Finally, the Miami Dolphins have something going for them besides crisp attire and a grass field.
One of the great salvage operations in NFL annals has made the Dolphins fun to watch.
Turning around the brief career of Tua Tagovailoa, above all, has transformed Miami into the AFC’s most entertaining club and one that ensured a playoff berth with Sunday’s 22-20 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
The Dolphins (11-4) will play for the AFC’s top seed at Baltimore next week. They’re legitimate Super Bowl contenders for the first time in decades. This despite losing top -rusher Jaelan Phillips for the season last month and starting four backups on their offensive line Sunday.
And where did Sunday’s inter-conference showdown between former 1970s powerhouses leave the Cowboys?
All but out of the NFC East title race. Which means that unless the Eagles lose twice as a favorite Dallas (10-5) should rest up its star players for what lies ahead. Preventing the franchise’s Super Bowl drought from stretching to 28 years likely will require three playoff victories on the road.
The Dolphins are 11-4 for the first time since 1990.
Football lovers should be grateful to Tagovailoa, coach Mike McDaniel and receiver Tyreek Hill for re-assembling a broken quarterback in Tua, who’s firing strikes at a high rate.
His struggles in 2020 and 2021 invited withering critiques from Brian Flores, then Miami’s head coach. Casting the QB’s career in doubt, brain injuries forced him from multiple games last year.
Not even the folks who wear teal-and-orange pajamas would’ve predicted this: As no fewer than 11 of 16 starting QBs in the AFC have missed starts with injuries the past three months — including season-ending blows to Aaron Rodgers, Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert — Tua stands among the handful of NFL QBs to have started and finished all 15 games.
The QB said his offseason training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu improved his agility and ability to avoid injury.
He isn’t landing as hard as he did in previous seasons. And he’s seeing the game better.
Able to defy a medical history thickened by several severe injuries with Alabama, the lefty QB is showing the accuracy and twitchy movements that led Dolphins GM Chris Grier to select him over Herbert with the sixth pick in 2020.
Tua got the ball out very fast Sunday. The quick throws assisted a patchwork line. They frustrated an explosive Cowboys defense.
He finished 24 of 37 with a touchdown, doing no great harm to his NFL-best completion rate of 71 percent. He had no turnovers and added 293 ing yards to his NFL-best total.
For a QB approaching what would be his first postseason game, this was a confidence-builder.
Further explaining Tua’s rise that begins with Tua, I’ll belabor my point that dates back six years: Hill changes games as few players in NFL history have and must be seen in person to be fully appreciated.
Go back to the final game played by the San Diego Chargers.
Hill turned that game upside down as a rookie with the Chiefs. He destroyed the Bolts’ punt coverage unit by himself in Mission Valley. In rematches, he gashed Chargers teams in Carson, Inglewood and Kansas City.
Though limited by an ankle injury, Hill was the best offensive player Sunday by a smidge over Cowboys star receiver CeeDee Lamb and Tua. He made key plays on a final drive that produced a short game-winning field goal as the clock expired.
McDaniel understood what Hill could do for the Dolphins and Tua.
No doubt prodded by his rookie head coach, whose offensive aptitude led to his hire, Grier traded five draft picks for Hill two offseasons ago after also agreeing to make him the NFL’s highest-paid receiver.
That was audacious. But Hill has been worth it.
McDaniel has a strong background in offensive chess and not just the flashy stuff. A former run game coordinator who saw running back Jeff Wilson and Dolphins blockers hammer out crucial gains on the game-winning drive, he learned under Super Bowl-winning coach Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers head coach who oversees the NFC’s most entertaining offense.
In addiioin to Tua throwing on time and target, and Hill and speedster Jaylen Waddle shortening the trials for the backup blockers, the Dolphins got a strong game from Vic Fangio’s defense.
The Cowboys made one critical mistake: a fumble near Miami’s 1, via a botched handoff between Dak Prescott and rookie fullback Hunter Luepke (who had only four rushes this season, and whose only rushing TD came late in a blowout two months ago).
Showing they’re more than the NFL’s fastest team on offense, the Dolphins earned their first win this year against a winning team.
