Dolphins 2021 Week 13 Report Card
The Miami Dolphins made it five victories in a row when they defeated the New York Giants, 20-9, at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Here's the weekly breakdown on how each position group performed:
Quarterbacks
Tua Tagovailoa continued his streak of impressive performances with another good outing against the Giants. As has been the case all season, it was mostly short passing, though Tua did have a nice downfield completion to Jaylen Waddle early in the fourth quarter and then a pretty touch pass over the middle to Mike Gesicki on a key third down on the game-clinching field goal drive. Tua completed 30 of 41 passes for 244 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions for a passer rating of 104.1 — and that was despite a couple of drops. There were two clear examples of passes where he didn't set his feet despite having good protection, but that's being nitpicky because Tua was very good. Grade: A
Running backs
Myles Gaskin and Salvon Ahmed each averaged 2.9 per rushing attempt, and a lot of that falls on the blocking up front, though both backs continue to fail to make anything happen on their own. The longest run of the game was an 11-yarder by Ahmed when he took an inside handoff in motion and ran through a gaping opening on the right side. Gaskin had two catches for 5 yards, but failed to pick up a blitzer on the middle on the Giants' second sack. Grade: D+
Wide receivers
Jaylen Waddle again led the way for the Dolphins in the passing game with nine catches for 90 yards, but it probably was DeVante Parker — back after missing four games with a hamstring injury — who had the best outing. Parker caught all five passes thrown his way and came up with a brilliant catch on that game-sealing field goal drive when he had to contort his body while keeping his feet in bounds. Mack Hollins and Isaiah Ford each caught a touchdown pass, ironically on each player's only catch of the game. Albert Wilson deserves credit for turning a 1-yard pass into a 13-yard gain to set up Ford's touchdown. Waddle had a clear drop on a perfectly thrown slant. It was a good outing overall, though. Grade: B+
Tight ends
This was not necessarily a great day for the tight ends, even though Mike Gesicki did catch seven passes. Those seven passes, however, netted only a 6.6-yard average and Gesicki failed to come down with two utterly catchable passes, including one in the end zone before the Hollins touchdown that appeared to not have been tipped before it hit him in the facemask. Durham Smythe didn't catch the one pass thrown in his direction, though that was a pass breakup, while Hunter Long gained 8 yards on his one catch. Given the lack of success in the running game, it would be hard to improve the overall grade based on that. Grade: D
Offensive line
The much-maligned offensive line had an uneven outing because there wasn't a whole lot of push created in the run game, though the pass protection overall was very good. Tagovailoa was sacked twice, but he had a clean pocket for most of his throws (and, yes, there were many quick passes that helped the line). Liam Eichenberg was beaten to the outside for the sack by Quincy Roche and was flagged for a false start. The second sack came on a twist when Austin Jackson failed to pick up rookie Azeez Ojulari. Given the 41-25 pass-run ratio, the pass blocking was more important here. Grade: B-
Defensive line
The Dolphins defense held the Giants in check for most of the game, though it needs to be pointed out that New York was missing its quarterback and its top leading receivers. Christian Wilkins again was a factor in this game and Adam Butler took advantage of a twist up front to come up with a fourth-quarter sack. Zach Sieler showed nice hustle to make a tackle after a short gain on a swing pass. Emmanuel Ogbah had an uncharacteristically quiet game. Grade: B
Linebackers
Jaelan Phillips continued his surge with two sacks, but to be fair they both might have been more coverage sacks than anything else. The best linebacker again was Andrew Van Ginkel, who had a tackle for loss, a quarterback hit and a pass deflected at the line. Jerome Baker had two tackles for loss, including one when he totally disrupted a screen pass. Elandon Roberts had a tackle for loss and almost came up with an interception. The only real blemish for the front seven were the two long runs that the Giants broke on back-to-back plays, 23 yards by Saquon Barkley and 16 yards by Devontae Booker. Grade: A-
Secondary
Xavien Howard came up with his second interception in two weeks and his fourth on the season when Mike Glennon decided to challenge him downfield even though Howard had help from Jevon Holland, a strange decision he repeated in the second half. Eric Rowe was really active against the run and he ended up leading the team in tackles with seven. Holland had two pass breakups and forced a third-down incompletion with a blitz. Glennon threw for 187 yards and he could have had a long gainer to tight end Evan Engram on a third-and-2 from the Miami 46 after Engram got behind Nik Needham but misfired after hanging on to the ball too long. Grade: B+
Special teams
There was more good than bad in this part of the game, starting with punter Michael Palardy continuing his strong recent work. Palardy had a net average of 44.7 yards with three of his six punts downed inside the 20. Jason Sanders was 2-for-3 on field goal attempts, missing from 52 yards but coming back to hit the game-clinching 48-yard attempt after the two-minute warning. The Dolphins didn't have a long return but did give up a 15-yard punt return to Pharoh Cooper. Grade: B-
