Dolphins Fantasy Football Recap Week 4
The Dolphins uniforms and play looked equally bad on Thursday night in their loss to the Bengals. The result did not bode well in fantasy football either.
It was an ugly night for the Miami Dolphins all around as the team struggled to get anything going on offense. The start of the game looked promising as Ryan Tannehill found Kenny Stills deep for a 74-yard touchdown on the team’s first possession. The throw was nearly identical to the one made in Week 1 that Stills dropped, excluding the creamsicle uniforms of course. Stills made sure not to drop this one, but the Dolphins carried zero momentum after that.
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The touchdown was the only catch of the night for Stills. Fortunately, it was more than enough needed to exceed his fantasy football projections on the night, and anyone who plugged Stills in their lineup had to have been pleased despite the lone reception. The same cannot be said for the remaining Dolphins players.
For future fantasy recap articles we would like to point out a player of the game, dud of the game, and if possible, a surprise of the game. Unfortunately, this week was such an overall bad team performance that everyone excluding Stills put in relatively dud performances. Many will put the full blame on the offensive line, while others will put it on QB Ryan Tannehill. It was a strong mix of both.
It was well known that the Dolphins were beat up on the offensive line prior to Thursday night. Under the circumstances, the offensive line played okay, particularly in the run game. However, in pass protection, it got pretty ugly. But again, Tannehill deserves just as much of the blame as the line.
Throwing for a 74-yard bomb on the second play from scrimmage normally puts a quarterback in position for a monster game. Instead, it turned into a nightmare. Tannehill knew going in that his offensive line was far from 100 percent, but did nothing to help the cause. In addition to getting the ball batted at the line of scrimmage on several occasions, he continued to hold onto the ball with apparently no pocket awareness for far too long.
Tannehill finished the night completing just 15 passes on 25 attempts for 189 yards. He also lost a fumble and threw a late interception that stalled what appeared to be a promising drive. The final stat line gave Tannehill his worst fantasy production to start the season.
With the Dolphins going 3-and-out virtually all night, the Bengals dominated the time of possession, keeping it difficult for Miami to get anything going. Jarvis Landry‘s production was, arguably, the biggest to take a hit as the result. Many of Tannehill’s batted balls at the line of scrimmage were intended for Landry. You can tell because Tannehill still stares down his receivers as bad as anyone in the league.
Landry did finish the night with seven catches, so if you had him in a PPR league then it wasn’t too drastic. In standard leagues however, his 61 yards were a major disappointment, particularly since this was a defense that Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas destroyed just four days earlier. Landry continued to fight though as he always does, even finding space for a 24-yard gain on a short pass, as the Dolphins tried to get back in the game. The drive was halted, however, with Tannehill’s interception.
DeVante Parker really took a hit with the offensive woes, finishing with just two catches for 20 yards. His production has fallen since his strong performance in Week 2 against New England, despite being considered an integral part of the offense.
If there was a nice surprise of the game, it would have to be Jay Ajayi. Ajayi had just six carries Thursday night with the Dolphins continuing their deep committee strategy. However, Ajayi did finish with a 5.5-yard average per carry, looking the best he has since his debut last season. He also had a couple of catches, but with Miami continuing to use four running backs, there is no fantasy production to be had from the backfield.
The truth is, the Dolphins lost 22-7 and it wasn’t even that close. Miami’s defense surprisingly played pretty well, holding the Bengals to five field goals and keeping the Dolphins in it, despite being on the field two-thirds of the game. The Bengals only touchdown was a result of Tony Lippett whiffing on a would be tackle, allowing A.J. Green to walk in the endzone. The Dolphins introduced their Color Rush uniforms on Thursday, when instead they should have rushed to the exits.