Dolphins endure rare safety vs. Raiders
Brissett takes blame after WR tackled in end zone
The Miami Dolphins didn’t have a passing touchdown in their Week 3 overtime loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, but they did complete a pass in the end zone — the wrong end zone.
With the Dolphins up, 14-0, in the first half and pinned back at their own 1-yard line, quarterback Jacoby Brissett tossed a screen out wide to Jaylen Waddle, who was standing behind his own goal line. He was quickly tackled by the Raiders’ Casey Hayward before he could get out of the end zone. The two points sparked a run of 25 unanswered by Las Vegas in the 31-28 Dolphins loss.
In his postgame press conference, Brissett shouldered the blame, saying he shouldn’t have thrown to Waddle.
“It just wasn’t a good play,” he said. “It was a dumb decision on my part. I take full responsibility for it, and it’s a great learning experience in that situation.”
Dolphins co-offensive coordinator Eric Studesville offered his perspective on Tuesday.
“When you’re in the heat of the game, you’re calling plays and that position, Jacoby made a decision. I read what he said about it,” Studesville said. “He made a decision and — right, wrong — if we all went back, would we do different things? Probably, we would do something different or we could do something different, but we didn’t. That’s what we did on that play. So, we have to learn and grow from that experience of what happened on that particular play.”
The “dumb decision” Brissett referred to is where he went with the ball — not that he changed a play at the line of scrimmage. The play-call was made by the Dolphins’ offensive staff with co-coordinators Studesville and George Godsey.
“We called that play into him,” Studesville said. “That wasn’t an
audible or anything of that nature.”
Brissett was in the shotgun with an empty backfield, so the Raiders knew the Dolphins were passing, unless Brissett was going to scramble or take off on a draw. The Raiders rushed four, and Brissett was not under duress. He had tight end Adam Shaheen open in the middle of the field shallow. Running back Salvon Ahmed, lined up out wide on the opposite side of Waddle was also standing in place for a screen pass. Raiders coverage against both Waddle and Ahmed was six or seven yards off the line of scrimmage.
Heyward, giving cushion for the Raiders against Waddle, didn’t break on Waddle until the pass was thrown. If it was to Waddle’s chest, he would’ve at least had time to get upfield slightly and out of the end zone. The problem was the throw made Waddle leap and, by the time he came down with it, Heyward was all over him. Waddle also could’ve made a split-second decision to just not catch the ball, but that would’ve been a tough call for a rookie to make that quickly.
Studesville also indicated Waddle wasn’t just lined up outside as a decoy. He was part of the play design.
Nevertheless, it was a historic play. It’s the only play in Pro Football Reference’s play-by-play database to result in a safety on a completed pass that did not involve a fumble or penalty.
The short screen thrown in that situation was also typical of what the Dolphins were doing in the passing game through three quarters with a lack of downfield passing.
“We’re talking a lot about that, trying to find explosive plays and ways to get explosive plays,” Studesville said. “We did take some shots at the end of that game in Las Vegas. … We’re limited at times because of what the defense gives us. We have to call them at the right times. We have to be prepared, and we have to dial those up when we think we have the best chance to execute those.”
With speedster Will Fuller only playing his first game with the Dolphins on Sunday, if his comfort level rises, his impact could help in opening up downfield throws.
“We threw the ball to him, tried to take some shots with him. He made a great catch on the 2-point play [to force overtime], the route that he had there,” Studesville said. “The more he’s in the offense, the more things we’ll try to do as he gets more comfortable with it.”
Fuller had three receptions for 20 yards, plus the successful 2-point conversion at the end of regulation. He also had what could’ve been a game-changing shot downfield thrown to him in overtime. Brissett threw deep to him in the back of the end zone, and he appeared to be interfered with. If the officials had called it, the Dolphins would have been set up at the 1-yard line with a chance to win with a touchdown.
A case in point for Miami’s short passing game, Waddle had a whopping 12 catches on Sunday, but they only went for 58 yards. Tight end Mike Gesicki had his best game this season with 10 receptions for 86 yards, including a 27-yarder on fourth-and-20 to extend the Dolphins’ hopes in overtime.