Game thoughts: Week 9, Dolphins at Bears

Before the game, I called for the Dolphins to run the ball for over 200 yards on the ground today, against an awful Bears’ run defense. Well, that didn’t happen. In fact, they managed just 77 yards on the ground. The Bears, however, did run for over 200 yards – 252, to be exact. And despite the dreadful performance by Miami’s defense, the Dolphins managed to hold on for a hard-fought 35-32 victory in Chicago.

This game should not have been close. The Dolphins’ passing offense, led by Tua Tagovailoa, was nearly unstoppable today. Tua ended the day with 302 yards and 3 TDs, while completing 70% of his passes. The dynamic duo of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle combined for 12 catches and 228 yards, with each scoring a TD. Both players also drew big pass interference penalties against the Bears. Seldom-used Cedrick Wilson had a couple of catches, and Trent Sherfield added three catches. Tua was simply amazing for most of the game, though things weren’t always positive – as I’ll discuss later.

The running game was mostly awful, but did make a couple of big plays. Newly-acquired Jeff Wilson led the way with 51 rushing yards, and also caught 3 passes – including a TD on a 10-yard catch capped off by an excellent dive to the pylon. Wilson had a key 28-yard run that helped set up a TD, but other than that one run he didn’t have any room to run. Raheem Mostert averaged under 3 yards a carry and dropped an easy pass with no defender anywhere near him, but he did score the first Dolphins’ TD with a 1-yard run after a Chicago pass interference call in the endzone while covering Hill.

Jeff Wilson’s impact was on display on the opening drive of the second half. The half began with Wilson throwing an excellent block to give Tua time to throw a 22-yard pass to Hill. On the next play, Wilson had the 28-yard run, highlighted by a beautiful cutback. Next, Wilson ran for 7 yards. That was followed by Tua faking a handoff to Wilson on an RPO, then hitting Waddle for a TD.

The OL was mostly excellent in pass protection, not allowing a sack, though they did have a couple of lapses late. Connor Williams had a bad snap early in the 4th quarter that Tua wasn’t able to handle. Run blocking was awful – almost non-existent – which is particularly embarrassing against a terrible Bears’ run D. Robert Jones, now the starting LG with Liam Eichenberg out with a knee injury, played well overall.

Special teams was a mixed bag. Jae Phillips blocked a punt midway through the second quarter that was picked up by Andrew Van Ginkel for the scoop and score to give Miami a 21-10 lead. On the bad side, Jason Sanders missed a chip-shot 29-yard FG attempt, the shortest miss of his career, to close out the first half.

And then there was the defense. Chicago converted a staggering 10 of 16 third down opportunities, Justin Fields ran for 178 yards and threw 3 TD passes, and the Bears ran 70 total plays. In summary, the Bears’ previously-terrible offense absolutely dominated Miami’s defense. In fact, the only reason the defense held on to win the game was thanks to a missed pass interference that should have been called, but wasn’t, on Keion Crossen on the final drive, which would have put the Bears in position to tie the game with a FG – though we all know that the Bears would have scored a game-winning TD instead. Newcomer Bradley Chubb had a couple of pressures that still ended in completed passes, and was otherwise invisible. There were tons of missed tackles, Bears’ receivers were running wide open all day, and no one on defense had any idea how to slow down Fields. On one 3rd and long play, the D allowed Fields to run for a career-long 61 yard TD, looking like he was running against a Pee Wee League defense. Overall, it was a pitiful, pathetic, embarrassing effort by a defense that has lost its way and simply cannot get off the field.

As bad as the defense was, the offense had a couple of ugly moments as well.

First up: the Dolphins led 21-17 at the half, wasting a golden opportunity to score at the end with some horribly sloppy play. Tua hit Tyreek for a huge 39-yard pass on 3rd and 6 to get the Phins into the red zone with around 50 seconds left. After a strange playcall that saw Mostert run outside and stay inbounds for no gain, the Phins didn't call a timeout, instead wasting about 20 seconds in the huddle, and then getting flagged for too many men in the huddle. After that debacle, Mostert dropped an easy pass with no defender anywhere near him. The drive ended with Jason Sanders missing the easy 29-yard FG. What an absolutely disastrous series of plays.

