Scooter & Hum: Day 277, Quasi-Quarantine: Dolphins-Chiefs Game 13 Review

Considering the state of Miami's depth chart and the presence of the defending world champs, this one turned into a lottery-ticket game for the Dolphins. When the squad was down 20 midway through the third quarter, it would have been easy to phone it in and start turning their sights toward getting healthy and squaring off against hated New England. Instead, the 'Fins rallied, cut it to a single score, and were an onsides-kick away from being in position to win. It's a credit to Brian Flores and his staff that they are consistently able to get this level of effort out of a roster that is still a year away from having the pieces it needs to contend.

Offense

The bottom line is that Miami not going to win many with Tua Tagovailoa throwing 48 passes. He hit 28 for 316 yards and two touchdowns, but he also was picked off and sacked twice. He added 24 yards and a score on six rushes, but he seemed flustered at various points of the game.
With the team's top three backs out, DeAndre Washington's job was to repeatedly run directly into multiple Chiefs defensive linemen, and he did it well, picking up 35 yards on 13 carries. Surprisingly, he only caught two passes for 17 yards. Patrick Laird was the only other healthy tailback, and he contributed 23 yards on five touches.
Lynn Bowden, Jr., led the way in the receiving corps, but he did a little of everything. Targeted nine times, he caught seven for 82 yards, while adding two yards on a carry and throwing an incomplete pass, all while taking some sizeable hits.
I'm struggling to put this kindly, but when Mack Hollins gets nine targets (five grabs, 66 yards), something is dramatically broken with your offensive depth chart. In a game where Miami desperately needed peak Jakeem Grant, he came through with just three catches for 32 yards on five targets, with two costly drops/misplays, one of which led to a game-turning interception.
DeVante Parker was injured early on and left after two unsuccessful targets, and Antonio Callaway (two targets, zero catches) contributed nothing but a couple of nondescript punt returns. Malcolm Perry had a single catch for five yards.
With the running back and wide receiver depth charts decimated, the tight ends had to pick up the slack, and they did. Mike Gesicki reeled in five passes on six targets, good for 65 yards and two touchdowns. Many of his passes were of the spectactular/contested variety, which is becoming a weekly occurrence for him, but he also left late in the game with a potentially serious shoulder injury. Durham Smythe (two grabs, 19 yards) and Adam Shaheen (two for 26 yards) also had significant contributions, with Shaheen also drawing a pair of pass interference calls in the end zone.
The offensive line had some ups and down. Tua was largely under siege, being hit eight times and having nine passes knocked down, and the running game never got off the ground. Austin Jackson in particular seemed to have a tough time. To their credit, the offensive front did settle into more of a rhythm in the second half.

Defense

Overall, the Miami "D" played about as well as it could considering the opposition and being without starting linebackers Kyle Van Noy and Elandon Roberts. Clyde Edwards-Elaire was extremely difficult for Miami to tackle, and Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill predictably got theirs, but the Dolphins did pick off Patrick Mahomes three times and turned the Chiefs over four times in all.
On the interior, Christian Wilkins was active, posting five tackles, half a sack, and a quarterback hit, while fellow tackle Raekwon Davis notched five tackles. Steady Zach Sieler registered three tackles for losses in yet another game where he flashed several times.
On the edges, Shaq Lawson had four tackles, half a sack, and a quarterback hit, while Emmanuel Ogbah was uncustomarily quiet, with a single tackle and one QB hit. Andrew Van Ginkel had two tackles, a stop for a loss, a batted pass that turned into an interception, and a quarterback hit.
With Van Noy's pass-rushing ability missing, Jerome Baker stepped up big, racking up nine tackles, 2.5 sacks, and three quarterback hits -- a welcome contribution after a couple of nondescript games. Kamu Grugier-Hill stepped in for Van Noy and had just three solo tackles, but he did pounce on a fumble at an important moment in the game.
At safety, Brandon Jones had nine tackles and Nik Needham added five. The team missed Bobby McCain (two tackles, another inexplicable finger-wag 15 yards down the field) when he went out injured, with Clayton Fjedelen immediately getting burned for a touchdown. Newcomer Nate Holley joined the fray with two tackles.
Cornerback Byron Jones snared his first interception as a Dolphin and added three tackles, a pass breakup, and a key forced fumble. On the other side, Xavien Howard made it five straight games with a pick, adding a tackle and a pass breakup as well.
Nickel Eric Rowe was torched by Travis Kelce (eight catches, 136 yards), but managed seven stops and two pass breakups to go with a key pick early in the game.

Special Teams

Anytime you give up a score in the return game, you have lost the third phase. That failure is even more prominent in a game where you are facing a high-octane offense. Allowing Mecole Hardman's 67-yard score was a devastating blow to the Dolphins' efforts.
Miami is looking for ways to jumpstart the return game, giving Callaway some opportunites on punts. He responded with 12 return yards on two punts, including one that was poorly handled. Grant lost four yards on his lone return attempt.
Jason Sanders missed another field goal, but did hit two and converted all three extra points. At last-gasp time, he didn't get the needed second bounce on his onsides kick, which allowed KC to field it easily.
Matt Haack punted five times for a 46.8-yard average, with a touchback and one punt downed inside the 20-yard line. His poorly hit punt contributed big-time to Hardman's TD return.

