Miami Dolphins bench Tua and get late Xmas present
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins are now 10-5 after one crazy finish on Saturday night.
Tonight, the Miami Dolphins improved to 10-5 thanks to a late Christmas present and the benching of Tua Tagovailoa.
I’m not sure if words can come close to describing the chaotic mess that was Miami’s primetime game against the Raiders but wow, what an amazing series of events to an otherwise boring football game.
Let’s be honest, the Miami Dolphins offense has a lot of problems, and losing Jakeem Grant to an ankle injury is not going to help. Tua Tagovailoa still looks pedestrian and Brian Flores realized that if he wanted to keep his playoff chances alive, he needed to make a move. So he did.
In the 4th quarter, Flores benched Tua for Ryan Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick took his opening drive down the field and needing a score, led the team to a field goal but let us not pretend it was awesome. He missed a wide-open Mike Gesicki in the end-zone for a touchdown on third down.
Fans were quick to notice the change in an offense that Chan Gailey called once the change was made but the question of why will have to come at another time. Will Tua start next week? That is a question that will be asked at some point this week.
For three quarters the Dolphins squandered opportunities but it took having their backs against the wall and their playoff lives on the line to finally wake up but that is when the Christmas miracle came to Las Vegas.
As I said earlier, putting this into words doesn’t do the final five minutes of the game justice. Yet, we will try and you can cheer along with us as we do and we will keep it simple.
Following the field goal on Fitzpatrick’s drive, Derek Carr hit Nelson Agholar for an 85-yard touchdown pass but what stood out was the clear push-off that Agholor made on Byron Jones to get that final separation. The Raiders took the lead but they missed the extra-point.
On the next drive, Fitzpatrick found Myles Gaskin for a mid-level pass that Gaskin turned into a huge touchdown. Miami took the lead back again with about four minutes left. Then the refs got involved again when Carr threw deep to Agholor again at the Miami five. The pass was incomplete but the refs called interference on Jones and set the Raiders up for a winning drive.
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After Miami tried to let the Raiders score and the Raiders basically falling down at the one and letting the clock run down, they kicked what was supposed to be a winning field goal. They took a lead of one point with 19 seconds left in the game.
They say that Santa Clause delivers gifts by entering a home using magic and somehow, Santa made it into Allegiance Stadium and no one saw him. On the first play from scrimmage at the 25-yard line, Fitzpatrick heaved a pass downfield to Mack Hollins who was wide-open at the Raiders 40. Hollins, who dropped two critical passes earlier including a possible touchdown pass, made the catch and fell out of bounds. Yet there was a flag on the play.
Fitzpatrick wasn’t just manhandled, his helmet was practically ripped off while he was in the throwing motion. How he completed the pass is incredible. 15 yards was added to the end of the play and put Miami in position to make a 44-yard field goal. I’m going to end this article by saying simply, this.
Jason Sanders from 44 is money.