But that wasn’t all: halfway through the 4th quarter, nursing a precarious 3-point lead, the Dolphins went for it on 4th and 1 from around the 15. McDaniel called a perfect play that saw Durham Smythe wide open on the right side, but Tua, who had been nearly perfect all day, missed him with a short pass. Smythe did turn his head before Tua threw the ball, which may have messed up the timing. Regardless, a horrible play by Tua..

On the next series, with just 3:30 left, Coach McDaniel went into conservative mode and his offense went 3 and out - with 2 runs totaling -1 yard, and a drop on a deep ball to Waddle on 3rd and 11. The ball was slightly underthrown, but it was right there and Waddle crossed his hands and couldn’t catch it. Fortunately, on the ensuing drive the Bears couldn’t do anything and the Dolphins won with their offense in victory formation.

And there you have it: a defense that couldn’t do anything right and an offense that played nearly perfect for most of the game but couldn’t close out a win. Fortunately, the Dolphins did escape Chicago with a road win and now sit at 6-3. They are 5-1 in one-score games. The good news is that this team has yet to play a complete game, yet they are finding ways to win. The bad news: the defense absolutely, positively SUCKS. Next week, the Browns head to Miami for what will be a key conference matchup. Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer better figure things out in a hurry, because the Dolphins cannot afford a loss.


Hero of the Game: Once again, I’ll give the nod to the Tua-Tyreek-Jaylen trifecta. This group is simply unstoppable, and there is nothing else like it in the NFL today.

Goat of the Game: Once again, I’ll give the node to the inept defense. There aren’t strong enough adjectives to describe just how bad this group is. There is no excuse at all to play this poorly week after week. If the defense can’t stop the Bears, what’s going to happen when they face a real offense like the Bills???

Have I said lately how much I live for these game thoughts every Sunday evening? They put the espn.com game recaps to shame. Seriously.

JMP wrote:If the defense can’t stop the Bears, what’s going to happen when they face a real offense like the Bills???

We already know the answer to that one Hope the Bills sabotage themselves with a game plan of having really long drives that do nothing but limit the amount of possessions and opportunities they have to score

I'm not worried about the Bills right now anyway, they lost again and now the team I'm scared of is the Jets

I'm also just glad this team is scoring in the 30s again and reducing the ridiculous disparity between their yardage and point totals.

As far as the run D look on the bright side--this game doesn't even make the top 5 when it comes to rushing yardage allowed in a win. That's something, right?

https://stathead.com/tiny/Q2K5A

Also, I'm thrilled that for the first time in over 20 and maybe even 25 years this team is winning games because they have the better QB, because that's really all it takes in today's NFL.

I’m really, really angry about Boyer. And I knew he’d be the weak link on this team coming in.

If we had an even average defense we’d be blowing teams out. We don’t. In most categories we are worse in the league. Adding Chubb appears to have been the front office telling Boyer hey here’s an elite pass rusher fix your side of the ball. No effect.

Bright side: this won’t stand. We’ve shown enough offense to attract a quality defensive coordinator this off-season. McDaniel won’t for one second simply let that side of the ball fail and kill this team.

But this season, it’s too late. It might be bad enough to derail our playoff run. We will see

Sorry White1, I for once I just can't be alarmed about the D. I could swear they held the previous two opponents scoreless in the second half and were pretty much solely responsible for the Steelers win when Tua couldn't hit the side of a barn late.

I mean, they do have something like 10 DBs on injured reserve, right?

I'm giving Chubb until the Texans game to show me something. By then he'll have another game and the bye to get adjusted.

Now if this team suddenly starts losing multiple games while scoring 30 or more then I'll be right with you.

The Jets have zero offense and a great defense. The Dolphins have a great offense and zero defense. If we could somehow combine those teams, the Lombardi would be guaranteed!! LOL

All I know is, we have a QB. Tua has been simply amazing, and he is carrying this team with Tyreek and Waddle. If the defense can somehow improve just a bit, and start approaching a mediocre level, we could be unstoppable.

And yes, white - this Dolphins defensive coordinator job is going to be in high demand this offseason. We should be able to have our pick, depending on who is available.

Special Teams we’re Great until Sanders Missed FG, Phillips Blocking a Punt with His Stomach. Won’t Play another Running QB Like that this Year, Allen can Run but He won’t be approaching 178 Yards.

