The Day After: Reflections on Tua, fourth-down calls and Dolphins resilience

The Miami Dolphins recorded their biggest victory in a few years when they defeated the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium

The day after the Miami Dolphins defeated the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium, the significance of the victory only grows clearer.

That the Dolphins were able to pull out a road victory against a team looking to move into first place in its division was impressive in itself, but even more so considering the team had to proceed without five assistant coaches, two of whom are primary position coaches on defense.

Whether that had anything to do with the defense's problems dealing with Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray is up to conjecture, though it may simply be a case of a talented player doing what he does.

Murray was part of a great battle of exciting young QBs with Tua Tagovailoa, who took not one, not two but many steps forward after his shaky debut against the Rams.

And that's where we'll start with our day-after reflections:

-- By far the thing that impressed me the most about Tua's performance was his scrambling, in particular his ability to make oncoming rushers miss. He got a key third-down conversion in the fourth quarter precisely because of that ability and it was huge.

-- As for his throws, it's not a secret that Tua is very accurate when he's on schedule, and that's whether he's in the pocket or rolling off a naked bootleg. And he made most of his throws on schedule, though there was one play where he started scrambling before spotting DeVante Parker open downfield for a completion and a first down.

-- Tua was helped by better play from the offensive line, and we have to say we like the last of the two combinations the Dolphins used. That lineup had Austin Jackson at left tackle, Jesse Davis at right guard and Robert Hunt at right tackle. Now, Jackson did not have a great outing in his first game back, but he showed a lot of potential before he went on IR after the fourth game. And even though Davis has been solid everywhere he's played this season, his best position remains guard. This is the grouping I would stick with if it were my decision to make.

-- Said on Twitter before the Dolphins had Jason Sanders kick his 50-yard field goal that I wasn't crazy about the decision and I stand by that statement even though it obviously worked out. The problem is it put the Dolphins in a vulnerable position, having to defend a three-point lead against a quarterback the defense hadn't stopped. That it worked out doesn't mean the Dolphins shouldn't consider taking a more aggressive approach the next time the situation presents itself.

-- The Dolphins were bailed out because of two key factors, one being the Cardinals' curious decision to follow suit and settle for a long field goal attempt instead of going for it on fourth-and-1 and the other being Zane Gonzalez's inability to make the kick. There were a lot of factors that made this a bad decision, the first being that Arizona was 2-for-3 on fourth down in the game and the only time they had failed was when they handed off to Chase Edmonds instead of having Murray keep the ball. Another was that Gonzalez was coming off a game where he had missed a 41-yard field goal attempt in overtime against Seattle before getting a second chance and kicking the game-winner. Finally, even had Gonzalez made the kick, the Dolphins would have gotten the ball back with 1:53 left with one timeout, plenty of time for Tua to get Miami into field goal position.

-- Of the two coaching decisions, the one by Kingsbury was by far the more questionable because A) the Dolphins' field goal gave the team a lead late in the fourth quarter, and B) the Dolphins have Jason Sanders as their field goal kicker, and Jason Sanders is much more reliable than Zane Gonzalez.

-- At the risk of stating the obvious, how good has Jason Sanders been this year? He set a franchise record with that 50-yard field goal with his 20th consecutive successful attempt. And this came after he made a career-high 56-yard kick at the end of the first half. Nice! Don't be surprised if he wins AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors for the second time this season.

-- We close with a discussion carried over from Twitter about quarterbacks and won-loss records. It's a bad gauge for a quarterback's performance, plain and simple, other ONLY than how a quarterback's play in the fourth quarter affects that won-loss record. For example, had the Cardinals not settled for the field goal attempt Sunday and converted the first down and won the game, would we be saying that Tua had a better performance against the Rams because it came in a win? Of course not. Look, it's awesome that Tua is 2-0 as a starter, but the more accurate phrasing is that the Dolphins are 2-0 with Tua as the starter. There's a distinction there. It's why it says here that Eli Manning doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame simply because he has two Super Bowl wins because the reality is the New York Giants had two Super Bowl wins with Manning as their quarterback when it actually was the defense that won both those games against the Patriots. And, no, this isn't meant to rain on anybody's parade because every Dolphins fans should be crazy ecstatic just about now.

-- If it already hadn't been established, the victory at Arizona should make it clear: The Dolphins are legit, bona fide playoff contenders with a promising young quarterback coming off a great performance. Isn't that enough?