Game 12 thoughts: Bengals at Dolphins

The Dolphins continue to roll after a 19-7 victory over the Bengals.  The game began in frustrating fashion, as the Dolphins really couldn’t do much of anything positive early on, but they rallied with a big second half to get their 8th victory of the season.

The Bengals took a 7-6 lead into the half, in what was an all-around ugly two quarters of football featuring penalties and mistakes by both teams - just sloppy play across the board.  The Dolphins’ defense looked out of sorts, giving up too many yards and uncharacteristically committing a bunch of penalties.  They allowed a 72-yard TD on a beautifully designed sideline pass by Brandon Allen to Tyler Boyd, but otherwise kept the Bengals out of the endzone.  The Bengals did miss a 53-yard FG after a personal foul penalty that saw both Miami’s Xavien Howard and Cincinnati’s Tyler Boyd inexplicably ejected for throwing punches that were actually pushes.  The Dolphins’ offense, for its part, didn’t do much but Tua Tagovailoa did lead the team to two FGs, including one as time expired.  Tua’s timing was off early and he made some bad throws, but appeared to settle in as the half progressed.  He got away with an incomplete pass that was initially ruled as a fumble returned for a TD before being overturned by review, and also threw another near-INT.  Rookie Lynn Bowden saw a lot of action, with a run and a few nice catches.  He finished with 4 catches.  Jakeem Grant dropped a sure long TD on a beautiful middle pass from Tua, but did have a nice 20 yard gain on a little toss.  Mike Gesicki had a few catches and appeared to be developing some chemistry with Tua.  The Miami OL was not great, allowing pressure and getting almost no push in the run game.  LG Erick Flowers left the game with what looked like a real bad ankle injury.  Jesse Davis came in at RG as Solomon Kindley shifted to LG.

Fortunately, things changed in the second half.  On offense, Chan Gailey went to an up-temp offense and it worked brilliantly.  Tua looked like a different player, making great decisions and throwing perfectly timed and placed passes while leading the team to 10 points on the first two drives to open the half.  Gesicki made a beautiful one handed grab to put the Phins in 1st and goal on the second drive, ultimately leading to a FG.  Gesicki played like a man possessed in the second half, finishing with 88 yards on a career-high 9 catches and one TD.  Myles Gaskin contributed a 35-yrd catch on a perfect pass from Tua, that saw the QB rolling to his left, deftly avoiding pressure and finding the open Gaskin downfield.  8 Dolphins caught passes in the games, as Tua spread the ball around well.  The running game was up and down, mostly down, though Gaskin did manage to hit 90 yards on 21 carries.  Gaskin lost a fumble late on a 3rd down run that gained 26 yards – unacceptable.  

The offense racked up 23 first downs, but was absolutely terrible on third downs, picking up just 1 of 10 – with the one coming at the end of the game.  Tua finished the day with just under 300 yards passing, with a TD and 26 completions.  It was great to see him overcome a poor first half and he is coming along nicely, but moving forward Tua needs to play better and produce more points.  The OL played much better in the second half, so that was a good sign.

I was overall happy with Gailey’s gameplan, but I thought he did a terrible job in the redzone.  He constantly called low-percentage fades and when he did call run plays they were always right up the middle.  Some more creativity in the redzone is definitely needed.

The Miami defense absolutely dominated the second half, holding the Bengals to zero yards of offense in the half till late in the 4th quarter.  The Bengals could not run the ball at all, and the Miami D constantly pressured the QB.  The Dolphin D ended up with 6 sacks, including 3 by Kyle Van Noy and 2 by Shaq Lawson.  Lawson knocked Allen out of the game on the second sack.  Nik Needham had an INT to seal the victory.  The Bengals finished the day with under 200 yards of offense, including just 40 yards on the ground.  The numbers are even more impressive for Miami when you consider that they allowed that one pass play of 72 yards in the first half – meaning that the rest of the day, the Bengal offense gained just 124 yards!  A truly phenomenal effort.

Jason Sanders was outstanding yet again, nailing 4 FGs.  The coverage teams were excellent, as was punter Matt Haack.  Haack almost scored a TD on a FG attempt turned offensive play, as he lined up as a QB in a bizarre formation and ran the ball in for a score, but it was called back because RT Robert Hunt, lined up as the widest receiver on the right side, failed to report to the refs.

