Dolphins Week 17 Report Card
Well, it certainly was a forgettable way to finish a very good season for the Miami Dolphins.
Blame for the 56-26 loss against the Buffalo Bills can be found pretty much up and down the lineup, making for one ugly report card.
Quarterbacks
With Ryan Fitzpatrick unavailable for this game, this was going to be Tua Tagovailoa's show the whole way. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to come up with a big game or get the offense going. Yes, Tagovailoa finished with a career high in passing yards, but much of it came with the outcome already decided. The telling sign was the first half when the Dolphins again failed to reach the end zone while getting behind 28-6. To be sure, Tagovailoa wasn't helped by a bunch of drops but, again, most of those came in the second half. The three interceptions is more statistically ugly than anything because one wasn't his fault and another came because the Dolphins needed to be overly aggressive because of the score. As we wrote earlier, this loss was by no means Tua's fault, though he certainly had a hand in it. Grade: C-
RELATED: Tough Day for Tua ... But It Wasn't Just Him
Running backs
On a day when the Dolphins really could have used help from their running game, Myles Gaskin wasn't able to duplicate what he did against Las Vegas. He rushed for only 20 yards on seven carries, though he did have 57 receiving yards, the second-highest total on the team. Salvon Ahmed actually was the better running back on this day, which included his 16-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. The blocking up front certainly wasn't overly impressive, which hurt the running backs' cause. Grade: C
Wide receivers
DeVante Parker was back in the lineup after missing a couple of games with a hamstring injury and put up good numbers with seven catches for 116 yards. But his performance wasn't nearly as good as the stats. For one thing, he had only one catch for 8 yards in the first half when the game pretty much was decided. Then he fell while jostling for position with cornerback Josh Norman, resulting in the pick-six that made it 35-13 and pretty much closed the door on any idea of a Miami comeback. Parker also had issues hanging on to the ball, before and after being hit on pass attempts, though his issues making catches weren't nearly as bad as those of Isaiah Ford. The normally sure-handed Ford had a bad day with the drops, although one of them down the middle of the field was the result of a late deflection by the Bills DB and not a drop. Lynn Bowden Jr. led the team in receptions with eight, but they gained only 44 yards. He also lost 7 yards on a jet sweep in a goal-to-go situation, though that was the result of bad blocking up front. This was a bad day all around for the wide receivers, with the only clear highlight being Malcolm Perry's first NFL touchdown on a 25-yard catch late in the game. Grade: D
Tight ends
If Parker wasn't much of a factor in the first half, Mike Gesicki was no factor at all. He was shut out in that decisive first half, though he did finish the game with five catches, including a 23-yard gain in the fourth quarter. Adam Shaheen had the longest play of the first half for the offense when he was left open near the sideline at the line of scrimmage and ran upfield for 22 yards. Durham Smythe was on the right side of the line of scrimmage on the ill-fated Bowden run, but it wasn't clear who was to blame for linebacker Mike Love being able to run free into the backfield between Smythe and right tackle Robert Hunt. Smythe also was flagged for a false start. It wasn't a memorable day for the tight ends, either. Grade: C-
Offensive line
Hunt also was involved in the one sack the Dolphins allowed, which came on a third-and-5 from the Buffalo 22 after the Byron Jones interception on the opening drive. Buffalo sent two blitzers from the left side of their defense, and Hunt decided to block the outside rusher, leaving Edmunds a free path inside to get to Tagovailoa. The pass protection was OK after that, though Tagovailoa was forced to scramble on a few occasions. The run blocking certainly wasn't great — except for Ahmed's late touchdown. Grade: C
Defensive line
Despite giving up 56 points, the Dolphins defense did do something well in this game, and that was stopping the run until the game got out of control. Running backs Devin Singletary and Zack Moss combined for only 15 yards on six carries and wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie had 0 yards on two rushing attempts. The guys up front didn't do much in terms of pass rushing, though. Emmanuel Ogbah, for example, did not show up on the stat sheet despite playing 50 snaps. Zach Sieler had the only quarterback hit for a defensive lineman, though he also got caught for an offside on the play where Josh Allen threw his second touchdown pass to McKenzie. Christian Wilkins was flagged for unnecessary roughness for hitting Stefon Diggs from behind after Diggs slid at the end of a completion, though that was a tough play for Wilkins to stop his momentum running down the field. Grade: C
Linebackers
The big story here again was Andrew Van Ginkel, who was excellent. He had the Dolphins' only sack of the game and the team's three tackles for loss, not to mention a pass defensed when he batted it at the line of scrimmage. Kyle Van Noy (5) and Jerome Baker (4) combined for nine tackles but they were very quiet. Grade: B-
Secondary
There was some good news but mostly bad news for the DBs. The good news included Byron Jones' brilliant interception on the first drive of the game and Xavien Howard's fourth-quarter pick that helped him tie the Dolphins single-season record with 10. But it was really rough in between, and that includes Howard. He had his problems with Diggs in the first half and then got beat deep in the second half when Gabriel Davis got behind him to catch a 51-yard pass from Matt Barkley. Jones also was on the wrong end of Josh Allen's 32-yard touchdown pass to John Brown in the final seconds of the first half. Slot corner Nik Needham was victimized on both of McKenzie's first-half touchdown catches and again on Davis' 56-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. Safety Eric Rowe gave up a 20-yard completion to tight end Dawson Knox when he failed to turn around quickly enough on an underthrown pass. Noah Igbinoghene got some late-game snaps and had a pass defensed. The two picks saved this from being a failing grade. Grade: C-
Special teams
For the second time in four games, the Dolphins gave up a punt return for a touchdown, which they obviously couldn't afford to do against an opponent the caliber of the Bills. Jason Sanders again was money, making field goals from 49 and 32 yards, but Noah Igbinoghene never got the chance to return a kickoff (all touchbacks) and Malcolm Perry gained 12 yards on his one punt return. Perry, it must be said, is not to blame for the big Bills punt that ended up going out of bounds inside the 1-yard line because a fair catch at the 5-yard line is never a good idea and this simply was a case of a very luck bounce for the Bills. Grade: D
