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Night Of Week 16 - A Christmas Eve Miami Battle
Pokes and Phins wage a memorable battle in South Florida that requires all 60 minutes
BOB STURM
DEC 24, 2023
Jason Sanders ends the battle with his fifth field goal of the night - Getty Images
Sometimes, these games come down to a fork in the road. Two teams fighting over the same game, both feeling like they have too much at stake to come this far and to leave with nothing. They both dig in and it comes down to one basic situation. This one occurred late in the fourth quarter when the Miami Dolphins takes the ball with 3:27 to go in the game.
At this point, Dallas has fought all the way back to take a lead that they were chasing most all of the night. The Cowboys just ate up roughly the last 13 minutes of the game with two long drives that harvested 10 points. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pretty. But, the Cowboys offense was able to march the ball all the way down the field and consume most of the rest of the game to get two scores that flipped the game from 19-10, Miami all the way to a 20-19 lead.
This is the slimmest of margins, especially in a world where the Miami Dolphins kicker, Jason Sanders, has made everything he has tried all day long, including setting a team record for most field goals more than 50-yards. But, like an NBA playoff game, sometimes you get in a spot in clutch time where you just have to get one stop in their final possession and either you do or you go home mad.
By now, you probably are aware how this flight home from South Florida went.
Dallas was unable to get that one stop. Since we used a basketball analogy, I will offer equal time and continue to push the “save situation” that we stole from baseball this year. I believe defenses do win championships and I also have come to believe that the defense of the Dallas Cowboys is one of the best in the league with THE best ability to pressure opposing QBs and to get takeaways.
But, those raw numbers do not always reflect the realities of a NFL game where you can get me all sorts of stats in games that aren’t on the line. But, can you get me a stop – maybe even a sack or a takeaway (or both!) – when everything is on the line? Can you get those final few outs with runners on and decide whether all of the work that went into this vital game is all for naught?
With everything hanging in the balance, can you, Dallas defense who responded so well to being called names all week after the Buffalo debacle, stand tall with everything on the line against an opponent that is also searching for the combinations of the safe to unlock the “big-game win”?
No. They could not. They blew the save and everyone went home disappointed.
Now, like we have already conceded, it isn’t easy to finish a game for a defense, but the reality is they were not really asked to do too much in those final minutes. The offense was out there spilling their guts to try to get the lead and to run 27 plays in an effort to make that happen.
Boy, it was ugly, too. Dak Prescott is taking some massive shots because the protection is struggling. Left tackle Chuma Edoga, who is only there because Tyron Smith needed the week off with his ailing back, is having some very odd processing issues as he sees Bradley Chubb lined up against him and twice blocks down and sets him free to blindside Prescott.
The reads are not always easy, but one particular time he actually joined Tyler Smith in blocking the inside man and let one of the league leaders in sacks get in a dead sprint right at the back of Prescott. Not great.
But, they kept grinding and battling and demonstrating a willingness to win ugly if that is what it was going to take. They first settled for a Brandon Aubrey field goal to cut it back to 19-13. Which admittedly was followed by a nice stop by the defense before anyone suggests we are not acknowledging the good moments the defense had. The third-and-8 sack where Dorance Armstrong and Micah Parsons got home is a key moment in our story.
We won’t forget that. Yet, they had played 3 snaps in the last 13 minutes of football while the offense was at 27 snaps. Obviously, we are not rewarding the offense for taking longer to get their job done, but the idea for the optimism that a stop was coming was that the defense would have been incredibly well rested and energetic to go get the “save” for the crucial battle.
All they had to do from 11:06 until about 3:30 left was to celebrate the heroic drive from Prescott and the boys that culminated in two brilliant throws from the Cowboys QB. The first was a dime to CeeDee Lamb in the right corner of the end zone where he was unable to stick the landing and then the second was an equally wonderful toss to Brandin Cooks, who did bring it in and pay the price to do so. But, there is nothing quite like a late-game touchdown catch to ease the bruising. That might have been a massive game-winner, if only the defense can go close the deal.
