- The kicker and the kick. Jason Sanders going 5-5 on field goals, including three over 50 yards, clearly gets the game ball honors. To me, that last-second 29-yarder did a lot of things for the Dolphins other than just winning the game. Confident kicker. Confident to beat a quality team with a winning record. Coach confident.
- Mike McDaniel (repeat from last week). Congratulations, coach. You won a big game. You led your team to the playoffs for the second consecutive year. You had your team ready to play and instilled a belief in them, win or lose that they had the ability to be elite. Belief is one thing. Today, the team proved it on the field. The team has a track record, and you have a track record of beating a damn good team with a winning record. Finally, you stuck with the running game in short-yardage situations.
- Tyreek Hill. I can’t imagine “The Cheetah” was 100% with his ankle injury. Despite a slow start, he ended up with nine catches for 99 yards, including several catch-and-runs for crucial first downs. He remains the heart and soul, and leader of this team.
- Stats aside, he did two great things this game. He didn’t turn the ball over, and he led his team on a game-winning drive while leaving his opponent with no time left on the clock. I believe he has not thrown an interception in the last 18 quarters, which is really the key to this team progressing into the post-season. Tua was 24-37 for 293 yards and 1 TD for the game. He did miss some open receivers but hit them when it counted on the last drive of the game.
- Andrew Van Ginkel. AVG was all over the field. He almost had another pick-six off a tipped pass. He totaled 10 tackles, 1.5 sacks, a tackle for loss, and four quarterback hits.
- Vic Fangio. It didn’t start off great, with Dallas driving 73 yards in 15 plays and Cee Dee Lamb going off for four catches and 93 yards in barely a quarter. This week, it was bend but don’t break as yards were given up but only 2 TDs. Vic’s bunch clamped down on Lamb, holding him to only two more catches the rest of the game. There is no shame in holding Dallas to 20 points.
- Special Teams (repeat from last week). In addition to Mr. Sanders, Jake Bailey averaged 58 yards per punt and had one punt downed on the 2-yard line by Elijah Campbell, who has shone on the special teams unit covering kicks.
- Yes, I found something for this list. The Miami offense had wasted three time-outs to avoid getting a delay of game penalty. Frankly, this has been an issue all year between head coach and quarterback. I don’t know what the issue is, but they have to figure it out because the higher the stakes, the more valuable a commodity the time-out becomes.
- Injuries (repeat from last week). Three more critical injuries happened during the game. Both Jalen Waddle and Raheem Mostert missed significant time due to reported shin injuries. Luckily, Miami has depth at running back, and De’Von Achane and Jeff Wilson, Jr. stepped in nicely. Wide receiver Robbie Chosen missed most of the game with a possible concussion. Let’s hope all can recover in time to play next week.
The post Fins 22 Cowboys 20: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly appeared first on Miami Dolphins.
Source: https://dolphinstalk.com/2023/12/fins-2 ... -the-ugly/