Dolphins Week 2 Instant Takeaways

The Miami Dolphins certainly had a more impressive performance in Week 2 than they did in their opener.

The long-awaited deep ball to Tyreek Hill finally came in this game, a 47-yard hook-up in the third quarter. It came on the ideal situation, a third-and-13 where every an interception could have served as the equivalent of a punt. And on this one, Tua Tagovailoa badly underthrew Hill, but the wide receiver was able to adjust to the ball while the Patriots defender couldn't spot the ball.

This is a throw the Dolphins should attempt more often.

The Dolphins also finally brought back the 15- to 20-yard out throws to Hill and Waddle that were so effective the past couple of years and they had success with those.

The right side of the offensive line, with Larry Borom and Kion Smith starting in place of IR'ed starters Austin Jackson and James Daniels, held up more than adequately for most of the game.

There were some penalty issues on the offensive line in this game, but the culprits were Borom or Smith, but rather Aaron Brewer and Jonah Savaiinaea, along with Patrick Paul on a two-point conversion attempt that forced the Dolphins to turn around and kick the extrea point instead.

The running game, which also includes backward passes, again had a healthy average per attempt, but there were too many zero-yard runs in the second half.

Malik Washington got some rushing attempts, and they didn't just come on reverses, he took some handoffs in the backfield as well.

Then again, why wouldn't the Dolphins want the ball in his hands considering what he showed on his spectacular 74-yard punt return when he appeared stopped at the Miami 40 before he spun away and raced to the end zone.

Of course, just after the Dolphins came up with a big special teams play, they give up on the 90-yard kickoff return by Antonio Gibson. This actually had been a very good unit for the Dolphins this year, but this obviously was really bad.

Tagovailoa had a good bounce-back performance overall, but the next-to-last drive was a mess. The most egregious play was his bad overthrow of Hill open in the middle of the field, which helped create a fourth-and-9 situation.

On his fourth-down interception, yes, it was a bad throw, but it's not like Tua could simply throw the ball away.

The Dolphins did have one last shot and reached the New England 26, but the drive fell apart quickly and dramatically with a forced throw deep to Waddle, followed by two bad penalties, a false start and a delay.

That was followed by two sacks, including the one by Milton Williams where he got around Kion Smith.

But this wasn't on Smith or Borom, it was simply a back-and-fort affair that could have gone either way, but considering New England isn't a very good team and the Dolphins were at home, this was bad.

DEFENSE REMAINS AN ISSUE

The Dolphins defense finally came up with a stop after being shut out in that department against Indianapolis, but the effort overall still wasn't particularly impressive.

The Dolphins did get three sacks in this game — one each by Chop Robinson, Bradley Chubb and Jordyn Brooks — and overall got much more pressure than against Daniel Jones, but also got hurt by Drake Maye's scrambling ability.

There again were issues in coverage, most notably on the first drive on the completions to Austin Hooper and Mack Hollins but also on the long pass down the sideline to Rhamondre Stevenson, who's not known for his speed but still easily got behind Jordyn Brooks.

Willie Gay Jr. is the fastest Dolphins linebacker and at least got some snaps on defense in this game, and showed his speed on a tackle for a 6-yard loss. He deserves more snaps.

We will give props to the defense for giving the Dolphins offense a final chance to win with a stop after the Marte Mapu interception, though that came with the help of a New England penalty.

One thing that stood out for the defense were missed tackles, something that was an issue last season.

The Patriots really tried to give the Dolphins the game, missing two extra pionts and committing a dozen penalties, including a short kickoff that allowed Miami to start its final drive at its 40. And yet the Dolphins weren't able to get it done and now find themselves 0-2 with a trip to Buffalo on Thursday night. Not good.

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