And that is why that final drive is such an immense bummer. Miami is at its own 25 and had only run 52 plays all night. They also had only scored one touchdown all night. Dallas could not hand-pick a scenario where they have their guys and their gas tanks full for a quick and devastating close. Their highly coveted lead, which we have been assured is how they were built to win, was there. They just needed to get one more stop.
Instead, first-and-10 from the Miami 25 is a run by rookie Devon Achane around the corner. He gets six yards and is rewarded 15 more when Damone Clark gets his facemask and tries to twist his face all the way around.
Next play from their 46 is a fast slant to former Cowboy Cedrick Wilson for nine yards in a play that leaves Stephon Gilmore injured off some friendly fire from Donovan Wilson. Gilmore leaves the game for a quick moment.
Second-and-1 at the Cowboys 45 yard-line which is dangerously close already to Sanders’ range in just two snaps is incredibly deflating because it has taken them about 20 seconds to get there. Now, you are starting to plan how much time you can preserve for the Cowboys return volley since a stop is quickly looking unlikely.
Nahshon Wright replaces Gilmore and Tyreek Hill is immediately dispatched to him. Everyone on the planet knew where the ball was going and was actually relieved when it was only a 4-yard reception on a short pass to Hill. But, another first down and Gilmore returns.
An incomplete pass to Hill because of pressure off a blitz is a small win. But, on 2nd and 10, the Dolphins are ready with a rollout to Alex Ingold offers a 3-foot pass to gain about seven yards into the two-minute warning. So, it comes to a huge third-and-3.
This is a great moment to remind everyone who is unclear how great Mike McDaniel is at scheming offense. All night long, the use of speed and motion (and sometimes speed motions) was perplexing and we should compliment Dan Quinn’s defense for minimizing damage for the duration of the game. They did a great job of making it a grinding contest with reasonable amounts of damage. If you told Quinn this game will come down to giving Miami the ball deep in their own territory and you only need one stop, he would take it in a heartbeat.
The trouble with that logic is when it does come down to one drive, then inside of that, it will come down to maybe just one play. This is that play. Third-and-3 from the Dallas 33-yard-line. Get a stop here and you force a field goal and since you have all of your timeouts and about two minutes to play, the Cowboys would welcome the challenge of going to get their own field goal.
But, if you don’t get the stop, there is a chance your offense will not get to step on the field again except for handshakes. They call it a game of inches for a reason.
Coming out of the two-minute warning, the Fox crew is telling McDaniel that he needs to find his best play – the one he is certain will give them a chance to win this game because it is possible this is Miami’s save situation, too. The best way to keep Prescott and CeeDee Lamb from scoring again is insuring they don’t touch the ball.
You knew it would involve the electric Tyreek Hill and you knew it would be motion. What you wondered is if the Cowboys would have a plan that could foil it. The play itself was fascinating because the Cowboys were in man, but it wasn’t just Jourdan Lewis traveling with Hill. It was also Donovan Wilson deeper. So, they had two man cover players on Hill, one shallow and one deep. It made sense, because it allowed Lewis to play without fear of deep vulnerability. Both are sure tacklers, too. But, the quick screen to Hill required one block from the left guard, Lester Cotton. If he could get to Lewis, Hill would not only get the three yards, but he might be off in the open field.
Did he get to him? Yes. Did he block him in the back? It was really close. Regardless, Hill cut in side as his left guard arrived and took out the only man who had a chance. Once he did, Hill had a chance to scurry another seven yards to the Dallas 23. At that point, the party was ending.
Timeout No. 1 gone at 1:53. Then backup RB Jeff Wilson runs for eight and the officials apparently cannot see Damone Clark held comically.
Timeout No. 2 gone at 1:47. Wilson gets nothing on second-and-2 and the takeaway that might have changed everything was teased for a nanosecond.
Timeout No. 3 gone at 1:42. That leaves third-and-2. Maybe just maybe, you can stand tall and save a minute and no timeouts if you dig in here.
Instead, Wilson allows a double-team to plow Mazi Smith clean out of the way as that same left guard pulls to eliminate DeMarcus Lawrence. That leaves a nice big hole for Wilson to gash for six and another first down.