The game featured a couple of ugly moments, starting with the aforementioned sideline play in the first half that saw Xavien Howard and Tyler Boyd pushing each other and getting ejected.  On a second half punt return, Bengal Mike Thomas drilled Jakeem Grant in the head, drawing a penalty.  On another return shortly after that, Thomas leveled Grant before the ball arrived, drawing another penalty.  The Bengals also a committed a cheap shot block in the back as that play continued.  The incidents led to a bench-clearing brawl. DeVante Parker threw several punches and got ejected.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets suspended.   Austin Jackson appeared to knock down a Bengals coach.  Coach Flores had to be held back.  Mack Hollins was ejected, along with a Bengals player.  It was total chaos for a few minutes there, and caused a long delay as the refs sorted everything out.  As ugly as it was, it seemed like the fight brought the Dolphins closer together.  It showed that they have each other’s backs, and if you mess with one guy you’re messing with the entire team.  The Dolphins will need that unity moving forward.

One of the most important takeaways from this game, in my opinion, was literally watching Tua and Gesicki gain chemistry right before our eyes.  Tua is learning how to use Gesicki,  and he is starting to realize what Ryan Fitzpatrick already knows: if you give Gesicki an opportunity to make a play, more often that not he will make that play.  He doesn’t need to be open…you just have to put the ball where he can make a play on it.  Tua is gaining that trust in his TE, and it is going to make a huge difference in this offense in the coming weeks.

So, the Dolphins now sit at 8-4.  If the season ended today, they’d be in the playoffs.  But the season, of course, does not end today, and in fact the Dolphins are now entering the most difficult part of their schedule.  They close out with 4 extremely tough games: home for the Chiefs and Patriots, and at the Raiders and Bills.  Miami holds their fate in their own hands at the moment, and needs to win at least 2 of these 4 games to get to the postseason.  Moving forward, the offense really needs to step up and figure out how to solve the third down and red zone problems.   We’re about to find out exactly what this team is made of, and win or lose it is exciting to be playing meaningful football in December.


Hero of the Game: Kyle Van Noy played out of his mind, leading the team in tackles and registering the 3 sacks.  Mike Gesicki gets honorable mention for his excellent game.  Jason Sanders also gets honorable mention for basically being the Miami scoring offense, with 4 FGs.

Goat of the Game: Honestly, I can’t pick out any one player that deserves the goat.  That’s a good thing.

Beer of the Game: Montauk Cold Day IPA

https://www.si.com/nfl/dolphins/news/miami-dolphins-head-coach-brian-flores-sticks-up-for-his-player

Brian Flores said he walked over toward the Cincinnati Bengals sideline Sunday to stick up for one of his players, though he regretted the incident taking away from his team's 19-7 victory at Hard Rock Stadium.

There was nothing but support for Flores from his players afterward, though.

...

“It’s good to see that kind of just because you know he has our back and we’re a family," defensive tackle Christian Wilkins said. "So that’s the biggest thing. That’s all I’ll say. We’ve all got each other’s back. So we’ll just keep that in the family.”

“That’s what we’re going to do," linebacker Kyle Van Noy said. "We’re a family. That’s what you do for your family, right? If you saw somebody get hit, you’re going to act a certain type of way, so keep it moving.”

Said quarterback Tua Tagovailoa: “Well, I think it speaks a lot to Flo’s character, how much it means to him that his player got hit, and it wasn’t the first time. It was the second time. It just means a lot. He’s not just a coach out there. If his guy gets hurt, he’s not going to let it go. He stands up for us as a team. You got to see, not just him, but other guys going in there trying to defend Jakeem and whatnot. Although it happened the way it did, it’s also a testament to how close we are as a team.”

And that's all Flores was thinking when he got involved — sticking up for one of his players.

Afterward, though, he sounded like somebody who regretted his actions.

“We’ve got to do a better job of keeping our poise," Flores said. "That starts with me. I’ve got to do a better job of keeping my poise. But, look, I’m going to stick up for my players. They’re going to stick up for each other without getting penalties, without hurting the team, but we’ve got to do a better job of keeping our poise as a team. I’m just going to be honest, these are like my kids. The first time, yeah. The second time I got a little upset about it, but still I’ve got to do a better job. I have to. I can’t do anything to hurt the team. My emotions got the best of me there."

...

Flores said he was disappointed after the game spending so much time talking about the skirmish and his part in it, as opposed to the focus being on his players.

“Look, I mean, the people in this organization, they’re very important to me. I’m going to try to protect everyone here — players, coaches," Flores said. "But there’s a way to do that. There’s a better way to do that, and, again, like I said, unfortunately, this is one of the things that I don’t like is that our team went out there, played a good game against a tough opponent, won the game, played well in all three phases, really played well in the second half. Defensively, we played well. Offensively, we really moved the ball a lot better. A lot of things from the game that are good that should be highlighted, but unfortunately, we’re talking about my situation, and that’s what I don’t like.

