Miami Dolphins being dominated at the half as Tua struggles again
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins are sleepwalking through the first half of their Sunday night game against the Chargers and Tua Tagovailoa continues to look horrible.
To be fair to Tua, the entire offense is getting beat up by a Chargers defense that is one of the worst in the league and missing three starters in the secondary. Tonight, the Chargers’ defensive backups are dominating.
Down 17-7, the Dolphins’ offense has produced next to nothing and Tua has completed a whopping 3 passes of 15 attempts for 25 yards. Jaylen Waddle has no catches and Tyreek Hill has one for 13.
The lone touchdown for Miami came on a first-down run by Jeff Wilson who fumbled the ball. The ball was picked up by Tyreek Hill and run for a 50-plus yard touchdown. Miami has yet to move the ball past mid-field and has punted four times.
Miami’s offensive line is not keeping the Chargers’ defenders out of the backfield and they are not opening run lanes. Jeff Wilson is out with a hip injury and is questionable to return as well.
Clearly, the Chargers know what is at stake for them and are playing for their playoff lives while the Dolphins are simply going through the motions.
Defensively, the Dolphins are getting beaten by horrible blitz schemes that leave Austin Ekeler and Mike Williams open. The only players playing with any degree of physicality are Zach Sieler, Jaelan Phillips, and Christian Wilkins who is dominating the Chargers line, but he can’t do it alone.
Josh Boyer has had no answer for the Chargers’ offense and they have been able to drive up and down the field. Miami is lucky to only be down by 7 points in a game that is very close to becoming a runaway for the Chargers.
The play by the Dolphins on offense, a unit that has struggled since the 3rd quarter of the Houston game two weeks ago, has many fans on social media wondering if the season was a fluke to this point. Tua looked horrible in this game and looked horrible last week as well.
If the Dolphins want to make a legit push for the playoffs, Tua needs to figure out what was working before and get it right. It seems that the 49ers figured out how to rattle him and now the Chargers are doing the same thing.