MONDAY FISH WRAP: W3 vs. Chiefs

Head coach Jeff Hafley and his rag-tag Miami Dolphins continue to make progress, even if the scoreboard doesn’t show it. By way of this week’s Monday Fish Wrap, here’s a look at yesterday’s Week 3, 24-10 loss the Kansas City Chiefs in the Dolphins’ home opener:

FIRST QUARTER

On Chiefs first play, safety Michael Taaffe appeared to be caught in no man’s land, then chose to let Travis Kelce have free release to S Dante Trader — who was already in deep coverage — instead of trailing Kelce. Ball of confusion.
It’s game three and I still need a flipcard, which is crazy. Mystery man Julius Wood is no. 25 as it turns out, and who the Dolphins tried to send on an early blitz.
First Kansas City touchdown was more uninspiring play from defensive tackle Malik Herring. Hard count by Patrick Mahomes had Herring trying to recover from nearly jumping off side as the ball was snapped, then getting destroyed. Chiefs ran at the gap between he and Jordan Phillips for the score.
Start to the game sees the Dolphins completely disjointed, including return troubles on the ensuing kickoff.
Watching the replay of his first down pass drop, I had just one thought about Devon Achane — I wish all Miami’s receivers could run routes like him.
Achane injury immediately accentuates the question — was there not a third running back worth rostering?
By Monday there may already be more, but looked to me like he jammed the right knee. Experience tells me it’s either a meniscus or a fractured patella (kneecap). Pray for the former.
Malik Washington might not excite the fanbase or fantasy football owners, but having a super-solid, reliable guy is a great thing for a young roster. Any roster really.
Chris Bell end zone miss was close, but two positives — a) real nice throw from quarterback Malik Willis, who is playing with confidence so far, and b) Bell accelerated right past the safety. Bell is going to be a problem for underneath coverage guys. during his career
WR Ryan Miller is what this year is about — uncovering some pieces for next year/the future. He’s now had two games straight with a receiving impact (though it was garbage time at SF) and he’s played well on coverage teams.
Great play call by Bobby Slowik on the dive by Ollie Gordon II on 3rd & long in the red zone. Along with the pass inside earlier to Greg Dulcich, this drive has seen Slowik using the Chiefs aggressiveness against them.
Rookie G Kadyn Proctor with the touchdown hug for Gordon! It’s not every day rookie linemen look this good, this early.
I get that Jaylen Wright is out today, but it’s encouraging that the current Dolphins staff seem to have recognized that Gordon is a more natural runner. And he’s been a banger with these extra reps. Wright may have gotten Wally Pipp‘d.
Dulcich was also doing good work on the opposite side of the line. He’s not had the receiving impact so far this season, but the problem he showed up with (blocking questions) doesn’t come up as an issue when I watch.
Crazy the Dolphins scored given the number of penalties that drive (three).
Chiefs back on offense and it’s interior is shredding the Miami front. From an evaluation standpoint, it will be easy to see if a Kenneth Grant return makes any difference. And yes, I just heard you say “it won’t” but this year IS about patience, and he’s yet to suit up folks.
Chiefs 3rd and 1 conversion to the Dolphins 10 looks like Julius Wood got lost pre-snap after a shift and may not have known who he was covering. I’m still blown away a player is getting run on defense who I’m not sure anybody knew anything about before today (if I’m wrong, let me know).
Quarter ends tied 7-7, which feels like some kind of weird sorcery.