"I don’t want the spotlight on me. It should be on the guys that are on the field, the players. DeVante playing well. He played well for us. He made plays for us. So did ‘Mike G’ (Mike Gesicki). So did Myles Gaskin. I thought the O-line played well with the three young guys in there. I thought defensively, we made a lot of plays. But unfortunately, we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about this situation. ... Hopefully we spend some time talking about the things that they did well in the game and not that situation.”

I love Coach Flo, and I love this team. It's a great time to be a fan of the Miami Dolphins. I just can't say enough about how special this season is, and how special this group of players is.

I am now completely sold on Flores for Coach Of The Year...just for being so willing to throw down after that cheap shot. Seriously. That moment alone should do it. It probably won't but it should.

I don't like him apologizing for it afterwards though. Men should never EVER have to apologize for being men, and that's one of the biggest problems with modern society.

Just like with the '91 incident, the officials completely blew it yet again. HOW do you let the one player who took TWO cheap shots and was responsible for that whole mess stay in the game?!?!

Even if this team loses out, 8-8 after the way last season started is still a staggeringly vast improvement, and seems far more real than the last two playoff seasons out of nowhere. It's too bad Ross was spinning his wheels while the Bills got a 2-year head start on rebuilding and are now that much further ahead because of it. But Degarmo already explained the real reason why that happened...

The December slate is rough, starting with a very tall order next week with Kansas City (unfortunately, as JMP notes, likely taller with Parker probably facing a suspension).

But it's very exciting to actually be going into December with 4 meaningful games in a row, including prime time the day after Christmas in Las Vegas.

I really think we can take the Patriots in Miami, which will set up essentially two playoff games after that to close the season.  This team is playing far better at this stage than any of us would have thought possible.

That said, the playoffs will also be a tall order. Check out Baltimore's closing slate, which is far easier than ours. 10 wins appears likely. That game in Las Vegas is going to be huge, and hopefully we will still have a shot at the division going into Buffalo for the finale.

Wow, a real coach.

How long has it been?

Dear lord, this is great stuff.

DolFan 316 wrote:

I don't like him apologizing for it afterwards though. Men should never EVER have to apologize for being men, and that's one of the biggest problems with modern society.

I think it's just a case of Coach Flo wanting to keep things under control and deflect the drama away from the team...saying the right things publicly to sort of quench the fire. But the players know where he stands.

This is great news if true:

Ian Rapoport

@RapSheet

The participants of this melee — including those ejected — will be reviewed for possible fines, not suspensions, source says.

HalCHorn wrote:The December slate is rough, starting with a very tall order next week with Kansas City (unfortunately, as JMP notes, likely taller with Parker probably facing a suspension).

But it's very exciting to actually be going into December with 4 meaningful games in a row, including prime time the day after Christmas in Las Vegas.

I really think we can take the Patriots in Miami, which will set up essentially two playoff games after that to close the season.  This team is playing far better at this stage than any of us would have thought possible.

That said, the playoffs will also be a tall order.  Check out Baltimore's closing slate, which is far easier than ours.  10 wins appears likely.  That game in Las Vegas is going to be huge, and hopefully we will still have a shot at the division going into Buffalo for the finale.

I'm thinking that if we win just 2 of the remaining games, it's better if we beat the Patriots and Raiders. We are competing directly with those teams for playoff spots, so beating them would be huge. The Chiefs already have a playoff spot by virtue of winning their division, so losing to them isn't the end of the world. I realize we can still win the division, and we'd have to beat the Bills week 17 to do so, but at this point just getting in is the important part.

And yes, we do have to keep an eye on the Ravens. They have been playing poorly lately, but they are getting healthy and do have an easy schedule.

Joe Schad
@schadjoe
Ereck Flowers has an ankle injury, but avoided serious injury and is hopeful to play next week, Drew Rosenhaus said on Sports Extra with Steve Shapiro #MiamiDolphins
11:50 PM · Dec 6, 2020

That's excellent news! I thought for sure he was gone for the year.

An ugly win yesterday to go to 8-4. Xavien Howard with another pick. It’s hard to say how valuable he is.

I’m glad Tua had a better game yesterday. He’s not where I want him but he’s getting better. I feel he’s hamstrung a little bit by the lack of running game and Chan Gailey trying to force the run when it’s not working.

Shovel passes, draws, screens, and end arounds. Miami needs to get creative out of the backfield.

CarsonChris wrote:An ugly win yesterday to go to 8-4. Xavien Howard with another pick. It’s hard to say how valuable he is.

I’m glad Tua had a better game yesterday. He’s not where I want him but he’s getting better. I feel he’s hamstrung a little bit by the lack of running game and Chan Gailey trying to force the run when it’s not working.

Shovel passes, draws, screens, and end arounds. Miami needs to get creative out of the backfield.

Agree on all.

