Dolphins Overcome Early Deficit to Win at Detroit

The Miami Dolphins rallied from two 14-point deficits to defeat the Detroit Lions at Ford Field

Junfu Han - USA Today Network

The Miami Dolphins already had proven this season they could overcome a big early deficit, so there was no reason to panic after they quickly fell behind by two touchdowns against the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

And thanks to a great passing performance by Tua Tagovailoa, typically dominating efforts by Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, the Dolphins came back from that early 14-0 deficit to outlast the Lions at Ford Field, 31-27.

The defense also deserves kudos for tightening up in the second half and overcoming a rash of penalties, including four for lining up in the neutral zone.

The final statement by the defense came with a fourth-down stop at the Miami 35-yard line when Jared Goff threw a deep pass that fell incomplete.

But this victory was mostly about the offense with Raheem Mostert deserving kudos including the Tua-Tyreek-Waddle trio.

Mostert rushed for 64 yards while averaging a healthy 4.6-yard average to provide a nice complement to the passing game.

TUA LOOKS SHARP — REALLY SHARP

After looking off against Pittsburgh last Sunday night in his return to action, Tua most definitely was on against Detroit.

He completed 29 of 36 passes for 382 yards with three touchdowns, no picks and a 138.7 passer rating.

Fittingly, the Dolphins clinched the victory when Tua had an 8-yard completion to Hill on third-and-8 from the Lions 32 with Detroit out of timeouts.

Hill finished the game with 12 catches for 188 yards, and Waddle had eight catches for 106 yards and two touchdowns.

Tua's other TD pass went to tight end Mike Gesicki, though Tua really should have had another one to Trent Sherfield when officials ruled him down at the 1-yard line even though TV replays showed he reached the goal line before he was down.

It didn't matter in that instance because fullback Alec Ingold scored on a 1-yard run on the next play.

THE DEFENSE TIGHTENS UP IN SECOND HALF

After giving up a lot of big plays in the first half on their way to a 27-17 deficit, the Dolphins defense shut out Detroit in the second half.

After Ingold's touchdown on the first drive of the second half moved the Dolphins to within 27-24, the defense got a stop when the Lions committed three consecutive penalties to create a first-and-30 from which they couldn't recover; and in the fourth quarter got a stop with a Zach Sieler third-down sack followed by the fourth-down stop.

It was far from a perfect performance by the Dolphins, who also lost guard Liam Eichenberg to a serious-looking knee injury on the game-winning Gesicki touchdown in the final minute of the third quarter.

The defense gave up pass plays of 58 yards to tight end T.J. Hockenson and 43 yards to Kalif Raymond to set up two of the three Detroit touchdowns.

While falling behind 14-0, the Dolphins saw their first drive end in a fumble by rookie wide receiver Braylon Sanders after his first NFL catch.

But the Lions never stopped the Dolphins offense.

After falling behind 14-0, Tua led touchdown drives of 80, 75, 75 and 67 yards to bring the Dolphins back.

It didn't even matter that Detroit was able to get a field goal on the final play of the first half after successfully executing a fake punt from its own 33 after the two-minute warning.

Down 27-17 at halftime, the Dolphins took care of business to complete another impressive comeback, even if it wasn't quite as dramatic as the one at Baltimore in Week 2.

The bottom line was a second consecutive victory that moved the team to 5-3 on the season heading into a game at Chicago next Sunday.

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