Game recap: Miami pull off a miraculous comeback in Baltimore

“Fins for the Win” (Waddle, 2022). I am still in shock having witnessed the Miami Dolphins complete the ultimate comeback against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium.

From a 35-14 third quarter deficit, Tua Tagovailoa turned up the heat, and the Dolphins went on to stun a rather aloof Ravens defence in the fourth quarter; with the final score being 38-42 to Miami.

This ties the Dolphins’ second largest comeback in franchise history, as they also came back from the same deficit against the Bills in 2005.

A clash of the QB’s: Lamar puts on a show, but Tua gets last laugh

Despite losing this matchup, Ravens QB Lamar Jackson still delivered a huge performance against the Dolphins.

The former Heisman winner put up stats of 21/29, 318 passing yards, 119 rushing yards, 3 passing touchdowns and 1 rushing touchdown. One might wonder how you even lose a game when your QB produces this in one game!

Arguably, Jackson’s most audacious play was his 75-yard touchdown run which came towards the end of the third quarter. Lamar faked a handoff and accelerated through a big open whole in the middle of Miami defence, proceeding to zoom past the Miami secondary to score a touchdown. However, despite his almost perfect performance, Lamar could not keep up with the Dolphins QB.

Miami’s Tagovailoa threw for 469 passing yards, and six touchdowns. Only Dan Marino and Bob Griese had previously recorded this many touchdown passes in a game.

Tua was able to instigate the ultimate comeback, inspiring an offense 21-points adrift with 15 minutes to go. To put 28 points past a team in this time is nothing short of absurd in today’s the NFL.

It was Tagovailoa’s 7-yard pass to WR Jaylen Waddle with 14 seconds to go which secured this miraculous comeback. Post-match, Tua looked forward to the future, stating how “This just shows the resiliency of our team, you look at the big picture of it and the confidence goes up.’ If Tagovailoa can put on a similar show of skill and resilience, the Dolphins could break their run of losses against AFC East rivals, the Buffalo Bills.

Throughout his first two seasons with the Dolphins, Tua has been somewhat hit and miss, and many have labelled this season as a make or break for the previous Alabama star.

However, I think it’s finally time we can silence those Tua haters. We have entered TuaTime and there is no stopping Miami now!

Best WR duo in the league? 🐧🐆

As if the comeback wasn’t momentous enough, the Dolphin’s WR duo, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle became the first teammates in NFL history to catch 10 passes for over 150 yards, and two touchdowns in the same game.

To breakdown the specifics, Tyreek Hill put up a monster 190 receiving yards from 11 receptions, with Waddle almost matching this on 171 receiving yards from 11 receptions. It’s worth noting, that if you had either of these two in your fantasy team/teams, you more than likely had a good week.

Tyreek Hill had touchdown catches of both 48 yards and 60 yards during this fourth quarter rally, exemplifying his ridiculous speed and ability to find space in the endzone. All offseason Dolphins fans, including myself, have been dreaming of plays like these.

Furthermore, it appears Hill was not joking when he previously called Tua Tagovailoa “the most accurate QB in the NFL”. Hill now has 284 yards through two games and is the top ranked receiver in the NFL for receiving yards. Likewise, Waddle ranks third, putting up 240 yards across the two weeks.

There is no doubt that this pair of speedsters are going to cause havoc against any oppositions secondary. I know it’s early in the season, but I don’t think that any team has a better pair of Wide-Receivers.

Can the Dolphins beat the Bills?

Both these teams are heading into this AFC East matchup unbeaten. Now, it’s easy to get easily excited as a Dolphins fan, and I can’t count how many times this week I have proclaimed that we are going to beat QB Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills.

Yet, if the Dolphins have any hope of breaking this long-run of losses, they really can’t afford to go 21 points down. While the Ravens are a solid playoff contender, the Bills are Super Bowl favourites, and will propose more of a challenge, especially if Miami start falling significantly behind.

Following this, I think there are three things the Dolphins need to have a good shot at remaining unbeaten after Week Three.

Firstly, the defence need to be better than what they were against Baltimore. Usually, Miami’s defence are the core strength of their team. However, they seemed to be asleep at times during this matchup.

One example of this is that star CB Xavien Howard got beaten a few times one-on-one which is usually a rare sight. Thus, in order to have a chance at winning, the Dolphins will have to match the pace of a Bills defence who already have plenty of forced fumbles, turnovers, and interceptions.

Secondly, Tua will have to perform well. I am not saying that he has to go for over 400 yards and 6 touchdowns again (even though that would be nice), but he needs to put in a solid performance, with few mistakes.

Lastly, like I mentioned in my last article, for the Dolphins to really become a formidable offence they need to improve and utilise their run-game. With the additions of RB’s Raheem Mostert and Chase Edmonds, there is a strong foundation just waiting to click into gear.

If Miami can unlock the key to this rush, and combine it with their all-star WR duo, this AFC matchup could become interesting…