What stood out in the first half of the Miami Dolphins’ Week 9 game against the Baltimore Ravens:
We’ll start with the list of inactives, where the biggest news involved second-year running back Jaylen Wright out of the lineup four days after getting his first carries of the regular season. Rookie seventh-round pick Zeek Biggers was inactives for the eighth time in nine games, while Zach Wilson again was the backup to Tua Tagovailoa.
Tight end Julian Hill (ankle) and safety Ashtyn Davis (quad) both missed the game of injuries.
Just as they did against Atlanta in Week 8, the Dolphins again opened with Daniel Brunskill on the field as an extra lineman.
In this case, Brunskill lined up set back, but Tua Tagovailoa instead hit his patented deep in to Jaylen Waddle for 20 yards.
After having a lot of success with the running game against Atlanta, things get off to a bad start here with De’Von Achane stopped for no gain and then stopped for a 2-yard gain on an unusual third-and-6 call.
The first defensive drive began with some nice gang tackling on Derrick Henry, with Tyrel Dodson leading the way.
Tahj Washington hasn’t gotten a lot of playing time this season, and getting the ball ripped out of his grasp for a killer fumble deep in Miami territory on his first NFL reception isn’t the way to change that.
Really productive drive for Achane the second time Miami has the ball, thanks in part to some great blocking by Aaron Brewer, got the Dolphins in the red zone.
That drive ended in major disappointment after a series of mistakes. Though it didn’t seem egregious at the time, Tua failed to set his feet and forced Waddle to come back for a catch that should have been good for the first down, and after the Dolphins rightly lined up to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the Baltimore 12 came the false start on Larry Borom and the missed field goal by Riley Patterson. Not ideal.
Don’t want to pick on the guy, but Jaelan Phillips’ inability to convert pressure into a sack cam back to bite the Dolphins on the last play of the quarter when what should have been a third-down tackle of Jackson turned into a 35-yard completion to tight end Isaac Likely after the back end of the defense was asked to cover for too long.
Two plays into the quarter, Dante Trader Jr. and Minkah Fitzpatrick collided when the Ravens ran crossing routes and that’s what left Mark Andrews wide open for his second touchdown of the game.
Malik Washington showed off his great open-field running when he turned what looked like a sure deep loss (6,7 yards) on a reverse into a 7-yard gain by juking a couple of Baltimore defenders deep in the offensive backfield.
The Dolphins looked like they should have gotten into field goal range on a long completion from Tua to Waddle, but it was nullified when Ollie Gordon II was flagged for a dubious tripping penalty when the Ravens defender made contact with his thigh and Gordon’s foot appear to miss the defender after it came up.
The Dolphins might have a shot to convert a third-and-16 with a well-designed screen pass to Achane, but Jonah Savaiinaea wasn’t able to block the only Baltimore defender around, Roquan Smith, who made the tackle.
Nice finish on the sack by Benito Jones, but it was Bradley Chubb who killed the play by beating fullback Patrick Ricard at the line and forcing Jackson back inside after a bootleg fake.
More good work by the run defense against Derrick Henry, stuffing him for 2 yards and no gain to force a three-and-out after a 7-yard completion on first down.
Injuries a bit of an issue in that first half for Miami, with Chop Robinson (concussion check), Ifeatu Melifonwu (foot) and Ollie Gordon II (ankle) all leaving the game.
Good first half overall for Tua, especially on that last drive of the half with a couple of nice over-the-middle connections to Waddle.
Bottom line is it was a frustrating first half for the Dolphins, who outplayed the Ravens but made mistakes and left points on the board.
The last example was the failed fourth-and-2 from the Baltimore 13 when there clearly was a miscommunication between Tua and Achane when Tua threw into the end zone and Achane stopped around the 5-yard line.
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