An 11-win playoff team last season, the Miami Dolphins entered Monday night’s game with a 2-6 record and a desperate desire for a season-saving victory. They got it, beating the Los Angeles Rams 23-15 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
Now the trick for the Dolphins is to turn the spark into a flame in the second half of Miami’s season.
“Hopefully, this is an opportunity for us to not waste,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa said. “Hopefully, we can go on a run with this win and find our rhythm towards the back end of the season now.”
Tagovailoa did not torch the Rams. He completed 20-of-28 passes for 207 yards with one touchdown and one interception. But the former Alabama All-American did have third-down throws that accounted for the three longest gainers of the game.
On Miami’s first third down of the game, Tagovailoa connected with wide receiver Jaylen Waddle for a 36-yard pickup. On the next snap, wide receiver Malik Washington swept 18 yards for his first NFL touchdown as the Dolphins took a 7-0 lead with 12:01 left in the first quarter.
Miami’s other touchdown came on a 1-yard toss from Tagovailoa to wide receiver Tyreek Hill as the Dolphins took a 17-6 lead with 5:32 left in the third quarter. The TD came on the snap after a third-down connection between Tagovailoa and tight end Jonnu Smith for a 33-yard gain.
After that, Miami matched a pair of Los Angeles field goals and took 9:41 off the fourth-quarter clock in doing so, with the drives including a third-down pass for a 25-yard gain from Tagovailoa to running back Raheem Mostert.
After Joshua Karty’s fifth field goal of the game for the Rams with 39 seconds to play, the Dolphins recovered an onside kick, and Tagovailoa kneeled out the remaining seconds.
“Our defense really galvanized the whole team,” Miami coach Mike McDaniel said. “I think it’s very, very difficult to keep that offense out of the end zone. I think it might have been the second time (quarterback) Matt Stafford with the Rams had not had a touchdown or they hadn’t scored a touchdown offensively. That’s difficult to do. I think the jump-off point was third down. I thought the coaching staff, led by (defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver), did a great job with having a way to attack the guys. I thought collectively it was the best execution of what we were trying to get done.
“It was a very, very important game for our team on the heels of three losses – two in the final moments of the game. And I think that’s something we can build upon moving forward.”
The game might have gone sideways for the Dolphins in the second quarter, but the Miami defense prevented that from happening.
When linebacker Christian Rozeboom intercepted Tagovailoa to put the Rams on the Miami 43, former Alabama defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand caused a fumble on the next snap that the Dolphins recovered.
“Gives us a huge lift,” Tagovailoa said of the defense’s reaction. “Now, we got to do our job as well -- not turn the ball over, try to eliminate those -- and stay on the field and put some points on the board. Got to continue to find ways to do that.
“I think we did some really good things in the second half with adjusting to what they’d shown us in the first half. But it’s got to happen a little quicker. “
When Tagovailoa lost a fumble on a sack on Miami’s next possession to put Los Angeles on the Dolphins 36, the Rams came away with only a field goal.
Tagovailoa made the tackle after Rozeboom’s interception. With the quarterback in his third game back from a concussion that caused him to miss four games, the contact was concerning. But Tagovailoa said “Everything’s good” after the game.
“I went up to that dude that intercepted me,” Tagovailoa said, “and asked him, like, ‘Bro, you couldn’t just, like, ran out of bounds or, like, cutback? It’s like you seen me, and I seen you. Like you wanted to just run me over.’ He told me after the game, ‘There was, like, there’s no room. There was nowhere else to go.’ So he got to do what he got to do to help his team win games. And I wasn’t planning on using my head to go hit him.”
