Xavien Howard gets his first pick, keeps Miami Dolphins in the game

The Miami Dolphins got off to a horrible start but the defense has started to wake up and Xavien Howard made his first pick of 2021 keeps them alive.

The Dolphins offense is still struggling, however, Miami drove the ball into the red zone before a fumble on the 4-yard line ended a potential scoring drive.

Despite the interception, the Dolphins ensuing offensive drive died with another sack, this time on Jacoby Brissett. Tua is out of the game. Miami picked up 15 yards on third down but needed 16. The Dolphins stayed on the field to pick up the short yard but Malcolm Brown came up short against a stellar defensive performance by the Bills.

Miami is reeling on offense with the offensive line giving up four sacks on the day and doing very little to keep their quarterbacks upright.

Defensively, Howard’s interception is the 2nd forced turnover by the Dolphins today. Jerome Baker earlier caused a fumble that was recovered by Byron Jones who fumbled the ball to Jevon Holland. Miami has not taken advantage of either turnover and still trail by 14 with the 2nd quarter starting to wind down.

Howard’s interception comes a week after he forced and recovered a game-winning fumble last week against New England. Howard had 10 interceptions in 2020 and after an offseason that had him threatening to hold out and requesting a trade, he is proving his value and worth to the Dolphins coaching staff and the defensive unit.

While the defense is playing good enough to keep Miami in the game, the offense is doing very little and if that doesn’t change, the heat is going to destroy Miami’s defense more than the Bills offense.