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Henry McKenna
AFC East Reporter
The Miami Dolphins found themselves in an uncomfortable situation on Monday night.
Or rather, they found themselves in many uncomfortable situations. Worst of all, they saw the Tennessee Titans erase a 14-point lead over the final three minutes for a comeback win. Miami’s defeat was historic: Of the last 767 games in which a team was down by 14 points with under three minutes left, none had come back to win.
The Dolphins’ reputation has been that they can, at the very least, beat lesser teams — even if they have so far struggled with picking on someone their own size. But the Titans? They should have been another opportunity for Miami to put a tally in the win column.
The Dolphins defense flopped in the final minutes, allowing two fast and easy touchdown drives for Titans quarterback Will Levis and coach Mike Vrabel. But the offense could have put the game even further out of reach — far enough so that Tua Tagovailoa never put his defense into a pressure situation. Instead, the defense had to set up the offense with perfect field position for Tagovailoa to score.
The Dolphins generated zero red-zone points until the fourth quarter, when their special teams and defense got them the ball within the 15-yard line twice. Finally, they scored their first offensive touchdowns of the game, with a drive that started on the 12-yard line and another that started on the 7-yard line. Their defense scored a touchdown for them (with defensive tackle Zach Sieler logging a pick-six).
It was sort of an out-of-sorts week. And while good teams figure out how to win ugly, the Dolphins didn’t do it. They haven’t really done it at all this year.
Most troubling, however, was how the Dolphins offense looked when Tyreek Hill was not in the game.
He suffered an ankle injury in the first quarter and stood on the sideline until the third quarter when he returned to the game. (He played 47% of snaps, his…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/why-dolphins-would-collapse-without-either-tyreek-hill-or-tua-tagovailoa
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Publish date : 2023-12-13 21:31:46
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