I see that Josh Allen ran for nearly 10 yards a carry and 2 scores VS the supposedly mighty Jets D...and lost because he sucked when he was actually throwing the ball which is his job. Fields only passed for 116 yards. All this fancy schmancy QB running is nice if you're playing fantasy football, but in today's pass oriented NFL it won't win games in and of itself. Not even when a QB sets an NFL record for rushing yardage in a game for the position like Fields did.

finskev wrote:Special Teams we’re Great until Sanders Missed FG, Phillips Blocking a Punt with His Stomach. Won’t Play another Running QB Like that this Year, Allen can Run but He won’t be approaching 178 Yards.

Yup. This D sucks and blows at the same time VS running QBs but one, we all knew that already and two, that didn't stop the Fins from going 3-0 VS the Holy Trinity of Jackson, Allen and Fields (sounds like a law firm). When the likes of Jacoby Freaking Brissett starts running all over them then maybe I'll be worried.

Tua's passer rating is currently 115.9 on the season.

To put that in perspective, over his career Tom Brady only topped that number in one season: in 2007, at 117.2.

Patrick Mahomes never had a season-long passer rating that high...his highest is 113.8 (in 2018).

Aaron Rodgers had a rating of over 120 two different times (2011 and 2021), but never topped 112 in any other season.

Tua is having an MVP-type season right now, even if none of the "experts" want to admit it.

JMP wrote:

Joe Schad
@schadjoe

Tua Tagovailoa’s third-down passer rating this season is the best ever since league began tracking such things in 1991.

That 4th down passer rating could use some work, though...

DolFan 316 wrote:

JMP wrote:

Joe Schad
@schadjoe

Tua Tagovailoa’s third-down passer rating this season is the best ever since league began tracking such things in 1991.

That 4th down passer rating could use some work, though...

Actually, before today he had a perfect passer rating on 4th down this season: 158.3. It was only 2 passes though! LOL

Nice write up, JMP.

A few comments...

I remember pointing out that Boyer without Flores was going to be an unknown, but I thought it likely Boyer plays too conservative and that the "bucket of minnows" shifting defense and bring a blitz from anywhere and everywhere and often... was probably all Flores. That got met with a resounding "Boyer will be fine!"

Now, we have to temper our dislike for Boyer by pointing out X Howard is nursing an injury and B Jones (both of them!!!) are not out there. But I think we have all seen that Boyer will play zone and actually PREFERS the bend but don't break (aka the Prevent a Victory defense) much like disgusting Dave Wannstedt did.

On the one hand, when the offense is potent and you are facing the Bears, I can see where not giving up the big play is likely all it will take to win the game. But on the other hand, when you make it so easy for even a terrible passer like Fields to where he looks like the second coming of Steve Young!!! You have FAILED as a DC IMHO.

Even the QB spy thing did not work. The first defender to get close to Fields NEVER got him down! Except for Ingram's sack where he disguised himself as a Bears Olineman an snuck up on Fields, I don't think many of Miami's defenders put a hand on Fields... Unless it was to push him out of bounds or down him after a long run.

Overall, it was an abysmal performance and I think has FINALLY cemented for me at least, that Boyer got to go. All my fears about Boyer have been confirmed. The only thing special about the Phins Defense was Flores calling up that "bucket of minnows" defense. Right now, the Defense looks like a bucket of slop! Slow moving, stinky, and dreadful slop at that! You can win against bad offensive teams playing defense like this, but it will be a different story playing playoff caliber offenses.

As someone above pointed out, the defense may be the downfall for the team this year.

On Offense... Except for the lack of a consistent rushing attack.... the only thing we can complain about is McDaniel's continued dumbarsery when it comes to calling a timeout and taking charge of the offense at the end of the half or in an even more critical end of the game scenario where the Phins need a score to win a game!! The sheer unadulterated DUMBNESS at the end of the half versus the Bears was enough to bring flashbacks of watching Dave Dumbstedt, or Queasy Grandpa Joe bungle a clock decision!!

I kept saying "Timeout. Timeout." and then as the clock wound down, I said, "Oh McDaniel called it and the refs will have to put time back not he clock." but no, McDaniel just kept mumbling and bumbling into his play list without regard to the clock or any other consideration. The offense actually HUDDLED UP as the clock was winding down and the Phins were sitting on TWO TIMEOUTS!!!

