In a season defined mostly by moral victories, the Dolphins got their first meaningful one on Sunday.
Miami hung with the Chiefs for most of the game before falling 24-10. The Dolphins had multiple chances to tie the game and keep it within one score, but the team’s young roster reared its ugly head at key moments.
Obviously, it’s bad that the Dolphins lost. However, the team showed legitimate growth on both sides of the ball, and not for nothing, but their opponents have a combined record of 9-0 this season.
Let’s dive into this week’s film to see the improvements.
The most encouraging part of Miami’s performance was the group’s ability to overcome some of the things that torpedoed them in previous games.
I want to highlight one sequence for each group, starting with the offense’s impressive 17-play, 91-yard opening touchdown drive.
The Dolphins have a horrible habit of committing penalties deep in opposing territory, and it was popping up again against KC. Miami fell behind the sticks but got bailed out by a penalty on Chiefs CB Nohl Williams.
How did the Dolphins respond? By falling behind the sticks again. This time, though, they dug themselves out. Austin Jackson’s penalty made it first and 15, and then Malik Willis and Chris Bell just missed a TD on the next play.
On second down, the Dolphins dropped this beautiful tight end screen.
The key defender to watch is Drue Tanquill (#23, white sleeves). Watch how caught up in the motion that he gets, allowing Dulcich to slip right by him on the arrow screen.
Funnily enough, this is a changeup off a concept that I hate: The escort screen. The Dolphins run that so often that when Ollie Gordon jogged to the flat, it drew the linebacker’s eyes, pulling him wide.
It’s just a 7-yard gain, sure, but it’s a play-caller—Bobby Slowik—breaking tendencies to put the team in a more manageable spot. If Jonah Savaiinaea blocks Nick Bolton, this might’ve gone for a lot more yards.
That brought up third and 8, a down and distance that has spelled doom for the Dolphins this season. There’s no crazy play design here—Miami motions Ryan Miller across the formation, and the Chiefs bump out.
That motion creates some space, but the Chiefs are mostly conceding it because of the down and distance. What makes this play noteworthy is Malik Willis fading back in the pocket to buy an extra second before throwing with touch, anticipation, and wonderful placement for the first down.
Miami took many sacks in situations like this in the first two weeks. Whether the blame was on the line or Willis, Miami was dreadful in obvious passing situations.
The Chiefs do end up getting a somewhat unblocked defender by taking Jonah Savaiinaea’s eyes away from the B-gap with a late blitz at cornerback.
Brewer slows up the middle rushers enough, Willis delivers on the back end, and the Dolphins score a few plays later. This sequence shows progress on so many fronts.
Let’s move to the defense.
Miami’s defense got beaten to a pulp in the first half against the Raiders and then pretty much the entire game against the 49ers. And when Sunday’s game started, it looked like more of the same.
KC went right down the field on its first two possessions and was driving deep into Miami territory on its third. A touchdown would’ve made the score 21-7, a likely insurmountable margin for this undermanned team.
That never happened because Miami’s defense stepped up in a big way. It started with this play by Zach Sieler.
The Chiefs love this little shovel pass play off of split-flow run action. Watch Noah Grey (#83) come across the formation like he’s going to block, then slip upfield. Zach Sieler isn’t fooled, anchoring down and stuffing Grey for just two yards.
This is an incredibly heads-up play from a talented veteran who, frankly, hasn’t played well this season.
The next play is equally impressive stuff, but this time a rookie leads the charge. The Chiefs start with a full-house backfield before motioning Grey out to the right side of the formation.
Zach Sieler’s violent move off the snap seems to disrupt Trey Smith (#65) climbing up to Jacob Rodriguez. That flash of color from the rookie pushes Walker back into the teeth of the defense, where Michael Taaffe and Dante Trader Jr. combine on the stop.
That brought up fourth down, and the Dolphins defense proceeded to stuff the Chiefs’ offense for a third straight play.
The Dolphins defense could’ve folded, allowing the Chiefs to rip off straight touchdowns like it did last week. Instead, it stayed the course and didn’t panic.
In fact, unlike the offense, the defense played like this for most of the game. They surrendered just 10 more points and kept the offense in the right way.
