Dolphins' Willis Gives Post Game Reactions

The Miami Dolphins finally found some traction Sunday, but every step forward seemed to come with a flag, a missed opportunity or another drive that ended too soon.

Minnesota stayed unbeaten with a 15-10 victory at U.S. Bank Stadium, riding five Will Reichard field goals and a defense that held Miami to eight first downs and 198 total yards. The Dolphins slipped to 0-4, wasting a strong defensive effort and a 100-yard rushing day from Ollie Gordon II.

Miami trailed 9-0 at halftime and never led, though Gordon’s 12-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter pulled the Dolphins within 12-10. Reichard added a 29-yard field goal in the fourth, and the Vikings drained the final 5:41 to close the game without giving Miami another possession.

Another Way to Mess Up

The afternoon’s defining moment came early in the second quarter. Quarterback Malik Willis escaped pressure and floated what appeared to be a 68-yard touchdown pass to Chris Bell. The play was erased when Bell was ruled to have stepped out of bounds before returning to make the catch.

Willis said he did not realize what had happened until he saw the flag.

“I was asking the ref, ‘Is it coming back or is it going?’” Willis said. “And he was like, ‘It’s coming back.’ And I was like, ‘Dang, that sucks.’”

The play captured Miami’s day. The Dolphins showed enough explosiveness to threaten Minnesota, but not enough precision to sustain it. Miami punted six times, went 2-for-9 on third down and possessed the ball for only 20 minutes, 49 seconds.

“We can get the ball moving, but to keep it moving, we have to play clean football,” Willis said. “And to help our defense, who played a great game, it would help if we could keep the ball moving.”

Anemic Day on Offense

Willis completed 9 of 17 passes for 85 yards and lost a fumble on one of Dallas Turner’s two sacks. Miami’s passing game produced only three first downs, leaving Gordon to provide nearly all of the offense’s spark.

Gordon carried nine times for 100 yards, including a career-long 53-yard burst on third-and-5 that set up Riley Patterson’s 27-yard field goal. On Miami’s next possession, Gordon broke through for the 12-yard touchdown that made it a two-point game.

“He works his butt off, and he’s been working all week to go out there and execute,” Willis said. “He deserves it.”

The Dolphins’ defense gave the offense every reasonable chance. Zach Sieler recorded two of Miami’s four sacks, including one on Minnesota’s opening snap, and rookie linebacker Jacob Rodriguez piled up 18 tackles. The unit kept the Vikings out of the end zone on all three red-zone trips.

Still, Minnesota controlled the ball for more than 39 minutes. Quarterback Kyler Murray completed 27 of 37 passes for 247 yards, while tight end T.J. Hockenson caught all 13 of his targets for 119 yards. His final reception, an 8-yard gain on third-and-5, allowed the Vikings to run out the clock.

Reichard supplied all of Minnesota’s scoring with field goals of 47, 50, 33, 41 and 29 yards.

For Willis, the most frustrating part was watching a defense that had battled all afternoon leave the field without a win.

“It’s tough when you go and you play a game like that, that hard, and your defense battles like that, and we shoot ourselves in the foot on drives,” Willis said.

Play the Schedule

Miami has now faced an unbeaten opponent in each of its first four games. The schedule has offered little mercy, but Willis refused to use youth or circumstance as an excuse.

“We obviously are a young team, and that’s not an excuse,” he said. “More than anything, it’s a challenge, and we just have to keep going.”

The quarterback kept returning to the same theme: accountability. He said his job is to control the offense, sharpen communication during the week and make sure details practiced from Monday through Saturday carry into Sunday.

“I can control what the offense does, and I control myself,” Willis said. “When they are playing great, I got to control what I control and go out there and make sure our offense is playing at the best level that they can.”

The Dolphins were more competitive than they had been during their opening stretch, but improvement without a victory offered little comfort. They had the ball moving, a defense keeping the game close and a chance to change the outcome. What they did not have was the clean football Willis said they needed.

“You hate the feeling of continuing to get better without actually gaining wins in the win column,” Willis said. “We fight and claw to the end, and we just don’t come out with it.”