Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Moore gets to build on another impressive game
MIAMI GARDENS — Matt Moore starts Thursday against Baltimore. Let’s be clear about that. He may have sat the bench until Sunday’s third quarter. He may have been Miami Dolphins coach Adam Gase’s third choice this year after Ryan Tannehill and Jay Cutler.
But Cutler left the game with cracked ribs according to a league source, and Moore saved Sunday’s, 31-28, win against the New York Jets so there isn’t even a decision to make even as Gase debated it in the minutes after.
“I’ll get there,” Gase said about Thursday’s starter. “I’ll probably have a better feel a little later. It’s just hard for me to say anything right now.” But, really, what’s to say? Cutler, at a minimum, can’t practice. He could be out for weeks. He was running the league’s worst offense. It’s the shortest of NFL weeks. And so Moore gets Thursday in Baltimore to build on the kind of Sunday that — let’s face it — a lot of fans were right
in calling for and Gase wasn’t sure could happen.
Down 14 points? In the fourth quarter? Against a Jets team that hadn’t lost that kind of lead in 22 years?
“A lot was against us,” guard Jermon Bushrod said.
Moore has been here before, of course. He saved these type of games replacing Chad Henne. Then he did so replacing Tannehill last year. And now, at 33, he ran on the field replacing Cutler, thinking what he always has in this situation. “Here you go,” he said. Then he went through a veteran’s checklist of notes: Do your job. Run the offense. Stay within yourself. Don’t try to do too much.
“At that point, I’m just trying to make plays,” he said.
And he promptly threw an interception on his second series. “That wasn’t good, obviously,” he said. More adversity. More questions. And, when the Jets promptly scored as he stood on the sideline after that interception, more points to make up. Which he did. Which he always seems to do.
Early in the fourth quarter, facing another Jets blitz, he threw to the corner for receiver Kenny Stills to run under for a 28-yard touchdown. That brought the Dolphins to life. It gave a jolt of energy to Hard Rock Stadium.
“My adrenaline was flowing pretty high,” Moore said.
That’s what Moore does, of course. He brings energy. There are tangible stats to measure his game, as he completed 13-of-21 passes for 188 yards, two touchdowns and a 102.9 rating.
Then there are the intangible manner quarterbacks get measured: Leadership, fire, decision-making and, well, how a team responds. Cutler may have great talent. But that hasn’t translated in a 12th season for him. The offense plods. It trips over itself.
For better or worse, Moore releases the ball quicker, throws the ball downfield and trusts his receivers. It was for better on Sunday. Stills caught what Moore called a “50-50 ball” for a score.
Then, on the next series, on third-and-10, Moore found Jarvis Landry open for 11 yards. Another game-saving play. Then he found Landry for 29 yards to set up the next touchdown, a 2-yard pass to Stills.
“He came in and did a helluva job,” Bushrod said. “We rallied around him.”
The Jets took away Dolphins running back Jay Ajayi and dared Cutler to beat them. He couldn’t. Maybe his season is over. But as Sunday reminded everyone the Dolphins aren’t just in OK hands with Moore.
They’re in better ones. You don’t even have to see the Dolphins’ offense was worst in the league in scoring through five games. They also had four pass plays total over 25 yards in those five games. Moore threw two in less than a half. “It was a great win and when you can contribute and have a comeback like that, it’s fun for everybody,” Moore said. “The guys did an unbelievable job staying together. It was 14 points there, late in the game, and [we] put some drives together and got it done, so yes, it was fun.”
The snapshot to Sunday came an hour after the end. Gase finished talking to the media and, hat on backwards, sat at a locker between Moore and Ryan Tannehill. They talked. They laughed.
It’s been a strange ride for each of them to this point. But one thing’s clear now. Moore starts Thursday. Depending how that goes and the severity of Cutler’s injury, he could start from here out.
What’s more, he should.