IN WITH A CHANCE

Miami lives to fight another week, Sunday started off well as the New York Giants pulled off an impromptu win over the Indianapolis Colts, somehow they managed to hit on a number of big plays, enough to send the Colts home for the season. All the Dolphins needed to do after that was to beat the Cleveland Browns to keep themselves in with a shout in the final week of the season.

There was uncertainty before the game as Tua was listed as doubtful, there was hope that he would start, but it wasn’t to be as Tyler Huntley got the nod. It didn’t bode well if past performances were anything to go by, and this was a must win situation, anything less and they would be following the same fate as the Colts.

The game didn’t start well as the Dolphins mustered sixteen yards on eight plays with a false start, unnecessary roughness and offensive holding called almost consecutively. They had to punt the ball away, but fortunately the Browns couldn’t do anything with it and after a three and out were kicking the ball back. Huntley started the ensuing series with a couple of completions, but a couple of short runs and a holding call set them back, too far to keep the drive alive so Jason Sanders came out to kick the field goal.

The Browns responded on their next possession as they managed to string together enough plays to get within Dustin Hopkins range, he obliged by converting the field goal, tying the game up. The score would remain at 3-3 until late in the half when Kevin Stefanski rolled the dice on a fourth down, needless to say they didn’t convert, and Miami took over on their own thirty-eight. Six plays and twenty-eight yards later Sanders kicked his second field goal of the day.

The second half started off with the ball in the Browns hands, but they couldn’t do anything with and punted back to Miami. It wasn’t that long before Huntley was running towards the endzone, and from thirteen yards out managed to cross the goal line to give Miami a comfortable ten-point margin. From there on out Cleveland never really threaten to score, if they weren’t punting, they were turning the ball over on downs or fumbling the ball away. Miami took advantage and scored again late in the game when Huntley hit Jonnu Smith from seven yards out, the game would finish 20-3 in the Dolphins favour, it wasn’t pretty, but it was the win the team needed to stay alive.

It was a good job they were playing the Browns because any other team may have caused more trouble, it was the Cleveland offense that stopped it being a lot closer. The Miami passing game was effective with Huntley under centre, he had his best day as a Dolphin and finished with 225 yards, a completion percentage just over 84% and a QB rating of 155. Not only that but he was the leading rusher in the game with fifty-two yards.

Hill and Huntley were on the same page and on this day Tyreek didn’t drop a ball. He had nine catches for 105 yards, and there is now a chance he will surpass 1k next week against the Jets as he just needs 61 yards to break through the milestone. It is quite remarkable considering how quiet he has been this year.

The question is, why was it such hard work? There were a number of issues, penalties were one of them, it was very sloppy, particularly in the first half, the team were flagged eleven times, not that the Browns were much better, but that is a lot of penalties. The most frustrating thing was the run blocking, it wasn’t good at all and was a big reason why DeVon Achane finished with twenty-five yards on ten carries. He was continually met at the line of scrimmage or behind the line. Robert Jones and Kendall Lamm were exposed several times, either missing their blocks completely or not sealing off their edges. It was mystifying as the run game was effective against the 49ers just a week before.

Because of the run blocking struggles it was odd that Mike McDaniels tried to get cute and call plays that needed O-linemen to maintain their blocks, there were to many tackles for loss, that can’t happen next week because the first Jets game was to close for comfort.

On the other side of the ball the defense played ok, granted they only allowed three points, but that was more about Dorian Thompson-Robinson missing receivers or making bad decisions. Jerry Jeudy was targeted eighteen times and finished catching twelve for ninety-four yards, not huge yardage but annoying enough. The standouts were Tyrel Dodson and Jordyn Brooks, both were very active and combined for twenty-four tackles, and an interception for good measure. Calais Campbell also made his presence felt on a number of occasions, when will he start to slow down? There was talk in the week that if the Dolphins lost this week they would release him so he could join a team going to the play-offs, that is put on hold for at least another week, fingers crossed.