Final NFL Week 4 Observations ... With Dolphins Angles
Week 4 of the 2022 NFL season began with a painful night for the Miami Dolphins in a lot of ways and it also ended in a less-than-ideal manner.
The final game of the week saw the San Francisco 49ers at their best in their impressive victory against the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, a double dose of bad news for the Dolphins.
The most direct impact for the Dolphins relating to the 2022 season is that San Francisco rebounded in a big way from their lackluster loss against the Denver Broncos in Week 3 that was compounded by the injury to left tackle Trent Williams, the whole thing casting doubt on the 49ers' ability to be contenders this season.
But in dismantling the Rams, the 49ers showed they can be a difficult matchup for any team, and that includes the Dolphins, who will be traveling to Levi's Stadium on Dec. 4 to start a brutal three-game road trip that will take them to Los Angeles (Chargers) and Buffalo next.
And, of course, there's the matter of the 49ers' 2023 first-round pick, which belongs to the Dolphins as the result of the 2021 trade involving the third overall pick that year, a pick that has taken on more importance since the Dolphins were stripped of their own No. 1 pick next offseason after the NFL found them guilty of tampering with Tom Brady and Sean Payton.
What we saw against the Rams was what we saw from them on their way to the NFC Championship Game last season, which is to say strong work from the offensive line, some big plays by Deebo Samuel — his 57-yard touchdown after a short reception was some kind of impressive — and a whole lot of dominating play by a defense that sacked Matthew Stafford seven times and forced two turnovers, including a pick-six by second-year emerging star safety Talanoa Hufanga.
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FOR EVEN MORE COVERAGE ON THE MIAMI DOLPHINS, CHECK OUT SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S MIAMI DOLPHINS PAGE ON SI.COM
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NOT THE SAME OLD JETS?
We mentioned in the offseason that we shouldn't expect the Jets to be the cakewalk they've been for the rest of the AFC East, and their comeback victory at Pittsburgh was a good example.
Big props go to Zach Wilson, the second overall pick in the 2021 draft, who was making his first start of the season following his preseason knee injury. After being pretty spotty in the first three quarters — though he did have the first touchdown reception by a Jets quarterback in franchise history — he came up big time in the fourth quarter.
In rallying the Jets from a 20-10 deficit after Pittsburgh had scored 20 unanswered points, Wilson went 10-for-12 for 128 yards and a touchdown in that fourth quarter. Included in that was a 22-yard completion to Corey Davis on fourth-and-7 from the Pittsburgh 39 with 9:48 left when the Jets were down 20-10.
With the victory, the Jets got to 2-2 on the season, the first time since 2017 they didn't have a losing record after four weeks.
In Davis, Elijah Moore and rookie first-round pick Garrett Wilson, the Jets have a very good top three at wide receiver, and rookie Breece Hall is an impressive-looking running back.
If Wilson can get some measure of consistency, this has the makings of a very good offense.
PICKETT TIME FOR THE STEELERS
For the Steelers, this marks the second consecutive year they've started 1-3, which is the time we remind everyone that Mike Tomlin never has had a losing record since taking over as head coach in 2007.
Of course, Tomlin always had Ben Roethsliberger as his quarterback before this season, and now it'll be up to rookie first-round pick Kenny Pickett to try to get the Steelers going in the right direction.
While he was picked off three times in 13 pass attempts in the second half against the Jets (one interception came on a Hail Mary on the last play), Pickett did bring some life to a Steelers offense that seemed awfully lackluster with Mitch Trubisky at quarterback.
The Dolphins will see Pickett on the night of Oct. 23 and it would surprise no one if they threw everything at him to confuse the same way they did to Justin Herbert when he was a rookie in 2020 and see if he can handle it.
One final thing on the Steelers (though it actually applies to the NFL in general): Maybe, just maybe, they wouldn't be sitting at 1-3 had instant replay been properly applied on the Jets' game-winning touchdown drive. If you get the chance, watch the replay of Wilson's 17-yard completion to Davis on second-and-9 from the Pittsburgh 37. Then tell us that play shouldn't have been stopped to review whether Davis actually caught the ball or trapped it because one quick TV replay sure seemed to show the latter.
So maybe it should have been third-and-9 from the 37 instead of first-and-10 from the 20, and who knows how things might have played out.
But there never was a review, which once again illustrated the inconsistent and fickle nature of replay as an officiating tool and served as Exhibit 739 why instant replay sucks.
LIONS STILL FUN BUT LOSING
There's good news and bad news for former Dolphins interim head coach Dan Campbell and his Detroit Lions.
The good news is their offense is fun and putting up huge numbers. The bad news is their defense is bad and allowing even bigger numbers.
It's pretty unfortunate for Campbell and his group that the Lions are leading the NFL in scoring at 35 points a game, but stand at 1-3 because their defense is so darn awful — and because the Lions are so bad in key situations.
What shouldn't be lost in the start is the work of offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, the same Ben Johnson who was a Dolphins assistant coach from 2012-18. In his first year as Lions OC after one year as offensive quality control coach and two years as tight ends coach, Johnson has done some remarkable work.
The latest example was the Lions putting up 45 points, albeit in a loss against Seattle, despite missing lead running back D'Andre Swift and star wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.
If the Lions are going to be at full strength Oct. 30, their offense is going to be quite the challenge for the Dolphins.
QUICK HITTERS
-- We would have liked to have included some kind of analysis about the Vikings, who the Dolphins will face Oct. 16, but there's just little rhyme or reason to anything they do. Minnesota doesn't rank highly in any statistical category, yet the Vikings are 3-1 and likely will be 4-1 when they come to Miami after facing the Bears in Week 5. Of course, it helps to have avoided overtime against New Orleans because of a double-doink missed field goal attempt.
-- The Browns, who come to Hard Rock Stadium on Nov. 13, keep pounding opponents with Nick Chubb running behind one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, but their loss at Atlanta showed that with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback, they're just not built to come back. Brissett did lead a game-winning drive in the opener against Carolina, but he was picked off in late-game situations in the losses against the Jets and the Falcons.
-- Bears QB Justin Fields passed for 174 in their 20-12 loss against the New York and that represented his season high — by more than 50 yards! Oh, and the Bears gave up 262 rushing yards, the second time this season opponents topped the 200-yard mark. Chicago has forced seven. turnovers in four games, so maybe that's the only way the Dolphins could have problems when they play at Soldier Field on Nov. 6.
-- Last thought doesn't involve a future Dolphins opponent, but here it goes: While we get the appeal of Russell Wilson, do we really need to have Denver in prime time four times in the four six weeks of the season?
