Dolphins Week 7 Loss: The Five Biggest Plays
The Miami Dolphins dropped to 1-6 on the season with a 30-28 loss against the Atlanta Falcons at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday.
We rank the five biggest, most important, plays of the game:
1. The Foye Oluokun Interception
This play came immediately after Xavien Howard recorded his second interception of the season and put the Dolphins at the Atlanta 32-yard line trailing 20-14. One play later, Atlanta was at the Miami 14-yard line ready to pad its lead, the result of Tua Tagovailoa refusing to accept taking a 5-yard sack on first down. Yes, Tua brought the Dolphins back to eventually take the lead, but this still was a crushing play.
2. Cordarrelle Patterson's Run for a First Down With 1:40 Left
That the Falcons were going to be able to kick a field goal was pretty set right after the two-minute warning when Matt Ryan threw a 28-yard completion to rookie tight end Kyle Pitts to the Miami 24-yard line. But the Dolphins still had all three timeouts left and could have given themselves a chance to answer that field goal with a defensive stop. That hope disappeared when Patterson gained 3 yards on third-and-2 on the third of three consecutive running plays when the Dolphins should have known the Falcons were going to go the conservative route.
3. Ryan's 23-Yard Completion to Pitts Right Before the Two-Minute Warning
Sure, it could be argued the 28-yard completion was more devastating, but the 23-yard hook-up down the middle of the field when Pitts found a soft spot in the zone was the tone-setter at the very start of that game-winning field goal drive. Given the way things have been going for the Dolphins lately, it seemed as though the outcome was sealed with that first-down completion to the Atlanta 48-yard line at the two-minute warning.
4. Ryan's 39-Yard Completion to Pitts Right Before Halftime
It obviously was very disappointing that the Dolphins left points on the field when they trailed 10-7 late in the first half when Tua was picked off in the end zone, but it became worse when the Falcons decided to throw the ball from their 20 with 36 seconds left instead of simply kneeling and running out the clock. And then Pitts went ahead and made a crazy one-handed catch while being grabbed by Eric Rowe and, boom, five plays later the Falcons were able to tack on a field goal that ultimately loomed large in the final outcome.
5. Tua's First Interception
We could have gone here with Jason Sanders having a 49-yard field goal attempt blocked when the field goal protection unit failed to do its job or even the 28-yard completion to Pitts when Ryan just threw a perfect pass that beat decent coverage by Xavien Howard, but this was a game where the Dolphins just couldn't leave points on the board. And that's what they did when Tua tried to force a pass to Durham Smythe in the end zone when he covered under and over by two Falcons defenders. This was a second-and-7, and replays showed Jaylen Waddle running free across the field near the line of scrimmage.