Momentum Plays

After a Miami three-and-out to start the game, Kansas City strung together a few first downs before Van Ginkel tipped a pass that was picked off by Byron Jones and returned 15 yards. Jones promptly fumbled, but Ogbah jumped on it for the 'Fins.
The Dolphins couldn't capitalize, unfortunately. After an unsuccessful short pass on 3rd & 3, Sanders came on for a 45-yarder, but he pushed it right.
The Chiefs promptly fumbled on the next play, but Van Ginkel couldn't secure the recovery despite being in ideal position. Baker chased down Mahomes for an incredible 30-yard sack, leading to a short punt that allowed Miami to set up shop at the KC 45-yard line.
Gesicki converted a 3rd & 12 with a tremendous grab, then Grant followed with an 18-yard catch and run on another third-down play. On the next play, Tua hit Gesicki underneath on a rollout, and the tight end converted for an easy score to stake the Dolphins to a 7-0 lead.
Kansas City got rolling with a 37-yard catch and run by Sammy Watkins, but Lawson pressured Mahomes on the next play, leading to a tipped pass and a pick by Rowe, who returned it 22 yards to close out the quarter in high style.
On the next drive, another big play to G-Sick was nullified by an iffy Jesse Davis penalty. Miami overcame the flag with a Bowden third-down catch, but Parker couldn't reel in an end zone jump ball, leading to a Sanders 31-yarder for a 10-0 advantage.
A patented frightening Chiefs drive ensued, with the team covering 75 yards in just over two minutes, capped by Tyreek Hill racing 32 yards on an end-around that saw Rowe flailing at the air. The extra point made it 10-7 despite Miami having dominated action to that point.
Pressure on Tua ended the next drive quickly, but Baker notched another sack and Mahomes missed an open Hill, forcing another punt. Miami took a shot on a third-down play that saw Tua escape a sack and throw an iffy deep ball to Grant, who was outfought for the ball by Tyrann Mathieu. On the interception return, Mathieu was drilled by Jackson, leading to some shoving.
A shaky roughing-the-passer call on Lawson jumpstarted KC's ensuing drive, which featured a heavy dose of Le'Veon Bell. Mahomes rolled out to buy time at inside Miami's 10, and when Howard lost awareness of where he was on the field, the quarterback hit Kelce for a touchdown to push the Chiefs ahead, 14-10.
A Kansas City sack ended the half, with a sense that missed opportunities had put Miami behind on the scoreboard when they had largely controlled the game.
The Chiefs seized firm control of the contest by opening the second half with a drive marked by poor Dolphins tackling. With McCain out, Hill badly beat Fjedelen for a 44-yard touchdown and a 21-10 margin.
After a three-and-out, a bad punt by Haack was returned by Hardman, who raced untouched on a play that frankly saw Dolphins special-teamers not exactly giving max effort. After two scores in 62 seconds, all of a sudden, the Chiefs led, 28-10.
With Tua looking a bit rattled, the Dolphins had to punt again. Kansas City tore down the field again and seemed poised to deliver the death blow, but Byron Jones ripped the ball out of Hardman's arm after a long play, with Grugier-Hill giving Miami life with the recovery.
The momentum was short-lived, as Bowden was thrown for a two-yard loss and Tua held the ball too long for a safety to make it 30-10.
The teams exchanged punts, but with the fourth quarter starting, the Chiefs got something going yet again offensively. However, Mahomes got greedy, and "X" made him pay, making an incredible one-handed interception while falling into the end zone, once more breathing life into a struggling squad.
A 23-yard jump ball to Hollins and a 16-yarder to Shaheen got Miami going, and G-Sick paid it off with an incredible catch that was nearly picked, but he turned it into a touchdown among three Chiefs defenders. The amazing 29-yard score cut the margin to 30-17.
A combined sack for Baker and Wilkins stopped KC's next drive, getting the ball back for the 'Fins. A 14-play drive ensued, marked by key third-down runs by Laird and Tua, to go with Shaheen drawing two KC flags in the end zone. Tua plunged in for the score -- though the clock kept running as the officials inexplicably took their time in calling the clear touchdown -- trimming the score to just 30-24.
The Chiefs responded with a devastating 10-play drive that featured a fourth-down converstion. Back-to-back tackles for losses by Sieler forced a 46-yard field goal by Kansas City, but Harrison Butker drilled it to push the lead to 33-24.
A desperation drive by the 'Fins was sparked by a tremendous catch by Bowden. Tua spiked it to set up a 44-yarder from Sanders, cutting it to 33-27 with just 16 seconds left. The onsides kick was unsuccessful, however, allowing the Chiefs to run out the clock and hang on for the victory.