The Miami Dolphins defeated a lifeless New York Jets team on Sunday by a score of 24 to 0. The Dolphins move to 3-3 with the win, and the Jets fall to 0-6.

With 2:27 left in the fourth quarter, the Dolphins turned to first-round pick Tua Tagovailoa. Tagovailoa went 2/2 for 9 yards in his debut, converting Miami’s lone third down conversion.

After the game, Tua returned to the field and sat down to soak in the moment.

“I ended up FaceTiming my parents because they couldn’t be here,” he said. “That’s usually how it goes. I usually talk to my parents after the game, and my parents usually never miss my game.”

This was Tagovailoa’s first time playing since he suffered a devasting hip injury while playing for Alabama in November of 2019.

Recap

Sloppy.

This game was sloppy. In large part, it was because of the Jets, who went 2 – 17 on third downs and had a total of 148 passing yards, courtesy of Adam Gase the quarterback whisperer. But the Dolphins could have won this game by 50, which is no exaggeration, if their offense played well.

The defense won this game for Miami, as you can tell by the final score. The constant pressure by Emmanuel Ogbah and Zach Sieler had Joe Flacco running for his life and launching balls into the stratosphere. Flacco was 2-for-14 on passes beyond 10 yards.

Ogbah finished this game with two sacks. He now has four sacks in the last three games. No play showcased his dominance more than his sack on Flacco that resulted in a 28-yard loss. His five sacks this season are fourth most in the NFL, trailing only Aaron Donald, Myles Garrett and Jason Pierre-Paul.

Sieler is just a monster in the trenches. He continues to congest the running lanes, as he had several key tackles, including one for a loss. He was heavily involved in applying pressure on Flacco all game.

Xavien Howard had the clamps on Jamison Crowder, who finished the game with 7 catches for 48 yards on 13 targets. Crowder had over 100 yards in his three previous games heading into this matchup. Howard also recorded his fourth interception, which gives him one in each of the last four games. He remains tied for the NFL lead in interceptions with Kendall Fuller.

Towards the beginning of the game, Byron Jones was targeted heavily. The Jets were testing him on deep passes, primarily targeting Breshad Perriman. There were a few plays where Jones appeared to get beat, but Flacco could not connect on the throw.

Christian Wilkins was also heavily involved in this victory. He had a sack and a deflected pass at the line of scrimmage.

The Dolphins front did a good job at swallowing up the run. Aside from a 34-yard run by Ty Johnson, the Jets couldn’t really get anything going on the ground.

Offensively, the team was alright. The team looked buttery smooth in the first half, only to stagnate completely in the second half.

I had in my expectations column that running back Myles Gaskin would have his best game, and he did, with a career high 91 rushing yards. He also had 35 yards receiving in this game.

Aside from him though, this ended up being a pretty underwhelming  performance for the offense. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick got off to a red hot start, finishing the half: 14/18, 147 yards, 3 TDs, 1 interceptions.

However, he finished the game: 18/27, 191 yards, 3 TDs, 2 interceptions.

If you do the math on that, that means he finished the second half with: four-of-nine on passes for 44 yards, with one interception.

The good: he had three touchdown passes, all which were within four yards. Two of those were to tight ends; Durham Smythe and Adam Shaheen.

Fitzpatrick also found a wide open Shaheen for a huge 43-yard reception.

The other touchdown was to Preston Williams, who now has three touchdowns in his last four games.

He also had a creative left-handed toss while scrambling from pressure, a play that would’ve likely been all over your feed if it was done by Patrick Mahomes.

The bad: Fitzpatrick had a frustrating interception with 29 seconds remaining in the second quarter, where he tried to rocket a pass to Gesicki through a tight window, only for it to be an easy interception by Brian Poole. The interception came while in the red zone.

Later in the fourth quarter, he threw up a contested ball to Preston Williams, which was intercepted by the Marcus Maye.

Fitzpatrick targeted DeVante Parker eight times in this game, but he would only come away with three catches for 35 yards.

Perhaps a bit shocking, after a huge 91-yard receiving game, Mike Gesicki was a non-factor. Gesicki finished the game without a catch.

Tagovailoa took over for Fitzpatrick with 2:27 remaining in the fourth quarter for the final drive. He ran a total of five plays, two of which were passes. He found Patrick Laird for his first NFL completion. He completed the pass while on the run, rolling to the left side of the field for a two-yard gain. On the following play, he connected with Jakeem Grant for a gain of 7. He appeared to look off the defender, allowing Grant to get open.

Takeaways

Tua probably won’t be the starter after the bye. This has obviously nothing to do with Tua’s performance, but rather because the team still had a dominating win with Fitzpatrick at the helm. This wasn’t a Baker Mayfield coming in for Tyrod Taylor moment. This was more like Patrick Mahomes starting Week 17 in his rookie year to get experience, while Alex Smith remained the true starter. Plus, the Dolphins play the Rams after their bye week. I doubt the team wants to throw Tua to Aaron Donald in his first start. I like what I’ve seen from this young offensive line, but at the same time, I’m not delusional.

This was the least inspiring blowout game I’ve ever seen. Now, the Dolphins defense did a terrific job. Any time you shut out an opponent, the defense deserves to be heralded for an awesome job. But this Jets team is the most unmotivated team I’ve seen with my own eyes. They looked defeated in the first quarter. There was no sense of commoraderi with them, as they looked like they were just going through the motions. They flat-out gave up, and it’s hard to evaluate your team when the opponent is playing that bad. Then you add in the fact that the offense disappeared, it ended up being the most bizarre, unsatisfactory blowout game I’ve witnessed.

Emmanuel Ogbah deserves more recognition, and Zach Sieler deserves an extension. After several weeks of praising Ogbah, it just seems like were seeing the true him. To say he has been the best player on defense this season seems accurate. As for Sieler, this is one of those opportunities where the Dolphins could secure a young player before they hit their peak, and reap the wealth of it — as opposed to overpaying big names past their prime, as we have seen Miami do for the past decade or so.