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The Good
Tua Tagovailoa had a monster game, throwing for 382 yards and 3 TDs and posting a yards per attempt average of 10.6. He is the first QB in Dolphins history to complete 80% of his passes while throwing for over 350 yards and 3 TDs. This is the second monster game Tua has this season.
Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle are everything we imagined them to be. They combined for 294 yards and 2 TDs and were uncoverable all game long.
Overall, the offense gained 476 total yards, 27 first downs, 8 of 12 on third down and were relatively balanced with 26 rush attempts to 36 pass attempts. I would like to see more of Raheem Mostert as he is our most effective back and seems to rip at least 1-2 10+ yard runs per game.
The Bad
The defense conversely put the team in a 14-0 hole early. They had a tough time stopping the Lions. Admittedly, the Lions are pretty good on offense. They are 4th in total yards and 9th in scoring. But they did come off two straight games where they did not score a touchdown. On the bright side, the Lions have now not scored a point for two straight quarters, so the defense definitely fixed some things in the second half and played complimentary football. The unit that seemed to struggle the most against the Lions was the defensive line, who wasn't able to get much pressure until the second half. The Lions have a pretty good offensive line.
Special teams allowing that punt fake. We all know Dan Campbell and we all know that it exactly the situation where he would call something like that. Our special teams have gotten significantly worse this season.
The Ugly
It was a pretty close game against what is a pretty bad team on the road. But the Dolphins were able to come ahead in the second half. It could definitely have been a better performance, especially by the defense. But a win is a win.
Overall
The Dolphins are 5-3 and in a tight race in what is probably the best division in the AFC. Next week is a middling team in the Chicago Bears, who can't protect their QB (Justin Fields has been sacked 31 times). This would be a great opportunity for the front 7 to have a coming out party. Winning the next two games put the Dolphins in position to go 7-3 into the bye week to get healthy for the stretch run. Here's hoping they take care of business.