Dolphins-Raiders 2024 Week 11 Instant Takeaways

The Dolphins offense breaks out in a big victory against the Raiders at Hard Rock Stadium.

Miami Dolphins tight end Jonnu Smith (9) catches a touchdown as Las Vegas Raiders safety Isaiah Pola-Mao (20) defends on the play in the first quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. / Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

What stood out in the Miami Dolphins Week 11 game against the Las Vegas Raiders?

We'll start with the inactive list, which featured injured fullback Alec Ingold. The Dolphins did have T Terron Armstead after he was listed as questionable on the final injury report of the week. The other inactives didn't contain any surprises.

The Dolphins did not have an emergency third quarterback for a fourth consecutive game.

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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

This may have been a tougher-than-expected win, but the Dolphins never trailed against what clearly was an overmatched Raiders team. Simply put, they took care of business.

• The final score wasn't that far off my game prediction Saturday — I had the Dolphins winning 34-13.

• The offense looked very sharp, even if it was more ball control than the big-play stuff we saw last season — with the exception of the last touchdown, of course.

• QB Tua Tagovailoa had another very good performance, again making some plays off-schedule after moving in the pocket.

• The running game had moments, but it wasn't nearly as consistent as hoped a few weeks ago.

• The Raiders could be better, but rookie tight end Brock Bowers is legit.

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FIRST QUARTER

The Dolphins' first drive was really impressive, helped by two costly penalties against the Raiders. The most damaging one was a holding penalty at the line of scrimmage on third-and-20 when Tagovailoa was throwing short. This was an example of why the Raiders came into the game with a 2-7 record.

• The holding penalty came after Tagovailoa took a sack because he held the ball too long in the pocket instead of bailing out early and throwing the ball away.

• Mike McDaniel made a no-brainer decision to go for the touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the one because a miss would put the Raiders in a bad hole to start their first drive. As it turned out, Tagovailoa found Jonnu Smith after he got himself clear against man coverage.

• Bad luck for Calais Campbell turned a three-and-out into a sustained drive by the Raiders when he got close enough to A.J. Cole for a block, but the punt went through his hands, and he wound up being flagged for running into the punter.

• Chop Robinson didn't extend his streak of games with a sack, but he had a pressure that forced an incompletion and helped the Dolphins force the Raiders to settle for a field goal.

• Benito Jones deserves credit for Zach Sieler's sack on that first drive. Jones pushed back the right guard and forced Gardner Minshew to step up where Sieler was waiting for him.

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SECOND QUARTER

The Dolphins' second drive ended with a field goal but was kept alive when Tua had a 5-yard completion to Tyreek Hill on fourth-and-2 from the Raiders 45-yard line. The Dolphins took advantage of very soft coverage for an easy completion.

• Tagovailoa again showed off his better pocket movement of 2024 on a 24-yard completion to Jaylen Waddle. A perfect throw accompanied this one on the move while he was rolling out.

• The drive stalled after a third-down sack, which occurred when Maxx Crosby made Tagovailoa move up in the pocket after he got outside of right tackle Kendall Lamm. This was a mistake by Lamm because he had inside help from Liam Eichenberg, so the one place he couldn't get beat was outside.

• Emmanuel Ogbah's sack at the end of the Raiders' second long drive should be credited to great coverage on second-and-goal from the eight.

• There are no issues with Mike McDaniel calling timeouts at the end of that drive to give the Dolphins a shot at the end of the first half. But throwing short passes in the middle of the field with no timeouts left was a head-scratcher — and that's being polite.

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THIRD QUARTER

• Love seeing Calais Campbell do the step-back jumper when he gets a sack. It's also cool watching him abuse a tight end, trying to block him one-on-one.

• Malik Washington has been really impressive as a rookie, but he can't field a punt at the 5-yard line like he did in the third quarter.

• It didn't matter, though, because the Dolphins put together a pretty impressive 97-yard touchdown drive.

• As CBS analyst Ross Tucker pointed out, it was interesting that the officials called a very late facemask penalty against the Raiders to offset a holding penalty on Aaron Brewer, even though it clearly was the right call.

• Tagovailoa missed a touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill when he took too long to throw in the end zone and then put too much air under the ball, but he came right back with a great play when he extended the play and eventually found Hill running across the field just inside the end zone.

• Safety Jordan Poyer could have been better in coverage this season, and it was again the case in this one. The Dolphins had no business putting him one-on-one against Bowers on a third-and-nine. That Poyer couldn't make the tackle made it worse when it turned a first-down completion into a 23-yard touchdown.

• Zach Sieler almost broke off the handoff on that two-point conversion when the Raiders went for a draw play out of shotgun formation.

• In another example of Raiders Raidering, the Dolphins got to start their next drive after seeing their lead cut to 24-12 at their 40 when Daniel Carlson's kickoff failed to reach the landing zone.

• And then the third quarter ended with Maxx Crosby a free five yards with a neutral zone infraction as the clock was winding down.

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FOURTH QUARTER

• The first quarter began with a second holding penalty on Aaron Brewer, who had a bad day in that department but has been very good this season overall.

• The key play on the touchdown drive was a 17-yard completion from Tagovailoa to tight end Julian Hill, who had a couple of negative plays blocking.

• Up 12 points, the Dolphins' defense allowed another touchdown drive that featured three completions to Bowers. Included was a 7-yard gain on fourth-and-3 when everybody should have known he would be the target.

• The Dolphins caught a break on the critical drive to protect their 24-19 lead when Darnay Holmes was flagged for defensive pass interference (DPI) against Jaylen Waddle on third-and-five. Then they caught an even bigger break when the Raiders forgot to cover Jonnu Smith two plays later and left him wide open in the middle of the field. It took Tua a while to spot him, and he made him wait for the ball. However, it didn't matter because of how open Smith was, and then he just ran into the end zone for a ridiculously easy 57-yard touchdown.

• Jalen Ramsey then took advantage of a bad throw for Minshew for his third pick in two games against the Raiders the past two years.

• The Dolphins are 4-6 heading into another game they need — and should win — next Sunday against the New England Patriots.