SECOND QUARTER

Mahomes forced to call timeout. Feel like he was surprised Dolphins came out with five DBs and in press on 3rd and 1. Tendencies win: Hafley
Confusion on a rub route erases Dolphins first sack of the year. Taaffe having a challenging half, this time with a crossing Kelce.
Miami is clearly undermanned but battling. If it can maintain that all year, there will be a win or three. Two respectable first halves against two elite teams.
I keep peeking at Chop Robinson. If there’s a word to describe his half it’s “unengaged.” He’s got a great view of every play though.
Not sure if it’s fair to complain about Willis’ choice of throws on 4th & 3 with the rush coming hard. That said, 3rd AND 4th down were a little troubling. On 3rd, it was good to see a quick decision out of Willis with his pass to Bell short of the sticks, but at the same time he took his first read and just forced it. That’s a pick 6 waiting to happen for a film watcher on a future opposing team.
Chiefs offensive line gets Mahomes a huge pocket when he’s passing and whatever you would call a huge pocket in the defensive front when they look to run. They are controlling the middle of the field with ease.
Feels like we’ve seen less Willie Gay Jr. and instead more nickel in its place.
A 3rd & 1 stop for Miami and who is it fighting off blockers and closing the deal? Taaffe. Tough kid.
The 4th & 1 stop by the Dolphins defense, from what i can see on the TV copy, was a product of Jordan Phillips punching a hole in the line and Jacob Rodriguez filling and standing up his man to initiate first contact with Kenneth Walker.
More than anything, again, credit to the coaching staff for helping this young team fight every down. Good half.
Great start to the drive on pass to Bell. There WILL be a day he takes one of those to the house. He can’t be at full health yet … next year he will be.
Happy with the decision by Willis to throw it away on the flea flicker.
Didn’t have L’Jarius Snead struggling against Miami on my bingo card.
Malik Washington at running back out of necessity, but I felt last year like they could take advantage of some matchups if he can effectively run from time to time, especially in 22 personnel.
After a Willis fumble, Rodriguez with the first big impact play of his career. Was initially in coverage on Xavier Worthy on the field side, left his man when he saw the pass and made the diving pick on the field side. Eye opening.
Not only will Rodriguez return numerous turnovers for touchdowns in his career, he may be the third-best running back on the current roster. Kidding not kidding.
We’ll see how the second half goes but my hunch is Gordon is going to get better as the game goes on. He’s hammering holes right now.
Loved seeing the split backfield with Washington and Gordon, but not so sure about the choice of where the play went from there (1:02).
In the first three games, seems like there have been multiple 3rd & longs where the Dolphins designed play was meant to take the underneath space in hopes of securing a field goal as opposed to making a run at getting a first down. That’s what the planned third down run with Willis seemed like, even though he never got in comfort range for Riley Patterson. In hindsight, Willis probably could’ve helped by going for the extra few yards as opposed to sliding.
Completely imperfect, but a really good first half.

THIRD QUARTER

The 42-yard pass to Dulcich was a questionable decision and not a very good pass, but Dulcich was the only one of the three players there who saw the ball and positioned himself for the catch. “Interesting” play call as well.
Very next play another questionable throw to Dulcich into double coverage but one encouraging thing — Dolphins offensive line is now giving Willis some time and space back there.
GREAT job on 2nd & 10 by Willis of throwing the ball away after a free runner got to him quick. More of that please.
Third & 10 conversion via pass to Ollie Gordon was crazy in a few ways. First, not sure we’ve seen a lot of the back used offset like that but one would think the defense might that notice. The Chiefs didn’t, Willis fired a bullet and did anybody think Gordon had those kind of hands? That he could reign it in and continue on for extra yardage was even better.
Hate to point fingers but it was the time it took Chris Bell to realize he didn’t break huddle to his landmark and that was the difference between a nice Washington catch-and-run for a touchdown and an illegal shift call. If he’d been out there sans adjustment, Willis isn’t rushed to start Washington into motion in order to beat the play clock. It’s gonna happen with rookies. Still a nice play by Willis and Washington.
At the 9:00 mark in the 3rd and maybe the heat is bothering KC. Rodriguez nice TFL on Walker saw what looked to be an assignment error on the Chiefs left side with two players stacked vertically on Zach Sieler and Rodriguez left completely unaccounted for.
Chiefs definitely not having an easy time of it with the Miami front as this drive ends. What a change since the game’s beginning.
Malik Washington is morphing into Willis’ O.J. McDuffie.
Hicks play on Kevin Coleman may have been pass interference. On the flip side, I imagine they’ll be coaching Coleman to go back and get it in film review this week.
May have already said it but with these extended carries, Gordon’s vision as a back is just noticably better than Wright’s. He’s RB2 even with a healthy Wright at this point.
*Football nerd alert* but the 3rd down conversion at 4:50 may be the team’s most efficient work of the year. Patrick Paul does an amazing job handling rookie standout R Mason Thomas who was bringing head, then Willis delivered a perfect ball, on time, to a slanting Bell.
If Bell can develop as a route runner, he will be a real problem. Right now most everything is rounded off and he wins mostly with his burst. Also encouraging that he’s stepped it up with Douglas out.
Willis’ 3rd & 9 attempt to Washington was forced. Bell was open to his right at the sticks and D.J. Herman was open underneath.
Up until the roughing call on Robinson, only Josh Uche had been noticeably getting after it. And though you hate the call, seeing Robinson come free on a well-designed play and fly to the quarterback was like water for the parched. Bad outcome penalty-wise, but actually a little progress. I’m also not sure that’s a penalty.
Ironically, was looking to see if Robinson was even on the field on that play because the one before he got smashed by a backside blocker and it looked like high. Maybe it woke something up.
Through three quarters, have to look at this whole thing as another step forward. Last game was a good half then a bad one. This third quarter, they outplayed the Chiefs.

