The Miami Dolphins defeated the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday by a score of 28-17. The Dolphins move to 4-3 with the win, and the Rams fall to 5-3.

Brian Flores owns the Los Angeles Rams.

Back in the preview piece, I mentioned the history between Brian Flores and the Los Angeles Rams. Flores faced the Rams while he was defensive coordinator for the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII, a game which was dominated by the defense.

On Sunday, Flores gave everyone a little refresher in case they forgot how that game played out.

The Dolphins defense showed up. They showed up to a level they haven’t reached all season — one that legitimately brings up the question, are they one of the best in the league now?

The Dolphins finished the first half with 28 points and 54 total yards on offense. Again — 28 points, on 54 yards. That should show how dominant the defense was.

The defense that was once the clear weakness of the team after the losses to Buffalo and New England is no more. The defense is defined by very creative, disguised blitzing — featuring a multitude of players on the line before the snap.

Defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah continues to make a name for himself. He gets better and better every week. In the second quarter, he laid a vicious hit on Jared Goff, knocking the ball loose. Andrew Van Ginkel was able to recover and return it for the score.

Ogbah now has 6 sacks on the season, which is 6th in the NFL. Aside from the sacks, he’s still making an impact on nearly every play. He had another deflected pass at the line of scrimmage, and is breathing down the quarterback’s neck on nearly every play.

Earlier in the first quarter, defensive tackle Christian Wilkins intercepted a pass near the line of scrimmage. As mentioned earlier, the Dolphins sent a blitz that allowed Wilkins to drop back in coverage where he was able to make the play. Ogbah was there to provide the pressure on the throw.

In the second quarter, safety Eric Rowe had an interception. Jerome Baker was on a blitz right through the B gap, hitting Goff as he threw. Rowe continues to be one of the key players on the defense, as he had 5 pass deflections.

Linebacker Elandon Roberts had two massive tackles for losses. One came in the red zone, the play before Van Ginkel’s touchdown. The other came on a play where he ran straight through Gerald Everett to make a huge play.

The nonstop pressure created plenty of opportunities, but there could have been even more.

Andrew Van Ginkel nearly made an incredible play on a deflection by coming down with an interception in the first half. Xavien Howard dropped an interception in the first half. Eric Rowe dropped a pick-six. Shaq Lawson stripped the ball from Goff, which was recovered by Kyle Van Noy.

The defense was just all over the field, and Goff looked lost.

Now, as dominant as it was, if I had to pick out any negatives from the defensive side, there would be two. The first would be that stopping the run is still not perfect. Darrell Henderson had nearly 5.9 yards per carry. Aside from the two tackles by Roberts, the Dolphins did not have another tackle for a loss.

The other negative would be that Xavien Howard was not the lockdown corner from previous weeks on Sunday. He was primarily tasked with covering Robert Woods, who finished with 85 yards and two total touchdowns, including a wide-open catch in the end zone. Woods is definitely underrated but is definitely not in that top-tier of receivers that should beat your team.

Overall, it was a terrific performance from the defense.

Now, for the offense.

Tua Tagovailoa’s first drive as a starter was far from ideal. He was stripped on his first drop-back – allowing the Rams to get in position to score. Luckily, after that play, he was able to secure the ball.

Tagovailoa finished the game: 12/22, 93 yards, 1 TD.

His first NFL touchdown came on a three-yard slant to DeVante Parker. He was able to throw a dart to Parker, who was heavily contested, for the score.

Aside from that, there really wasn’t much going on. The Dolphins leading receiver was Myles Gaskin, who had 16 yards. The longest offensive play for Miami was 15 yards. Tagovailoa only competed one pass beyond 10 yards, and only attempted three.

The offense was extremely conservative in this game. It’s possible that this conservative nature was part of the game plan. I had in my preview that I expected the Dolphins to focus on the short game to build Tagovailoa’s confidence. On top of that, many people (myself included) were worried about Aaron Donald and the Rams front getting plenty of hits on the rookie quarterback. If there was any positive to take away from the offense, it was that Tua was only sacked once in this game, and was only hit twice.

The offensive line, in terms of protecting Tua did alright. Tua was getting rid of the ball extremely quickly. Per NFL Next Gen Stats, he released the ball on average 2.27 seconds after the snap. Only Ben Roethlisberger had a quicker time to throw this week.

Tackles Jesse Davis and Robert Hunt both had moments where they were beaten badly, but Tua’s quick release prevented a sack. The line had one of it’s worst performances in terms of opening gaps for the running game.

Receiver DeVante Parker had a season low 35 yards against the Jets in Week 6. This week, he had an even weaker performance with only 3 yards against the Rams, who were missing Jalen Ramsey who missed the game with a non-COVID related sickness.

Tight end Mike Gesicki, who was at one point among the top receiving yard leaders for tight ends, now has combined for one catch for 8 yards in the last two games. He has four games with 15 or less yards and one catch.

Running back Myles Gaskin, who was coming off a career-high 91 rushing yards against the Jets in Week 6, was heavily involved, but not productive. He finished the game with 47 yards rushing, and an average of 2.6 yards per carry. He also had a rushing touchdown, and a fumble that put the Rams in the Dolphins red zone.

Special teams was spectacular in this game. After a few weeks in the hot seat, Jakeem Grant reminded everyone that his speed is unreal. He had an 88-yard punt return for a touchdown, where he blazed right through the entire Rams team. He also had a huge 45-yard kick return. It was a terrific game for Grant.

Takeaways

The Dolphins defense is legit. I have been saying for a few weeks now that I need to “see it again,” before I can deem them truly legit… but now I think they have proven themselves. This looks like the defense that I imagine Brian Flores envisioned he would have. This week Goff looked completely lost. The game before, they had a veteran Joe Flacco looking like a confused rookie. The game before that, they intercepted Garoppolo twice in the first half and had him pulled from the game.

Don’t worry about Tua yet. Despite watching a full game worth of Tua in the NFL, I can’t say I can reach any different conclusion than I would have before this game. As previously mentioned, the offense was extremely conservative, which really limited what Tua was able to do. On top of that, this was a tough Rams defense that was forcing him to get read of the ball extremely quickly. I can’t reach any sort of grand conclusion as to whether he’s the chosen one or a bust after this game — all we can really do is be optimistic about the next matchup, where the offense will hopefully open up more.

The offense needs to get creative. This partly ties into the previous point — but the offense was struggling before Tua was the starter. In Week 6 against the Jets, the Dolphins went 1/9 on third down, completing their only one on the last drive. A lot of the things I disliked from that game carried over into this game offensively, mainly the lack of aggressiveness. Tua has the arm to make all the throws, but the play calling needs a spark, as well as some help from the playmakers *cough cough* Gesicki… Williams.