Everything to Know From Dolphins Week 16 Blowout Loss to Bengals

The Miami Dolphins dropped their second straight game Sunday. This time, it was a blowout, 45-21, loss at home to the Cincinnati Bengals, who were 4-10 before kickoff.

Miami is now 6-9 on the season, meaning it has clinched its second straight losing season after four straight winning seasons. Of course, the big story was Quinn Ewers making his first start.

How did it go? Well, here’s everything you need to know.

Drive-By-Drive Recap

The Dolphins won the toss and deferred for the first time in a while, and it worked out on the opening drive. Miami’s defense gave up one first down before Zach Sieler sacked Joe Burrow on a stunt to force a punt.

Ewers’ first drive as the starter was roughly the same. Miami picked up a first down when Darren Waller bailed out Ewers with a contested catch on third down. However, Miami ran fullback dive with Ollie Gordon II on third and two and was stuffed for a loss.

The Bengals got the scoring going on the next drive, going 91 yards in seven plays to go ahead 7-0. Tee Higgins capped off the drive with an excellent catch on a goal-line fade with Jack Jones in coverage for the touchdown.

Miami tied the score quickly on its next drive, as De’Von Achane scored a 48-yard touchdown just three plays later. Achane made a man miss in the backfield and then got excellent second-level blocks from Alec Ingold and Aaron Brewer, allowing him to pull away from the Bengals’ defense.

After the teams traded punts, the Bengals put together an 11-play, 53-yard drive that ended with a field goal to make it 10-7. Miami’s defense got a sack off a simulated pressure, forcing Cincinnati into third and long to stall out the drive.

The Dolphins answered again, though, driving 68 yards on seven plays to take a 14-10 lead. Malik Washington scored on a fake handoff into a reverse, with Brewer leading the way. It was also a good drive for Ewers, who had a couple of long completions to Jaylen Waddle.

Cincinnati continued its offensive success on the next drive, retaking the 17-14 lead with a seven-play, 56-yard drive. The Dolphins might’ve had the Bengals stopped on a third and 13, but Burrow avoided a sack out of the pocket and found a wide-open Drew Sample, who had snuck out of the backfield for a big catch and run.

Samaje Perine punched in the six-yard touchdown a few plays later, leaving just 1:32 left in the first half. Miami would punt after a drive that reached midfield, sending the game to halftime.

The second half didn’t get off to a good start, as Miami got the ball and looked to be driving down the field after a long run after catch from Achane deep into Cincinnati territory.

However, rookie UDFA WR Theo Wease Jr. was called for a questionable OPI penalty, and TE Greg Dulcich lost a fumble on the ensuing third-and-long snap. The Bengals made quick work of the short field, as Burrow found Chase Brown for a nine-yard TD to make the score 24-14.

Things started to spiral for the Dolphins, as Ewers threw his first career INT on the next drive. He tried to fit a dagger route to Wease Jr., but Josh Newton made a nice PBU, and the ball bounced right to LB Barrett Carter.

The Bengals scored a touchdown just two plays later, as Brown ran the ball in from 12 yards out to make the score 31-14.

Miami’s next drive ended after Ewers tried a QB sneak on fourth and short but slipped and fell short, giving the Bengals another relatively short field. Well, they score again, as Brown caught his second TD (third total) six plays later.

It was 17-14 at halftime, and that TD made it 38-14 with two minutes left in the third quarter.

As if things couldn’t get worse, Ewers was intercepted again just one play later on a pass intended for Waddle up the right sideline.

The Bengals punched in another touchdown as Burrow hit former Dolphins TE Mike Gesicki in the end zone to make the score 45-14 at the start of the fourth quarter.

We’ll spare you the details of a fourth quarter that featured the Bengals’ backups on offense and a defense playing in prevent mode. Jaylen Wright scored the garbage-time touchdown to make it 45-21.

Offensive Recap

Miami’s offense followed a familiar pattern from a lot of its losses this season. The unit had some good things going in the first half, but came out flat in the second half.

Obviously, the most interesting storyline was Ewers’ play. He was nine-of-11 for 100+ yards in the first half, which was a nice start. The Dolphins were abusing Cincinnati off play-action, and Ewers was making sound decisions.

He ripped a couple of middle-of-the-field throws to Waddle, and his few misses were mostly bailed out by Waller making difficult contested catches.

The second half was a different story, though. Ewers had two interceptions and had the failed QB sneak in third quarter, which helped the game slip away from Miami. Ewers’ first INT was more of a good play by the Bengals than anything, but his second one was a bad throw and decision.

Overall, Ewers finished the game completing 20 of 30 passes for 260 yards, zero touchdowns, and two interceptions. Ewers got a ton of those yards in garbage time.

For the second straight week, the Dolphins’ running game had enough production. But turnovers and bad defense let the game get away from Miami in the second half.

Achane finished with 81 yards on 15 carries for one touchdown, and the team averaged xxx yards per carry on the day.

The Dolphins’ receivers didn’t have much to write home about in this game overall, but it’s pretty clear that Waller and Waddle are quite good. Waddle had five catches for 72 yards, and Waller had three catches and 40 yards.

Miami’s offensive line looked solid in pass protection, as the Bengals had zero sacks. The running game blocking was slightly more inconsistent — especially considering short-yardage blocking — but was fine enough.

Defensive Recap

The Dolphins’ defense did not play well at all on Sunday. Many will point to a second-half collapse, which is definitely true. However, allowing 17 points in the first half isn’t exactly a good start.

The Dolphins allowed 407 yards, with 302 coming through the air and 105 coming on the ground.

It was pretty clear the Dolphins didn’t have much of an answer for Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Chase had nine catches for 109 yards, while Higgins had three catches for 53 yards and one touchdown.

The real killer might’ve been Brown, who made big plays through the air and on the ground. He had 12 carries for 65 yards, while adding four catches for 43 yards and three total touchdowns.

Of course, there’s Burrow, who had an excellent day as well. He completed 25 of 32 passes for 309 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions.

The Dolphins had a ton of coverage busts in this game and also very clearly didn’t have the talent to stick with the Bengals’ playmakers. Miami’s unit has improved during this season, but it’s clearly still an incredibly limited unit.

There’s not really much else to it than that. Cincinnati has arguably the best combination of offensive weapons in the sport, along with one of the game’s best quarterbacks.

Miami’s defense isn’t good enough to keep a unit like that hemmed in, especially when the offense is giving the Bengals short fields for practically the entire third quarter.