5 THINGS WE LEARNED

Brian Flores proving he’s a good second-half-of-season coach. The Dolphins have annually gotten off to a slow start in Flores’ three seasons, then picked up steam in the second half of the year. Miami won 5 of the final 9 games in 2019. The Dolphins got off to a 1-3 start in 2020 and then won five straight before finishing the season 10-6. This season, the Dolphins have rebounded from a 1-7 start to win four games in a row.

Xavien Howard leads NFL in interceptions since joining league. The first half interception Howard pulled down and returned for 16-yards made him the fastest NFL player to record 25 interceptions by games played (67) since 1990. Marcus Peters was the previous record-holder, getting his 25th pick in his 68th career game.

Duke Riley continues to make his presence felt. Riley, an offseason singing who had primarily played on special teams earlier this season, has been utilized in the defensive game plan the past month and has been making positive plays for the Dolphins. Riley, who is used in a three inside linebacker package the Dolphins created specifically for scrambling quarterbacks, contributed three tackles against Carolina. He also blocked the punt Justin Coleman recovered and scored on for the game’s first score.

Well now, who is the top-performing rookie-first-round-pick pass rusher from UM? After a blazing start where he had three sacks, an interception, four tackles for loss (TFL) and three quarterback hits (QBH) in Buffalo’s 4-1 start, defensive end Greg Rousseau, who was selected 30th in the 2021 draft out of the University of Miami, has cooled down. Meanwhile, Jaelan Phillips, the ‘Canes alum picked 18th by Miami, is on fire after getting situational duty in his first two career games. In the 10 games since then, Phillips has terrorized offenses for 6.5 sacks, 14 quarterback hits and five tackles for loss. Rousseau still has those three sacks, albeit in one fewer game played by the Bills.

Emmanuel Ogbah’s eye-popping pass-bat streak continues. Emmanuel Ogbah extended his amazing streak of games with a batted pass to seven with a third-quarter deflection of a Cam Newton pass in the end zone. He has eight bats to lead the NFL and it matches his league-leading number of 2018. For context regarding the streak, during J.J. Watt’s monster 2012, where he had 15 bats, the longest streak he had was three games. Ogbah did have company on Sunday, with fellow pass rushers Phillips, Zach Sieler and Adam Butler getting their hands on a pass.