The New York football Jets saw their slim playoff hopes dashed Sunday afternoon at Hard Rock. It was a needed “bounce back” game for the Dolphins and one that keeps them a step ahead of the charging Bills for the AFC East lead. Miami controls their destiny, along with the Ravens, they are the only teams that require no help to capture the AFC regular season title and post season bye. It’s been a long while since the Miami Dolphins have controlled their fate this late in a season, many fans under thirty have never experienced a solid team in South Florida. They have also not felt the failures of the past forty years, yes, even Marino’s. The Dolphins earned the skepticism of their fans by consistently and constantly failing in these moments. Not just last year, go back to Flores, Philbin, and Gase and Miami had several seasons where they needed to win only one of their final three games to clinch a playoff berth and couldn’t do it. Farther back, in Dan’s final season the Fins started 7-1 only to finish 9-7 and get embarrassed by the kittens in Duval in the second round. Tua said these aren’t the “same ‘ol Fins” Sunday was the first step in proving that true, now go finish the season strong and claim the Bye.
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Coaching: (A); The offense started sluggish, struggling to move the ball even with short fields provided by the Jets; that changed after Waddle got loose for his 60 yard score. McDaniel did well without Hill in getting Waddle open and keeping the Jets’ defense from honing in on one aspect of the Fins’ offense. Unlike vs the Titans, Coach kept in mostly on the ground in goal to go situations and Mostert converted. I would’ve liked him to go for it on a couple of the early drives that stalled out, especially the one inside the five when they took the delay of game penalty and settled for a Sanders kick, but Coach MnM was on his game.
I’ll discuss the defense more below, but Fangio continues to improve this unit. Yes it was the Jets, but holding an NFL team to four total yards in a half is no small feat. This unit is vital over the final three game gauntlet that awaits the Dolphins. Dallas, until Sunday night, has been battling Miami for the league’s top offense, the Ravens have Lamar, and mobile QBs have been the Fins’ kryptonite, and well division opponents are never easy, but wounded and cornered division opponents fighting for their playoff lives? The Bills won’t be a gimme in the final game. So keep scheming Vic.
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Running Backs: (B); It wasn’t a great game when you think of yards, no running back even had 50; but, when your number one back breaks two team records they get a passing grade. Mostert didn’t add much to his season yards total, but he broke the Dolphins’ season record for rushing and total TDs. Mostert now has 18 rushing and 20 total touchdowns on the year. The latter number is tied with Christian McCaffrey for the NFL lead. Raheem is also only 36 yards shy of 1,000 for the year. Achane added 30 yards each on the ground and air. Solid performance, though not “A” worthy. They’ll need to step up next week against Dallas as the Bills showed you can run against “Dem Boys.”
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Receivers: (A); Waddle had his best gam of the season when Miami needed a stellar game from their number two. It was only his third outing with over 100 yards receiving and fourth with 80 or more yards. To put that in perspective, he accomplished over 80 yards nine times last season with six games over the century mark. This unit didn’t buckle without Hill, and for that, they aced the exam. Waddle’s 60 yard score was gorgeous from the route to the throw, it was close to perfection. Eight different Fins caught a pass.
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Defense: (A+); I briefly mentioned it, but holding ANY team to 4 total yards for a half is an incredible achievement. Add in the six sacks, countless QB hits, and innumerable hurries to go along with 4 turnovers including giving your offense the ball back at the Jets’ one yard line, it was a stellar day. The Jets finished the game with barely over 100 total yards. The Dolphins defense will need to come through again on Christmas Eve if they want to be grinches to the folks in D-ville.
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Special Teams: (A); Sanders was 3-3 on field goals and extra points, Bailey pinned the Jets inside their own 20 on three of his four punts with no touchbacks, and the snuffed out a fake punt attempt. All in all a great game from their third unit.
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Quarterback: (A); Tua had a great game. It was much needed after the Titans debacle and playing without Hill. No turnovers, only three incompletions all day, and one beautiful long ball to Waddle. Miami needs and has more than a manager, but Tua still needs to understand and play within his own limitations. Sunday was one of his better games of the year, even if statistically it doesn’t show (under 300 yards only 1 TD).
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Officials: (C-); The offensive offsides which cost the Dolphins a first and goal was pretty ridiculous, but I’m not going to Mahomes about it. The NFL has decided to call that a bit much since Chiefets tantrum to prove they call it on everyone. There was what appeared to be DPI that wasn’t called, but when you’re winning 30-0, even he refs should show a little mercy.
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Overall: (A); At the end of the day it was a necessary and needed bounce back. With the hardest three games of the year upcoming, Miami couldn’t afford to drop a home game to another sub .500 team. Now they have 3 chances to tell the NFL they are the team to beat in the American Conference. Sweeping the Cowboys, Ravens, and Bills will go a long way to exercising the demons of December that have plagued this franchise. At the very least to give themselves the real confidence they need to make true playoff push, they need to win at least 2/3. Call it “narrative” all you want, but facts don’t lie; they haven’t upset a team or won a 50/50 game all season. They only beat teams they were supposed to, and against Tennessee with a 14 point lead with 3:00 to play, they couldn’t even win that one. So skepticism isn’t unwarranted. Beat the Boys, then worry about the last road game on your schedule. How nice would it be to rest for round one?
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POLITASPORTS 