{"id":1013929,"date":"2026-09-29T13:24:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1013929\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T13:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:24:19","slug":"3-takeaways-from-dolphins-week-3-all-22-vs-kansas-city-chiefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1013929\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Takeaways From Dolphins Week 3 All-22 vs. Kansas City Chiefs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In a season defined mostly by moral victories, the Dolphins got their first meaningful one on Sunday. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s young roster reared its ugly head at key moments. <\/p>\n

Obviously, it\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s dive into this week’s film to see the improvements. <\/p>\n

The most encouraging part of Miami\u2019s performance was the group’s ability to overcome some of the things that torpedoed them in previous games. <\/p>\n

I want to highlight one sequence for each group, starting with the offense\u2019s impressive 17-play, 91-yard opening touchdown drive. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

How did the Dolphins respond? By falling behind the sticks again. This time, though, they dug themselves out. Austin Jackson\u2019s penalty made it first and 15, and then Malik Willis and Chris Bell just missed a TD on the next play. <\/p>\n

On second down, the Dolphins dropped this beautiful tight end screen. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a 7-yard gain, sure, but it\u2019s a play-caller\u2014Bobby Slowik\u2014breaking tendencies to put the team in a more manageable spot. If Jonah Savaiinaea blocks Nick Bolton, this might\u2019ve gone for a lot more yards. <\/p>\n

That brought up third and 8, a down and distance that has spelled doom for the Dolphins this season. There\u2019s no crazy play design here\u2014Miami motions Ryan Miller across the formation, and the Chiefs bump out. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

The Chiefs do end up getting a somewhat unblocked defender by taking Jonah Savaiinaea\u2019s eyes away from the B-gap with a late blitz at cornerback. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s move to the defense. <\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s 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\u2019s game started, it looked like more of the same. <\/p>\n

KC went right down the field on its first two possessions and was driving deep into Miami territory on its third. A touchdown would\u2019ve made the score 21-7, a likely insurmountable margin for this undermanned team. <\/p>\n

That never happened because Miami\u2019s defense stepped up in a big way. It started with this play by Zach Sieler. <\/p>\n

The Chiefs love this little shovel pass play off of split-flow run action. Watch Noah Grey (#83) come across the formation like he\u2019s going to block, then slip upfield. Zach Sieler isn\u2019t fooled, anchoring down and stuffing Grey for just two yards. <\/p>\n

This is an incredibly heads-up play from a talented veteran who, frankly, hasn\u2019t played well this season. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Zach Sieler\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

That brought up fourth down, and the Dolphins defense proceeded to stuff the Chiefs\u2019 offense for a third straight play.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins defense could\u2019ve folded, allowing the Chiefs to rip off straight touchdowns like it did last week. Instead, it stayed the course and didn\u2019t panic.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s still not perfect on either side of the ball, but this Dolphins team has fight and isn\u2019t giving up on this new coaching staff\u2014that\u2019s worth celebrating.<\/p>\n

In this week\u2019s quarterback segment, I want to take a look at Willis\u2019 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. <\/p>\n

Those numbers aren\u2019t great, but I think the film is far more forgiving than raw completion percentage. Buckle in, folks. We\u2019re looking at all 9 throws. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

You can see Bell have to check for the ball a few times, meaning he\u2019s either having trouble tracking it or he\u2019s lost it in the sun. Willis puts it over the correct shoulder and in the spot where QBs are taught to throw. <\/p>\n

This is a bad ball track by a young, talented receiver\u2014it happens. Willis throws an accurate pass. He and Bell will work these types of things out the more they play. <\/p>\n

The Dolphins went for a flea-flicker, and nobody on the Chiefs is fooled. It\u2019s a two-man route concept, and the routes are covered up. This is a good throwaway from Willis\u2014no need to force this into coverage. <\/p>\n

Willis\u2019 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\u2019 right, with Willis booting out to KC\u2019s right. <\/p>\n

The idea is to get KC\u2019s 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\u2019s routes bend back to the other side of the field. <\/p>\n

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\u2014I like the turndown there. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

I would\u2019ve liked to see Willis lead Dulcich, but I\u2019m fine with him taking a 50\/50 shot to his tight end on this look. <\/p>\n

Throw number four is another deep shot to Dulcich. It\u2019s a play-action concept with Malik Washington looking to clear out space on the vertical and then have Dulcich\u2019s deep out route come right into the vacated space. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Overall, I\u2019m fine with this decision and throw. Washington isn\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n

If he leaves this inside or overthrows this ball, it\u2019s probably an interception. Would I have liked to see Willis pull this ball down and escape out the B-gap on his left? Maybe? <\/p>\n

If he\u2019s watching that post-safety, he should probably understand that his reaction is good enough to contest the window Dulcich is running into. <\/p>\n

I think there\u2019s a lot more grey area in this throw than simply labeling it a miss. <\/p>\n

