The Kansas City Chiefs knocked off the Miami Dolphins on Sunday morning in Germany. The Final score was 21-14. The Dolphins had a chance to tie it in the end but after a couple of positive plays, the offence stalled out and they fumbled the ball on 4th and 10. Let’s take a look at that final drive and see what happened.
The 1st two plays;
The Dolphins got the ball on their 25 yard line with 2:27 left. Because of the time and score, the Cheifs were in there Dime defense (4 linemen, 1 linebacker & 6 defensive backs) so this made running the ball easier than it had been all day for the Dolphins. They proceed to run the ball on 1st down and Raheem Mostert picks up 25 yards to midfield. The next play, they run it again and Mostert picks up another 19 yards to the Kansas City 31 yard line. That’s two plays and 44 yards (run plays) while the Chiefs are in their Dime defense. Here’s the next 3 plays.
1st and 10
The Dolphins line up in 11 Personnel with 1 RB, 1TE and 3 WRs. KC’s defense is still in their Dime package. The Dolphins could run it again but they elect to pass. OK, let’s see what happened.
Tua has two WRs open here. He’s looking left and there’s Tyrek Hill! He beats the CB off the line of scrimmage and is open. Tua is looking that way but for some reason he doesn’t throw it. Let’s look at the other side. He has Mostert in the flats for a decent gain too. As we know, he didn’t throw it Hill. So after looking to the left and not throwing it, Tua finally looks to his right and floats the ball out in the flats for an almost interception. Opportunity missed. Next play.
2nd and 10
The Dolphins have 11 Personnel out there again against KC’s Dime package. Do they run the ball, no. Jaylen Waddle is split out left and runs a slant to the middle of the field. The Running back, Salvon Ahmed, runs an out route to the left flats. Let’s see how that looked below.
The Chiefs are playing man to man with two safeties over the top. Sahmed is open in the left flat. Of the 6 Defensive backs on the field, none are covering him. He’s being played by the only Linebacker on the field and he beats him. But Tua has made up his mind to throw to Waddle. Waddle couldn’t quite beat the physical coverage and could not break open to catch the ball. If Tua would have read who was open, it would have been an easy 5 or so yards on 2nd down. But the pass to Waddle was incomplete. Another opportunity missed. Here’ the next play.
3rd and 10
It looks like 11 Personnel against Dime defense again. After two successful run plays earlier in the possession, the Dolphins neglected to run the ball on 1st or 2nd down. It’s probably too late to run it now. Let’s see how things unfolded below.
The WR on the left side, Cedric Wilson does a quick in and out move that freezes the corner back. It looks like the defense is playing man defense on his side and playing zone defense on the other side of the field. Tua short arms the throw and the ball doesn’t come near Cedric Wilson, who has his man beat. But look on the other side. The TE is open too, in the right flat! That’s another 5 yards or so they could have picked up on the play, not to mention the Touchdown on the other side. Take a look below how wide open Wilson was.
They missed on this play of course but you can see how open Wilson was here. That’s three plays and three opportunities that went unrealized. And then on the 4th down play the snap from the center was hot and to the right and Tua couldn’t handle it.
That was tough to watch. But looking at the All-22 of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd down plays, it was even more glaring in regards to the opportunities that were missed. Did Tua choke? Maybe. But we all know playing quarterback in the NFL is tough to do. You are not always going to see the open man and you are not always going to be accurate with the ball. I still hope things gets better in the clutch for the Dolphins. It has to. But not on this day. Maybe next time.