (1-2) avoid a dreaded 0-3 start to Brian Flores’ second season as coach.
“It’s something I take pride in, being a disruptive player. I was close last week. I felt I let my team down by not making the play with Josh Allen. I read the play but just dropped the ball” said Van Noy, who was stiffarmed on his rear end trying to tackle Bills quarterback Josh Allen last week and later dropped a pass he tipped into the air that could have been a pick-six interception.
“It was good to finish the play to sack [Minshew]. To make my moves and get to the quarterback and somehow the ball seems to find it into my hands in that big pile,” Van Noy added. “It’s kinda funny. I was a couple yards away from the pile and I said, ‘I got the ball,’ and the ref is looking at the pile, so it was kinda funny.”
Van Noy’s play and the Dolphins’ ensuing touchdown — a 1-yard run on a keeper by quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick — is the essence of complimentary football Flores loves to preach about to his team.
After losses at New England in the opener and to Buffalo in Week 2 where Miami was pummeled by quarterbacks Cam Newton and Josh Allen, respectively, the Dolphins were able to avoid even more overreactions with their first win of the season against the Jaguars.
And they will have 10 days before their Week 4 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks at Hard Rock Stadium.
“Complementary football is how you win in this league. We have to back them up or win the field position battle. Win the time of possession battle by getting first downs offensively. Turn the ball over defensively. That is how you win in this league,” Flores said.
“That was a good play by
Kyle. … It was a good individual play and what we need on every snap is 11 really good individual plays with some guys trying to match up. If we get that consistently, we get good results.”
The Dolphins also had another newcomer make a pivotal defensive play as linebacker Kamu GrugierHill’s blitz and sack of Minshew on fourth down in the final minutes of the first half helped keep the tide in Miami’s favor.
Grugier-Hill ran untouched up the middle to sack Minshew for a loss of 10 yards on a play that allowed Miami to enter halftime comfortably with a 21-7 lead after scoring on their first three offensive drives.
Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard, who continues to work his way back from a knee injury, also sealed the game by intercepting a pass from Minshew late in the fourth quarter — a play he was also unable to make against the Bills last week.
“We’re a proud defense, proud team and anything that affects us is going to come internally, so we just had to look ourselves in the mirror really and just kind of find out what defense we want to be, and I think you s aw t h a t [ T h u r s d ay ] ,” Grugier-Hill said.
“I’m excited for the guys. I’m excited for all of us and we have to continue that.”