The Miami Dolphins (6-4) lost to the Denver Broncos (4-6) this past weekend in a game that was never theirs. It was an embarrassing display from the offense that hurt in the race for the AFC East title.
The 20-13 loss pushed the Dolphins out of the playoff picture for now, with the next games against the winless New York Jets and the now Joe Burrow-less Cincinnati Bengals. It was a nice five-game winning streak, but now it’s on to the Big Apple.
The Dolphins pull Tua Tagovailoa and put Ryan Fitzpatrick in. He had a foot issue on the injury report. Might have tweaked it here. Not sure if that’s why he’s out or Flores just looking for a spark. pic.twitter.com/jaGDG0luDN
— Will Manso (@WillManso) November 22, 2020
Unfortunately, fans saw quarterback Tua Tagovailoa pulled for Ryan Fitzpatrick. He drove the Fins down the field before throwing a predictable interception to seal a Broncos win. Coach Brian Flores stated that Tua will start next week.
Flores says there will be no changes at QB, indicating Tua will start next week.
— kylie rae wang (@KylieRWang) November 23, 2020
The game started in the Dolphins’ favor with an interception by Xavien Howard and a follow-up touchdown throw from Tua to DeVante Parker that put the team up 7-0. However, the offense and defense looked rattled and couldn’t get anything going after the early start, something we haven’t seen much in recent weeks.
Good, Bad, Ugly
There wasn’t much good in this game for the Dolphins, but there was some. We saw undrafted free-agent Salvon Ahmed got the ball moving in certain situations, including one of the Dolphins’ two field-goal drives.
The only other good is the play from young players like Andrew Van Ginkel who has continued to impress for several weeks now. He made a huge play with the forced fumble on the goal line after having two penalties called on him the play before.
ANDREW MF’N VAN GINKEL pic.twitter.com/gnneDdIgbT
— josh houtz (@houtz) November 22, 2020
Bad
The defense had one of its worst games in quite some time. That should’ve been expected after the poor play of the offense for a number of weeks now.
Tua getting injured is also a small issue that will need to be monitored throughout this week.
Ugly
Typing “offense” as the only thing here would work, but of course, we need to dive more into it. It was worse than ugly today, it was embarrassing. They couldn’t operate at all and Tua was constantly under pressure.
The one thing I will give to the offense was the TD pass to DeVante Parker after the Xavien Howard pick. Besides that, it was one to forget.
Overall
In the famous words of Bill Belichick (rephrased, of course), we’re on to New York. It was a bad loss and one that will be a blemish on what has been a great season so far. You start each week (0-0) and the faith in coach Flo and the team should remain.
