In their most complete and dominant performance of the year, the Miami Dolphins shellacked the Carolina Panthers 33-10 on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium. The offense, defense and special teams were hitting on all cylinders from the get-go starting with a blocked punt for a touchdown at 9:18 of the 1st quarter. Duke Riley went untouched to block the punt, which was picked up by Justin Coleman near the goal line for the touchdown to put the Fins up 7-0.
Carolina responded quickly on their 2nd drive sparked by a 64-yard reception by DJ Moore. Cam Newton finished off the 6 play 75-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.
But from the that point forward, it was all Dolphins as the final stats would show. Miami dominated the time of possession 37:34 to 22:26 and had 22 1st downs compared to only 10 for the Panthers. The Dolphins defense held Carolina to 198 total yards with nearly one-third of the yards coming on the one pass to Moore.
Need more examples of the Dolphins dominance? Miami’s defense intercepted 3 passes and sacked Panthers’ quarterbacks 5 times, including 3 by Jaelen Phillips. They also held Newton to 92 yards passing on just 5 completions in 21 attempts with 2 interceptions.
Newton also ran for just 5 yards on 3 carries before being replaced in the 4th quarter by P.J. Walker. Newton had one of the worst games of his career, some of which could be explained by the Dolphins constant pressure, but he also just threw some terrible balls.
Carolina’s 3rd & 4th possessions in the 1st half were both ended by interceptions with Jevon Holland garnering the 1st one and Xavien Howard the 2nd. Howard’s interception gave Miami the ball on the Panthers’ 9-yard line and 3 plays later quarterback Tua Tagovailoa zipped a 9-yard TD pass to wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, who had a big game. Waddle finished the day with 9 receptions for 137 yards.
On Miami’s next possession they drove 73 yards in 6 plays with a 57-yard pass to Waddle being the big play. The drive was capped off by a direct snap to running back Myles Gaskin who ran it in for a 3-yard touchdown to put Miami up 21-7 with 4:26 to go in the half.
Miami then made its only significant mistake of the game right before the end of the 1st half. While driving for a likely field goal, a bad snap from center Austin Reiter was recovered by Carolina and returned to Miami’s 23-yard line. Zane Gonzalez then kicked a 41-yard field goal with 1 second to go in the half. What could have been a 24-7 Miami lead at halftime was reduced to 21-10.
But Miami continued its dominance in the 2nd half. After forcing a Panthers punt on their 1st possession, the Dolphins marched down the field on 13 play 75-yard drive that consumed over 7 minutes. A careless taunting penalty on the Panthers kept the drive alive which was capped by Gaskin’s 2nd touchdown run of the day, this one from 4 yards out. Jason Sanders doinked the extra point off the upright, but Miami was still up 27-10.
On Carolina’s next possession the Fins defense flashed its dominance once again. On 1st down defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah tipped the pass. On 2nd down, Phillips sacked Newton at the 1-yard line. Defensive tackle Adam Butler then tipped the pass on 3rd down.
Miami then took 6:34 off the clock on their next drive which resulted in a 46-yard field goal by Sanders.
The defense wasn’t finished dominating, though, as on Carolina’s next drive Miami started off with back-to-back sacks by Ogbah & Phillips. This was followed by the Dolphins 3rd interception of the day, this one by cornerback Nik Needham.
A 33-yard field goal by Sanders completed the scoring as the Miami drive took another 5:22 off the clock.
Not counting the kneel down to close out the game, Miami only had 3 drives in the 2nd half, but they resulted in 1 touchdown and 2 field goals and took a combined 19 minutes and 20 seconds off the clock.
Other key takeaways from the game were:
- For the 2nd game in a row, Tua completed over 80% of his passes going 27-31 for an 87% completion percentage. He threw for 230 yards with 1 touchdown and zero interceptions. He was sacked twice.
- Miami continued to make a commitment to the running game rushing the ball 39 times for 111 yards. Although they only averaged 2.8 yards per carry, it kept the Panthers defense honest and allowed them to dominate the time of possession.
- Gaskin ran for 49 yards on 16 carries with 2 touchdowns. The recently acquired Phillip Lindsay, who only had 2 practices under his belt, ran for 42 yards on 12 carries and looked like he could be a key part of the Fins offense going forward.
- Tight end Durham Smythe caught 5 passes for 32 yards and had a key block on Gaskin’s 2nd TD run.
- Carolina running back Christian McCaffrey injured his ankle in the 1st half. He finished the day with only 10 carries for 35 yards and didn’t have a reception. Note: It’s a lot easier to defend Carolina when McCaffrey isn’t playing.
- Miami had only 5 penalties for 35 yards while Carolina had 7 penalties for 61 yards.
- Miami held Carolina to 64 yards rushing on 18 carries for a 3.6 yards per carry average.
- The Panthers had a successful fake punt on their 1st drive of the 2nd half, but the drive ended with a punt anyway.
- Speaking of punts, hats off to Fins punter Michael Palardy. Although he averaged only 40.5 yards per punt on 4 punts (all in the 1st half), he had a great day pinning the Panthers deep in their own territory as Carolina started 4 of their drives on the 5, 9, 13 and 15 yard lines.
- Miami has now won 4 straight games to move to 5-7.
- Dolphins GM Chris Grier must have had a big smile on his face after the game and not just because Miami won. Grier has taken a lot of flak for his recent draft picks, but several of them shined on Sunday. Tua, the 5th overall pick in 2020, had another solid game completing 87% of his passes while throwing for 230 yards. Waddle, the 6th overall pick in the 2021 draft, caught 9 passes for 137 yards and a TD. Phillips, the 18th overall pick this season, had 3 sacks while 2nd round pick safety Jevon Holland continued to blossom with his 2 interception of the season.
Up next for Miami is the New York Giants on December 5th at Hard Rock. The Giants beat the Eagles today to move to 4-7, but this will definitely be a winnable game for Miami, who hopes to move to 6-7.
