Tagovailoa and Gaskin shine
Dolphins avoid injury, as No. 6 pick Waddle goes down on a block
MIAMI GARDENS — The Dolphins’ first-team offense was able to get mostly whatever it wanted against Atlanta Falcons Lite over its first two possessions, and Miami avoided a major injury scare in its second preseason game on Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium.
With quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and running back Myles Gaskin keying two early touchdown drives, the Dolphins cruised to a 37-17 preseason victory over Atlanta in an exhibition that had 57,217 tickets distributed.
Rookie wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, the Dolphins’ prized No. 6 pick in this year’s draft, re-entered the exhibition after going down in pain blocking on a Gaskin run near the goal line on the team’s opening drive.
Getting his left leg chopped by a Falcons defender, Waddle was able
to walk under his own power as he went to the sideline and, momentarily, into the tunnel toward the locker room. He came back onto the field minutes later, running
and cutting on the sideline, before he was back in for the Dolphins’ second drive.
“He got dinged. Had to come out of the game,” Dolphins coach Brian Flores said. “We’ve got a great training staff, so looked at him, and he went back in. That happens.”
Those first two drives produced exactly what the Dolphins wanted to see out of their first-team offense against a watered-down Falcons defense that was sitting most of its top defenders, including defensive lineman Grady Jarrett and linebacker Deion Jones.
Tagovailoa completed his first nine passes Saturday, a run which
was only snapped because a diving catch by Waddle was overturned upon review. In the first half, he was 16 of 23 for 183 yards and a touchdown to Gaskin. Backup Jacoby Brissett subbed in for him to start the second half.
“You don’t look at the things you did well. You look at the things you didn’t do well,” said Tagovailoa, still
eager to improve after an impressive outing. “It’s a continued work in progress for us. We’re still trying to fine-tune things with our routes … just communication up front.”
Gaskin capped each of the two early scoring drives by getting into the end zone. He punched the first one in on the ground from the 1-yard line before he was on the receiving end of the 8-yard strike from Tagovailoa, in which the Dolphins’ second-year signal caller from Alabama went through his progression before finding Gaskin open in the middle of the field out of the backfield.
Gaskin ran for 27 yards and the touchdown on six first-half carries. He added four catches for 44 yards and his touchdown through the air.
Tagovailoa made impressive throws throughout his outing, the best one was a 30-yard strike to tight end Mike Gesicki over the middle where Gesicki limped off the field. Mack Hollins had four receptions for 49 yards from Tagovailoa at halftime, and Waddle caught three passes on the opening drive for 21 yards.
“I thought, offensively, we moved the ball well,” Flores said. “Overall, it was good execution … but definitely room for improvement.”
After the first two touchdown drives, Tagovailoa’s third drive stalled in the Falcons’ red zone after an incomplete pass to Malcolm Perry on fourth-and-3. In the first half’s final seconds, Tagovailoa completed two passes to get the Dolphins within range for a 58-yard field goal attempt by Jason Sanders, but Sanders missed wide left, although he had enough distance on the kick.
While the Falcons held out several top defenders, they also played on Saturday without quarterback Matt Ryan and wide receiver Calvin Ridley. The Dolphins basically played their true first-team defense and began sitting defenders after two drives, when cornerbacks Xavien Howard and Byron Jones were taken out.
With Atlanta starting AJ McCarron at quarterback, he made an early exit on Saturday with a right knee injury on a handoff. Feleipe Franks then entered for McCarron and got the Falcons down to the Dolphins’ 2-yard line. A would-be touchdown on third down was dropped by Atlanta wideout Tajae Sharpe, and Eric Rowe broke up a fourth-down throw to the end zone.
Linebacker Sam Eguavoen had back-to-back sacks late in the first
half, a day after coming off the reserve/COVID-19 list. He then added two more in the second half for a total of four, one of which went for a safety.
“Last time I had four sacks, my dream last night,” said Eguavoen, laughing.
Flores noted Eguavoen had fresh legs after his stint on the COVID list. Eguavoen became the first Dolphin to record four sacks in a preseason game since Adewale Ogunleye in 2002.
With Brissett in for Tagovailoa to start the second half, he had a chunk play to Kirk Merritt that picked up 27 yards as running back Malcolm Brown plunged into the end zone from a yard out two plays after carrying the Falcons defense with him to the 2-yard line on a physical gain of 11.
Brissett later added a touchdown pass to Robert Foster in the corner of the end zone from 8 yards away.
Shortly after an interception from linebacker Calvin Munson, third-string quarterback Reid Sinnett lobbed a pass up to Merritt for a fourth-quarter touchdown.
The Dolphins finish their preseason schedule at the Cincinnati Bengals on Aug. 29. They will also face the Atlanta Falcons in the regular season, Week 7.