Offense stalls in second half as Miami Dolphins lose 16-10 to Indianapolis Colts
Everything looked good for the Miami Dolphins.
Until it didn’t.
The Dolphins lost to the Indianapolis Colts 16-10 in a game that saw Miami put up points early but fail to score in the second half as a right shoulder injury forced out Tyler Huntley in the third quarter and forced Miami to turn to Tim Boyle at quarterback.
The run game once again looked impressive with a total of 188 rushing yards, led by De’Von Achane and Raheem Mostert, who combined for more than 125 yards. And while the Dolphins defense limited the young Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson to under 50-percent completion, he led a rushing attack that accumulated 155 yards on the day.
“He’s going to be a good quarterback in the NFL,” Zach Sieler said of Richardson, who threw for 129 yards. Sieler recovered a fumble when the young QB mishandled the snap. “He’s got a good arm, good speed, size – all that.”
Although attacking the Colts’ second-worst rushing defense was certainly a key to victory, the Dolphins once failed to get their star receiver duo of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle involved. Hill finished with one catch for 8 yards while Waddle also had just one grab for 11-yards. One play in particular – Huntley’s deep shot to Hill that was on target but the wideout couldn’t locate – really encapsulated the lackluster passing offense.
“Defenses do a really good job of taking those guys away and we need to be creative with the ways we get them the ball,” Boyle said of Hill and Waddle, both of whom didn’t receive a single target by halftime, a first their Dolphins’ career. “A lot of the game, they were clouding Tyreek. We see a lot of that. This defense was primarily, going into the game, a one-high structured defense and they played us majority two-high and that’s to take away our guys outside.”
Added Boyle: “We took what the defense gave us but we got to find a way to get those guys the ball because they’re really good players.”
All three phases of the ball once again struggled with penalties, accumulating six for 50 yards. On an offensive series in the second quarter, the Dolphins had three penalties called on them — only two were accepted — with one bringing back what would’ve been 32-yard run from Mostert.
“Collectively, as a team, we just have to play smarter football,” coach Mike McDaniel said, later adding: “You think you have certain things fixed and when they’re not, it’s not going to be anybody else’s fault but me. I was definitely wrong. You have to approach it that way. We have retooled stuff to clean up our game with the penalties and it’s still killing us. I need to figure out something better.”
Huntley and the offense came out strong on their second drive of the day, going 58 yards on 11 plays just for Jonnu Smith to finish it off with a screen that he took 10 yards to the house. While Smith would have his best game of the year, catching all seven of his targets for 96 yards and a touchdown, penalties would hurt the subsequent offensive series as the Dolphins only managed to put up three points for the rest of the half.
Despite Richardson’s redzone fumble and a few errant throws, he had the Colts offense churning towards the end of the first half into the second. A field goal as time expired – in large part due to Richardson’s 33-yard pass to Michael Pittman Jr. to get Matt Gay in kicking range – would put the Colts on the board and only down 10-3.
On the Dolphins’ second drive of the third quarter, Colts linebacker Segun Olubi stripped Mostert and recovered the fumble to take it to Miami’s 28 yard line. Tyler Goodson scampered into the endzone for a 7-yard score just four plays later and Matt Gay extra point would tie the score at 10.
Two field goals from Gay in the fourth quarter – and one miss by Jason Sanders off the left upright – would nearly put the game out of reach.
With Boyle at the helm, the Dolphins did have a chance to score a game-winning touchdown. The offense would get to the Colts’ 32 yard line but with 29 seconds left and zero timeouts, Miami just couldn’t make anything happen.
“We all got to be better at the end of the game,” Boyle said. “Players, coaches – we win or lose as a team.”
At 2-4, the Dolphins now find themselves two games below .500 heading into Week 8 home matchup against the Arizona Cardinals. Miami, however, hopefully should get back Tua Tagovailoa in the coming days. Tagovailoa hasn’t played since Week 2 when he suffered a concussion that landed him on injured reserve.
“He’s hungry to get back,” Boyle said of Tagovailoa. “He’s been around every meeting, every practice. He’s a bright light for this team right now and I know he’s excited to get back. Hopefully he can do that soon.”
This story was originally published October 20, 2024 at 4:21 PM.
