Scratch one more question about these Dolphins.
Yes, they can beat a winning team.
The Dolphins went to 11-4 in beating Dallas, 22-20 on Sunday night in Hard Rock Stadium. It sets up an even bigger game next Sunday in Baltimore with possibly the AFC’s top playoff seed on the line. Here are 10 thoughts on Sunday’s game:
1. Player of the Game: Jason Sanders. He went 5 for 5 on field goals, including the 29-yarder to win it on the final play. He was the first Dolphins kicker to have three field goals over 50 yards in a game. And, to think, he’s faced questions this year about kicks over that distance. He was 1 for 4 on them at one point (entering Sunday: 2 for 4r) and 6 of 16 in the past three seasons. Sunday he was 3 for 3 from distance — 52, 54 and a career-high 57. The Dolphins needed all of them.
2. Drive of the Game: Dolphins get the ball at their 25 with 3:27 left. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott just took his offense down the field for a touchdown and their first lead of the game at 20-19. Now it was Tua Tagovailoa and his offense. Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn switched from the zone he’d played much of the game to man-to-man. Tagovailoa completed 4 of 5 passes for 31 yards on the drive. Tyreek Hill had two catches for 15 yards. Jeff Wilson ran three times late on the drive for 8, 15 and 6 yards. And Sanders made the kick for the win after their 12-play, 64-yard drive.
3. Play of the Game: With Tony Pollard appearing headed for a game-opening touchdown, safety DeShon Elliott hit, yanked, turned and ultimately made the tackle so while Pollard’s body crossed the goal line the ball never did. That mattered because on the next play Dallas fumbled the hand-off exchange and safety Brandon Jones fell on it. Dallas lost a great opportunity to take control early in a game where points weren’t as abundant as expected. That opening drive stats: 15 plays, 70 yards, zero points.
4. One big strategic question was if Dallas would stick to its man-to-man preference against Hill and Jaylen Waddle — and how the Dolphins would react if they did. It took the second play to answer. Tagovailoa threw deep from his 4-yard line to Hill and just missed. Next play: Tagovailoa went the other way for a deep pass to Waddle for a 50-yard completion. Dallas played more zone than usual after that because of opening plays like that. Neither Waddle or Hill got deep after those opening plays. Waddle was poked in the eye in the first half and had only that one catch as Cedrick Wilson and Durham Smythe had expanded receiving roles. Hill had 9 catches for 89 yards.
5. How would the Dolphins cover Dallas receiver CeeDee Lamb? Dallas wondered, too, moving Lamb around to both wide-out and the slot receiver positions on their first drive. Seeing the answers, they had Lamb in the slot on a big, second-drive play. Kader Kohou was opposite him, and he passed Lamb off to Elliott, who didn’t appear to immediately pick him up. That left Lamb open enough to turn a simple pass over the middle into a 49-yard touchdown. Lamb had 93 yards on four catches in the first quarter. He was then shut out in the second and third quarters before coming alive again in the fourth quarter. The Dolphins did a good job this year taking away top receivers like the Chargers’ Mike Williams, Washington’s Terry McLaurin and the Jets’ Garrett Wilson. Lamb had six catches for 118 yards.
6. Fourth-and-goal at the six: What do you do? McDaniel went for it down 7-3 in the second quarter. Tagovailoa threw incomplete to CedricK Wilson in the end zone. It’s hard to know where the line is that McDaniel won’t go for it. Was he confident in that play? Thinking field goals wouldn’t be enough this game? He went for it on fourth-and-five at the Jets 14-yard line last week, but a penalty made them kick a field goal. You can find anecdotal evidence On fourth-an-2 at the 45 against Tennessee Tagovailoa was sacked on the opening drive.
7. How to touch the quarterback if you’re a defensive lineman? Christian Wilkins was penalized for roughing the passer when he clearly tried to keep from landing hard on Prescott and Prescott grabbed him to keep him close. But the call that changed the gam was when Micah Parsons was called for hitting Tagovailoa late when it was less than two steps and he hit him first with his forearm, as if to lessen the blow. Next play: Raheem Mostert caught a TD to make it 13-7. On both those penalties, FOX officiating analyst Dean Blandino said they were wrong calls and didn’t look like roughing the passer. “I just don’t see a foul,” he said of the Parsons penalty.
8. Andrew Van Ginkel has found a good role after a summer of the Dolphins allowing him to shop his skills around. He had 10 tackles playing primarily an edge rushing role to led the Dolphins. He also had 1.5 sacks, four quarterback hits and a pass defensed. Put him among the many offseason decisions this team has to make.
9. Quick Hits:
Sanders hit a career-long 57-yard field goal to open the scoring;
Waddle’s 50-yard catch in the first quarter put him over 1,000 yards receiving for his third straight season. He’s the first Dolphin and only the ninth NFL player to have 1,000 yards in the opening three seasons;
For all the talk of the Dolphins missing their interior linemen, Dallas missing All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith was a place the Dolphins attacked with impact;
Congrats to former Dolphins interim coach Dan Campbell, whose Detroit Lions won their division for the first time since 1993.
10. Next week: Dolphins at Baltimore. The game that could decide the top seed in the AFC comes with a scheduling story. The Ravens play San Francisco on Monday night, then have a cross-country flight to get back home Tuesday morning. That’s about two days of rest the Dolphins have on the Ravens heading into next Sunday’s game. Does it matter? Well, you want every margin of an advantage in a game like this.
