Dolphins-Vikings Week 4 Halftime Observations

What stood out in the first half of the Miami Dolphins' 2026 Week 4 game against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Malik Washington (6) recovers a kickoff in the endzone for a touchback during the first quarter against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

What stood out in the first half of the Miami Dolphins' Week 4 matchup against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.

We'll start with the list of inactives, which was highlighted by rookie wide receiver Caleb Douglas missing a second consecutive game because of his ankle injury.

The game pretty much looked as we figured it would, though it probably was even uglier, with very little offense from either side compounded by a whole lot of penalties.

WHAT STOOD OUT

-- The defense came to play, though we should have seen that coming after the overall solid performance and against a pretty mediocre Minnesota offense.

-- The pass rush was effective from the start and went beyond the two sacks by Zach Sieler and Josh Uche because pressure from Rodney McGraw and Chop Robinson twice forced incompletions. And the Dolphins didn't have that — forget just the sacks — in the first three games.

-- One thing that stands out about the Dolphins' rookie class on defense is those guys are not afraid to get physical, with Jacob Rodriguez and Michael Taaffe both having some nice open-field tackles.

-- On the flip side, Jason Marshall Jr. has got to do better than lose sight of the ball and pursue the wrong side of the ball after a play fake to allow an easy 15-yard pitch-and-catch from Kyler Murray to running back Aaron Jones.

-- Rodney McGraw made his NFL debut after joining the Dolphins as a rookie free agent this year and absolutely didn't look out of place. In fact, he was more of a factor than Clelin Ferrell was in his three outings combined.

-- It was a rough first half for Chris Bell, though, lowlighted by his stepping out of bounds to nullified a 68-yard touchdown off a brilliant off-schedule play by Malik Willis, the kind he can provide that the Dolphins haven't had in years at quarterback. Yes, it was a shame that Bell might have touched a sliver of the out of bounds line, but he still needed to show better awareness than that. A pre-snap penalty a bit later didn't make things any better.

-- The Dolphins had their problems at times with the Minnesota pass rush, which was to be expected, and it was Austin Jackson again who had his issues with the speed of Dallas Turner around the corner. While Jackson isn't the first tackle to have problems with Turner, it's clear he needs help with speed rushers.

-- Sticking with the offensive line, it was a rough first half for Patrick Paul, who was called three times for offensive holding, though in his defense suggesting it was the result of overzealous officiating would not be out of line.

-- It was quite the first half for Malik Washington. On the negative side, he almost caused a disaster by muffing a punt inside the 5-yard line (why is he even trying to field it?), though he managed to recover the loose ball in the end zone. The rest of the half, though, saw him produce a lot of yards after the catch and making tacklers miss in the open field.

-- The special teams were nothing short of brutal at the start of the game, giving up a long kickoff return and then a long punt return, which set up the first Minnesota field goal. This isn't so much about coaching but goes back to lack of depth on the 53-man roster because it's the bottom of the roster players who play in the kicking game.