Hill-Waddle Bring Back Days of Duper-Clayton
The hype around Miami’s two dynamic wide receivers, Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, obviously was legit.
When the Dolphins acquired Hill in a trade from the Kansas City Chiefs this offseason, the expectations for the team got much higher. In the 42-38 comeback win against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, Hill and Waddle lived up to those lofty expectations. And then some.
Hill finished the day with 11 catches, 190 yards and two touchdowns while averaging 17.3 yards per catch. Waddle ended the game with 11 catches, 171 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner, which capped off a 21-point comeback.
They became the first teammates in the Super Bowl era to each have at least 170 receiving yards and two touchdowns in a game.
“I still feel like we’ve got a long way to go,” Hill said about his chemistry with Waddle. “It’s still early during the season, and I think we complement each other well. Whether I’m blocking for him and a screen, or he’s blocking for me, I know that each and every play, each one of us is going to have each other’s back.”
Their performance marked the first time the Dolphins had two receivers record more than 150 yards in the same game since Mark Clayton and Mark Duper against the New York Jets in 1986 in the game when Dan Marino passed for six touchdowns to tie the franchise record that Bob Griese first set in 1977 and Tua Tagovailoa matched Sunday.
It’s abundantly clear the two players have solid chemistry and enjoy playing together.
“It’s always good playing with great players like Tyreek,” Waddle said. “He’s exciting to play [with], exciting to work with. He comes to work every day with a great mindset. You never kind of envision … Hard work always pays off is kind of where we go, and we work kind of hard. Gamedays are fun to us.”
Second-Half Explosion
Although Waddle and Hill saw plenty of targets in the first half, they helped lead the offense to make their mark in the second half.
Waddle credited the team’s second-half turnaround to head coach Mike McDaniel preparing them for adversity during the week.
“Adversity was going to hit at some point in the game,’” Waddle said. “It hit early, then we came back. We needed halftime to regroup, and (we) came out with a different mind-set.”
On the Miami drive that began with the final play of the third quarter, Waddle made three catches for 61 yards, basically carrying the Dolphins down the field. Miami would score when Tagovailoa found River Cracraft for a touchdown, cutting the Baltimore lead to 35-21.
Waddle Busiest Dolphins Receiver in 10 Years
Waddle was heavily involved in the offense from start to finish. He finished with 19 targets, the highest total for a Dolphins receiver since 2012 when Brian Hartline had the same number on the day he set his franchise record with 253 receiving yards (on 12 catches) in an overtime loss at Arizona.
“I didn’t know how Jaylen was going to respond in that first game,” McDaniel said about Waddle’s usage in light of his training camp quad injury. “I didn’t want to get greedy and overuse him. This game, I was a lot less worried about that. We basically have a lot of good, talented, skilled position players. So, we will always try to utilize all the dudes. It was good to get him going early because we are pretty different when he’s making plays. I didn’t realize it was 19 targets. Yes, we were trying to utilize him, I guess. Good for him, and good for all the guys.”
As for Hill, he had his two biggest plays in the fourth quarter when it was clear Miami’s speed had started to wear down Baltimore’s secondary.
With 7:48 seconds remaining, he got behind the Ravens’ secondary for a 48-yard touchdown, which cut the lead to 35-28.
On the next Dolphins drive, he took advantage of a blown coverage and scored from 60 yards out to tie the score at 35 with 5:19 left in the game.
“I’m cheesing already, I’m cheesing, man,” Hill said about the 60-yard touchdown. “I did my thing to Tua, ‘yeet,’ and he knows when I do that, ‘yeet, yeet,’ just throw it no matter what, and I’ll make a play for you. So, he already knows that’s kind of the chemistry that me and him built this offseason. Just being able to see cover zero together. Because I’ve seen it, he’s seen it, the whole stadium (had) seen it.”
Hill’s late-game heroics are made even more impressive considering he exited the game with cramps before both of his long touchdowns.
Hill believes he and Waddle’s performance helped send a clear message to the rest of the league.
“We’ll never give up,” Hill said. “No matter the score, no matter who we’re playing, no matter the challenge. I know this team here is going to give everything that we’ve got, and we’re going to do everything technically sound, and everything deliberate.”
