The Miami Dolphins were narrowly defeated by the Las Vegas Raiders at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday night, as Mike McDaniel’s team was handed their first loss of the preseason.
Without left tackle Terron Armstead and wide receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, Miami’s starting offense, led by Tua Tagovailoa for the first time in 2022, left a lot to be desired.
Larnel Coleman filled in for Armstead and wasn’t exactly impressive. He was responsible for a false start on a fourth-down that may have changed the result of the drive from a field goal to a touchdown.
Tagovailoa completed eight of his 13 pass attempts for 85 yards, as his play was rather bland. He hit running back Chase Edmonds for a couple of nice plays in the passing game, but most of the work was done by Edmonds, as he made defenders miss.
Despite the offensive starters coming out of the game after just a couple of drives, tight end Mike Gesicki stayed out there for the whole first half. He was partially responsible for Teddy Bridgewater’s safety, as the Penn State product failed to make his block.
Defensively, Miami looked like they were going to get burnt all night after Noah Igbinoghene gave up some catches and runs on important plays during their first drive. Then, with Nik Needham going down with a hand injury early, it looked like things were going to get worse.
However, Josh Boyer’s defense did a great job of bouncing back and getting their hands on balls to knock them to the ground. The unit didn’t give up another point during the first half.
The second half started out with more of the same, as Miami’s defense held Las Vegas’ offense to just two field goals in the second half.
It was rookie quarterback Skylar Thompson that seemed to provide a spark for the Dolphins’ offense when he took the field in the fourth quarter. On his first drive, he allowed fellow rookie Erik Ezukanma to make a great adjustment to bring in a pass down the right sideline for a big gain. That drive was capped off by a pretty touch pass on a wheel route to undrafted rookie running back Zaquandre White.
On their final offensive drive, Thompson had two poor snaps from center Michael Deiter, but he was still able to make some impressive throws to Ezukanma.
The rookie duo put their team in field goal position with less than two minutes to go, but Jason Sanders missed his final attempt, securing the loss, as the ball bounced off of the upright.
