Dolphins defense took step forward despite injuries but not enough in loss to Vikings

The Miami Dolphins entered Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Vikings with their cornerback group already stretched thin by injuries.

The depth got tested even more as the game progressed as key members of the group that was healthy enough to play were sidelined.

Trey Flowers, Nik Needham and Keion Crossen all left in the first half with injuries and didn’t return. That compounded with Byron Jones still being on the physically unable to perform list and rookie Kader Kohou being scratched with an oblique injury left Miami with three healthy corners down the stretch against the Minnesota Vikings: Xavien Howard, Noah Igbinoghene and Justin Bethel, the latter of whom had played almost exclusively on special teams.

But even as the Dolphins saw key contributor after key contributor leave Sunday’s 24-16 loss to the Vikings, the defense still held its own and gave the team a chance to mount a comeback that fell short.

The defense held the Vikings to 234 yards of offense, a 2-for-12 efficiency on third down, recorded three sacks, broke up five passes and forced Minnesota to punt on 10 of its 14 drives. Igbinoghene defended two passes. Bethel had a key third-down stop with Miami within six points early in the fourth quarter.

But the few rare lapses from the group on Sunday were just enough for Minnesota to strike on a day when the Dolphins’ offense struggled.

Minnesota’s first touchdown came on a seven-play, 75-yard drive capped by a 1-yard pass from Kirk Cousins to Irv Smith Jr. on the drive when Needham sustained an ankle injury and was carted off the field. Cousins completed all five of his pass attempts on that drive after Needham left the game.

The second came when Justin Jefferson beat Howard down the right sideline for a 47-yard catch-and-run to end the third quarter. The Vikings scored two plays later on a 2-yard touchdown pass to Adam Thielen.

“I accept the challenge,” Howard said of facing Jefferson, who had six catches for 107 yards. “We didn’t win, so I don’t feel like I did my job. We’ve got to keep getting better.”

And then there was Dalvin Cook’s 53-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter after a Jaylen Waddle fumble that put Minnesota up 24-10 late in the fourth quarter.

Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said he thought the defense “took a step in the right direction” on Sunday but also pointed to the team’s inability to force a turnover as a factor in the loss. The Dolphins have not recovered a fumble or intercepted a pass over the course of their three-game losing streak.

“The number one indicator in wins and losses has been and forever always will be turnovers,” McDaniel said. “When you’re minus-3, you’ve got to be pretty epic in other ways to try to come out on top, and we just didn’t have that really in our game this week. We’ve got to continue to stress it because it happens to a lot of teams. Almost every team during the season, you go through a lull of turnovers, whether it’s getting them or giving them up, and sometimes it snowballs into two, three games, but what you don’t do is deviate from the points of emphasis just because you haven’t gotten the results. You keep trying new things. I’ll be doing my best with the coaching staff to try to problem solve that, but if you’re trying to win more than you lose in this league, you’d better be on the plus side, and that’s just a fact.”