Game thoughts: Week 8, Dolphins at Lions

The Dolphins traveled to Detroit and spotted the Lions a 42-minute lead. Fortunately, NFL games last 60 minutes, and the Dolphins stormed back for a hard-fought 31-27 comeback victory.

The Dolphins offense was mostly unstoppable today, as Tua absolutely lit up the defense to the tune of 382 yards and 3 TDs, completing 80% of his passes for a rating of 138.7. Tua was on fire from start to finish, and he fed his two top receivers all day. Tyreek Hill ended up with 12 catches for 188 yards, including two key grabs on the final clock-killing drive of the game. Jaylen Waddle added 8 catches for 106 yards and 2 TDs. I can’t say enough about how amazing this Dolphins’ triumvirate of Tua-Hill-Waddle is. They simply dominate games, and to the rest of the league it is a deadly trio. Mike Gesicki added another TD, and Trent Sherfield made a couple of key catches. Rookie receiver Braylon Sanders had his first two career catches, although he fumbled the first one to kill the Dolphins otherwise-brilliant opening drive in the red zone. Raheem Mostert ran hard all day, averaging over 4.5 yards per carry. Fullback Alec Ingold had a TD on a direct snap from inside the 1 yard line. The OL was excellent, almost perfect in pass protection and opening holes for the run game. Detroit’s phenom DE Aidan Hutchinson was completely stoned by tackles Terron Armstead and Brandon Shell, who limited the rookie to just 1 tackle and no pressure. Overall, an absolutely dominant offensive effort: 476 yards and 31 points. Brilliant playcalling by Mike McDaniel.

As for the defense, it was a tale of two halves. Really, they couldn’t have been worse in the first half, allowing 27 points and giving up (I think) 5 plays of over 20 yards. There was no pass rush and the banged-up secondary got shredded. I was ready to take a quick Concorde flight to Detroit and personally fire Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer. And then something strange happened: halftime adjustments. I have no idea what Boyer did or said at the half, but whatever it was it worked. Amazingly, the Miami D pitched a shutout in the second half, somehow starting to get pressure and make key tackles, while limiting big plays. Jae Phillips was relentless, notching just 2 tackles and no sacks but getting constant pressure on the QB in the second half. Zach Sieler was a monster, racking up 2 passes defensed, 4 tackles and a big 3rd down sack. Jevon Holland led both teams with 12 tackles, and made plays from sideline to sideline. The run D was mostly excellent, holding D’Andre Swift to just 6 yards. The pass D was abused in the first half, but allowed well under 100 yards in the second half. Overall, a godawful first half and a lights-out second half.

Special teams were excellent, with Sanders nailing a 45 yard FG and Trent Sherfield and Keion Crossen making key tackles in coverage. Cedrick Wilson looked more comfortable returning punts, and had a nice 20 yard return called back on penalty.

And speaking of penalties…that was the big black mark on today’s victory. The Dolphins racked up 7 penalties, but had another 8 or so declined. That is just unacceptable. Many of the penalties were of the boneheaded variety, including a couple of illegal shifts on offense and 4 offsides on defense. McDaniel MUST figure this out, before it starts costing his team games.

The only other negative was an ugly knee injury to starting LG Liam Eichenberg, who needed to be carted off the field. The injury occurred on Gesicki’s TD, and was apparently so bad that the TV broadcast refused to show a replay. Eich was replaced by Robert Jones.

What an amazing comeback victory! I truly believe that Miami is never out as long as they have Tua, Hill and Waddle. The past two weeks we have seen a Dolphins team that plays hard and never gives up. Now sitting at 5-3, this team is poised to make a move up in the standings in the coming weeks.


Hero of the Game: It has to be Tua, for his near-perfect electrifying performance. Today, he was a franchise QB of the highest caliber from start to finish.

Goat of the Game: The defense earned it in the first half, and then turned it around in the second half. After the comeback, I am tossing this week’s Goat award in the trash. No one earned it today – and that’s a great thing!

Tua on 3rd down today: 9 of 9 for 139 yards and 2 TDs, plus 18 yards rushing, for 8 conversions. Wow!

After today, Tua is #1 in the NFL in passer rating - ahead of Mahomes and Allen.

Maybe I spoke too soon when I called special teams "excellent"...I forgot about the Lions' successful fake punt at the end of the first half that led to a FG and a 10-point lead heading into the half. Great call by the Lions, taking advantage of the ultra-tight Dolphins formation.