The save is blown. The stop is lost at sea. They are a chip-shot for Sanders from ending the game with the clock at zeroes. Like Garo Yepremian ended the Christmas Day classic with the Chiefs in 1971, Jason Sanders put this one to bed on Christmas Eve 2023.
There are plenty of ways to summarize this game. We can boil it down to a first quarter fumble on what appeared to be a sure touchdown before Hunter Luepke left the ball behind him on the way in. That was the lone turnover in the game and the most costly variety. Also, the fact it was the lone turnover tells us that the Dallas defense came up empty again – something all five of their losses have in common.
They have played fifteen games this season and in five of them, the defense has generated no takeaways. In ten of them, they have. I will give you a lucky guess which ten games have takeaways (all the wins) and five games where the defense has none (all the losses). I sense a real pattern.
Overall, it was a fantastic NFL game between two teams that both had double-digit win totals and both will be in the playoffs. Like that NBA analogy from earlier, these games occur and one team gets the key moment and the other feels like they deserved better. The result is a coin flip and probably not terribly indicative of some greater meaning – especially those that string together 28 years of misery (actually, the Dolphins might like a word about your football purgatory).
Dallas can feel great about the guts and effort that game produced tonight. They needed a massive response after the mess in Buffalo and they produced one quite well. Some will tell you the sky is falling, but I saw two teams race to a photo-finish that should make both feel that there is plenty to like. In other words, this is a playoff-preview on the road (and on a grass field) where Dallas did everything but get the win. Like the night in Philadelphia, I refuse to offer you some fake “sky is falling” grinch take on this one.
Dallas is a good team and this is a good playoff dress rehearsal. They will have wanted to make one more play – that much is obvious, but they had some excellent efforts tonight that should cause us a little more nuance in our review than to suggest it was simply another loss. There are degrees to how we judge things and I found this to be a performance filled with fight required to win in January.
One more play and maybe even one more flag and they are in a different spot. It didn’t happen, but no baby out with the bathwater from me.
In other words, on to the next one.
Pokes and Phins wage a memorable battle in South Florida that requires all 60 minutes
BOB STURM
DEC 24, 2023
Jason Sanders ends the battle with his fifth field goal of the night - Getty Images
Sometimes, these games come down to a fork in the road. Two teams fighting over the same game, both feeling like they have too much at stake to come this far and to leave with nothing. They both dig in and it comes down to one basic situation. This one occurred late in the fourth quarter when the Miami Dolphins takes the ball with 3:27 to go in the game.
At this point, Dallas has fought all the way back to take a lead that they were chasing most all of the night. The Cowboys just ate up roughly the last 13 minutes of the game with two long drives that harvested 10 points. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pretty. But, the Cowboys offense was able to march the ball all the way down the field and consume most of the rest of the game to get two scores that flipped the game from 19-10, Miami all the way to a 20-19 lead.
This is the slimmest of margins, especially in a world where the Miami Dolphins kicker, Jason Sanders, has made everything he has tried all day long, including setting a team record for most field goals more than 50-yards. But, like an NBA playoff game, sometimes you get in a spot in clutch time where you just have to get one stop in their final possession and either you do or you go home mad.
By now, you probably are aware how this flight home from South Florida went.
Dallas was unable to get that one stop. Since we used a basketball analogy, I will offer equal time and continue to push the “save situation” that we stole from baseball this year. I believe defenses do win championships and I also have come to believe that the defense of the Dallas Cowboys is one of the best in the league with THE best ability to pressure opposing QBs and to get takeaways.
But, those raw numbers do not always reflect the realities of a NFL game where you can get me all sorts of stats in games that aren’t on the line. But, can you get me a stop – maybe even a sack or a takeaway (or both!) – when everything is on the line? Can you get those final few outs with runners on and decide whether all of the work that went into this vital game is all for naught?
With everything hanging in the balance, can you, Dallas defense who responded so well to being called names all week after the Buffalo debacle, stand tall with everything on the line against an opponent that is also searching for the combinations of the safe to unlock the “big-game win”?