I assume MikeMcD was waiting for Kyle to call the timeout??

Then, a 12 man in the huddle penalty and McDaniel was FORCED to take a timeout to avoid a ten second runoff after they let almost 20 seconds run off by looking a clusterfudge. All leading to a makable but missed FG. This is simply unacceptable, MikeMcD!

The Bears D was actively playing to stop the outside zone runs that are the basis of the Shanahan offense. Any time an OG pulled, all the interior Oline men went that way and destroyed the slant blocking. A few misdirection runs would have put paid to that, but I never saw one. You never saw a fake to Mostert or Wilson and then a pitch to somebody going around the weak side. They tried a couple of screens but usually Tua was under so much pressure he had to hurl he ball into the ground to avoid a sack.

There never seems to be an adjustment for what the Defense is doing to take away an element of the offense. But again, as I have said before, when you have the Dynamic Trio (Tua-Waddle-Hill) racking up passing yards and points (thankfully) I guess you don't have to make adjustments.

I suspect the time is coming when the Phins will desperately need to make some adjustments, and so far, I do not think I have seen them. The plays either work or they do not, and MikeMcD just keeps calling the same stuff.

It is puzzling to me and I am glad the Phins are winning, but... I had expected to see some in-game adjustments, especially versus the Bears to get more out of the rushing attack. Which would have kept Fields off the field and especially more important, kept the abysmal Phins D off the field.

This was another game where the Phins were LUCKY to win. Without the blocked punt TD, without the missed blatant PI call, I suspect the Phins would have lost. Heck, if I was the Bears HC, I would have said, "Tell Justin to run it every play. They ain't stopped him yet and I don't think they can!"

6-3 is good. Maybe the Phins can keep getting LUCKY for the rest of their games this season!

Sorry White1, I for once I just can't be alarmed about the D. I could swear they held the previous two opponents scoreless in the second half and were pretty much solely responsible for the Steelers win when Tua couldn't hit the side of a barn late.

I mean, they do have something like 10 DBs on injured reserve, right?

I'm giving Chubb until the Texans game to show me something. By then he'll have another game and the bye to get adjusted.

Now if this team suddenly starts losing multiple games while scoring 30 or more then I'll be right with you.

No. I'm not letting this go! The defense has one thing in common with last season: They have proven without a doubt that they can beat a team with a BAD QB. Now, many of us thought Fields would be overmatched against us and clearly that was not the case witnessing the absolute shootout that happened yesterday.

This scheme is BROKEN. I know, I know we are missing both B Jones and Needham. I hear Ogbah is banged up too. I get it. But this is a defensive line and defense LITTERED with first and second round draft picks, high priced players, free agents, and now an accomplished freshly acquired pass rusher in Chubb. The results? Nearly BOTTOM OF THE LEAGUE in categories that count.

This is unacceptable. We complained last year about the lack of support from the offense. And that was true. Not this year. This year, we are winning shootouts because our defense starts hemorrhaging points from the first drive and yesterday - it never stopped.

The problem is Boyer. Clearly, our secondary coach from last year agreed and that's why he got fired. The rest of the defensive staff looks totally lost.

By the way, where the hell is Jerome Baker and why is he making so much money? Invisible!

Now we're going to face Jacoby Brissett and a bunch of other average to bad quarterbacks, so I'm sure there will be *some* evident progress. But I'm not letting it go. This is NOT a playoff caliber defense. This defense (IF we make the playoffs) will get run off the field and we're going to have to hope and pray for an offensive explosion to keep us in a playoff game against any AFC opponent.

Overall, it was an abysmal performance and I think has FINALLY cemented for me at least, that Boyer got to go. All my fears about Boyer have been confirmed. The only thing special about the Phins Defense was Flores calling up that "bucket of minnows" defense. Right now, the Defense looks like a bucket of slop! Slow moving, stinky, and dreadful slop at that! You can win against bad offensive teams playing defense like this, but it will be a different story playing playoff caliber offenses.

As someone above pointed out, the defense may be the downfall for the team this year.

Thanks for expanding on this point FF, and the person who pointed out it may be our downfall WAS ME.