Definitely Watching the Defense it Felt like Halloween, Like some other People Dressed up Like our Defense in the First Half, Then the Defense we Like Shows up in the 2nd. Offensive is doing Better at getting Gesicki more involved in the Red Zone, Mosert is getting ready to House one soon You can see Him getting more Second Level Runs each Week.

Great post, Kev. Love the Halloween reference! LOL That D sure was scary in the first half!

It looks like McDaniel has figured out how to get the most out of Gesicki. With Hill and Waddle, Gesicki is never going to get a ton of targets - but I love the way the team is using him. He's such a weapon and Tua trusts him. He's getting more comfortable in this offense every week, to my eyes. It sucks that we'll lose him next season, because he is one of my favorite players.

Mostert is so smooth...everything he does just looks effortless. If we had better downfield blocking, he'd have a bunch of 30+ yard runs already. But they will come...he's close.

The defense is one of the world's great mysteries...how to you allow over 300 yards and 27 points in the first half, and 68 yards and 0 points in the second half??? It's just mind-boggling. But credit to Boyer for making the necessary adjustments at halftime. I just wish we could start forcing turnovers on a consistent basis...

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Tua Tagovailoa is the first QB in Dolphins history to have 350+ pass yds, 3+ pass TD, and 0 INT while completing at least 80% of his passes in a game.

I have another one for ya

https://www.espn.com/nfl/recap?gameId=401437808

Tyreek Hill had 12 receptions for 188 yards and Jaylen Waddle had eight catches for 106 yards and two touchdowns. Hill and Waddle have 1,688 yards receiving combined, setting a Super Bowl era record for two teammates through the first eight games of a season.

And also...

Hill had more than 160 yards receiving for the fourth game, one short of the NFL record set by Roy Green with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1984.

It's baffling, befuddling and bewildering to me that this team isn't scoring more with all that going for them But as long as they win I *suppose* I'll let it slide

Waddle and Hill have set an NFL record for most receiving yards by a duo in the first 8 games of the season: 1,688 yards.  Hill is currently on pace to obliterate the NFL single-season receiving yardage record.  He's on pace for well over 2000 yards - the record is 1964.

And they're doing it with a QB that almost every "expert" told us is trash - who is now at the top of the league in nearly every meaningful QB category.  

Enjoy this, brothers - we are watching history unfold before our eyes!

JMP wrote:Waddle and Hill have set an NFL record for most receiving yards by a duo in the first 8 games of the season: 1,688 yards.  Hiull is currently on pace to obliterate the NFL single-season receiving yardage record.  He's on pace for well over 2000 yards - the record is 1964.

And they're doing it with a QB that almost every "expert" told us is trash - who is now at the top of the league in nearly every meaningful QB category.  

Enjoy this, brothers - we are watching history unfold before our eyes!

I'll forgive you for stealing my thunder. This time

You beat me to the stats, 316...is anyone surprised? LOL

The points are going to come...Tua is back on track and ready to destroy.

JMP wrote:You beat me to the stats, 316...is anyone surprised?   LOL

The points are going to come...Tua is back on track and ready to destroy.

Those stats are so nice they deserve to be posted twice so it's cool

It took a while but Tua's play (when he's allowed to play, that is) might just convince me to give this "drafted players need 3 years to be properly judged" thing you guys keep saying a try after all

LOL Every player develops differently. Some - like Herbert - start out on fire and then fall back to Earth. Others - like Tua - start out mediocre and become dominant.

I see that somehow, some way, the rookie sensation Aidan Hutchinson was held to no sacks ad just one tackle

Who, pray tell, was the hero responsible for a feat of this magnitude???

DolFan 316 wrote:I see that somehow, some way, the rookie sensation Aidan Hutchinson was held to no sacks ad just one tackle

Who, pray tell, was the hero responsible for a feat of this magnitude???

The Lions kept switching him to the left and right sides - and both Armstead and Shell stoned him all day!

JMP wrote:The Lions kept switching him to the left and right sides - and both Armstead and Shell stoned him all day!

NYF (Cat) said in his YT podcast that's what they'd do. IMO Shell should start ahead of Jackson the rest of the way barring injury.

Speaking of Grier first round busts, how'd Iggy do? I'm guessing not too well

I can’t pile on Iggy. I know he was out there and part of the second half shutout.

But I did see some nice plays from Crossen and Kohou.

I don’t care where we get secondary help - I think the scouts found a couple of good ones that could let us Move on from Jones.

white1 wrote:I can’t pile on Iggy. I know he was out there and part of the second half shutout.

But I did see some nice plays from Crossen and Kohou.

I don’t care where we get secondary help - I think the scouts found a couple of good ones that could let us Move on from Jones.

