The answer to the Jeopardy! question would be, “Who are the Miami Dolphins?”
The question: Who helped the Jacksonville Jaguars break their 20-game losing streak?
You’ve read that question correctly because there should be no way that the Jaguars were better than the Dolphins in their Week 6 game at London.
While they were supposed to be competitors, the Dolphins’ miscues helped Jacksonville complete a come-from-behind victory.
Urban Meyer is one lucky guy after the controversy he faced in Week 5 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
He gets his first victory in the NFL while getting abandoned by news organizations due to Jon Gruden’s fallout.
Meanwhile, Trevor Lawrence finally won in the pros after throwing for 319 yards and one touchdown.
It’s only his second interception-free game, and he seems to be improving every game.
James Robinson also helped the Jaguars by establishing their run game.
Jacksonville shouldn’t have won a game wherein they converted only three third-downs and had just 27 minutes of possession time.
Unfortunately, the Dolphins can’t hit the jackpot even if Tua Tagovailoa took over for Jacoby Brissett.
That’s a steep fall from grace for a team that nearly made the playoffs last year with 10 victories.
Brian Flores’ once-promising head-coaching career is swiftly turning into smoke.
How could they turn from contenders to cellar-dwellers in two seasons?
For one thing, their defense can’t stop anyone.
Last season, the Dolphins ranked fifth in points allowed at 21.1 points per game.
This year, they are 30th with the New York Giants, surrendering 29.5 points per game.
That’s an increase of one touchdown, which is a huge factor in deciding games.
Factoring that discrepancy, they should be at 3-3 instead of 1-5.
But numbers aside, Tagovailoa isn’t helping the team win.
Is Tua Their Long-Term Solution?
To be fair with Tagovailoa, Brissett wasn’t much of a help either.
But young quarterbacks often draw comparisons from fellow play-callers who got drafted with them in the same class.
Miami had a chance to take a franchise quarterback last season and chose between Oregon’s Justin Herbert and Alabama’s Tagovailoa.
Tua looked like the more NFL-ready between the two because of his mobility and accuracy, in defense of the Dolphins.
It was the easiest decision the Los Angeles Chargers had to make because they would take whoever Miami left on the board.
Two seasons into his career and the same problems persist for Tagovailoa.
He’s still erratic to a fault, as shown during a play against Jacksonville wherein his intended pass to Jaylen Waddle became an easy interception.
He still has issues in finding people downfield and throwing through tight coverages.
On the other hand, Herbert became an elite quarterback after winning Offensive Rookie of the Year.
That disappointing loss to the Baltimore Ravens is a minor hiccup in his journey.
But Tagovailoa is miles away from what Herbert already showed.
What if this is his ceiling talent-wise, and he’s not the quarterback for Miami?
Worse, the Dolphins have to surrender their 2022 first-round pick to the Philadelphia Eagles as part of last year’s trade that got them Waddle.
It’s early to give up on him, but he doesn’t have a statement win wherein he indeed dominated the opposition.
Perhaps the 10-win season was an overachievement, and the Dolphins can’t go anywhere higher.
Sadly, Tagovailoa does not bring out the Dolphins’ confidence.
Therefore, the time when they will move away from him will come sooner than later.
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