It’s still not perfect on either side of the ball, but this Dolphins team has fight and isn’t giving up on this new coaching staff—that’s worth celebrating.
In this week’s quarterback segment, I want to take a look at Willis’ deep ball accuracy. The Dolphins pushed the ball downfield a lot against KC (and in Week 1), but Willis was just 1-of-9 on passes 20 or more yards downfield.
Those numbers aren’t great, but I think the film is far more forgiving than raw completion percentage. Buckle in, folks. We’re looking at all 9 throws.
The first one is a pretty simple read. Willis IDs man coverage and takes the slot fade against a single-high safety. Ultimately, this play just misses, but I think Willis threw a perfect ball.
You can see Bell have to check for the ball a few times, meaning he’s either having trouble tracking it or he’s lost it in the sun. Willis puts it over the correct shoulder and in the spot where QBs are taught to throw.
This is a bad ball track by a young, talented receiver—it happens. Willis throws an accurate pass. He and Bell will work these types of things out the more they play.
The Dolphins went for a flea-flicker, and nobody on the Chiefs is fooled. It’s a two-man route concept, and the routes are covered up. This is a good throwaway from Willis—no need to force this into coverage.
Willis’ third attempt was his only completion as Dulcich makes an excellent adjustment to haul in the explosive play. Concept-wise, the Dolphins run hard play-action to the Chiefs’ right, with Willis booting out to KC’s right.
The idea is to get KC’s defense flowing to their right, while Willis boots to his left. Usually, the routes will follow the QB, but almost as if Bobby Slowik was inspired by George Kittle and Kyle Shanahan last week, Miami’s routes bend back to the other side of the field.
Willis can throw to Mailk Washington, who is running a deep corner route, and Dulcich, who is running the vertical. He looks at Washington, who appears to be breaking open, but Mansoor Delane is sitting on that route—I like the turndown there.
Instead of eating the ball, Willis sees that Dulcich has a step and lets it rip. This ball is obviously a bit underthrown, but he puts it out there enough that Dulcich only has to work through one defender to make the play.
I would’ve liked to see Willis lead Dulcich, but I’m fine with him taking a 50/50 shot to his tight end on this look.
Throw number four is another deep shot to Dulcich. It’s a play-action concept with Malik Washington looking to clear out space on the vertical and then have Dulcich’s deep out route come right into the vacated space.
The Chiefs spin to Cover-3 after the snap, meaning Willis is taking a shot on Dulcich running away from his defender and beating the single-high safety to the corner.
Overall, I’m fine with this decision and throw. Washington isn’t running a real route, and Willis puts this in a spot where Dulcich can get to it while making it hard on the single-high safety.
If he leaves this inside or overthrows this ball, it’s probably an interception. Would I have liked to see Willis pull this ball down and escape out the B-gap on his left? Maybe?
If he’s watching that post-safety, he should probably understand that his reaction is good enough to contest the window Dulcich is running into.
I think there’s a lot more grey area in this throw than simply labeling it a miss.
Alright, there’s not much grey area in this one. Chris Bell dusts Mansoor Delane at the line and doesn’t have anyone in front of him. Yes, there’s a free rusher on a disguised blitz, but Willis has to put up a catchable ball here.
That’s especially true because he buys an extra second to take a peek and see Bell is open. If the free runner came in and Willis just tossed the ball up, I’d get the bad throw. It would be a negative play, but it would almost be more forgivable.
This is the first one I’d put solely on Willis.
Throw number six is one where I have some trouble deciding how I feel. This isn’t technically a two-man concept with Malik Washington running to the flat, but it functionally is another two-route look.
At first glance, it’s an underthrow. Coleman gets a step on his defender off another hard play-action concept, forcing him to stop and come back to the ball. I’m not denying this throw could’ve been better, but Willis also reset his platform and launched this ball from his own 22.
It landed at the Chiefs’ 18-yard line.
That’s roughly 60 yards in the air, which is an absolute bomb. A bunch of NFL QBs can’t reset like Willis did and then throw the ball this far.
To me, this is an understandable miss? A miss nonetheless, but not one that would worry me about Willis’ long-term outlook.
