Beard beats the Mustache: Dolphins season saved by Ryan Fitzpatrick’s superior play
With the season hanging by a hair (perhaps one from a certain somebody’s beard), the Miami Dolphins needed a hero Thursday night. And it makes a lot of sense that in a year the team used its top draft pick on its forever quarterback hope, a quarterback indeed stepped into the void to save things.
Except ...
It’s Ryan Fitzpatrick as your season-saver.
Dolphins 31.
Jacksonville Jaguars 13.
The Dolphins got their first victory of the season this night after starting the year with consecutive losses -- one of them against the Bills an embarrassing outing. And the reason that rebound victory came so decisively and lacking any sleep-robbing drama is because Fitzpatrick showed up to this one to play like a franchise quarterback.
“Fitz is out of his mind,” tight end Mike Gesicki said. “He’s (37) years old and he plays the game like he’s 23.”
Fitzpatrick threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, to make a statement for his team almost immediately after kickoff. That statement would be something akin to this:
This is my team. And my team is not going quietly into the night in 2020.
Now Tua Tagovailoa may have a wait a little while longer than all the TV pundits speculated on their nationally telecast pregame shows.
There’s nothing Fitzpatrick could do in one game that would make anyone forget he is the placeholder for Tagovailoa. And the Dolphins will eventually hand the reins of the offense to their top draft pick.
But not yet. Not any time soon, perhaps.
Because while Tagovailoa may be the player to someday carry the Dolphins, it was Fitzpatrick who did much of the heavy lifting Thursday.
Consider:
Fitzpatrick completed 18 of 20 passes for an efficient 160 yards to keep the Miami offense moving much of the night. Not only did his 90 percent completion percentage set a new career high, it also set the new Dolphins all-time franchise record for a passer with a minimum of 20 attempts in a game.
He completed his first 12 consecutive passes of the game. And that gave him 21 straight completions over the last two games. It wasn’t until the final minute of the first half, when the Dolphins were hurrying to add to their lead that a Fitzpatrick pass flew slightly behind tight end Mike Gesicki and fell incomplete.
Riding Fitzpatrick’s scorching early completion streak, the Dolphins built a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. It had to be discouraging for the Jaguars to yield 12 first downs in the first quarter as offensive coordinator Chan Gailey struck a nice balance between Fitzpatrick’s throws and a running attack featuring three different running backs.
For the Dolphins, that 12-first down first quarter was historic in that they had never had more than 10 first-quarter first downs in any game dating back to 1992.
The Dolphins led 21-7 by halftime.
“Fitz is hot,” Jaguars coach Doug Marrone told FOXSports’ Erin Andrews at halftime.
And, yes, credit also goes to a Dolphins defense that didn’t stink as it had the previous two games. This defense played softer in the secondary to avoid the roasting it suffered last week and that worked. This defense showed much more pressure on Jacksonville quarterback Gardner Minshew than it did on either Cam Newton or Josh Allen the previous two games.
So this defense definitely showed signs of growth.
And unlike last week when Fitzpatrick couldn’t keep up with Allen, this game he was the best quarterback on the field.
He threw touchdown passes to Preston Williams and Mike Gesicki. He scored from 1 yard out on a third-quarter keeper right up the middle.
The touchdown pass to Williams came on a slant pass into the end zone. The slant has been a staple for Fitzpatrick so far, as that one accounted for his seventh completion in eight attempts on the route this season. It was also Fitz’s first touchdown without and interception on the slant, according the Next Gen stats.
The Dolphins quarterback also did uniquely Fitz things like when he handed off to running back Myles Gaskin early in the game and then seemed to lead block for Gaskin downfield. In the fourth quarter, he tried a pass, but when the ball was batted back to him, Fitzpatrick caught it and decided to run.
“You can add the slide to that,” Fitzpatrick said with a smile. “You’ll rarely see me slide and I did that tonight.”
Fitz, Miami’s second-leading rusher, finished the night with 38 rushing yards on six carries.
This had to be a gratifying night for Fitzpatrick.
“It’s why I still play,” Fitzpatrick said. “I feel like the luckiest guy in the world being able to go outside and play a game I love with my friends.”
Remember that there was some banter between himself and Minshew before the game. Fitz, who sports an epic beard, playfully said many guys who wear mustaches do so because they cannot fill in around their face to complete the full beard effect.
Minshew, who’s mustache has become his trademark, seemingly took that personally. And he defended his ability to fill in for a beard while adding he chose not to. He also said referring to Fitzpatrick that he’d be respectful of his elders, especially when they’re “much, much elder.”
Fitzpatrick, 37 years old and the only player on the Dolphins over 30, answered by playing as if defending the honor of bearded men and 30-somethings everywhere.
Age outplayed youth.
And the beard was better than the ‘stache. Afterward, Fitzpatrick made sure Minshew was good with him.
“I appreciate the look, I think he rocks it,” Fitzpatrick said of Minshew.
So where does this leave the Dolphins? Had they gone 0-for-September, this space would be about the season narrative turning to Tagovailoa’s development. It would be about setting a timetable for Tagovailoa’s first start. At 0-3 with three conference losses, that would be the most compelling things left to decide in 2020.
Instead, the Dolphins have life.
Thank Ryan Fitzpatrick.
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 11:23 PM.