Going into the season, the front office / Chris Grier thinking was our defense was "close". The only thing it's close to right now is getting McDaniel fired if we miss the playoffs with one of the best QBs in the league leading a potent offense. Ross may get so impatient he just sweeps the whole staff out!

This was another game where the Phins were LUCKY to win. Without the blocked punt TD, without the missed blatant PI call, I suspect the Phins would have lost.

I meant to comment on this point also. Yes, 100% luck we won this game. Give credit to the special teams, for once they made a game changing play in our favor instead of the other way around.

Bonus points to the officials. I did not agree with the hold on Howard that stole his INT, but the non-call on the last Bears 4th down play was huge. There was no way our defense was stopping Fields without a play like that. This game had 4 point loss written all over it.

Yes in the Past this would have been Fields throwing Last Second TD and a 39-35 Loss, Somehow we are Winning these Game this Year. Just going with what Al Davis said JUST WIN BABY.

I don't see this win as lucky at all. It's a passing league, and we passed all over the Bears, at will, from start to finish. Tua literally destroyed them. They had allowed 188 yards a game and just 7 total passing TDs heading into the game - and Tua put up 300 with 3 TDs. Offensively, we kicked their ass.

Yes, the D was garbage and the Bears had a chance at the end. But they failed. We won. Maybe we don't get style points for the defensive "effort", but in the end we gave up fewer points than we scored and that's all that matters.

finfanatic wrote:Nice write up, JMP.

A few comments...

I remember pointing out that Boyer without Flores was going to be an unknown, but I thought it likely Boyer plays too conservative and that the "bucket of minnows" shifting defense and bring a blitz from anywhere and everywhere and often... was probably all Flores.   That got met with a resounding "Boyer will be fine!"

I don't think it was all Flores. I think Boyer played a huge role in running that defense.

The difference this season is 100% on injuries. I don't think Boyer wants to be conservative - I think he feels like he has no choice. He is on record as saying his defensive scheme starts with the secondary. Well, his #1 CB has been playing hurt, his #2 CB hasn't played a down, his #3 CB is on IR, one of his starting safeties is on IR, his reserve CBs (Kohou and Crossen) are forced to start and have battled injuries, and another reserve CB (Trill Williams) was IRd before the season even began. All of this adds up to: Boyer cannot run the defense he wants to run. He cannot call crazy blitzes from all different angles, and he can't put his DBs on an island.

Now, his response has been to play zone almost all the time, and to limit the exotic fronts and blitzes that once made this defense special. I don't fault him for that. But what I do fault him for is not changing the scheme. Despite pitching second-half shutouts against Pittsburgh and Detroit, it is now obvious that playing a zone-heavy scheme is not what these players do best. I don't know the answer, but I'm not the defensive coordinator. Boyer holds that title, and he needs to go back to the drawing board and fix this disaster of a defense.

As far as adjustments, I think this team has been great at defensive adjustments for the most part - we saw great in-game and halftime adjustments against Baltimore and Buffalo, and against Pittsburgh and Detroit. But again, I just think the over-reliance on zone is the main thing that is killing the defense. This defense played really, really well in the second half of the 4 games I just mentioned...so we know they are capable of playing good. They just have to become consistently good - not good sometimes and awful at others. And that's Boyer's assignment for the rest of the season. Figure it out, or GTFO.

On offense, I am 100% on board with what McDaniel is doing. Yes, the system in place to call plays in to the QB is sloppy. Yes, we need to fix the running game. But aside from that, McDaniel is engineering the best offense we've seen since Marino's prime. Tua is the #1 QB in the league, Hill and Waddle are having historically good seasons, our crappy OL has allowed Tua to be sacked just 8 times on the season, and we are looking almost unstoppable the past two weeks. I have no complaints at all, and the small problems we see are all easily correctable. Fact is, this offense is rolling and still hasn't reached it's potential.

Oh, and one more thing on defense: the D was actually decent on 1st and second downs yesterday...it was 3rd down that killed us. Just could not get off the field - mostly due to an inability to get a hand on Fields! Hopefully things will improve when we face a more traditional offense.

I don't recall anyone here saying Boyer was fine I certainly didn't. I think it was more of a realization that Boyer was who they had and were going to have all season no matter how we felt, so there was no point in hand-wringing over it.

