Jorge’s Hot Takes

By: Jorge Hinojosa

Man, oh man, what a game! I’m not even going to bore you with an introduction, let’s jump right to it!
 
The good:

• Tua oh Tua; Man oh man, how can I not star with this. Tua is everything we were promised and more. Sure, it’s only his second start but did you watch him? Eluding rushers, carrying the team on his back on the 4th quarter and making every throw that was needed. Oh, yes, and there was also a QB sneak on a huge 4th down. Overall, fantastic game from the first-year player. (Also, Coach Gailey, amazing job man, I take my criticism back, I was wrong!) 
  
• Byron Jones Hit. A lot of people were wondering why the Cardinals took the ball out of Kyler Murray’s hand for a 4th and short after he had been running wildly on the Dolphins, what those people missed is that on the previous play Byron Jones laid the lumber on the second year QB and former Heisman winner and from that point on, the Cardinals took the ball away from him. If any other team was looking for the blueprint to stop the Cardinals, the Dolphins just offered one: They want to run their QB as a running back, hit him like if he was one. 
• Jason (beep)Sanders is Money! Honestly there is not much else to say except Don Jason Sanders! Franchise record holder for most consecutive FG’s, perfect this season and 2/2 over 50 yards. Guy is money.
  

The bad:

• Dolphins still struggle v mobile QB’s. As mentioned above, until the Dolphins laid the lumber on him, Murray was running all over the defense. There were some bright spots (Kyle Van Noy holding the edge comes to mind), but the Dolphins will face mobile QB’s down the road (Herbert, Burrow, Allen and Mahomes), while none is as elusive or flinch as Murray, the Dolphins will do well to find a way to stop them and force them to throw the ball up for our secondary to shut them down.
• Early in the 3rd quarter the game was almost comical with the refs calling DPI every time X breathed on D-Hop. That being said, knowing Coach Flores he is sure to make a big focus of it this week as the Dolphins go onto the second half of their season.
• The Dolphins O-line. Don’t take it the wrong way, this O-line with 3 rookies is very promising, but they still have a high ceiling they haven’t reached and this is especially noticeable on the running game where they have struggled to create a consistent push. As they gel together, and now that the Dolphins have 6 starting caliber players (with the return of LT Austin Jackson), we could see more heavy packages down the road and even some imbalanced lines.

 
The ugly:

• Preston was having a great comeback game from the two drops last week and after diving in for a score left the game with a foot injury. Let’s hope it’s nothing serious as the Dolphins will need all their weapons down the stretch.

 
Next: The Dolphins look to extend their winning streak when they face Los Angeles Chargers at 4pm ET at Hard Rock next Sunday.

Please welcome Jorge Hinojosa to the PhinManiacs team!  Please follow him on Twitter @FranciscoHinoPe