That’s why you draft the big, strong quarterback.
That special play.
That gotta-have-it moment in Sunday’s final seconds where Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert escaped the hard grasp of Jaelan Phillips to the point the Miami Dolphins edge rusher sat at his locker staring ahead through another loss’ silence and saw only that play.
Twenty minutes passed after the game. Thirty. Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had already talked about players not attending players-only meetings, or being late for them, or something that shows he still has no idea how to lead a team or be the voice of a franchise.
Phillips kept staring straight ahead, wrapped in a towel and his frustrated thoughts. He had Herbert for the sack, and maybe the win, with 40 seconds left and the Dolphins up by a point.
Then Phillips didn’t have Herbert. He was on the ground. Herbert stumbled free to be the hero.
“A great play by him,” Phillips said.
The Dolphins didn’t lose 29-27 in those final, frantic seconds Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium. They lost it on draft day five years ago. They had a chance for the big, strong quarterback who picked up an offense without its best players and took the shorter, less durable quarterback who didn’t have a bad day himself Sunday until he started talking afterwards.
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Tagovailoa could’ve been the hero Sunday with a touchdown pass that put the Dolphins ahead late for the second consecutive week. So, this isn’t a pile-on-Tua story for his play, though his work as a franchise quarterback remains a mess six years into the job.
Like so many of his comments, the ones about these odd players-only meetings make you wonder if Tua understands how he comes across. It reflects on his leadership, too, if players don’t respect these meetings. He’s a captain, the quarterback. And players don’t listen to him?
But that’s the state of the Dolphins: They can’t even do players-only meetings right. One day we find coaches attend them. Another day we find some player’s don’t. Get how they’re 1-5?
Players’ attitudes are a reflection of the franchise, and in the Chargers locker room coach Jim Harbaugh threw a fist in the air toward Herbert, who threw up a smile and nod.
Harbaugh then turned to Ladd McConkey, who is the receiver Herbert threw to after escaping Phillips’ grasp.
McConkey eluded Dolphins safety Dante Trader Jr., and ran and ran and …
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“You know who beat you downfield?” Harbaugh said.
“I heard,” McConkey said.
Guard Zion Johnson, all 316 pounds of him, evidently did.
“I’ve got to see that on tape to believe it,” McConkey said.
“It’s true,” Harbaugh said.
These are the jokes in a winning locker room. What a win for them, too. The Chargers’ two franchise tackles and one backup were hurt so their fourth and fifth tackles played. Their top receiver, Quentin Johnson, was out.
Their top two running backs were hurt, so Kimani Vidal came off the practice squad and ran for 124 yards on 18 carries. This jay-vee Chargers offense scored 29 points. How? Why?
Herbert’s play, Tua’s words, show again how bad the Dolphins got it wrong.
This Dolphins defense keeps inventing ways to lose.
Like that 42-yard pass to McConkey that set up the winning field goal.
“All I know is I say Justin looking left and right and left and right,” McConkey said. “And then I thought he was sacked and then the ball was coming at me. I made a move to get away from the safety and …”
Trader was the safety.
“It’s me and him, and I’ve got to make the tackle,” the rookie said. “I didn’t. That’s on me.”
That play is on him. The full game casts a much bigger net. The defense is a disaster. The culture remains a mess. And the quarterback they drafted in 2020 to lead this team keeps showing he can’t even lead his own words properly.
They one they missed on, the strong one on the other side Sunday, showed how it’s done. He threw off a 6-foot-6, 260-pound Phillips. He picked up a crippled offense and carried it to a win.
The big, strong guy making all the right plays is the one this team should have drafted. Not the one who keeps talking in all the wrong manner.