I've said for weeks this was a highly flawed team who won't beat anybody by more than one score. And for the most part there's not much they can do about it, injuries are injuries. All I ask is that we don't become like Bills fans and act like our team is the only one who's had any injuries all season and is the worst 6-2/6-3 team ever. I like where this team is a LOT better than where last season's team was at this same time! And really, when you look at the league as a whole, how many of the Fins' future opponents are that much better, or better at all? The Jets might be, but right now they have the same record and a far worse QB. The Pats are 5-4. The 49ers are 4-4. The mighty Herberts are 5-3, but with a -25 point differential, meaning they'd have to win their next game by 14 just to equal the Fins' current PD. The Packers are imploding and the Browns are the Browns. Oh, and the Texans exist. That's the best thing I can say about them.

I've said for weeks this was a highly flawed team who won't beat anybody by more than one score. And for the most part there's not much they can do about it, injuries are injuries. All I ask is that we don't become like Bills fans and act like our team is the only one who's had any injuries all season and is the worst 6-2/6-3 team ever.

Oh, by no means am I saying this is the worse 6-3 team ever!

And you're right - wow those Bills fans sure are spoiled after the success they experienced last year. Heartbreaking loss to Chiefs and all included.

I recall saying this at some point during the preseason: If all we accomplish this season is craft an offense and get an answer that Tua is our QB, that is success. Well, we've already done it only nine games in! So for sure - I'm very excited about this team going forward.

My complaints about the defense stretch back to last year with our 1-7 start. I knew that side of the ball would let us down. And that's fine. Not to beat a dead horse, but Boyer will either figure out how to patch the holes or he's probably done. UNLESS McDaniel and Grier agree that there were too many missing pieces in the secondary to run his scheme effectively.

To expand a bit further, my belief (and I don't know if this is right or wrong) is that Boyer cannot become the next defensive guru teams covet. I'm talking about guys like Martindale, Fangio, Wade Phillips - seems wherever they went the defense followed - and overnight. There is probably an opportunity for McDaniel to get someone better, and that would be nothing but goodness for a team already sporting an explosive offense. And only in year one of the system! We know this system will evolve over time - another benefit of having an offensive head coach. As Tua progresses, the receivers, the linemen, McDaniel will install more and more building off the same concepts only getting progressively more complex and difficult for defenses to decipher.

Fins-Bears replay on NFL Network right now, 3 hours

white1 wrote:my belief (and I don't know if this is right or wrong) is that Boyer cannot become the next defensive guru teams covet.  I'm talking about guys like Martindale, Fangio, Wade Phillips - seems wherever they went the defense followed - and overnight.  There is probably an opportunity for McDaniel to get someone better, and that would be nothing but goodness for a team already sporting an explosive offense.  And only in year one of the system! We know this system will evolve over time - another benefit of having an offensive head coach.  As Tua progresses, the receivers, the linemen, McDaniel will install more and more building off the same concepts only getting progressively more complex and difficult for defenses to decipher.

All very true. But to play devil's advocate, of course Boyer won't be the next defensive guru...defensive gurus are almost extinct. Look at all the current coordinators..aside from Belichick (and then there's Martindale and Frazier - neither of whom have earned "guru" status) who are the top defensive minds today? I don't even know. Fangio and Phillips were the last of a dying breed...and there will always be work for them if they want it, because no other defensive coach is at their level.

Point being, Boyer is just part of the coaching pack - I don't think he's all that much worse than anyone else, and he's better than some. Let's not forget, it hasn't been all bad this season:
Week 1, held the Patriots to 7 points
Week 2, held the Ravens to just 10 second half points
Week 3, held the Bills to just 17 points - and only 3 in the second half
Week 7, held the Steelers to 10 points total, shutting them out in the second half
Week 8, shut out the Lions in the second half

There have been some ugly, ugly moments, and injuries have completely and utterly decimated the secondary, but there's also been a lot of good. Really, the biggest issue - even moreso than the missed tackles and wide open receivers - is the lack of turnovers. Start getting some turnovers, and also of a sudden things look a lot different. I don't know how Boyer can get this unit to force more turnovers, but turnovers can instantly turn bad into good.

That is some good perspective. Let us see how the remaining games play out - I'll stop calling for Boyer's head.... for now.

Fields is starting to look like an elite talent. It could be this last game was nothing more than that...