Miami Dolphins blow chance to pull even in division lose to Broncos
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins wasted a perfect opportunity to tie the Bills on top of the AFC East.
On Sunday, the Miami Dolphins could have tied the Bills who are on their bye week but instead, they folded against the Broncos.
Miami’s first offensive drive set a tone for the rest of the game when they opened with a three and out. It looked like things may become more of the same when the defense picked off Drew Lock on the Broncos first series. That led to a 22-yard drive by Tagovailoa and the offense and a seven-point lead.
From there, the game simply went south quickly and the Dolphins couldn’t answer anything the Broncos threw at them on either side of the ball.
On offense, the Dolphins were absolutely atrocious. The offensive line couldn’t block for the running game and Tua Tagovailoa spent the entire game under pressure being SACKED SIX TIMES ON THE DAY.
When Tagovailoa wasn’t taking a hit, he was throwing passes that couldn’t be caught, missing open receivers, and completely out of sync, for most of the game. Miami found themselves down by only three points at the half and you would think that would be an easy recovery but Miami was playing so bad offensively, it was a mountain they couldn’t climb.
In the 4th quarter, Tagovailoa was sacked and injured bringing Ryan Fitzpatrick back on the field but down 20-10, there just wasn’t much he could do to bring them back.
Defensively, the Dolphins looked to be suffering from the altitude. They were slow, couldn’t get consistent pressure on Lock and the Denver runners just took the ball upfield when they needed to.
In the end, the Dolphins almost managed to get a big come from behind win. Andrew Van Ginkel stripped Melvin Gordon at the goalline and Miami recovered at the one-yard line. Ryan Fitzpatrick was faced with five minutes left in the game, down by seven and needing 99 yards to go. He made it to the Broncos 14.
Facing third and 8, Fitzpatrick went for the game-tying touchdown instead of the first down and the Broncos picked off the ball in the endzone to effectively end the game.
For all the things that the Dolphins have done well the last five weeks, they imploded on themselves today and will remain one game behind the Bills. Today was a good opportunity for a young Dolphins team to make a statement, instead, they got sent back to Earth to face reality. They are simply not there yet but they are getting closer. Great teams beat bad teams, today, the bad team beat a good team.