No. They could not. They blew the save and everyone went home disappointed.
Now, like we have already conceded, it isn’t easy to finish a game for a defense, but the reality is they were not really asked to do too much in those final minutes. The offense was out there spilling their guts to try to get the lead and to run 27 plays in an effort to make that happen.
Boy, it was ugly, too. Dak Prescott is taking some massive shots because the protection is struggling. Left tackle Chuma Edoga, who is only there because Tyron Smith needed the week off with his ailing back, is having some very odd processing issues as he sees Bradley Chubb lined up against him and twice blocks down and sets him free to blindside Prescott.
The reads are not always easy, but one particular time he actually joined Tyler Smith in blocking the inside man and let one of the league leaders in sacks get in a dead sprint right at the back of Prescott. Not great.
But, they kept grinding and battling and demonstrating a willingness to win ugly if that is what it was going to take. They first settled for a Brandon Aubrey field goal to cut it back to 19-13. Which admittedly was followed by a nice stop by the defense before anyone suggests we are not acknowledging the good moments the defense had. The third-and-8 sack where Dorance Armstrong and Micah Parsons got home is a key moment in our story.
We won’t forget that. Yet, they had played 3 snaps in the last 13 minutes of football while the offense was at 27 snaps. Obviously, we are not rewarding the offense for taking longer to get their job done, but the idea for the optimism that a stop was coming was that the defense would have been incredibly well rested and energetic to go get the “save” for the crucial battle.
All they had to do from 11:06 until about 3:30 left was to celebrate the heroic drive from Prescott and the boys that culminated in two brilliant throws from the Cowboys QB. The first was a dime to CeeDee Lamb in the right corner of the end zone where he was unable to stick the landing and then the second was an equally wonderful toss to Brandin Cooks, who did bring it in and pay the price to do so. But, there is nothing quite like a late-game touchdown catch to ease the bruising. That might have been a massive game-winner, if only the defense can go close the deal.
And that is why that final drive is such an immense bummer. Miami is at its own 25 and had only run 52 plays all night. They also had only scored one touchdown all night. Dallas could not hand-pick a scenario where they have their guys and their gas tanks full for a quick and devastating close. Their highly coveted lead, which we have been assured is how they were built to win, was there. They just needed to get one more stop.
Instead, first-and-10 from the Miami 25 is a run by rookie Devon Achane around the corner. He gets six yards and is rewarded 15 more when Damone Clark gets his facemask and tries to twist his face all the way around.
Next play from their 46 is a fast slant to former Cowboy Cedrick Wilson for nine yards in a play that leaves Stephon Gilmore injured off some friendly fire from Donovan Wilson. Gilmore leaves the game for a quick moment.
Second-and-1 at the Cowboys 45 yard-line which is dangerously close already to Sanders’ range in just two snaps is incredibly deflating because it has taken them about 20 seconds to get there. Now, you are starting to plan how much time you can preserve for the Cowboys return volley since a stop is quickly looking unlikely.
Nahshon Wright replaces Gilmore and Tyreek Hill is immediately dispatched to him. Everyone on the planet knew where the ball was going and was actually relieved when it was only a 4-yard reception on a short pass to Hill. But, another first down and Gilmore returns.
An incomplete pass to Hill because of pressure off a blitz is a small win. But, on 2nd and 10, the Dolphins are ready with a rollout to Alex Ingold offers a 3-foot pass to gain about seven yards into the two-minute warning. So, it comes to a huge third-and-3.
This is a great moment to remind everyone who is unclear how great Mike McDaniel is at scheming offense. All night long, the use of speed and motion (and sometimes speed motions) was perplexing and we should compliment Dan Quinn’s defense for minimizing damage for the duration of the game. They did a great job of making it a grinding contest with reasonable amounts of damage. If you told Quinn this game will come down to giving Miami the ball deep in their own territory and you only need one stop, he would take it in a heartbeat.
