The Miami Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars faced off Thursday night. A match-up only a football addict would love.
Ryan Fitzpatrick got the Miami Dolphins started off right by going a perfect three for three on their first drive. Preston Williams helped cap off the drive with a three-yard touchdown catch putting the Fins up 7-0.
The Jaguars wouldn’t be able to do much on their opening drive of Thursday Night Football. James Robinson was able to get a big gain on a short pass from Minshew, but the drive would stall after that.
Miami would continue to shred the Jacksonville Jaguars young defense on their second drive. It would only take two penalties and four plays for the Dolphins to push their lead to 14-0 with a one-yard Jordan Howard touchdown. Fitzpatrick would stay perfect on the night going 6 for 6.
Gardner Minshew and James Robinson wouldn’t let the Jaguars fall down any further though. Jacksonville would use nine plays to go down and score their first touchdown with 13:10 in the 2nd quarter. A 16-yard completion to Laviska Shenault kept this drive alive, and finished off with an 11-yard touchdown run from Robinson.Â
Fitzmagic and the Dolphins kept the offensive momentum going with an 11 play drive that took exactly seven minutes off the clock. Jaguars rookie K’Lavon Chaisson, got called for two penalties that cost Jacksonville 22 yards, helping set up a 15-yard Mike Gesicki touchdown.Â
Down 21-7, Jacksonville received the ball back with 6 minutes left in the half but never could get the ball moving. Both teams battled back and forth but ultimately for nothing as no one scored for the rest of the half.
Jacksonville received the ball to start the second quarter, but only got five plays off before having to punt it back to Miami. Luckily the Jaguars were able to force a stop on defense, and get the ball back without falling deeper into a hole. The Dolphins wouldn’t let Minshew get any confidence going though, shortly strip-sacking him and recovering the ball at the Jacksonville 10 yard line.
Four plays later and Miami would find themselves with a 28-7 lead with just two minutes left in the third quarter. Gardner Minshew would try and pull any kind of magic out of his pocket, driving the ball down the field as the head into the fourth quarter. Unfortunately just three plays into the fourth quarter, Miami would come up with a fourth down stop, and take over on their own 23-yard line. They would go three-and-out, and only take off two minutes before giving the ball back to Jacksonville.Â
Minshew would spark a ten-play drive that would result in a 1-yard James Robinson touchdown, but it was too late. After that Jacksonville continued to struggle at moving the ball down the field. Jason Sanders drilled a 30 yard field goal, making it a 31-13 game, and would put this game into wind down mode.
The Dolphins offense was fast, consistent, and mistake free. Ryan Fitzpatrick finished with 160 passing yards and two touchdowns on 18 of 20 pass attempts. He also had 38 yards rushing and a rushing touchdown too. Myles Gaskin led the night on the ground with 22 rush attempts, and 66 yards to go along with his five receptions for 29 yards. DeVante Parker battled through injury and was still able to finish the night with five receptions for 69 yards.
Gardner Minshew finished the night completing 30 of his 42 pass attempts for 275 passing yards and an interception. James Robinson led the game in scrimmage yards with a total of 129 yards and two rushing touchdowns. Laviska Shenault Jr would lead all receivers with five receptions for 33 yards.
Heading into Week 4 the 1-2 Miami Dolphins take on the Seattle Seahawks in Miami. As for Jacksonville, they head up to Cincinnati, Ohio to take on the 0-3 Bengals.