The guys who scout DBs can stay, they've more than earned their keep. The ones in charge of scouting O-line need to be booted from the building, though.

Can’t agree more on oline although I will say Jones at LG and Shell at RT looked just fine to me

Yeah, I'm totally on board with Jones at LG and Shell at RT.

As for Iggy I don't think I saw anything good or bad from him today. Hard to tell who the culprit was on all the Lions big plays, but I think a lot of them were as much a result of zone coverage as they were individual miscues.

white1 wrote:Can’t agree more on oline although I will say Jones at LG and Shell at RT looked just fine to me

I never ever ever wish injury on anybody, not even Tom Brady, but when I first read that Eichenberg was carted off the first thing that popped into my mind was that it might be a blessing in disguise. So now I have to reflect on how bad a person that makes me

Can we all agree that Grier just needs to give up drafting O-linemen and only bring in undrafted rookies and FAs?

JMP wrote:Yeah, I'm totally on board with Jones at LG and Shell at RT.

As for Iggy I don't think I saw anything good or bad from him today.  Hard to tell who the culprit was on all the Lions big plays, but I think a lot of them were as much a result of zone coverage as they were individual miscues.

I'm eagerly awaiting yet another post by FF bashing and trashing that darned Boyer zone. Seriously.

Can’t agree more on oline although I will say Jones at LG and Shell at RT looked just fine to me

I saw the win but watching on my phone at The Prudential Center was really hard to tell what was going on. I did record it.

while it wasn't the offensive explosion on the ground i hoped for against the Lion's terrible run defense, it was an offensive explosion through the air. this isn't to imply the Dolphins run game wasn't working, it was - to the tune of a total of 107 yards and Mostert with an average of 4.6 per carry on his 64 yards - but because the defense allowed Detroit to march the field at will (and the fumble by Sanders) in the first half, the offense had to lean on the pass to stay in the game. and what a pass game it was. Tua was locked in and played an excellent game. the only quibble i had was maybe short-arming the long ball that Hill came back to catch - but again, i don't know for certain if Tua was throwing to an open spot expecting Hill to adjust or it was just short - but not something i am gonna bitch about. the o-line played a very, very good game with Tua only being pressured 3 times the entire game. all three of Tua's TD passes were things of beauty (and it was nice to see Waddle secure the catches).

the defense inexplicable began the game fast asleep and mostly played trail technique as they watched Detroit's offense blow right past them in the air and on the ground. i don't know if it was rust, bad communication, scheme or what. Holland seemed to be particularly victimized (supposedly allowing 5 catches for 128 yards - according to PFF), but i'm not convinced those were all his coverage responsibilities or he just happened to be the closest guy trying to make a play after one of the corners blew the coverage. what ever the issue was, they clearly sorted it out after halftime. Goff only completed 9 of his 27 total completions in the 2nd half - and for a paltry 57 yards. i don't know what the adjustment was, but it worked. and this despite Miami's pass rush still being hit or miss - producing only a single sack in 38 dropbacks.

obviously, i am pleased, very pleased with the victory to move the Phins to 5-3, but it sure would be nice to see a total complete game by both the offense and defense in the same game.

a few curious notes... Kohou coming of injury got 95% of the snaps (57) opposite Howard while last week's hero Iggy was relegated back to playing only a third of the defensive snaps. i don't how Iggy's 19 snaps were distributing (1st half vs 2nd - or all throughout), but i can't help but wonder if they played into the 1st half miscues that got pinned on Holland. Crossen got nearly as many snaps at 14, but i'd have to go back and see who was playing when.

McKinley played 80% of the snaps in relief of the injured Brandon Jones, but interestingly enough, the staff had so much faith in him that they deactivated a healthy Rowe.

all we've heard is that Ezukanma isn't being activated because its hard to learn more than one WR position. but then how come PS player Sanders was able to be activated over him? my initial though that it must be for ST prowess, but low and behold, Sanders got 14 offensive snaps (same as Wilson) with 2 targets (rewarding the confidence with a fumble) and played zero (as in none) ST snaps. so clearly this staff felt better about a PS player that Ezukanma. that seems a little curious to me.

all in all, i am very happy Miami beat a team they should beat - on the road and in a dome. now let's do the same, but with a full game performance on both sides of the ball (and i'll take a punt return for a TD too) in Chicago.

Great win all things considered. The offense is back, and the D managed to adjust to all the turnover in the second half.

This team is great at undrafted finds. Now if we could just get a little better about the actual draft picks.....but, it looks more and more each week like we just might have gotten the QB decision right in 2020.