Blaming offensive line: Four straight games of Dolphins QBs going down unacceptable | Habib
MIAMI GARDENS — The first quarterback going down was bad, the second was a national controversy, the third was a trend and this fourth one demands answers.
Namely, after all this time and all this money and all this change, why can’t the Dolphins keep their quarterbacks in one piece?
The Dolphins lost to the Minnesota Vikings 24-16 Sunday in a game that actually represents a bit of a victory. Rookie Skylar Thompson made it through the entire first quarter before striking his thumb on the helmet of a pass rusher, which knocked him out of the game. That’s an improvement over last week when Teddy Bridgewater didn’t survive one play. And that was coming after the double whammy suffered by Tua Tagovailoa prior to that.
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Officially, that’s a back injury, an ankle injury, two concussions and a banged-up thumb all suffered by Dolphins quarterbacks in the past month. Such a laundry list is bound to raise questions on a team. At Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, it brought up one bizarre question:
Who's Cedrick Wilson's backup?
Wilson is a receiver but also the Dolphins’ emergency/fourth-string quarterback.
Bridgewater, who had just cleared concussion protocol Saturday, relieved Thompson but was sacked five times. Thompson was sacked once as the line had no answers for linebackers ZaDarius Smith and Patrick Jones, who each had two sacks. Oh, there’s more. The Vikings also had 13 quarterback hits.
"Just our luck that the guy who didn’t get to prepare as a starter has to go in the game and play most of the game," said Bridgewater, who still went 23-of-34 for 329 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. "But man, this game is so crazy."
Afterward, several Dolphins cited the “next man up” line that has become a mantra around the league but is one you’re hearing too often around these parts when it comes to QBs. No team can assume it will have its starting quarterback for 17 straight games, but if Tagovailoa starts and finishes next Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Dolphins will have gone more than a month since any QB went the distance.
This isn’t the Major League Baseball playoffs, folks.
“Unfortunately that’s the nature of this business,” tight end Mike Gesicki said. “We hate it for Skylar, we hated it for Teddy last week and we hated it for Tua a couple weeks ago. It’s unfortunate. At some point, this game kind of gets everybody.”
Wasn't the Dolphins' line supposed to be better?
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Despite all the draft resources the Dolphins have poured into the offensive line in recent years, we knew veteran leadership was needed. In came Terron Armstead and Connor Williams, which makes sense on one level. Armstead was a former Pro Bowl tackle and Williams was a respected guard on the Cowboys.
But Armstead’s injury history has cost him an average of 5.5 games per year over the past six seasons. Knowing that, the Dolphins have essentially made the practice field off-limits to him. It still wasn’t enough. A toe injury landed him on the inactive list for this game.
After signing, Williams was informed he wouldn’t play guard but would be converted to center, where he probably has performed better than a player a handful of games into that position could be expected.
No telling, though, how long it might take for Armstead to get over that toe injury, which had him making a detour to a specialist after the Jets game. What we do know is he’s a left tackle. That sounds good until you remember that Tua Tagovailoa throws left-handed, meaning the absolute highest priority on Miami’s offensive line has to be right tackle, protecting Tagovailoa’s blindside.
Sunday that role was played by Brandon Shell, who was just brought up from the practice squad. First-stringer Austin Jackson (ankle) has been on injured reserve. Even if he returns for the Steelers game, the Dolphins hope it’s a new-and-improved Austin Jackson. Hope, because there’s no way anybody can know.
Even when Thompson was upright against the Vikings, his line wasn’t doing him many favors. He faced a first-and-30 situation after guard Rob Hunt committed a false start, Williams was called for being an ineligible receiver downfield and guard Liam Eichenberg held.
Thompson’s day abruptly ended three snaps into the next series when linebacker Jordan Hicks plowed up the middle virtually untouched. Thompson managed to release the ball before going down, but these past few weeks have conditioned us to hold our collective breath when Thompson was flattened. Another head injury? No, but Thompson’s hand hit Jones’ helmet as he released the pass, which left the thumb on his throwing hand bloody.
Series in third quarter sums up Teddy Bridgewater's day
While we’re at it, let’s take a closer look at a sequence late in the third quarter. Bridgewater had just hit Tyreek Hill for 21 yards, creating a buzz in Hard Rock Stadium. But on first down from the Miami 35, Smith was credited with a 7-yard sack against Bridgewater merely because he beat end Dalvin Tomlinson to the punch. One play later, Bridgewater was nailed for intentional grounding, a 19-yard penalty. If nose tackle Khyiris Tonga hadn’t smothered Bridgewater on the play, Jones would have.
It was open-season on Dolphins quarterbacks.
“They played a great game,” Williams said of Minnesota’s front. “They hung in there on the front line and forced us to rush and then got home on some rushes, so commend them on their game.”
To be fair, the Dolphins should be commended for slogging through this three-and-out fest long enough to cut the deficit to 16-10 in the fourth quarter. This despite the uncanny parade of Dolphins heading into the tunnel with injuries or, in the case of cornerback Nik Needham, needing a cart to leave the field.
In the end, though, the Dolphins did not come away with the 500th victory in their history. They did not win their ninth in a row at home.
They did not mask protection problems that must be rectified.
As Hunt succinctly put it, “We all just got to do better.”
Hal Habib covers the Dolphins for The Post. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami Dolphins QBs endangered playing behind leaky offensive line