The trouble with that logic is when it does come down to one drive, then inside of that, it will come down to maybe just one play. This is that play. Third-and-3 from the Dallas 33-yard-line. Get a stop here and you force a field goal and since you have all of your timeouts and about two minutes to play, the Cowboys would welcome the challenge of going to get their own field goal.
But, if you don’t get the stop, there is a chance your offense will not get to step on the field again except for handshakes. They call it a game of inches for a reason.
Coming out of the two-minute warning, the Fox crew is telling McDaniel that he needs to find his best play – the one he is certain will give them a chance to win this game because it is possible this is Miami’s save situation, too. The best way to keep Prescott and CeeDee Lamb from scoring again is insuring they don’t touch the ball.
You knew it would involve the electric Tyreek Hill and you knew it would be motion. What you wondered is if the Cowboys would have a plan that could foil it. The play itself was fascinating because the Cowboys were in man, but it wasn’t just Jourdan Lewis traveling with Hill. It was also Donovan Wilson deeper. So, they had two man cover players on Hill, one shallow and one deep. It made sense, because it allowed Lewis to play without fear of deep vulnerability. Both are sure tacklers, too. But, the quick screen to Hill required one block from the left guard, Lester Cotton. If he could get to Lewis, Hill would not only get the three yards, but he might be off in the open field.
Did he get to him? Yes. Did he block him in the back? It was really close. Regardless, Hill cut in side as his left guard arrived and took out the only man who had a chance. Once he did, Hill had a chance to scurry another seven yards to the Dallas 23. At that point, the party was ending.
Timeout No. 1 gone at 1:53. Then backup RB Jeff Wilson runs for eight and the officials apparently cannot see Damone Clark held comically.
Timeout No. 2 gone at 1:47. Wilson gets nothing on second-and-2 and the takeaway that might have changed everything was teased for a nanosecond.
Timeout No. 3 gone at 1:42. That leaves third-and-2. Maybe just maybe, you can stand tall and save a minute and no timeouts if you dig in here.
Instead, Wilson allows a double-team to plow Mazi Smith clean out of the way as that same left guard pulls to eliminate DeMarcus Lawrence. That leaves a nice big hole for Wilson to gash for six and another first down.
The save is blown. The stop is lost at sea. They are a chip-shot for Sanders from ending the game with the clock at zeroes. Like Garo Yepremian ended the Christmas Day classic with the Chiefs in 1971, Jason Sanders put this one to bed on Christmas Eve 2023.
There are plenty of ways to summarize this game. We can boil it down to a first quarter fumble on what appeared to be a sure touchdown before Hunter Luepke left the ball behind him on the way in. That was the lone turnover in the game and the most costly variety. Also, the fact it was the lone turnover tells us that the Dallas defense came up empty again – something all five of their losses have in common.
They have played fifteen games this season and in five of them, the defense has generated no takeaways. In ten of them, they have. I will give you a lucky guess which ten games have takeaways (all the wins) and five games where the defense has none (all the losses). I sense a real pattern.
Overall, it was a fantastic NFL game between two teams that both had double-digit win totals and both will be in the playoffs. Like that NBA analogy from earlier, these games occur and one team gets the key moment and the other feels like they deserved better. The result is a coin flip and probably not terribly indicative of some greater meaning – especially those that string together 28 years of misery (actually, the Dolphins might like a word about your football purgatory).
Dallas can feel great about the guts and effort that game produced tonight. They needed a massive response after the mess in Buffalo and they produced one quite well. Some will tell you the sky is falling, but I saw two teams race to a photo-finish that should make both feel that there is plenty to like. In other words, this is a playoff-preview on the road (and on a grass field) where Dallas did everything but get the win. Like the night in Philadelphia, I refuse to offer you some fake “sky is falling” grinch take on this one.
Dallas is a good team and this is a good playoff dress rehearsal. They will have wanted to make one more play – that much is obvious, but they had some excellent efforts tonight that should cause us a little more nuance in our review than to suggest it was simply another loss. There are degrees to how we judge things and I found this to be a performance filled with fight required to win in January.
One more play and maybe even one more flag and they are in a different spot. It didn’t happen, but no baby out with the bathwater from me.
In other words, on to the next one.
