DOLPHINS
After struggling for most of the game, the Dolphins replaced Tua Tagovailoa with Ryan Fitzpatrick, who nearly rallied Miami to a tying score. But he threw a game-sealing interception in Denver’s end zone.
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was always going to regress.
Sunday that regression arrived, and it was a doozy.
So severe and damaging to his team’s chances, in fact, that Tagovailoa got yanked from a game that was still in doubt.
So where to begin?
Let’s start with the score: Broncos 20, Dolphins 13.
The Dolphins’ fivegame winning streak is history. At 6-4, they will remain in second place in the AFC East for at least another week.
Now let’s get to how we got there:
Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins’ offense
was so bad, Brian Flores benched Tua early in the fourth quarter and turned to Ryan Fitzpatrick. Tagovailoa was not injured. Rather the move was performance-based.
Flores wanted a spark. He got it.
Until Fitzpatrick reminded him why Tagovailoa was the starter to begin with.
Fitzpatrick moved the Dolphins from their own 1 to the Denver 17 on Miami’s final drive, but his red zone woes surfaced one more time.
He forced a end-zone pass to DeVante Parker into double coverage, and Justin Simmons picked it off.
OK, now that we’ve got all the basics covered, lets delve deeper.
didn’t Flores let Tagovailoa, who admittedly struggled, try to finish what he started?
●Why
Because, it seems, he had little confidence that Sunday’s fourth quarter was going to be any better than the first three.
“We just though it was the best move at that point in the game,” Flores said, before pointing out the obvious: The Dolphins, down two scores with probably only two possessions left, needed to get into hurry-up. What he didn’t say, but was implied: Fitzpatrick, right now, is a better two-minute quarterback.
“My thoughts were, whatever was going to be best for the team,” Tagovailoa said. “When I was in, we couldn’t really get things going. .... I couldn’t get the ball in the hands of our playmakers and our guys consistently to get a rhythm going.”
That’s all true. Tagovailoa, who was pulled after getting sacked for the sixth time early in the fourth quarter, completed just 11 of 20 for 83 yards and a touchdown. Every pass was seemingly in a 10-yard box.
●What happened to Fitzpatrick on his final throw?
Here’s his answer:
“I put us in a bunch set. In situations like that, you want to give you playmakers a chance to make plays. DeVante [ran] a post, the near-side safety came down on [Adam] Shaheen. Backside safety [Simmons] plays my eyes.
If I’m looking at Jakeem [Grant], he’s going to stay put. Unfortunately I did not look him off as much as I needed to. ... I got everything I wanted with DeVante on the front side. I need to do better job holding that safety. If he would have been a step slower, maybe that ball gets in there and we’re having a happy postgame.”
●
Nothing changes. Tagovailoa remains the starter, Flores insisted. Fitzpatrick remains the backup.
When asked if he worries about Tagovailoa’s confidence after Sunday’s events, Flores replied: “Not at all. He’s dealt with a lot of adversity. I think he’s fine.”
Added Fitzpatrick: “There’s no controversy. ... This is his team.”
His team remains in a good position with six games left in the season. They’re 6-4 and just a
So what now?
game behind the Bills for first place in the AFC East, with the hapless Jets and Bengals up next.
But if the Dolphins miss the postseason by a game, Sunday’s offensive meltdown will probably be what costs them. The Dolphins were outgained by more than 2-to-1 Sunday, and the the defense deserved better.
Josh Boyer’s group had a fourth-down stop in the red zone and forced two turnovers, including a fumble by Melvin Gordon at the Dolphins’ 1 in the fourth quarter forced by Andrew Van Ginkel that gave the Dolphins late life.
But Fitzpatrick’s ball security issues cost the Dolphins one more time. He threw his eighth interception in 25 quarters and has now failed to score a touchdown in the red zone in each of his last three trips.
Still, don’t pin this result on him. He was trying to make the best of a bad situation.
It was evident in the first half this would not be Tagovailoa’s day.
And if not for yet another Xavien Howard interception — his sixth on the season — the Dolphins probably have gone to the break down by double digits.
Instead, they trailed by just three, despite gaining just 2.7 yards per play and going three-and-out on four of their six possessions.
The right side of the offensive line — with Jesse Davis at tackle and Solomon Kindley at guard — was a fright. The Broncos sacked Tagovailoa three times before the break and limited the Dolphins to just 3.6 yards per carry. (Kindley later left the game with a foot injury.)
But Howard’s pick gave the Dolphins the short field they needed, and Tagovailoa made Denver pay with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Parker on a fade route.
And after a fourth-down stop in the red zone by Elandon Roberts to start the second half, the Dolphins had every opportunity to go seize the game.
Instead, they went threeand-out — again — and allowed the Broncos to march 81 yards on nine plays, capped by a 20-yard touchdown run by Gordon. Two plays earlier, the Dolphins could have gotten off the field, but committed two penalties, including roughing the passer on third-and-8 from the Miami 42.
“We‘ve got to execute better,” Flores said. “We had some opportunities. We didn’t take advantage of them. In a tightly contested game like that on the road, we have to play better.”
Beginning with the quarterback.