By Jordan Long
On Sunday the Denver Broncos beat the Miami Dolphins 20-13. In the Miami loss, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was replaced by Ryan Fitzpatrick with 10:44 left in the game. The Dolphins could have a quarterback controversy heading into this week’s game against the New York Jets but the Dolphins aren’t thinking of a quarterback switch yet.
Tagovailoa struggled against the Denver defense. When he left the game, he was 11 of 20 passing for 83 yards and one touchdown. Besides his only touchdown drive that came after a Drew Lock interception in the 1st quarter, he couldn’t do anything with the football. Denver’s pass rush gave him fits and turned into 6 sacks. Miami benched him for Fitzpatrick in the 4th quarter.
The Dolphins turned to Fitzpatrick who almost engineered a game tying drive starting at their own 1 with 5 minutes and 13 seconds left in the game after Denver Broncos’ running back Melvin Gordon fumbled going in for a game sealing touchdown. Fitzpatrick drove them to the Denver 15 yard line before Broncos’ safety Justin Simmons sealed the game with an interception in the endzone with 1 minute and 3 seconds left. Fitzpatrick finished the game 12 of 18 passing for 117 yards and one interception.
Miami has already made a switch at quarterback this season. At the time Miami was 3-3 after defeating the New York Jets and heading into their bye week in week 7. Miami decided they needed a switch at quarterback. It was a puzzling move. Fitzpatrick wasn’t playing awful football and the Dolphins had a .500 record. It didn’t seem the offense needed a fix. It wasn’t broken.
When Tagovailoa played, Miami won three straight before the loss in Denver. They now stand at 6-4 and are 1 game back of the Buffalo Bills for 1st place in the AFC East Division. The way they are playing, they should reach the playoffs.
The benching could be a wake up call for Tagovailoa to show he needs to play better. The problems on offense on Sunday weren’t all his fault since his line didn’t protect him. The line somehow played better when Fitzpatrick was in the game and protected him from Denver’s pass rush. It shows that Fitzpatrick gives the Dolphins the best chance to win. The Dolphins may want to reconsider who will start under center. Head Coach Brian Flores will do what is best for his team, but it seems Fitzpatrick is the better option.
Leave a Reply