On quite a few plays the Phins left Bowden underneath as an outlet receiver.  I think that was a good strategy and I'd like to see more of it moving forward.  Tua tends to focus downfield, but it is important that he has a "safety valve" underneath that he's comfortable throwing to when nothing is open further downfield.

JMP wrote:

Joe Schad
@schadjoe
Ereck Flowers has an ankle injury, but avoided serious injury and is hopeful to play next week, Drew Rosenhaus said on Sports Extra with Steve Shapiro #MiamiDolphins
11:50 PM · Dec 6, 2020

That's excellent news!  I thought for sure he was gone for the year.

Yes but it's Drew Rosenhaus. Not the dolphins. We know how that is.

good news on no suspensions if true.

happy to get the win. happy to see a defense dominate an inferior opponent without their starting QB (Burrow) and RB (Mixon). and mildly happy to see Tua start to click in the 3rd quarter - still want to see more.

but if this team is going to do anything in a the playoffs (assuming they make it)... they are going to need to be better than 1 for 10 on 3rd downs and 1 of 4 in goal to go. the redzone play calling was awful! what ever happened to play action/mis-direction with the fullback or TE sneaking into the opposite flat??

glad to get the W, but the offense needs to put on the big boys pants next Sunday against the Chiefs - a tall order, i fear.

mercury22nathan wrote:good news on no suspensions if true.

happy to get the win.  happy to see a defense dominate an inferior opponent without their starting QB (Burrow) and RB (Mixon).  and mildly happy to see Tua start to click in the 3rd quarter - still want to see more.

but if this team is going to do anything in a the playoffs (assuming they make it)...  they are going to need to be better than 1 for 10 on 3rd downs and 1 of 4 in goal to go.  the redzone play calling was awful!  what ever happened to play action/mis-direction with the fullback or TE sneaking into the opposite flat??

glad to get the W, but the offense needs to put on the big boys pants next Sunday against the Chiefs - a tall order, i fear.

Yes to all.

For next week, I am somewhat encouraged by Denver's performance against KC last night. The Broncos did a great job of limiting KC's points. It will be interesting to see how Miami's defense plays against that high-powered offense.

Love that we are watching a legitimate playoff push, and our defense has demonstrated it is an elite, playoff-worth unit.

Special teams is pulling its weight also.

The offense will either deliver or let us down, and it's going to be the one dimensional nature of our attack if it fails. We have failed to generate a running game, and we're putting way too much pressure on a rookie QB to pass our way to victory. I'll be pleasantly surprised if it happens, but that's how I see it right now.

We must devote some attention this offseason to bolstering the running game. Whether that's RB, OL, TE, WR or a combination of all those positions, we have to get it fixed this is the second season in a row teams do not have to fear our running attack and can load up against the pass.

As referenced in an earlier thread, I'm fine if Gailey has to go also. I don't like the idea of constantly letting go of our coordinators after one season, but this should be an attractive job for an OC with that kind of defense on the other side of the ball - plus a blue-chip rookie QB with half a season experience already in house.

If we can lure a young offense-minded coach with creativity, I think you have to do it.

white1 wrote:As referenced in an earlier thread, I'm fine if Gailey has to go also.  I don't like the idea of constantly letting go of our coordinators after one season, but this should be an attractive job for an OC with that kind of defense on the other side of the ball - plus a blue-chip rookie QB with half a season experience already in house.

If we can lure a young offense-minded coach with creativity, I think you have to do it.

It would have to be someone either from the Chiefs' staff or from the college ranks, IMO. We need someone that is used to running a high-scoring offense with a high-end, accurate, quick-release QB like Tua, but can also handle a running game. I think the "creative" part is key. Joe Brady from LSU would have been nice, even if he is VERY young, but the Panthers snatched him up last offseason. Someone along those lines, though.

Yeah, I agree. Sounds like the right profile for who we need.

white1 wrote:As referenced in an earlier thread, I'm fine if Gailey has to go also.  I don't like the idea of constantly letting go of our coordinators after one season, but this should be an attractive job for an OC with that kind of defense on the other side of the ball - plus a blue-chip rookie QB with half a season experience already in house.

If we can lure a young offense-minded coach with creativity, I think you have to do it.

Did I mention how I hated the Gailey hire when it was made? Because I did.

But apparently O' Shea's playbook was too complicated, or something

DolFan 316 wrote:Did I mention how I hated the Gailey hire when it was made? Because I did.

just for the record, i remember your objections at the time.

I think Gailey has been better than O'Shea...a little more flexibility/creativity and at least a little commitment to the run. Plus, with his wealth of knowledge and ability to adapt, I think Gailey is a much better fit for Tua than O'Shea would have been. Our offense played well at the end of the season last year, but really it was just Fitz throwing jump balls and contested passes all over the field...it's not like O'Shea designed some sort of exotic offense.