Five takeaways as the Bengals embarrass Dolphins 45-21 at home
All eyes were on Quinn Ewers.
The rookie quarterback stepped into the starting role after coach Mike McDaniel benched Tua Tagovailoa due to Ewers’ ability to give “this team the best chance to win.”
Instead, it was the other Ohio State transfer in Joe Burrow who dominated Sunday’s contest, leading the Cincinnati Bengals to a lopsided 45-21 victory over the Miami Dolphins.
Burrow finished with 309 yards passing and four touchdowns. He added another 6 yards rushing on two carries. Another quantification of Burrow’s dominance can be seen in his number of incompletions, of which he had just seven.
Conversely, Ewers completed 72% of his passes for 228 yards to go along with two interceptions.
“I feel like there was some positive stuff going on with him being his first start,” coach Mike McDaniel said. “It wasn’t too big for him. He had us operating — I think we had no penalties in the first half — and ultimately, it was 17-14. And then the second half, it was tough to evaluate. Specifically, I think there were a couple third downs that I was hoping he would make, but I think it was a good starting point.”
How did Quinn Ewers look?
The rookie quarterback didn’t look bad at first.
Through the first two quarters, Ewers had thrown just two incompletions to go along with 109 yards through the air. He hadn’t taken any sacks — something which he surprisingly maintained all day — and had led the Dolphins to two scoring drives.
Even better: he didn’t seemingly have a problem pushing the ball down the field.
“It didn’t feel fast to me,” Ewers said, explaining that the team used “a play clock” throughout the week to help him better understand the timing, “which I think helped a lot. It felt good to be out there.”
Then reality hit in the third quarter (more on that later). In arguably the most important quarter of the game, Ewers completed 38% of his passes for 35 yards and threw two picks, one of which was a bad read to say the least.
Although he did lead the Dolphins to another touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, it was little too late.
De’Von Achane’s heroics not enough to save the day
The star running back likely had the play of the day when he took a pitch 48 yards to the house.
Achane even set a pair of records, becoming the best rusher in Dolphins history through three seasons as well as the only player to score 35 touchdowns during that same span.
That, however, couldn’t help Miami as the Bengals pretty much contained him outside that big rush. Achane accumulated 81 yards on 15 carries, as well as added three catches for another nine. Remove that big run, however, and Achane’s stats — 14 attempts for 33 yards – look rather pedestrian.
Bengals receiver duo snaps
The Bengals might have the best receiver duo in the league in Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
They certainly didn’t disappoint, combining for 12 catches, 162 yards and a touchdown. Joe Burrow got Higgins going first with a 35-yard shot that saw the 6-foot-4-inch receiver use every single bit of his frame to grab the ball over cornerback Jack Jones. Higgins then punctuated that drive with a nine-yard, goal line fade.
Chase, meanwhile, did most of his damage in the short to intermediate range — though he did sky over two defenders to grab a 36-yarder in the third quarter.
“There were a couple of plays that we gave up down the field that I don’t go into the game saying ‘those can’t exist’ because that’s the strength of their team,” McDaniel said. His biggest issue, however, was the team’s tackling because he purposefully played “light in the box” to have more defensive backs on the field. “They have hard runners that take advantage of the light boxes that show up a lot, and I was just disappointed in that third quaarter tackling.”
Turnover battle doesn’t go their way
This had certainly been an area of concern with Tagovailoa who has thrown a league-high 15 picks.
Ewers, however, had a clean game through the first two quarters.
Everything changed in the third. On the Dolphins’ first drive, tight end Greg Dulcich coughed up the ball on third down that defensive end Myles Murphy eventually recovered. Then Ewers’ pass to Theo Wease Jr. bounced off of the receiver’s shoulder pads, popped up into the air and was snagged by linebacker Barrett Carter.
Another interception, this time courtesy of cornerback Jalen Davis, came on the opening play of the Dolphins’ third drive.
“It’s hard to win ball games whenever you have three turnovers,” Ewers said, adding that he “wouldn’t mind a couple of those throws back.”
The first two turnovers led to touchdowns from Bengals running back Chase Brown, who finished with 109 yards from scrimmage and a trio of touchdowns, while the third giveaway resulted in a end zone trip for tight end Mike Gesicki.
Another third-quarter meltdown
Once again the Dolphins folded in the third quarter.
As previously mentioned, all three of the Dolphins’ turnovers led to scores. Keep in mind, the game was 17-14 prior to the Bengals’ 21-point outing in the third.
“I’m just very, very frustrated and angry about this continued third quarter thing wheree it appears we let the circumstances that are outside our control” dictate the play, McDaniel said. “I’m furious because I’m allowing it to happen. It starts with me.”
That means the Dolphins have been outscored by nearly 100 points — 113-17 — in the third quarter since the start of the season. Words cannot begin to express how terrible that number is.
“We have to be better out of the half,” defensive tackle Zach Sieler said. “We’ve had an issue a lot of the season in that third quarter. We got to make the corrections and make the adjustments. I haven’t seen what happened or what we got hit with, but we have to be able to fly around and just play our brand. We can’t come out flat like that.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2025 at 4:01 PM.
