Tua Tagovailoa throws 3 TDs again as Dolphins escape with 35-32 win over Bears
The Dolphins’ Week 9 road game against the Chicago Bears followed a similar script as last week’s win over the Detroit Lions for much of the afternoon.
The offense was explosive and efficient as it scored four touchdowns on its first five possessions. The defense struggled to keep the opposing offense out of the end zone, this time quarterback Justin Fields and his 178 rushing yards, a regular-season single-game record for a quarterback.
But the defense again made pivotal stops late and Fields’ fourth-down pass to wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown was dropped with 1:22 remaining, preserving a 35-32 win for the Dolphins at Soldier Field on Sunday, their third straight victory.
It’s a game the Dolphins (6-3) needed to keep pace in the AFC East, with the Buffalo Bills’ loss to the New York Jets now separating Miami one game from first place in the division. And it was an outing that will likely leave the Dolphins pleased with the state of their offense while searching for more solutions on defense.
Coach Mike McDaniel, though, had a different perspective.
“What I’m happy about was the resolve,” he said postgame. “Of course, you want to dominate your opponent. They get paid too, they did a good job. We were hoping to get some turnovers, and they didn’t really give us opportunities to. They were very strategic in how they approached the game plan, I l feel like, keeping the ball out of our hands and to their credit, Justin Fields is as dynamic with the ball in his hands as any player in the league, really.
“It will never be sustainable for one side of the ball to dominate in the National Football League anyway. It’s hard to within one game, but what I’m just happy about is when the offense wasn’t able to score points, the defense found their best play and that’s what we’re going to build on moving forward.”
The offense continued to progress under quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who completed 21 of 30 passes for 302 yards and threw three touchdowns for the second consecutive game. Wide receiver Tyreek Hill (seven catches, 143 yards, one touchdown) passed 1,000 yards on the season, keeping pace for 2,000 receiving yards, which has never been accomplished in league history.
The Dolphins answered each score from the Bears (3-6) in the first half and led 21-10 in the second quarter after outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel recovered a blocked punt from fellow outside linebacker Jaelan Phillips and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown.
Miami led 35-25 with six minutes left in the third quarter after Tagovailoa’s 10-yard touchdown pass to running back Jeff Wilson Jr. (74 total yards), who scored in his team debut after being traded from the San Francisco 49ers on Tuesday.
To that point, a missed 29-yard field goal by kicker Jason Sanders at end of the first half — the Dolphins led 21-17 at halftime — was the only blemish for the offense.
“The way we looked at it offensively, we don’t have to press, we don’t have to do anything outside of whatever that play entails,” Tagovailoa said. “Just do your job, do your assignment and the points will take care of itself. We weren’t necessarily looking at the scoreboard. We were just trying our best every time that we were given the ball to go out and score.”
Outside linebacker Bradley Chubb (one tackle) also made his team debut but his presence wasn’t enough to immediately rectify a Miami defense that often had no answer for Fields, who completed 17 of 28 passes for 123 yards and three touchdowns. The second-year quarterback scored on a 61-yard scramble in the third quarter and later broke Michael Vick’s record for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a regular-season game.
A pair of failed fourth-down attempts left the Dolphins vulnerable late. Tagovailoa dropped a low snap from center Connor Williams on third down and his fourth-down pass to tight end Mike Gesicki on the next play was incomplete, giving the ball back to the Bears at their 35-yard line. Ten plays later, Fields threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Cole Kmet early in the fourth quarter to cut the Dolphins’ lead to three points.
And then facing fourth-and-1 from the Bears’ 14, Tagovailoa was short on a pass to tight end Durham Smythe, turning the ball over on downs with a three-point lead and 7:50 remaining.
A key sack from outside linebacker Melvin Ingram forced the Bears to punt but Tagovailoa underthrew wide receiver Jaylen Waddle (five catches, 85 yards, one touchdown) deep on a third-down pass, giving Chicago one last chance.
The Bears couldn’t convert on their final possession and the Dolphins got a bit of good fortune. Fields’ third-down pass to wide receiver Chase Claypool was incomplete on a play in which cornerback Keion Crossen could have been flagged for defensive pass interference. On the next play, Brown dropped a pass that would have moved the ball into the Dolphins’ territory.
“Justin Fields is legit, man. He’s a monster,” said Phillips (five tackles). “He’s going to be incredible in this league. Obviously, we have some adjustments to make moving forward, but, at the end of the day, we came up clutch when we needed to and the offense did what they had to do, and we got the win, so that’s all that matters.”
After the Dolphins pulled off one of the biggest moves of the trade deadline in acquiring Chubb, Tagovailoa was asked about the team’s Super Bowl chances, and he didn’t shy away from Miami’s playoff aspirations.
“We’re not afraid to talk about Super Bowls here,” he said Wednesday.
With Tagovailoa in the starting lineup and finishing games, the Dolphins are 6-0 and have found a winning formula — taking advantage of the speed of two dynamic receivers in Hill and Waddle — that could very well lead them to their first postseason appearance since 2016.
Two months after McDaniel dubbed the Dolphins “the defense’s team until proven otherwise” in their season-opening win, a shift may be underway. But it may be too one-sided for a team that has hopes of reaching the playoffs and more.
“There are points in the game where we are doing what we said we wanted to do,” Tagovailoa said, “and then there’s also a fair amount of plays and times that we don’t. It’s a continuation of us working together and coming in tomorrow and working on those things and talking about those. I think it’ll be good that we can hold each other accountable for some of the things that were going on that we didn’t execute.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2022 at 4:10 PM.
