Things went from bad to worse as the Dolphins fell by a score of 31-10 to the Buffalo Bills. The team lost much more than a game, however — as Tua Tagovailoa suffered a concussion while scrambling for a first down late in the 3rd quarter with the Dolphins trailing. Miami falls to 1-1 on the season and now must face the questions, both short-term and long-term, around another Tagovailoa head injury.
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It's the lockdown podcast network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by FX's American sports story, Aaron Hernandez. From executive producer Ryan Murphy comes the first installment of FX's American sports story. The limited series charts the rise and fall of NFL superstar Aaron Hernandez and explores the disparate strands of his identity, his family, his career, his suicide and their legacy in sports and American culture. FX's American sports story, Aaron Hernandez, premier September 17th on FX, stream on Hulu. We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search, match with Indeed. Ditch the busy work. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. The listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/lockdontnfl. Just go to indeed.com/lockdontnfl right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast, indeed.com/lockdontnfl, terms of conditions apply need to hire you indeed. All right, Miami, welcome to another episode of locked on dolphins. It's your team every day here on the locked on network. I'm your host, cow crabs, a lifelong Miami dolphins fan, host of lockdown, dolphins cohost of locked on NFL scouting author of touchdown Miami and the NFL draft lead for the 3013. You can find all of our shows here on the locked on network on YouTube or wherever you listen to your very podcast. Timothy cap to our every day, especially those who are tuning in tonight after the game that was just played. It is your team every day. We don't just say it. We live it here on the locked on network. Today's episode of locked on dolphins is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs. LinkedIn jobs helps you find the qualified candidates that you want to talk to you faster, post your job for free at linkedin.com/lockdontnfl, terms and conditions do apply the dolphins loss 31 to 10 to Buffalo. In the game that I felt was super frustrating in the first half, this game was lost in the first half and then you lost much more than just the game in the second half. This was a matchup between two teams who were one team trying to change the narrative and the other team trying to continue their sustained success against an opponent and the way the game played in the first half played like that. We'll talk about the game because I got a lot of stuff that drove me nuts with how this game was called, the decision making and the management of this football game, some of which paralleled a lot of the same stuff that you dealt with against Jacksonville twice. Going forward on fourth down at midfield, we're going to talk about it. But first we have to talk about the third quarter injury that turned this game from not just bad to worse, but bad to nightmarish, which is to a tongue of a low scrambling on a fourth and four in the red zone and lowering the shoulder on safety to Marhamlin and ending up suffering a concussion on the play dolphins quickly ruled him out. He was thankfully able to walk off the field under his own power, but the concussion history with to a tongue of a lower is well documented. And there's a lot of questions, short term, long term, this season, beyond career wise for toa that is going to get thrust back into all of the conversation that takes place with toa. And unfortunately, I reflect on the play and you feel even worse about it because it was an avoidable incident. You are the franchise quarterback team just gave you a big vote of confidence, right? And you're down three touchdowns and didn't play well before that either. I give him a lot of grace for the first interception that hit grand du Bois right in the body. And I'm probably willing to throw some blame in the way of Robbie chosen slipping at the top of the route on the second interception. But generally speaking, did not play well to a tongue of a lower before the injury. It's week two, it's a long season. And to drop the shoulder on a defender with the history that you have as the quarterback is just a bummer because it's an avoidable situation didn't have to play out like that. And unfortunately it did and it's the sobering reminder of the history that that toa was trying to put behind him and the dolphins were trying to put behind them as they worked towards a more stable future together. And now I don't know, you know, and there's a lot of questions. Obviously, the most important thing is to a tongue of a low health football is secondary. But this was someone who alluded to the idea of retirement at one point in 2022. And now another concussion that frankly seemed like a fairly innocent hit, but that's the part of it that really jolts you, I think. Is he drops the shoulder and takes a blow to the head in the process. And is quickly ruled out from a football perspective, this could not be worse for Miami, you know, their arms dead, suffers a shoulder injury, Jeff Wilson suffers an oblique injury to a tongue of a lowest, suffers a concussion. Obviously you have a short week or a short week to play this game. This is the second time to has had a concussion on a short week against an AFC contender. I don't think it would be responsible to expect to see him in a short term window. What that window looks like, who knows, I know the team was exceptionally deliberate with the amount of time they took with him in 2022 when he suffered the concussion against Green Bay. This is the ultimate wrench in the grand plan. And now is not the time to say, I told you so, or could have seen this come in, or look back at the decision to pay the, like, obviously hindsight's always 20, 20, but two ahead earned the right to have a contract. And I think that's the frustrating thing was the way that this injury happened didn't have to happen. It was avoidable. And I get you're trying to make a play. Never mind your two yards past the first down marker. When you take the hit, get it, you're trying to energize your guys, but, you know, football is a physical game. And as the franchise quarterback who has the kind of injury history that you have, this is a very difficult reminder of the restrictions that are on you as a player. We'll talk a little bit more about the game, the game script, how it played out. Those of that drove me crazy about the game script. That's up next here on this episode of Lockdown Dolphins, make sure you stick with us. Today's episode of Lockdown Dolphins is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. 