Yes it was just the Jets but Miami Dolphins have been good past 4 games as Tua time nears | Opinion
You know what’s ahead. What probably already is bubbling up everywhere anybody has an opinion. Because this is the way football works. It is the mindset that drives fans and media alike, because it is how we all are conditioned to think.
Bye week = now is the time. For whatever. Any change.
So here it comes like never before.
Tua talk! Tua time?
Does the break in the NFL schedule now mean the Miami Dolphins should turn from veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to high-drafted rookie Tua Tagovailoa?
Quick answer: Only if Tua is in every way ready, and ready to give the Fins a better chance to win than The Bearded One. Not because of the happenstance of when the calendar says your bye is.
Me? I’d be in no hurry. Why rush the future when the present has begun to look pretty damned interesting.
The Dolphins beat the New York Stinkin’ Jets 24-0 here on Sunday -- Tua talk inflamed by his late appearance, 2-for-2 for nine yards in his NFL debut.
The game had the visceral feel of when the Hurricanes owned Florida State 52-10 last month.
You take your most bitter rival and you treat it like a ragdoll. You kick it down the street.
The Jets stink. They’re winless. Adam Gase is a Dead Man Coaching. If he survives the coming week I’d call it an upset. (Hell, did he survive the plane ride home?)
For rebuilding Miami, though, there is satisfaction in the simple delight of being much better than an opponent, knowing it, and showing it. Of not turning what should be a circled ‘W’ into any sort of calamity.
So handling the grounded Jets by itself is not so impressive — although it was Miami’s first shutout win since 2014. But this four-game run is. Since starting 0-2, Miami has won big at Jacksonville, played tough at unbeaten Seattle, earned a big rout at San Francisco and now taken care of business again. The Fins are 3-3 for the year, .500 for the first time under Brian Flores, and that isn’t nothing.
In this pandemic year, with expanded playoffs, being around .500, maybe one game over, has you thinking postseason.
Did I mention Miami has a better record today than the New England Patriots. Just sayin’. (Can’t say it much this century, so, just sayin’).
Since starting 0-7 last season, Miami is now 8-7 in its past 15 games. With a start-over team that traded all its stars for high draft picks. With an almost-38-year-old QB who looks like a Yukon lumberjack.
Oh, and with the future — Tua Tagovailoa — idling in the hangar, ready to rev.
This is fun. I mean what the Fins have done the past month, and the possibilities that lay head.
The franchise is headed right.
I haven’t thought or said or written or felt that much in the past 20 years or so. Have you?
Christian Wilkins had his fourth sack of the young season Sunday.
Xavien Howard tied a club record with an interception in a fourth straight game.
Yeah, I know. The Jets.
But something is happening here.
Myles Gaskin? Myles Gaskin!
He was a seventh-round draft pick in 2019, right next door to being an undrafted free agent. He’s 5-9, 194 pounds.
He started his first game at running back in the Jacksonville game. When this hot streak began.
Sunday he had his best day as a pro, with 91 yards rushing and 35 receiving.
I know, the Jets. But Gaskin has been the top performer, so he’s been given the chance.
Miami gave Jordan Howard a two-year, $9.75 million contract as a big free agency get and he has failed miserably, with 19 touches (runs or catches) for 11 net yards. Fins also signed Matt Breida in the offseason, but Gaskin came out of nowhere to leapfrog him, too.
It is one of the small stories that make this a fun little team on the rise.
And, by the way, a running game — offensive balance — and how the O-line is performing, should be two of the factors weighed in deciding when it finally is Tua time.
That time is coming, and it is something to relish. Sunday’s late, first glimpse was a tease.
But so is the past month worth relishing: The rising of this franchise we are seeing while the future, Tua, waits -- the gift to be fully unwrapped.
This story was originally published October 18, 2020 at 7:11 PM.
