Tua, Tyreek Shine in Thriller at SoFi
Boy, did Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill and the Miami Dolphins have answers for the L.A. Chargers defense.
Tagovailoa threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Hill shortly after the two-minute warning to give the Dolphins a 36-34 victory in a thriller at SoFi Stadium in their season opener Sunday.
Tagovailoa finished the game with 466 yards passing and three touchdowns, while Hill began his well-publicized quest for a 2,000-yard receiving season for 215 yards and two scores.
The Dolphins defense struggled most of the game, but it did come up big after Jason Sanders' missed PAT put Miami in jeopardy of losing the game with a field goal, coming up with two sacks sandwiched around an intentional grounding penalty on Justin Herbert.
Edge defender Jaelan Phillips clinched the victory when he sacked Herbert on a fourth-and-13, two plays after Zach Sieler also had a sack. Those were the second and third of the gam, following one by Kader Kohou in the third quarter.
But the story of this game for the Dolphins was the offense.
MONUMENTAL DAY FOR THE OFFENSE
The Dolphins finished the game with 536 total yards and kept Tagovailoa from being sacked, despite the absence of Pro Bowl left tackle Terron Armstead.
The Dolphins' other touchdowns came on a short run by Raheem Mostert and a Tua pass to River Cracraft, while Sanders kicked three field goals.
The running game wasn't much of a factor, with Mostert and Salvon Ahmed combined for 48 yards on only 14 rushing atempts.
It surprisingly was the Chargers who did a lot of damage with the running game.
Los Angeles finished with 234 rushing yards, including 117 by Austin Ekeler and 91 more by Joshua Kelley, and each scored a rushing touchdown.
In the third meeting between the fifth and sixth overall picks in the 2020 NFL draft, Herbert rushed for a touchdown and threw another.
But it clearly was Tua who had the upper hand on this day.
His best pass of the game may have come on the game-winning drive on a third-and-10 from the Miami 25 when he stepped up in the pocket and delivered a strike for a 47-yard completion to Hill.
Tua earlier hit Hill with a 35-yard touchdown pass after earlier missing on some long passes, including an end zone interception by J.C. Jackson on a pass intended for Braxton Berrios.
This was a highly entertaining game with seven lead changes after the Dolphins took a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter. Neither team ever led by more than seven points after the Chargers scored the first touchdown to go up 7-0.
There were big plays galore from each side, including 30-plus-yard completions by both Hill and Jaylen Waddle, along with a 55-yard run by the Chargers' Ekeler, who also had a 35-yard completion, to go along with another 36-yard completion by Herbert to Keenan Allen.
There was a crazy ending to the first half when the Chargers kicked a field goal with 9 seconds left to tie the score at 17-17 but the Dolphins refused to play it safe and got a 22-yard completion from Tua to Jaylen Waddle followed by an inexplicable defensive pass inteference penalty by Chargers cornerback J.C. Jackson when he shoved Erik Ezukanma from behind at the 23-yard line as time was running out.
Reminiscent of the Baltimore game of 2022, Tagovailoa and Hill just kept connecting for chunk gains, none bigger than that 47-yard hook-up on a third-and-10 from the Miami 25 after the Chargers had kicked a field goal to extend their lead to 34-30.
That set the stage for the fantastic finish.
The Dolphins were able to win despite a fumble inside the 5-yard line on their first drive and losing the turnover battle 2-0.
Tua and Tyreek were humming too much on this day to let anything get in the way of a victory.
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