The Miami Dolphins went into Soldier Field on Sunday afternoon for their third NFC North matchup of the year and walked out with a 35-32 victory over the Chicago Bears.
Miami’s offense was potent for the majority of the game, as quarterback Tua Tagovailoa completed 70% of his passes for 302 yards and three touchdowns with a 135.7 passer rating. He was able to deliver the ball consistently to Tyreek Hill (seven receptions for 143 yards and a touchdown) and Jaylen Waddle (five receptions for 85 yards and a touchdown).
He’ll likely get some criticism for an underthrow to Waddle that could’ve been an easy touchdown for the wideout on their second-to-last drive of the game. Luckily, it didn’t come back to bite them.
Defensively, Miami struggled to contain Justin Fields, which should’ve been one of their primary focuses this week. He completed 60.7% of his passes for 123 yards and three touchdowns while adding 178 yards and another score on the ground. His rushing performance set an NFL record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a regular season contest.
They were able to hold David Montogmery and Khalil Herbert to just 2.8 yards per rush, but that will be overshadowed by Fields’ day.
In the third phase of the game, Jason Sanders missed a 29-yard field goal – the shortest miss of his career. This obviously hurt the trust that head coach Mike McDaniel had in him, which led to Miami going for it on fourth-and-1 from Chicago’s 14-yard line.
It wasn’t all bad on special teams, however, as Jaelan Phillips, who had played 19 special-teams snaps heading into Week 9, recorded a blocked punt. That ball was recovered by Andrew Van Ginkel and returned for a touchdown. This was their first touchdown off of a blocked punt since Duke Riley and Justin Coleman combined for the same feat against the Carolina Panthers in 2021.
Miami squeaked out a victory and improves to 6-0 in games that Tagovailoa starts and finishes this season.
