Tagovailoa’s return not enough as Dolphins lose to Jaguars in London, 5th defeat in row
The longer the Dolphins’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London went on, the more they resembled a team whose record truly did make them worthy of being lumped with Jacksonville, one of two teams who entered Week 6 with a winless record.
And after Sunday’s game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, they’re identical teams with 1-5 records.
Miami blew a 10-point first-half lead — one that should have probably been larger — in a 23-20 loss to the Jaguars. Jacksonville kicker Matthew Wright made a 53-yard field goal as time expired to give the Dolphins their fifth consecutive loss and the Jaguars their first win since Week 1 of the 2020 season, ending a streak of 20 losses in a row.
It didn’t matter that the Dolphins were without their top-two cornerbacks, Xavien Howard and Byron Jones, sidelined by injuries. And it didn’t matter that receivers DeVante Parker and Preston Williams couldn’t suit up for a struggling offense. The first few losses told the story of a young team trying to find its way without its starting quarterback. A fifth consecutive loss now shows a team with no true identity and a bleak future.
“That’s up to me,” coach Brian Flores said of the team’s 1-5 start. “I’m not doing a good enough job. Not playing consistently enough. Not coaching well enough. Not playing well enough. And not playing consistent enough. Some positive plays. Consistent ball — first half, a little bit in the second half but we’re just not putting it together. That starts with me.”
In his first game since fracturing his ribs in Week 2, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa showed flashes of the franchise player many hope he can be. He also showed how much room for growth he has in his nascent career.
His first series was reminiscent of the opening possession in the team’s Week 1 win over the New England Patriots: sharp and fruitful. Tagovailoa drove the offense 75 yards down the field in 13 plays, punctuated by a 6-yard touchdown pass to rookie Jaylen Waddle, his first of two in the game.
He threw for 329 yards, the third time in his career he has passed the 300-yard mark. However, Tagovailoa also threw a bad third-quarter interception to the Jaguars’ Nevin Lawson, one play after Christian Wilkins strip-sacked Trevor Lawrence and Zach Sieler recovered the ball with the Dolphins down 17-13. It was a play Tagovailoa acknowledged “should never have went like that.”
But Tagovailoa showed his resilience, too. Given another chance after the defense stopped James Robinson short on a fourth-down run deep in the red zone, Tagovailoa completed all six of his pass attempts and took the Dolphins 91 yards down the field, capped with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Waddle to take a 20-17 lead in the fourth quarter.
For as many positives as the Dolphins have shown in spurts, they were once again outweighed by their shortcomings, especially in key moments.
Miami’s offense was 2-for-4 in the red zone, with untimely penalties, questionable play-calling and inadequate execution derailing drives. Leading 13-3 with a little over two minutes remaining in the first half, the offense wasn’t able to pick up a first down pinned in its own territory. After a short punt to the Jaguars, Lawrence took the Jaguars into the end zone in six plays. He made it just a three-point deficit going to halftime, finding Marvin Jones Jr. for a 28-yard touchdown pass over Noah Igbinoghene, playing extensive snaps with Howard and Jones out.
The drive was a spark plug of sorts for the 2021 draft’s No. 1 overall pick, who got the ball to start the second half and drove right back into the end zone with a five-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to take a 17-13 lead.
A pair of unsuccessful challenges on consecutive plays left Flores with just one timeout to navigate the game late. He failed in an attempt to overturn a dropped third-down catch by Myles Gaskin in the fourth quarter. He then couldn’t get the officials to overturn a close play in which Jamal Agnew’s finger may have grazed the ball on a punt before it bounced into the end zone.
An overturned call on either play likely would have changed the Dolphins’ fortunes. Instead, Wright made a 54-yard field goal on the ensuing possession to tie the score at 20 with 3:40 left.
And on arguably the game’s most decisive play, with 1:46 left, Malcolm Brown was stuffed on a fourth-down run from shotgun formation on the Dolphins’ 46-yard line. It was another reminder of issues with the offensive line and running game, which totaled 77 yards on 20 attempts.
“We tried to put our best guys in the best position to get us first downs, and that’s the situation we had,” Tagovailoa said. “We just didn’t execute it.”
With 5 seconds left, the Jaguars picked up 9 yards on fourth-and-8 to set up the 53-yard field goal. Flores said the players were coached to guard the sideline. Jaguars coach Urban Meyer acknowledged after the game a long pass was the first play-call. But the Dolphins used their final timeout before the snap and Meyer opted to pick up enough yardage for a manageable attempt.
“It was actually a design kind of sideline call kind of guarding the boundary but should have been tighter,” Flores said.
The conclusion was only a fitting end to an afternoon filled with theatrics before and throughout the game as the NFL continued its International Series. There were back-to-back renditions of the United Kingdom and United States national anthems with both nations’ flags spread across the field. A wayward fan who interrupted the opening kickoff. A halftime performance by British band Rudimental. The U.K.-based crowd was drawn to every aspect of the matchup, oohing and aahing in response to everything from a kickoff return to a physical hit along the sideline.
On the final play, Wright would jog onto the field and nail the winning kick, giving the fans a rousing end to the game after a year without international NFL matches.
“We’ll try to build on the positives and try to get better, and we’ve got to stick together,” Flores said. “For us as a team we have to continue to stick together and prepare and give great effort.”
This story was originally published October 17, 2021 at 12:59 PM.
