Dolphins confident — regardless of QB
MIAMI GARDENS — The Miami Dolphins will play next weekend’s wild-card playoff game at Buffalo with either thirdstringer Skylar Thompson or second-stringer Teddy Bridgewater starting at quarterback. Most likely, starter Tua Tagovailoa, who is sidelined with a concussion, won’t be available. And you know what? The Dolphins don’t care. No matter who starts at quarterback the Dolphins say their requirement is the same.
“Win,” safety Justin Bethel said. The Dolphins defeated the New York Jets, 11-6, on Sunday with Thompson, the rookie seventh-round pick from Kansas State, starting at quarterback.
The Dolphins victory, combined with Buffalo’s 35-23 victory over New England, sends Miami to the playoffs for the first time since the 2016 season.
And just as it happened in 2016, the Dolphins will likely enter the playoffs with a backup quarterback starting.
Back then it was Matt Moore starting at Pittsburgh for Ryan Tannehill, who sustained a late-season knee injury. Next week, it’ll likely either be Bridgewater or Thompson starting at Buffalo. Again, the Dolphins say they don’t care. This past week, when the Dolphins learned they’d enter Sunday’s must-win game against the Jets without Tagovailoa (concussion), they said they didn’t care.
And later in the week when they learned they’d play this must-win game against the Jets without Bridgewater (dislocated pinky finger/knee) they said they didn’t care.
“We’ve been battled-tested so much this year nobody flinched,” linebacker Elandon Roberts said. “Everybody was just like, ‘Hey, man, we’ve got an opportunity of a lifetime. Everybody doesn’t get this. And the opportunity is win and you’re in.’ We were just focused on that.”
Similarly, they’ll be focused on winning in Buffalo against the Bills.
Thompson didn’t have an especially great performance against the Jets. He finished 20 of 31 for 152 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions and a 76.3 passer rating.
That’s fine.
The defense, which has only allowed five touchdowns in the past three games, was there to pick him up. The defense, which only allowed 16 points last week at New England (the Patriots had an interception return for a touchdown), didn’t allow a touchdown. It only allowed the Jets a pair of field goals, and, technically, the defense scored two points on a game-ending safety.
Special teams were also there to pick Thompson up. Kicker Jason Sanders hit three field goals against the Jets, including the game-winning 50-yarder with 2:43 remaining. And punter Thomas Morstead had four punts, two of which ended inside the Jets 10-yard line, one started the Jets at their own 25-yard line, and the other started the Jets at their own 11-yard line.
Those joint efforts, commonly referred to as complementary football, are what give the Dolphins faith, or hope, they can go up to Buffalo and come away with a victory, against all odds, regardless of who starts at quarterback.
Granted, Sunday was the only time they’d won this season with anyone other than Tagovailoa at quarterback, but they still had faith they could get the job done.
Thompson said it was the fighting spirit of his teammates that led them to victory. He said he has the same fighting spirit. He said both were major takeaways from the Jets game.
“I think it speaks volumes about the type of guys we’ve got in our locker room, and they’re willing to fight,” he said. “That’s something that I’ve prided myself on my entire life is fighting, and I felt like that game today was the definition of just fighting.”
Right guard Rob Hunt echoed that sentiment, but he directed his praise to Thompson.
“Skylar did a fantastic job coming out leading today and fighting his [butt] off, taking hits and still getting up and putting his foot down and trying to go forward,” Hunt said.
Hunt further honored Thompson by referring to an early-season comment by wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who said coach Mike McDaniel, who was being lauded as a gutsy coach at the time, needed a wheelbarrow to carry a certain body part.
“I thought he did a fantastic job today. You’ve got to give all the credit to that guy. That’s the guy that was up. That was the guy that did it, and he did it with, as Tyreek would say, [expletive], [expletive], [expletive].”
There’s a chance Bridgewater, the nineyear veteran, starts at Buffalo. McDaniel said Bridgewater was close to starting Sunday and could have played in an emergency situation.
McDaniel acknowledged it’s a tenuous quarterback situation for the wild-card game.
“There will be some question marks, but fortunately this team has proven not to blink in any sort of question marks either way,” he said. “We have guys that we really believe in, and we’ll go with the healthiest group up to Buffalo and play a very good football team.”
In other words, the Dolphins don’t care who starts at quarterback.
“We all trust Skylar, and we trust any quarterback that’s out there because we know the preparation those guys put in each week,” Roberts said. “However, our job is to make sure that we prepare the best in our phase.
“One thing I know about this team is that we have great leadership, so the defensive guys will make sure their side is ready, special teams is going to make sure their side is ready, and the offense will make sure they’re ready. That’s how you play complementary football.”
And maybe that’s the Dolphins’ best plan for beating the Bills, regardless of who starts at quarterback.