Alright, there\u2019s not much grey area in this one. Chris Bell dusts Mansoor Delane at the line and doesn\u2019t have anyone in front of him. Yes, there\u2019s a free rusher on a disguised blitz, but Willis has to put up a catchable ball here. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s 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\u2019d get the bad throw. It would be a negative play, but it would almost be more forgivable. <\/p>\n

This is the first one I\u2019d put solely on Willis. <\/p>\n

Throw number six is one where I have some trouble deciding how I feel. This isn\u2019t technically a two-man concept with Malik Washington running to the flat, but it functionally is another two-route look. <\/p>\n

At first glance, it\u2019s 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\u2019m not denying this throw could\u2019ve been better, but Willis also reset his platform and launched this ball from his own 22. <\/p>\n

It landed at the Chiefs\u2019 18-yard line. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s roughly 60 yards in the air, which is an absolute bomb. A bunch of NFL QBs can\u2019t reset like Willis did and then throw the ball this far. <\/p>\n

To me, this is an understandable miss? A miss nonetheless, but not one that would worry me about Willis\u2019 long-term outlook. <\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019d 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\u2019re gonna be an NFL deep threat, coming back to the ball with vigor is part of the gig. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

This makes him a couple of steps slow, and that\u2019s all it takes on plays like these.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to blame Washington entirely, but I do think this throw is leveraged properly, and it\u2019s obviously the correct read. A perfect throw? It\u2019s hard to say, so Willis shares some blame. <\/p>\n

However, this looks more like a play that points to a general lack of chemistry, rather than a lack of accuracy from the QB. <\/p>\n

Plus, Washington hasn\u2019t gotten many deep targets since entering the NFL. He was a manufactured touch merchant with the last staff, and I don\u2019t think he\u2019s gotten any targets like this one this season. <\/p>\n

His inexperience tracking the ball at full speed showed up here. Again, I\u2019m not absolving Willis of all blame, but I\u2019m also not gonna sit here and act like this is some egregious miss. <\/p>\n

Throw number eight is 1,000% on Malik Willis. There\u2019s no blame to go to the receiver or the offensive line\u2014Willis makes a poor read and throw. KC drops the INT, but this was on of Willis\u2019 worst moments from Sunday. <\/p>\n

The Chiefs show blitz at the snap, but drop back into Tampa-2. That\u2019s just Cover-2 with a middle linebacker running down the center of the defense. In this case, it\u2019s Drue Tranquill running with Malik Washington\u2019s vertical route. <\/p>\n

Against Tampa-2, it\u2019s reasonable to try and pin the ball over the bailing linebacker\u2019s head. However, Miami actually has a good route concept for this look. <\/p>\n

You can see Willis check to this look when he gets the Chiefs\u2019 defenders to move with a hard count. That\u2019s a great bit of quarterbacking right there! <\/p>\n

To me, I think Willis should be trying to drive the in-route to Coleman. He\u2019s running right into the vacated space from Washington\u2019s vertical. If Willis throws with anticipation, he easily beats the sinking defender. <\/p>\n

Instead, he tries to force a tighter window than needed and throws it completely over. If you\u2019re going to try that window, it has to be a touch throw that leads Washington away from the linebacker, not a bullet straight upfield. <\/p>\n

Everything was great pre-snap, but the post-snap execution wasn\u2019t there. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

That pass doesn\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n

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\u2014just like how sacks are as much a QB stat as an OL stat. <\/p>\n

Right now, I see more chemistry problems than accuracy problems. Chris Bell should\u2019ve had a touchdown, and Malik Washington isn\u2019t a good ball tracker yet. <\/p>\n

Willis doesn\u2019t get off free, though. He definitely had a couple of head-scratchers in there. I\u2019m not worried yet, but it\u2019s worth monitoring as these guys get more reps together. <\/p>\n

Last week, I wrote about something that grinded my gears. This week, I\u2019m in a better mood, so we\u2019re writing about something that got me excited. <\/p>\n

Nothing gets me more excited than fundamentally sound run defense from the interior defensive line. If you\u2019ve followed my work for a long time, then you know I was preaching the Jordan Phillips gospel well before the 2025 NFL Draft. <\/p>\n

Well, he\u2019s mostly developed into the player I saw at Maryland. He was arguably the team\u2019s best defender on Sunday and helped the Dolphins settle in against a potent Chiefs\u2019 rushing attack. <\/p>\n

Phillips has always been a stack-and-shed machine in the middle, but he doesn\u2019t have many splash plays to his credit. Well, he got one against the Chiefs. <\/p>\n

Look at Phillips beat the Chiefs\u2019 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. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s a new role for him, as I don\u2019t recall seeing him line up further than the B-gap last season or this season. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

At the end of the day, he\u2019s 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\u2019m confident in sticking around long-term. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a season defined mostly by moral victories, the Dolphins got their first meaningful one on Sunday. Miami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1013930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[346,7,118,110,2438,2437,6],"class_list":["post-1013929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-chiefs","tag-football","tag-kansas-city","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kansascity","tag-kansascitychiefs","tag-nfl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117354552981961623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1013929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1013930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1013929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1013929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1013929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}