Skylar Thompson does enough to beat the New York Jets

Despite the ugly win in which the Miami Dolphins did not score a touchdown, I was surprisingly happy with the performance from rookie Skylar Thompson.

An 11-6 win over the New York Jets to punch their ticket to the playoffs probably was not what Dolphins fans, coaches, or players envisioned for themselves on Sunday, but that is what they got.

Xavien Howard and Jason Sanders turned back the clock in their outstanding performances that helped the Dolphins limp to victory.

Ultimately though, none of this happens without Skylar Thompson. Thompson played well at quarterback. I know his numbers do not exactly jump off the page when you look at the box score:

20/31, 152 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions.

In spite of that, I thought he played well. He did exactly what you want a backup quarterback to do. He made all of the easy plays. He did not force anything downfield that was not there and he did not turn the ball over.

When guys were open he made the throws. You can not ask for much more, especially when Tyreek Hill is not 100%. I am giving Thompson a B for his performance yesterday.

A large part of why he played so well and under control was because Coach Mike McDaniel did not put him in any bad situations. The Dolphins ran the ball well, especially on early downs. The Dolphins only faced three third downs of 10 yards or more.

The offensive line did a great job run blocking as the Dolphins ran for 162 yards and averaged over five yards a carry.

The offensive line did a great job of keeping Thompson clean as well. Thompson was only sacked once.

The lack of negative plays is what allowed the Dolphins to win this game. A lot of that falls on Thompson’s decision making, but it also falls on the offensive line play and the play calling.

Coach McDaniel did a good job of getting the ball into their playmakers hands. Of Thompson’s 20 completions Waddle and Hill had nine of them.

I know neither Waddle or Hill had a career day, but the effort to get them the ball was there. With a young, inexperienced quarterback I did not expect the Dolphins to try and stretch the field like they do when Tua Tagovailoa plays quarterback, so it was nice to see the Dolphins try and allow Waddle or Hill to make a big play after the catch.

All around the performance was good. It just seemed like every time the Dolphins offense got going something bad would happen. The Dolphins committed five penalties during the game, and it seemed like all of them would happen during a promising drive.

They overcame it though and were able to pull out the win against a solid Jets team.

After seeing Thompson play quarterback I know we are all hoping that Tua can return next week, but once again, I have to tip my cap to Thompson. He came in managed the offense well and led the Dolphins to a victory.

THE DOLPHINS ARE GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS BABY!! FINS UP!!