Dave Hyde: Dolphins, Tagovailoa get season back on its merry way with dominant win over Jets
MIAMI GARDENS — The Miami Dolphins redeemed their identity, confirmed their character, vindicated their coach, sidestepped a weeklong crisis, sent their season back on its merry way and, according to Tua Tagovailoa, started the process even before the 30-0 romp against the New York Jets on Sunday.
“Dude, if you can’t go, we got you, brother,” the Dolphins quarterback said to Tyreek Hill long before kickoff as the receiver tested his bad ankle. “It’s a team sport. It’s going to take all of us.”
This was the question Sunday, wasn’t it? Well, it was one of the questions. There were so many: How would they respond to Monday night’s collapse against Tennessee? Was their confidence shaken? Their season cracking? Their December doom repeating?
And now, with Hill missing his first game in two years as a Dolphin, how would this offense function without its most dangerous player?
You see, this game always was about more than whipping up on a bad Jets team. It was a, “gut check,” as coach Mike McDaniel said. That’s because Monday’s collapse against Tennessee was a gut punch.
“Everyone knew that what we had put out Monday night was embarrassing, and it felt weird as we came into the building,” Tagovailoa said. “One thing we wanted to do was not feel that feeling again.”
In truth, this was a game the Dolphins defense didn’t need an offense. It took the Jets’ lunch money from the first possession, which ended with Zach Sieler falling on a Zach Wilson fumble at the Jets’ 1-yard line. That gift-wrapped the Dolphins’ first touchdown. That’s all Vic Fangio’s defense needed for the win.
But if you’re looking at who the Dolphins are, about what they have you wanted to see what Tagovailoa could do without Hill against a good defense. Here’s what he did: He followed McDaniel’s early game plan of feeling out the Jets, almost like a boxer, to see how they set up against a beat-up Dolphins line and no Hill.
“He was just trying to get the ball out as quickly as possible because it also does help our guys up front,” Tagovailoa said.
Tagovailoa completed his first 13 passes for 132 yards and, as importantly, was barely pressured. The Jets were outwitted more than outmuscled by the Dolphins’ strategy. Tagovailoa then came out for a second-quarter series with the Dolphins leading 10-0 and saw Jaylen Waddle run the kind of deep pattern Hill has all season.
A step on the defender. A window to throw. A ball put in perfect stride for a 60-yard touchdown.
“I’m sure that play will make its (way on the) Internet because it was more about the flow of the game, what I kind of thought about protection, and there’s not many people that could cover the route that Jaylen Waddle ran because there’s not many people that are capable of going vertical,” McDaniel said. “He did a left-right move and then still found an exit angle, which is a very hard thing to do.”
The offense didn’t do much more in the way of big plays perhaps because the game didn’t ask it. Tagovailoa ended completing 21-of-24 passes for 224 yards and left early in the fourth quarter with many of the starters.
If Sunday’s game was a crossroads in the season due to the previous loss, the Dolphins checked all the necessary boxes. They even showed a locker-room code.
“Talk to me,” Bradley Chubb said in walking past the Dolphins quarterback after the game.
“Talk to me,” Tagovailoa said back.
Throw in the hand signals of a fingers opening closing on the thumb, like a talking mouth, and you’ve got the motion Tagovailoa made to the sideline after throwing his touchdown to Waddle. What does it mean? No one was exactly saying.
“It could mean a lot of things,” Tagovailoa said. “I couldn’t give a definition, but our definition right now means a lot of things.
Inside every good pro team is some juvenile fun, and Sunday was the time to break out some of it for the Dolphins. The 2003 Marlins called rookie Miguel Cabrera, “Blue,” from an old-guy character in the movie, “Old School.” The 2022 Florida Panthers had different players recite each night’s starting lineup in incomprehensible coachtalk.
These Dolphins have, “Talk to me.” They talked about finding their way again Sunday and about doing so without their biggest-play threat. Now everyone’s back talking about them again as dangerous as any team this December.
It all flips in a few hours this time of year. Dallas comes to town next Sunday. It just got whipped by Buffalo. So, Buffalo is up and Dallas is down.
The Dolphins saved their season and confirmed their character on Sunday. Now they’ll have to do it again.
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