FOURTH QUARTER

Willie Gay Jr. had solid coverage on the Chiefs first big pass play of the second half. If he’d turned for the ball he may have won the play.
This game has accentuated just how important it is for a Hafley linebacker to be able to cover. Gay, Brooks and Rodriguez have all been active in (mostly) intermediate space and Andy Reid has tried to attack each of them. Hafley zone can create tough matchups like Worthy on Rodriguez earlier, but it gives the quarterback no time to read that pre-snap.
Under 13:00 in the fourth, Chop again with pressure. VERY fortunate as he forced Mahomes away from his side, where Juju Brents was noticeably trying to get help with what his assignment was from teammates pre-snap and likely could’ve been exploited if not for the pressure.
Would love to see a first half vs. second half win-rate for the Dolphins front. Also curious if it’s more than the Miami Gardens heat and instead Hafley adjustments.
WR Kevin Coleman on returns was honestly why I thought they drafted him. Imagine it’s necessitated today by all the snaps Washington has played (and that maybe he’s about to line up at RB?).
First snap of the drive, Washington at running back. Will say it again — Washington is this team’s glue and honestly one of its more important offensive players, especially now.
– (~8:30) He’s supposedly been dealing with a calf, but not really hearing Chris Jones‘ name called really before now has been an unexpected pleasure.
– (7:10) Since coming out injured, Gordon is feeling his way through runs as opposed to banging.
Decision to go for it on 4th & 6 was surprising, at best. On the play itself, Willis took maybe the most-covered option in Coleman. There was a small chance to convert if he had instead gone to Gordon in the left flat, but the Chiefs left him little time to choose.
Jordan Phillips had probably had his best game this year but his impact will be limited to the run game if he can’t figure out how to use his upper half too and get off a block.
Chiefs offensive line appears to have caught a little second wind as the game winds down. Tide has turned again.
If you’d given me four catches O/U for Kelce in this game, I would’ve definitely taken the over. Both of his catches impactful but putting nearly three quarters of play between them is worthy of a little applause for the Miami defense. And probably Vegas.
Uche is making a case for another 1-year deal next year.
Can’t put a finger on exactly why, but it was a challenging day for Taaffe. He got caught in the losing game of trying to read Mahomes’ eyes on the Kelce TD.
Overall, things didn’t end well and they scored just 10, but from where I sit this was Willis’ best game to date. It wasn’t perfect and still scattered with a few poor choices — like not taking the first down in front of him at the 2 minute mark — but far fewer. He made some decisions that were safe and smart. Room for growth but growth still shown.
This will be a challenge for Miami fans who can’t stomach the losses, but consider today a win. This team does not have the roster for winning-record type growth. But that saw an improved offensive line, defensive line, backup running back, quarterback and the continued early emergence of a star at middle linebacker. Meanwhile, Chop Robinson’s play was improved, even if very spotty.
Offensive line should feel pretty good about the effort against the Chiefs. Would call it their best, most complete game this year.
Both Miami playcallers — Hafley and Slowik — had good games today. There are always a few worth debating, but the team felt put together and put in position to win downs much of the game.
For the future, this game’s outcome was ideal in my opinion — four quarters of playing hard and putting a little scare in a likely playoff-bound team, while maintaining that 2027 draft status without tanking one iota.