3 things we learned from the Miami Dolphins losing to the Falcons
By Matt Serniak
Tua’s stat line was 32/40 for 291 yards, 4 touchdowns, two INTs, with 29 yards rushing. There’s been plenty of quarterbacks that have had stat lines like that have won games. Today wasn’t one of those days. Though Tua threw four TDs, he also threw two INTs that were God-awful.
The one before the half was unreal. Miami was around their own 20-yard line and Tua decided to try and fit a ball into a window that didn’t exist. In that window that didn’t exist, Tua tried fitting a ball to regular ball-catcher Durham Smythe. Durham Smythe, believe it or not, is not a guy that gets many balls thrown his way that are more than four yards downfield. Naturally, he had no idea the ball was coming his way and the ball was subsequently picked off. It was a dumb decision by Tua when three points were on the table.
The other pick was, to me, is a bit more explainable. It was surely Tua’s fault, but go back and look at the clip of it. The great left guard that is Austin Jackson was unable to get a finger on a guy who was roughly 12 inches away from him. That lead to Tua not being able to do anything when he got to the end of his drop back. Tua, immediately, had to step up in the pocket only to his the backside of another offensive linemen and he, stupidly, tried checking it down. It easily got picked off. What was awful was that it was one play after Xavien Howard picked off Matt Ryan. All the momentum in the world and it was thrown away in one play.
But Tua did have many good plays. He fought very hard every play and did what he thought he could every play. Let it be said that throwing four TDs should mean that you win. But when you have two mind-numbing plays that put your team in the position that he put them in then you’re not going to win often.
Tua didn’t do himself any favors in staying in Miami, in my opinion. I think the Dolphins should not make the trade right now, but that doesn’t matter. This will be a wild week, once again, for Tua and the Dolphins. I don’t know what happens this week. I just know it won’t boring, which sucks.