Blame Game: Miami Dolphins find another way to lose vs. Cardinals

MIAMI GARDENS – As the Miami Dolphins walked off the field and into the locker room at Hard Rock Stadium, their gaze into the abyss showed they were letting this slip out of their hands.

Tua Tagovailoa’s much anticipated return resulted in a 28-27 loss to Arizona Cardinals it can only be described as what happens when you take your foot off the gas and play not to lose.

Although the Dolphins’ offense scored on 62% of their drives, with three being touchdowns, it wasn’t enough. 8/10 times twenty-seven points should get you a win, but when the other teams have an above-average offense with a star quarterback like Kyler Murray, you’re never going to beat yourself.

All things considered, it was objectively a great game that came down to the wire. An exciting watch for anyone who isn’t a Dolphins fan.

It’s actually kind of funny that on the last Cardinals drive, Mark Schlereth said, “One of these teams is about to get their hearts broken,” and boy was he right.

It feels like one of those games where the team lets one slip out of their hands and it happens to all teams at some point. When you are in the hole, as dolphins were and are, there is no margin for error or complacency.

This shooter feels like an uno reversed card because the bug is flipped to the other side of the ball.

The quarterback can’t also play defense

Tua Tagovailoa not only got through the Cardinals game unscathed, but also got the offense back on track. Tyreek Hill was unlocked and the offense had a lot more space to work with because the defense had to go back to a majority of two-high safety looks to contain explosive plays.

The offense was fluid with Tagovailoa at the helm. The timing of shifts, screen plays and routes were synchronized up to an elite level. While Tagovailoa’s number doesn’t scream a great game, he had the offense buzzing and rarely stopped all afternoon.

If this is all true, how did they lose? Three words. Defense and play call.

Let’s start with the defense.

Through the first six games, the Dolphins defense was their rock, holding the Dolphins in every game. One of the best second half defenses in the league seemingly forgot who they were.

The Cardinals scored 20 points in the second half and chewed up the final five minutes of the game to score the game-winning field goal.

Kyler Murray returned to his star form and time and time again found the hole in the defense. Funnily enough, the holes in the defense were the ones that were matched up on Marvin Harrison Jr. and Trey McBride. The majority of these cases were David Long Jr. and Cam Smithboth are postponed.

Games have an ebb and flow, but when it came down to the final drive of the game, the Dolphins defense had three goals that could have put them in position to win.

One, stop the Cardinals altogether. Two, hold them to a field goal with enough time for the offense to get a two-minute drive to win the game. Three, let the Cardinals score a touchdown when all else fails to give the offense a chance to respond with a touchdown of their own.

They did none of that.

What ended up happening was the Cardinals slow played the Dolphins in the final five minutes of the game. They slowly but surely drained all the time left, forced the Dolphins to use all their timeouts, converted on third down where everyone in the stadium knew it was going to be a run play, even if it was a QB designed run, and kicked a game-winning chip-shot field goal with no time remaining.

You could say the offense should have scored the possession sooner, but the defense had to do more than let the other team bleed the clock and score with no time left.

The offense gets no blame from me outside of a couple of critical drops and a rocket snap that resulted in a safety. I look at Jaylen Waddle, Jonnu Smith and Aaron Brewer.

You play to win the game

I can’t end this without pointing out one aspect of the game that is usually overlooked and that is underestimating an opponent.

It’s the NFL and everyone will tell you to treat all opponents the same. While that’s true in most cases, it happened in the middle of the game and McDaniel took his foot off the gas pedal.

The final Dolphins drive looked clear to me, bleeding as much time off the clock as they could. Considering they got two first downs on the drive, they must have forgotten they were only up by two points deep in the fourth quarter.

On this drive, you pull out your best plays and give Tagovailoa as many opportunities as possible to get some points on the board and force the Cardinals to score a touchdown to win the game.

There are too many times when the Dolphins run the ball in obvious situations and get negative results out of it, especially late in games with a narrow lead.

Get down there, get it open, and use short ends to complement the run game on first down to keep the defense on its toes. No gain on the first, a short completion that goes for nothing on the second, and then Tagovailoa has to throw it away on third down due to an all-out blitz.

Point.

I make you want to lean on your defense, especially since it’s been really good despite injuries, but they underestimated how good Kyler Murray and the Cardinals’ offense was and got burned.

There is blame to be shared here, but if I have to give the bulk of the blame to someone, it will be on Anthony Weaver and the defense. They were torched throughout the second half and couldn’t hold off the Cardinals with the game on the line while letting them chew off all the remaining time.

At the end of the day, the defense has to hold up their end of the bargain, and it flat-out didn’t, and now the Dolphins are 2-5 and staring down the barrel at 2-6 when they travel on Sunday to play big brother, the Buffalo Bills.

It seems that the end of the 2024 season is approaching.

Let us know in the comments who you think should bear most of the blame for the loss to the Arizona Cardinals.