By Byler Henry
Dolphins have decided to start their young rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Miami drafted him from Alabama with their 5th overall pick in the first round. His first start was a little rocky starting off with a fumble on his first drive. After that fumble, Tua did not turn the ball over. The defense carried the team having an exceptional game and Jakeem Grant added a punt return for a touchdown. Miami managed to win 28 to 17. They now are currently in second place in the AFC East at 4-3
Tua was not asked to do much; Dolphins were relying more on the run game. He only completed 12 of 22 passes with 93 yards and one touchdown. His only touchdown pass was a 3-yard pass to DeVante Parker. During this game he looked like a rookie with promise. The more starts he gets under his belt the better he will get. The rushing game could have gone better. Between the two running backs, Myles Gaskin rushed for 47 yards while Matt Brieda rushed for 13 yards, and wide receiver Malcolm Perry attempted a rush play but only managed a negative 5 yards. Miami’s total rushing yards as a team was 55 yards. On the flip side the Rams as a team were 131 total rushing yards. Although Rams had more rushing and passing yards, they were only able to get 1 rushing and 1 passing touchdown.
The defense had a game plan that they executed to perfection. They were able to put pressure on Rams quarterback Jared Goff, forcing 4 turnovers – 2 interceptions and 2 fumbles. I’m certain Goff would like to forget that game after completing 35 of 61 passes for 355 yards and one touchdown to go along with the four turnovers mentioned earlier. Head Coach Brian Flores was happy with how the defense played. “I think Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer and our defensive staff did a really good job this week coming up with different things that we thought would give them some problems. Again, in a week’s time, there’s only so much we can give the players, but what we gave them they executed, and we were able to put some pressure on the quarterback, and just looking at the stats here, they did run the ball pretty effectively, and we did give up some passing yards but I thought we were able to put pressure on the quarterback,” stated Coach Flores. “I thought overall we played well, and we kept the points down and got off the field on third down quite a bit. But yeah, different looks, trying to put pressure, trying to apply pressure. Sometimes it is not necessarily the sack total, but I think you can watch a game and see that a quarterback feels us. I think that is essentially what you are looking for. I’m not sure how many sacks we had today, but I know that we applied some pressure and forced them to do some other things offensively maybe they didn’t want to do, not just keep a back in, keep a tight end in, things of that nature.” Dolphins next game is a road game against the Cardinals. Cardinals are currently 5-2 and in second place in the NFC West. This will be a tough game, but if the defense can play like they did Sunday they will have a chance to win.
