The Miami Dolphins offense was not perfect on Sunday, with turnovers, penalties, and stalled drives keeping the team out of the endzone multiple times. But, at the end of the game, the offense did exactly what was needed to win the game. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who threw for 205 yards with a touchdown on 21-for-32 passing, threw for 57 yards on eight-for-eight passing to score the go-ahead touchdown. The drive ate 5:33 off the clock, leaving just 46 seconds on the clock for the Los Angeles Chargers and quarterback Justin Herbert.
The defense forgot that the final 46 seconds still count. On the first play of the Chargers’ final possession, the entire defensive front seemed to meet at Herbert, only for the quarterback to throw the ball at the last second, taking an incomplete pass over a sack.
The incomplete pass stopped the clock and gave the Chargers offense a chance to reset itself. On the second play of the drive, Dolphins linebacker Jaelan Phillips again managed to reach Herbert, only for the quarterback to step out of a sack for the second straight play, this time finding wide receiver Ladd McConkey for a short gain – only to see the wide receiver avoid a tackle by rookie cornerback Dante Trader, Jr., and turn what should have been a two-yard completion into a 42-yard gain. Los Angeles moved from their 41-yard to the Miami 17-yard line in 12 seconds.
All the defense needed was one tackle. On the first down play, a sack would have kept the clock running, forcing the Chargers to use their last timeout and knocked them back eight yards. On the second down play, a sack would have kept the clock running, forcing the Chargers to use their last timeout and knocked them back eight yards. On the second down play, after the completion, a tackle in bounds would have kept the clock running, forcing the Chargers to use their last timeout while only gaining about two yards. Even forcing McConkey out of bounds would have been fine – the clock would stop but the Chargers would only be at their 44 yard line.
Instead, the defense undid everything the offense did and lost Miami the game. Los Angeles flies back across the country with a 29-27 victory on the board.
It was not all on the defense, with two interceptions coming before the final Los Angeles drive. If Miami had scored on either of those possessions, maybe they would not have been in the position to lose the game with a defense who forgot how to tackle. Maybe allowing the clock to reach the two-minute warning instead of running a play at 2:03 would have given the Dolphins one more play on the other side of the stoppage, running 40 more seconds off the clock. If kicker Riley Patterson had not missed a 57-yard field goal in the first half, maybe the Dolphins would have hung on to the lead with the three additional points. Maybe a three-play, minus-eight-yard drive at the end of the third quarter could have given the Dolphins the points they needed to win.
A lot of maybes that could have changed this game, but at the end of the day, the Dolphins offense did what it needed to do to win the game. The defense could not make one tackle when it was needed.
Football is a game of inches. On Sunday, for the Dolphins, it was a game of tackles. And they were one tackle short.
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