Also, I’d like to see Coleman fight a little hard coming back to the ball. That is separate from the throw, and I know Coleman is small, but if you’re gonna be an NFL deep threat, coming back to the ball with vigor is part of the gig.
Throw seven looks like an overthrow at first glance, but I actually feel like this is another bad ball track by Washington. Watch how Washington slows down when he turns his head to find the ball.
This makes him a couple of steps slow, and that’s all it takes on plays like these.
I don’t want to blame Washington entirely, but I do think this throw is leveraged properly, and it’s obviously the correct read. A perfect throw? It’s hard to say, so Willis shares some blame.
However, this looks more like a play that points to a general lack of chemistry, rather than a lack of accuracy from the QB.
Plus, Washington hasn’t gotten many deep targets since entering the NFL. He was a manufactured touch merchant with the last staff, and I don’t think he’s gotten any targets like this one this season.
His inexperience tracking the ball at full speed showed up here. Again, I’m not absolving Willis of all blame, but I’m also not gonna sit here and act like this is some egregious miss.
Throw number eight is 1,000% on Malik Willis. There’s no blame to go to the receiver or the offensive line—Willis makes a poor read and throw. KC drops the INT, but this was on of Willis’ worst moments from Sunday.
The Chiefs show blitz at the snap, but drop back into Tampa-2. That’s just Cover-2 with a middle linebacker running down the center of the defense. In this case, it’s Drue Tranquill running with Malik Washington’s vertical route.
Against Tampa-2, it’s reasonable to try and pin the ball over the bailing linebacker’s head. However, Miami actually has a good route concept for this look.
You can see Willis check to this look when he gets the Chiefs’ defenders to move with a hard count. That’s a great bit of quarterbacking right there!
To me, I think Willis should be trying to drive the in-route to Coleman. He’s running right into the vacated space from Washington’s vertical. If Willis throws with anticipation, he easily beats the sinking defender.
Instead, he tries to force a tighter window than needed and throws it completely over. If you’re going to try that window, it has to be a touch throw that leads Washington away from the linebacker, not a bullet straight upfield.
Everything was great pre-snap, but the post-snap execution wasn’t there.
But Dante, where is throw number nine??? Well, NFL Pro tagged a pass that got tipped and picked at the line of scrimmage as a deep pass because Willis intended target (Ryan Miller) was more than 20 yards downfield.
That pass doesn’t help us judge deep-ball accuracy. That said, Willis had a bad turndown to Malik Washington, who was open on a little hook route past the sticks.
So, what should we take away from all of this? My takeaway is something I learned while scouting draft prospects for the past six years: Deep-ball accuracy is as much a receiver stat as it is a QB stat—just like how sacks are as much a QB stat as an OL stat.
Right now, I see more chemistry problems than accuracy problems. Chris Bell should’ve had a touchdown, and Malik Washington isn’t a good ball tracker yet.
Willis doesn’t get off free, though. He definitely had a couple of head-scratchers in there. I’m not worried yet, but it’s worth monitoring as these guys get more reps together.
Last week, I wrote about something that grinded my gears. This week, I’m in a better mood, so we’re writing about something that got me excited.
Nothing gets me more excited than fundamentally sound run defense from the interior defensive line. If you’ve followed my work for a long time, then you know I was preaching the Jordan Phillips gospel well before the 2025 NFL Draft.
Well, he’s mostly developed into the player I saw at Maryland. He was arguably the team’s best defender on Sunday and helped the Dolphins settle in against a potent Chiefs’ rushing attack.
Phillips has always been a stack-and-shed machine in the middle, but he doesn’t have many splash plays to his credit. Well, he got one against the Chiefs.
Look at Phillips beat the Chiefs’ left tackle to the gap and get into the backfield for the tackle for loss. Phillips also got some run lined up over tackles this week, and he held his own, setting some hard edges.
That’s a new role for him, as I don’t recall seeing him line up further than the B-gap last season or this season.
I get overly excited about Phillips because I love interior defensive line play, and he was a favorite of mine before the Dolphins drafted him.
At the end of the day, he’s a starting-caliber nose tackle who is just 22 years old. As far as young options on the defensive line, Phillips is the only one I’m confident in sticking around long-term.