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You've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel, America's number one sports book, but right now we have something a little different for you now through September 22nd. All FanDuel customers give at $5 and get a free three week trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube to TV. Then with the YouTube TV base playing, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel anytime. And if that's not enough, be sure to check out FanDuel's profit boost in the app and use of FanDuel's w your winnings for all of Sunday, September 15th, pregame, money line bets. Profit boost will be live starting today or Thursday if you're catching this on Friday. View your account page now to learn more about your boost visit FanDuel.com to download America's number one sports book. Easily avoidable feels like it was the theme of the entire game. And a lot of it not acceptable for playing a game against an opponent that wants to turn this into a 12 round fight, a team that is willing to go the distance and slug it out and play defense and a renewed commitment to running the ball with Joe Brady and they are going to methodically play their game and they know if we have to put our foot on the gas pedal, we can. And the dolphins in the first half tried to turn this into the friggin third round knockout. Every time you do this, when you play the Buffalo Bills, you lose by multiple touchdowns. I don't understand what's so hard about this. Why on earth are you going for it on fourth down Buffalo to that point in the game? If you don't remember what exchange I'm talking about. The dolphins turned it over on downs down 10 points, 17 to 7, they went 5 plays 19 yards made it to the Buffalo 45 and went forward on fourth and two. They had third one got stuffed after several third and short conversions, ran a same variation of the same play on third one and got stuffed and then went forward on fourth and two and two is sacked for negative six yards and Alva runs through Robert Jones. You turn the ball over on downs, you have a one play touchdown for 49 yards afterwards, but you're down 17 to 7. How did Buffalo get their points? Well, you threw an interception on your opening possession and they started a 37 yard line and scored a touchdown in six plays. Then you threw an interception and the Bills went seven plays and 19 yards and kicked a field goal and then they finally drove 85 yards the length of the field to make it from 10, 7 to 17, 7 and you went forward on fourth down in the first half down 10 points with a chance to pin them back inside the 10 yard line and force them to drive the full length of the field for a second time. They did it twice against Jacksonville and they didn't get it either time. You have to stop giving team short fields and when you throw two interceptions in the first quarter, regardless of who's at fault for the plays, have an awareness of, hey, what we're still in this game, it's not the time to panic. We can't get off script. We got plenty of time. It's still the first half. It's two score game. They haven't had a lot of success. Their drives went 37 yards. They went three for nine. They went seven for 19 and then they went eight for 85 that was boosted by a 15 yard penalty by Jordan Poir when you had them backed up and then they had an explosive play on a third one where Josh Allen, Jalen Phillips falls down and Josh Allen gets outside the pocket and throws the ball to tie Johnson down to the two yard line. They had a chunk play and a 15 yard penalty. They hadn't strung anything together with any consistency at all in the first half. And yet you spotted them a bunch of points because you turned the ball over and you kept giving them short fields and you voluntarily signed on the dotted line to give them another short field. It's not acceptable. It's not. You have to stop handing this team. There's no reason to hit that panic button. You reflect on games like Baltimore and Buffalo last year, the games that really got away from you, even Philly to a lesser degree and you're leaving points on the field. You're not playing the field position game. How many drives did the dolphins have in the first three quarters that started inside their own 15 yard line? How many drives? What was the average starting position for the bills? Some of that's on turnovers. You can't really control that, especially in a ball that blinks off a guy's shoulder pad because he's not looking for the ball on third long with a perfect throw. You can't control that. But instead of, oh, yeah, we got to get it all back. Let's chase the game. It's fourth and two. It's like the worst thing that ever happened is Mike McDaniel hitting a fourth and seven or touchdown against the Patriots and the first game he ever coached as the head coach, the football team. Because now every time we get a fourth in mid around midfield, we want to go for it and we don't care about the script of the flow of the game. And it hasn't worked. They were battling fourth down last year. What exactly was their numbers on fourth down last year? Now I want to know. The dolphins in 2023 on fourth downs in its totality, 11 to 25, 28 in the NFL. They went forward on fourth down twice against Jacksonville and didn't get either one. And then they went for fourth down at midfield against Buffalo and didn't get it and had a one play touchdown on the following play. Because Buffalo's out there and Jumbo fronts with an extra offensive tackle on the field and you got the Sean hand manning three gaps by himself. Some of that's growing pains on defense. I get it. I'm totally fine with growing pains on defense and not fitting to run correctly and guys got to learn how to play together and David Long's got to learn how to fit that block and we got to get somebody else down in the hat because of an offensive tie. Like I get that. That's growing pains early in the season with a new scheme. I'm not going to kill you for that. But I'm going to kill you for voluntarily giving them their third possession that starts on the plus side of the 