Miami Dolphins squander late 4th quarter rally by Tua Tagovailoa

The Miami Dolphins needed Tua Tagovailoa to show up and play big. In the 4th quarter he did exactly that but they still lost.

Trailing 27-14 in the 4th quarter, Tua Tagovailoa drove the Dolphins offense down the field not once but twice to take a 28-27 lead over the visiting Atlanta Falcons. The final TD was Tua’s 4th touchdown of the game. It wouldn’t be enough.

With a one point lead, the Dolphins defense decided they needed to play soft rather than put the pressure on Matt Ryan and he lit them up as Kyle Pitts had a career day with 163 yards. On the Falcons final drive, the Dolphins let Pitts catch a deep pass to the 50 allowing Atlanta to only need to move a short distance to give their kicker a chance to win the game.

Atlanta took away any suspense when they continued to drive the ball down into the red zone and with three seconds left, beat the Dolphins 30-28.

The game started with an opening drive touchdown by Miami but the Falcons would hold the halftime lead and Tua would throw two interceptions. One in the endzone that would have given the Dolphins a touchdown and the second one in the middle of the field that gave the ball to Atlanta in the red zone with Jaylen Waddle saving a pick-6.

Overall, Miami’s defense was more disappointing than the Dolphins offense but as we have seen over the last few weeks, Miami’s defense is nothing like it was last year. While Xavien Howard recorded another interception, he gave up a deep pass to Kyle Pitts down the sideline and almost seemed as though he was going through the motions much of the game. His play had many fans questioning whether he really wants to be in Miami.

The loss drops Miami to 1-6 on the season and barring some massive miracle, we can assume that the rest of the season is not going to flip in their direction.