David Fales outshines other quarterbacks in Dolphins first game
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins on Thursday night opened their pre-season with a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the quarterbacks showed some good and bad.
The Miami Dolphins have had problems for years getting the ball into the end-zone and last night was no different. The quarterbacks for the most part didn’t look all that bad in fact, Miami’s back-up David Fales looked pretty good. It might be time for Adam Gase to shuffle these guys around.
Tanneill played one offensive series and looked mobile and accurate but he missed Danny Amendola who was open on a crossing route that would have given the Dolphins first and goal or close to it. That is a timing issue that should work itself out.
Tannehill looked a lot more comfortable in the pocket. He moved well and moved up in the pocket to avoid contact. When asked to roll out he did so with no hesitations. His knee is obviously not a problem for him.
He finished his drive with four completions on six attempts but the two that he missed were the ones that would have extended the drive. He wasn’t helped by a Ja’Wuan James holding call that set them back 10 yards he was able to pick up the ten penalty yards and get a first down.
Anyone who thought Fales was not a real contender for the back-up job should think again. Fales looked pretty good during his time on Thursday. He and Brock Osweiler rotated series throughout the game and Fales came away looking a lot better.
He finished the night 8 of 11 for 115 yards. He showed good vision and didn’t lock on to receivers but did a good job of scanning the field and creating time in the pocket. He was aided by really good line play as well as great running by Sinorise Perry.
Fales led the team to two field goals and a touchdown scoring on all of his series.
The Dolphins brought Petty in as more or less a camp body but after Thursday they should move him up to the 3rd spot and get rid of Brock Osweiler.
Petty came in to the game late in the fourth with the Dolphins down 23-16. He drove the field and led them to a touchdown and a two point conversion. His throws were spot on the entire drive. After the Dolphins defense failed to stop the Buc’s with 1:50 left in the game, Petty took the field for the final drive.
He entered the game with about 23 seconds left with the ball on the Dolphins 23 yard line. He drove the team to the 44. With 9 seconds left he threw a deep pass into Tampa territory where it was intercepted in traffic.
Petty still looked sharp and should be a 3rd QB option for the Dolphins. In fact, it would be better battle between he and Fales than Osweiler. He finished the night 4/7 for 53 yards, one touchdown, one two point conversion, and one interception.
Brock Osweiler
Much like the storyline throughout camp so far, Osweiler was not very good. He missed some open targets and had a couple of balls batted down at the line of scrimmage. He completed only 10 passes of 21 attempts for 83 yards.
Osweiler had one of his drives stopped by a Kalen Ballage fumble but the rest was on him. After a Tampa turnover on their own 13 yard line, Osweiler was called for a delay of game penalty pushing the team back five yards. On the next play he hit Thomas Duarte for a 13 yard gain to the Tampa 5.
They ran the ball on 3rd down for no gain and Osweiler threw a short pass incomplete on 3rd down. The Dolphins settled for a field goal.
On his next series he engineered a long drive from the Dolphins 39 to the Tampa Bay 3 yard line with short passes and a solid showing by undrafted rookie Buddy Howell. A false start at the Tampa 5 dropped the Dolphins back to the 10 and Osweiler’s fourth down pass was incomplete.
That was the longest drive of the night but Osweiler was not accurate down field with the football connecting on shorter routes on slants.