50 when the first two were outside of your control to some degree because of a miscommunication or a guy's not looking for a ball. I know that a lot of people killed the Dolphins for the end of half sequence as well where Miami takes over and goes thirteen plays fifty four yards thirty three and a half minutes. But knowing that Buffalo was getting the ball back and it was twenty four to seven. I understand not being too overtly aggressive to give the ball back to Buffalo with a chance to double dip again going into and out of the half in the middle eight. So did they cost themselves a play in that process by not calling a timeout from. The third down or from from the second and six that you lost five yards and set up third down under a minute left in the in the quarter. Yeah, I get you cost yourself a couple plays there by electing some of that clock to milk down. But you're also facing third and eleven and needed to a scramble for eleven yards to get the first down. If you'd have called the time out of fifty seven seconds and then get the first down and you're at the forty six yard line. Now they have two time outs. You would chance to come down the field potentially get more points. So I get why they handle the end of half sequence the way that they did. But that fourth down decision and you're running the ball with a lot of success. I mean the Dolphins finished the first half with over a hundred rushing yards as a team. When we come out we're firing and then we have a holding call that's kind of a tiki tack holding call with her arm said but a holding call that killed the drive and put you behind the sticks. And there just just wasn't any patience was in any patience and they had terrible burn aren't that went down. So you're looking at it and you're saying okay. Can you really get after them in the box and stay patient and you didn't stay patient. You didn't call a patient game in the first half and then it was so far gone that it didn't matter anymore. You'd hope the lesson would be learned especially after the week before you went for twice on fourth down a game short fields both times. It's like Groundhog Day and it's at its worst when you play this team which I don't think it's a coincidence is a contributing factor in a number of ways in the number of games that you've played for why the games play out the way they do. Where the heck do we go from here. That's what we're going to finish with here on this post game episode of locked on dolphins make sure that you stick with us. Price picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active users. It is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports unlike in other apps on price picks it's you against the numbers all you have to do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and you can watch your winnings roll in. One Caleb Williams passing yard in the month of September is good for one win on price picks so let the number one pick do work for you with your selections. 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This offer is only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. The code is not good on subscription orders go to five hour energy dot com today. Where we go here is is a whole lot of I don't know. I would probably temper expectations that you have for the season until we get a little bit more clarity on what the statuses of the dolphins with their starting quarterback. It is secondary to his health and I get that. But you have 15 football games left to play this season. If it's going to be Skyler Thompson for an extended period of any of it I don't like your chances and the people that have called to see Skyler Thompson and think that Skyler Thompson can play this game at a higher level. If what you wish for because if the dolphins choose to go this route this could get ugly and I know there's a lot of talent there's a perception of the dolphins and its offense and how it's engineered and what that looks like from a timing perspective and with the talent that's available how easy it is to plug players in and be productive players. Under this the grand experiment if this injury does yield an extended absence for Tua Tonga Lea and that's for better or for worse. Obviously I hope we don't see to until he is healthy and fully recovered however long that takes but the the short term ramifications for this football team is the whole foundation is shaking right now and I don't know exactly how much clarity you're going to get. So a pretty big gut punch to be rolling into week two not even into the weekend of week two of the NFL season and to have that be the state of affairs of your roster and I wouldn't dismiss any potential outcome I don't think you can now what it all ultimately ends up looking like is unfortunately going to take some time and everybody's going to want to have a reaction and opinion and a stance to take and put a flag in the ground and all that right if the circumstances necessitate it we will explore all kinds of options here on the show as far as this season the next couple weeks the full season beyond the season and long term we will explore every possible avenue the Dolphins can take because this is a very sobering all bets are off type of development for the team. Just as we got done saying hey you finally got a coach locked in with a contract extension you got a quarterback locked in with a contract extension the kind of franchise stability this team hasn't had in 25 30 years very complimentary of it and now lo and behold your starting quarterback has a lapse in judgment that unfortunately cost him dearly as far as his health on that play in an avoidable situation which makes it just that much more tough to see play out. Obviously sending best wishes to to a sending best wishes to all of you as dolphins fans I know we are a very hurt bunch as a collective group of fans and a night light tonight is about as miserable as it gets. We will tackle whatever comes next together and I hope you will stay plugged in here on lockdown dolphins as we cover the rest of the fallout from week two a breakdown who played well who did not that's in the days ahead I'll bring it all your way here on youtube you can find us on youtube or wherever you list your fair podcast make it a great rest of your day enjoy your weekend I'll be back to talk y'all again soon a prime members you can listen to this locked on podcast ad free on amazon music download the amazon music app today [MUSIC PLAYING]
