Final NFL Week 12 Observations ... With Dolphins Angles

Good news/bad news for AFC East teams, 49ers D keeps rolling, Chargers hanging around, plus other thoughts on Miami Dolphins opponents

Week 12 of the 2022 NFL season began with the annual Thanksgiving Day tripleheader, featuring three games decided by eight points or less, and concluded with the ho-hum Monday night battle between playoff long shots Pittsburgh and Indianapolis.

While not featuring the Dolphins for an 11th consecutive day, Thanksgiving Day most definitely was relevant for the team because of the involvement of AFC East opponents Buffalo and New England.

The Bills pulled out a gritty three-point win at Detroit and welcomed star cornerback Tre'Davious White to the lineup for the first time all year, but the win was marred by the loss of star pass rusher Von Miller to a knee injury.

It's not clear how long Miller will be out of action, but this is a big blow for a Buffalo team that signed Miller in the offseason to fill what it felt what the final void to get past the Kansas City Chiefs, a pass rusher to close out games.

Make no mistake, though, Buffalo remains dangerous even without Miller and Allen flashed at times against the Lions and reminded everyone he could be a problem for opponents down the stretch after hitting a lull and then sustained his elbow injury.

Quick aside from that game, former Dolphins interim head coach Dan Campbell once again left himself open to second-guessing with some strange clock management and decisions. Most glaring from this vantage point was the decision to attempt a bomb on third-and-1 from the Buffalo 33-yard line down 35-32 in the final minute and then kicking a 51-yard field goal on the next play — getting the first down seemed like the better play than going for the win right then and there with the long shot to the end zone.

As for New England, the Patriots actually had many reasons to feel good about their performance at Minnesota, starting with the play of quarterback Mac Jones, but it was a painful loss nonetheless — because by all metrics, they should have won the game.

Check out this amazing stat from OptaSTATS;

Tonight the Patriots:

-scored 25+ pts
-had 400+ total yds
-outgained their opponent
-completed 70.0% of their passes
-had < 60 penalty yds
-had no turnovers
-had no missed FG

NFL teams in the Super Bowl era were 170-0 entering tonight (reg & post) when doing all that in a game.

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) November 25, 2022

The one thing that might make the loss hurt less is that it was against a non-conference opponent and won't hurt as much when it comes time for tiebreakers, if that materializes.

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BIG LOSS FOR 49ERS, BUT D GETTING SCARY

We would imagine that Dolphins fans are well aware by now that San Francisco has not allowed a second-half points in its past four games, shutting out the Rams, Chargers, Cardinals and Saints after halftime.

That's the scary news for the Dolphins, though it should be noted that this streak began after Kansas City torched the 49ers for 30 second-half points in Week 7.

While there's a lot of focus on Nick Bosa and the 49ers pass rush, what stood out in the 49ers' 13-0 win against New Orleans on Sunday was the run defense. Not counting Andy Dalton's four scrambles for 21 yards, the 49ers allowed 42 yards on 18 rushing attempts (a paltry 2.3 average).

On the other side of the ball, the 49ers running game failed to reach 100 yards after topping 150 five times in the first 10 games and now back Elijah Mitchell will be out 6-8 weeks because of a knee injury he sustained in the game.

With Mitchell out, Tyrion Davis-Price and Jordan Mason will become the backups to midseason acquisition Christian McCaffrey. And this is where the 49ers might regret having traded Jeff Wilson Jr. to the Dolphins at the trade deadline — and not just for what he might do against them Sunday.

CHARGERS HANGING AROUND

The Chargers currently are on the outside looking in when it comes to the AFC playoff race, but they kept themselves in the thick of the chase with their 25-24 last-second victory against Arizona when Justin Herbert threw a touchdown pass to Austin Ekeler followed by a two-point conversion pass to Gerald Everett.

Nothing has come easy this season for the Chargers, who will face the Dolphins at SoFi Stadium in Week 14, and that probably won't change with their two glaring weaknesses: running the ball and stopping the run.

Even in defeating Arizona, it was more of the same, with Chargers running backs gaining only 27 yards with a 3-yard average and the Chargers giving up 120 rushing yards to James Conner.

On offense, Herbert keeps chucking it, but mostly throwing short in part because of a strangely conservative game plan and also because of a leaky offensive line that the Dolphins very well might exploit in two weeks.

QUICK HITTERS

-- With Jordan Love's late touchdown pass for Green Bay and Aaron Rodgers' mounting injury issues, it's looking more and more possible — if not likely — that the Dolphins will be facing the 2020 first-round pick and not the future Hall of Famer on Christmas Day. With the Packers on the verge of playoff elimination, it wouldn't make much sense for them to use a banged-up Rodgers at Hard Rock Stadium if there's no hope for the postseason.

-- While the Jets were able to defeat the Dolphins in Week 5 with Zach Wilson at quarterback, the rematch suddenly looks more challenging for Miami in the wake of Mike White's brilliant performance in his first start against Chicago. While he was going against a depleted Bears defense following the trades of Roquan Smith and Robert Quinn, White compiled a 149.3 passer rating while throwing for 315 yards. And the Jets with a competent passing game become an even more dangerous team.

-- It was another blown lead for the Baltimore Ravens, whose season of late-game collapses began with the Dolphins' incredible comeback in Week 2. The Ravens are 7-4 now, but their inability to close out games is the only reason they're not atop the AFC standings or even 11-0 in 2022.

-- We'll close out with a nod to Jacoby Brissett, the former Dolphins backup QB who brought the Cleveland Browns back for an overtime win against Tampa Bay in his final start before giving way to Deshaun Watson. While the Browns only went 4-7 with Brissett at quarterback, that record easily could have been 6-5 if not for the failure to recover an onside kick against the Jets and rookie Cade York missing a last-second field goal against the Chargers.

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