Whether you wanted them to or not, the Miami Dolphins have finally put one in the win column, beating the New York Jets 28-25 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
For a team supposedly setting football back a few decades, they’ve kept knocking on the door. Competitive losses against Minnesota and Cincinnati showed signs of progress, but costly mistakes kept Miami winless heading into its bye.
This time, the Dolphins gave themselves a chance and actually did something with it. Malik Willis delivered his best performance of the season, the running game showed it’s here to stay, and the defense made enough timely stops to survive New York’s late push.
Here’s how each position group graded out in Miami’s first win of the season.
THE DOLPHINS WEEK 7 REPORT CARD
Quarterback: A-
Willis completed 14 of 21 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, adding 37 yards and another score on eight carries. He finished with a 130.7 passer rating.
The numbers reflect Willis’ growing comfort processing the defense. He’s moving through his progressions more naturally and showing he can create openings as well as recognize them.
On his 32-yard completion to Greg Dulcich up the seam, Willis did more than work through his reads. He turned his feet and shoulders to the right, where Caleb Douglas and Seydou Traore were running quick outs. That movement drew the safety toward the sideline, opening a window up the seam for Dulcich.
Similarly, on Douglas’ first touchdown, Willis resisted the urge to scramble or throw the ball away when his first two reads weren’t available. He stayed with the play, allowing the routes to develop and clear space before finding Douglas late in his progression on an in-breaking route.
Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik favors 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends), but Willis’ mobility also makes a case for spreading the field. Empty sets and formations with three or four receivers can widen the defense and open running lanes through the middle, giving Willis another way to punish the coverage with his legs.
Running Back: A
At this point, we’re out of fluke territory. We’ve all heard the legends of Ollie Gordon II’s Doak Walker year at Oklahoma State and the mysterious drought that followed, but it appears the Dolphins have unlocked that version of him again.
Gordon finished with 103 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries, giving him his second 100-yard game in his last three starts.
The 4.1 yards per carry doesn’t jump off the page, but New York knew Miami wanted to run late. Gordon still ripped off gains of 14 and seven yards on consecutive carries during the final drive.
Jaylen Wright, meanwhile, continued struggling to find running room, finishing with 8 yards on six carries before leaving with a quad injury.
Wide Receivers: B
Welcome back, Caleb Douglas.
After quickly winning over Dolphins fans, the rookie had barely gotten involved in Week 2 before an ankle injury sidelined him. His return gave Miami the length and athleticism it had been missing on the outside.
He caught just two passes, but both went for touchdowns, totaling 70 yards.
On his goal-line touchdown, Douglas drove vertically at full speed to get on Azareye’h Thomas’ toes, then used a hard jab step with his right foot to get the corner leaning before breaking inside.
Malik Washington remained a reliable target, catching all three of his targets for 27 yards, while Chris Bell added three catches for 25.
Miami also used Bell on shallow crossing routes out of mesh concepts, giving him opportunities to use his strength and speed against man coverage. It was a familiar look for Bell, who turned a similar drag route into a touchdown for Louisville against Miami.
Tight Ends: B+
After going without a target in Miami’s loss to Cincinnati, Greg Dulcich has now drawn five in back-to-back games as the Dolphins steadily work him into the passing attack.
He caught all five for 86 yards, all in the first half.
Dulcich had a 32-yard catch on Miami’s opening touchdown drive, converted a third-and-7 on the next possession and later added gains of 15 and 16 yards during the 91-yard touchdown drive before halftime.
Rookie Will Kacmarek continued to handle his blocking assignments well, but Dulcich finally delivered the receiving production Miami has been waiting for from the position.
Offensive Line: B+
The offensive line has had their fair share of ugly moments this season, but this wasn’t one of them.
Miami ran for 156 yards, held the ball for more than 34 minutes and, most importantly, was able to run the ball when even the people using the bathroom at MetLife stadium knew it was coming
That final possession was probably the best example. Miami lined up and ran it over and over again with a three-point lead, and the Jets never got the ball back.
Austin Jackson still had his moment, let’s not be unrealistic here, giving up a sack late in the third quarter that killed a possession, but overall this was one of the unit’s better games.
Defensive Line / Edge: B
If you want one sequence to describe this unit, just watch the goal-line stand.
New York was sitting on Miami’s doorstep on first-and-goal when the Dolphins responded with a Zach Sieler tackle for loss, another stop by Josh Uche and then a Chop Robinson sack on third down.
Robinson continues to create pressure even when the sacks aren’t piling up, generating four pressures.
Malik Herring also sacked Geno Smith with 11:36 in the 3rd quarter.
That said, the run defense was less than ideal, as Braelon Allen finished with 104 yards on just 17 carries.
Linebackers: B-
Jordyn Brooks did what Jordyn Brooks usually does, finishing with nine tackles and two tackles for loss.
Jacob Rodriguez, meanwhile, had his quietest game of the season with four tackles.
Here’s my weekly Pro Football Focus disclaimer: they charged Rodriguez with allowing a completion to Jets running back Isaiah Davis, but Rodriguez appeared to communicate that Jason Marshall needed to pick up the crossing route, which makes it difficult to pin the breakdown solely on Rodriguez
Mason Taylor caught two touchdowns, but both came with defensive backs in coverage, Jason Marshall and Michael Taaffe.
Defensive Backs: C
Miami’s rookie defensive backs continue to ride the NFL roller coaster.
Michael Taaffe read Geno Smith the entire way on his second-quarter interception, jumping Mason Taylor’s route to end a Jets scoring threat. Taylor got him back in the fourth quarter, beating him for a 12-yard touchdown.
Chris Johnson also intercepted Smith, but his own defensive holding penalty wiped out the takeaway. He later surrendered a 60-yard completion to Omar Cooper Jr. on a deep crossing route with safety Dante Trader Jr. also in the coverage area.
Smith completed 23 of 30 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns, while Cooper finished with 115 yards on five catches.
Jason Marshall Jr. had his struggles, too. On Taylor’s first touchdown, Marshall was draped over the tight end near the pylon but couldn’t break up the pass and never looked back for the ball.
Special Teams: B+
For once, there wasn’t much to complain about.
Wright averaged 26.2 yards on five kickoff returns and had a 39-yarder that helped set up Miami’s second touchdown drive.
Bradley Pinion also did his job, averaging 44.2 yards per punt with a 42.5 net.
The wind was briefly knocked out of everybody’s stomach when Wright muffed the final kickoff before recovering it, because apparently Miami can’t go an entire game without making a kickoff stressful, but this was a major improvement from the first month of the season.
Overall: B
For the first time this season, Miami actually made the plays necessary to win a close game.
Taaffe got the interception, the defense made the goal-line stand, and Douglas and Gordon supplied the offensive punch the Dolphins had been thirsting for.
After spending six weeks finding increasingly creative ways to lose, the Dolphins finally figured out how to finish one.
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