For three-plus quarters Sunday, all seemed right in the world of Dolphins football. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was back, and he marched the offense down the field for five scoring drives, including a 10-play touchdown drive to open the game.
Unfortunately, Arizona has a franchise quarterback of their own who put forth arguably the best game of his career. Kyler Murray and the visiting Cardinals playmakers scored on four of their five possessions in the second half to steal victory away from the home side.
Here are the three takeaways from the Dolphins 28-27 loss to the Cardinals.
- Couldn't close it out
The Dolphins have endured an unthinkable amount of attrition off the edge and up front since the end of last season. Injuries have depleted a group that is chock full of star-studded talent not currently available. Defensive tackle Zach Sieler was playing a big role overcoming those injuries by kicking outside and expanding his workload, but he wasn't available after an eye injury in practice forced him to miss his first game as a member of the Miami Dolphins, breaking a streak of 76 consecutive games played since being claimed off waivers in December of 2019.
The Dolphins could've used the pass rush help as they tried to flag down the diminutive but lightning quick Arizona quarterback.
"It was tough to overcome one of the stronger games I've seen by a quarterback in Kyler Murray," Head Coach Mike McDaniel said.
Without a sack in either of the two losses, it's the second straight week the Dolphins had a double-digit lead go by the wayside. Murray engineered scoring drives on the Cardinals' final three possessions taking the visitors 75, 70 and 73 yards to produce 17 points and a buzzer-beating field goal to win it. He completed all three of his third down attempts for 34 yards on those three possessions and ran for the game-clinching first down on third-and-4 from the Miami 27-yard line.
- Third down
The Dolphins offense looked more like its usual self, starting with an opening drive touchdown for the first time this season. On that possession, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa moved the sticks with a 13-yard completion to wide receiver Tyreek Hill on third-and-9. It was the first of 11 third down conversions for the Dolphins on the day out of 15 tries – a whopping 73.3 percent.
Tagovailoa completed nine of his 12 third down pass attempts and added a first down scramble of 13 yards on third-and-9 early in the third quarter.
"I would say good Thursday practices with that," Tagovailoa said of the offense's success on third downs. "I would say everyone's been locked in with – what I would say is what I expect of them with where to be on the field, knowing what to do in certain looks and whatnot. I would say that's a testament to the guys in studying within their playbook."
- Missed tackles, missed opportunities
Next Gen Stats credited the Cardinals with 13 missed tackles forced in the game, nine of those on designed runs. Of those nine missed tackles, the Cardinals runners produced an additional 87 yards after initial contact. Adding the four missed tackles on pass catchers, the Cardinals produced 127 yards after a missed tackle – nearly one third of their total offense.
"Missed opportunities," defensive tackle Calais Campbell said after the game. "Kyler Murray played a great game and it's heart-breaking because I feel like we played great defense the last few weeks. First half, we were rolling. It's the NFL, though. It's a momentum game and Kyler made some big-time plays in big moments."
For more analysis, takeaways and breakdowns, download the Drive Time Podcast with Travis Wingfield, available on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
