The Dolphins this season have set an early tendency of playing hard in the first half then seem to phone it in after Halftime. The final score of 30-10 would lead you to believe it was just another blowout in a throw away season. As Lee Corso loves to say, “Not so fast my friends.” Upon diving into the Dolphins season to date you notice the fight the toughness and opportunities to put points on the scoreboard but penalties, dropped balls, missed tackles or blown coverage’s sabotage those opportunities. After Halftime the fight is gone, and it gets real ugly, really fast.
The first half the Dolphins won the toss and elected to defer to get the ball first in the second half. The defense bent but didn’t break 9 play 64 yards yielding only an FG for the Chargers.
The Dolphins started the game with their third offensive line configuration with LT J’Marcus Webb LG Michael Deiter C Daniel Kilgore RG Evan Boehm RT Isaiah Prince. This version of the offensive line looked way better in the run game and gave Rosen plenty of time in the pocket. It showed on the first Dolphins drive as Miami went 6 plays 80 yards and ended with a perfect dime to Parker for 34-yard touchdown which was the Dolphins first lead all season 7-3.
The Chargers scored on the next drive 7 plays 60 yards with a 13-yard pass to Pope.
Dolphins answered back with a 12 play 57-yard drive that ended with a 30-yard FG to tie the game 10-10. Second quarter the Dolphin defense held on a turnover on downs after 9 plays 49 yards.
Dolphins missed a 50-yard FG after 7 plays 16 yards. Ending the first half down 17-10.
The part of the game that is hard to watch is the second half. Whether it’s the coaches the players or both but the adjustments don’t seem to be made or executed. The second half for the Dolphins offense was Punt Punt Interception turnover on downs.
The defense only gave up 79 yards rushing, and the offense gained 72 yards rushing which both are big improvements that didn’t translate to a win. The penalties were 5 for the Dolphins 10 for the Chargers. One of those penalties drew the ire of Flores when Wilkins slammed Ekeler on a 4-yard run Flores waved him to the sideline. Dolphins only mustered 1 sack on Rivers coming from Taco. Rivers had all day to throw with very little pressure on him. The offense gave up 5 sacks with 2 in the first half 1 of those was Rosen’s fault for holding the ball too long. The lack of a pass rush exposed the holes and inexperience of the secondary. The run game came to life with Boehm and Prince inserted on the right side of offensive line the margin of loss is shrinking but the Dolphins did cover the spread four weeks in a row. Next is the bye week then on to Washington.
There was a lot of moving around in the NFL team ranking this week. Miami has held on to the 32nd place and whats good about it, they can only go down in the ranking.
Are we getting better?