Miami Dolphins Week 17 Report Card

Evaluating how each position group performed for the Miami Dolphins during their 34-3 loss against the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium

The Miami Dolphins' seven-game winning streak ended in convincing fashion when they lost against the Tennessee Titans, 34-3 at Nissan Stadium on Sunday.

Here's the weekly breakdown on how each position group performed:

Quarterbacks

Yeah, there's no sugarcoating this one, Tua Tagovailoa had a really rough outing against Tennessee. And we'll even look past the ball slipping out of his hand to hand (pun intended) the Titans a free three points, Tua was just off all game, whether it was accuracy or quick decision-making. There were two highlights, the 45-yard bomb to Jaylen Waddle and a great low throw to Mike Gesicki when he was well covered, but it wasn't anywhere near enough. Grade: D

Running backs

Duke Johnson continued his impressive work, with seven carries for 49 yards with three runs of 10 yards or more. Unfortunately, he also lost his footing on the first drive of the game to produce a run for no gain and had a drop in the fourth quarter (though it didn't make much of a difference by that time. Myles Gaskin got carries pretty only in garbage time and same for Phillip Lindsay, though Lindsay had one catch for 8 yards. Grade: C

Wide receivers

The Titans pretty effectively neutralized Waddle, who finished with only three catches, one of them coming on a shovel pass for no gain. Waddle was targeted seven times and had a drop, though Tua missed him on a couple of occasions.  Waddle had the 45-yard gain, but his other two catches produced only 2 yards. DeVante Parker had four catches, but that came on 13 targets, including two fourth-down incompletions. But, yes, the first of those absolutely should have been a defensive pass interference. There also appeared to be communication issues between Parker and Tua, who twice threw where Parker was headed before he made a move. Isaiah Ford was the only other wide receiver with a catch, but it was a quick throw at the line of scrimmage that went for no gain. Grade: C-

Tight ends

Durham Smythe had the second-longest reception of the game for the Dolphins with a 21-yard pick-up in the third quarter and Mike Gesicki led the team with 51 receiving yards on four catches. The Dophins averaged 4.6 yards per rushing attempt, though on only 16 carries, so the running game wasn't much of a factor. Grade: B-

Offensive line

This actually was not a bad performance at all by the offensive line, and we'd urge everyone to look deeper than the stat line that says Tua was sacked four times. The ball slipping out of his hand, for example, is scored as a sack. Then there was the sack at the end of the first drive when Tua couldn't find a receiver and stayed in the pocket until Denico Autry finally got to him. And the final sack came off a trick play that began with Gaskin taking a Wildcat snap and ended with Tua out of the pocket not finding an open receiver before he was hit from behind. As mentioned earlier, Johnson had those three runs of 10-plus yards and he didn't accomplish them by himself. The line did have three penalties — Austin Jackson was illegally downfield to negate a 14-yard completion to Gaskin and later had a false start, and Michael Deiter was flagged for holding on a third-down incompletion and the Titans refused the penalty. Overall, though, this was a solid effort against a very good Tennessee front. Grade: B

Defensive line

As with the offensive line and the sacks allowed, the stat line on defense showing 198 rushing yards for Tennessee looks a lot uglier than what actually happened. First off, the total was inflated by runs of 35 and 39 yards in the fourth quarter when the outcome pretty much had been decided. Secondly, the Titans ran the ball 40 times because they were in control of the scoreboard the entire game. Even then, the Dolphins produced five tackles behind the line of scrimmage (compared to none for Tennessee). But the Dolphins also weren't able to get much pressure on Ryan Tannehill. After being dominant for several games, Emmanuel Ogbah had a very, very quiet game and the same applied for most of the guys up front. Grade: C

Linebackers

Having said all that in the defensive line segment, understand that Tennessee still had only 17 points on the board until they piled on with 17 points in the second half of the fourth quarter. Jerome Baker had the Dolphins' lone sack of the game and Elandon Roberts had a big-time third-down stop when he met running back D'Onta Foreman in the backfield on a third-and-1 in the first quarer. Jaelan Phillips also had a tackle for loss on a running play. Andrew Van Ginkel, like Ogbah, also was very quiet after several dominating performances. Grade: C+

Secondary

Tannehill ended up with a really good 127.1 passer rating, but he also threw for only 120 yards, so it's not like he did a whole lot of damage. In fact, the two worst plays for the defense were pass-interference penalties against Nik Needham and Xavien Howard that gave the Titans first downs. The one against Needham was particularly painful because it kept alive the touchdown drive that made it 17-3 in the second quarter. Jevon Holland had a big-time stick in the first quarter against Dontrell Hilliard to stop him short of the first down before Roberts' third-down stop, but he also took a bad angle on Foreman's 21-yard touchdown run. After A.J. Brown's big game against San Francisco, the Dolphins held him to two catches for 41 yards, though the elements and the way the game was going played a role in that. Besides, it was Brown's 25-yard catch that was the big play on Tennessee's first touchdown drive. Grade: B-

Special teams

In a game that began with five defensive stops, field position was important early and punter Michael Palardy failed to help the Dolphins in that department. On the contrary, his mediocre first quarter helped Tennessee improve its field position every time, until the Titans began their third drive at the Miami 46 before marching to their first touchdown. Palardy ended the game with a net average of 29.8 yards, which we don't have to point out is really bad. Jason Sanders was 1-for-2 on field goal attempts, coming up just short on a 53-yard attempt in the third quarter when the ball bounced off the crossbar and back onto the field of play. Whatever wind there was on this day was at Sanders' back on that kick, though the rain might have mitigated that advantage. Waddle had a 15-yard punt return in the first quarter that was his longest of the season, but Lindsay didn't get much done on his two kickoff returns (18 and 16 yards). Brandon Jones gave Tennessee a first down when he was flagged for roughing the punter, but the outcome had been decided by then. Grade: D