Dolphins’ Ogbah reacts to racist message after Jaguars game. Plus injury report
In his first public comments since sharing a since-deleted screenshot of a racist message sent to him on Instagram, Dolphins defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah said the message “pissed me off.”
After last Sunday’s loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Ogbah posted a screenshot of a male who sent a message to him on the social media app. In the message, the male called Ogbah the n-word on multiple occasions. “I normally ignore stuff like this but this is uncalled for!” Ogbah wrote on Twitter.
“I just wanted to show the world that you can’t do that. We’re all human,” Ogbah said. “You can’t come at a person like that, especially I know you can’t come to my face like that, so I just wanted to show the world you can’t do that and then I realized I didn’t want it to be a distraction for this team, so that’s the only reason why I deleted the tweet. I just wanted to show those keyboard warriors, you can’t really do that. We’re still humans at the end of the day.”
According to The Providence Journal, the University of Rhode Island has launched a review of a racist Instagram message allegedly directed by one of its students. The university was unable to share more information about the student but The Providence Journal reported that URI’s president, Marc B. Parlange, “quickly sent out a statement to the college community that said, ‘the university learned today of an offensive, unacceptable and racist comment posted to social media earlier today, allegedly by one of our students. This language is abhorrent and has no place in a community that is deeply committed to anti-racism.’”
“I think we just need to stand together as one,” Ogbah said. “If you see your friend or somebody you know doing that, say something. Don’t just ignore it just because that’s your buddy or your family member. Just say something about it because it affects everybody.”
Turnover talk
Great streaks have to start somewhere and after the Dolphins’ streak of 26 consecutive games with a takeaway came to an end in a Week 5 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the defense is starting from ground zero again.
The unit got back on the board, however, in the loss to the Jaguars, as defensive lineman Christian Wilkins sacked quarterback Trevor Lawrence and fellow lineman Zach Sieler recovered the ball in the third quarter.
For a defense whose play has regressed dramatically from the 2020 season, the unit has kept pace with last season’s takeaway total. Through six games of the 2020 season, the Dolphins had forced nine turnovers. Entering Week 7, they’ve forced seven. The volume of takeaways in 2020 ballooned as the season progressed and that could once again be the key to fixing a slow start. Over the final 10 games of the 2020 season, the Dolphins forced 20 turnovers and had six games with multiple takeaways.
“It always helps,” Sieler said. “It helps the ebbs and flows of the game. You shut the offense down, you get a turnover, that is no score. That’s a huge play. We’ve just got to keep working to get those plays and get more of them.”
Injury report
There was no change to the Dolphins’ injury report Thursday ahead of their home game against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Twelve players — including quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (ribs) — were limited in practice. The Dolphins held a walk-through Wednesday and the listed participation was just an estimation. However, Thursday’s session was a full practice, giving a clearer idea of whether certain players dealing with injuries may be available by game time.
Four players who missed last Sunday’s game — wide receivers DeVante Parker (shoulder/hamstring) and Preston Williams (groin) and cornerbacks Xavien Howard (shoulder/groin) and Byron Jones (Achilles/groin) — were among those limited in practice. All were active in positional drills during the viewing period of practice. Another player who missed the Jaguars game, tight end Adam Shaheen (knee), was a full participant for the second straight day.
