MIAMI GARDENS, Fla — It was fitting that the Miami Dolphins‘ comeback hopes ended Monday night with a Tua Tagovailoa quarterback sack.
Because the Tennessee Titans for much of the game had bullied the Dolphins’ offensive line in a way in which we had not seen all year.
Tua took a season-high five sacks Monday, and even on plays in which when he eluded pressure, the disruption to the Dolphins’ offense’s timing spoiled the play. When Tagovailoa had to pull the ball down off his first read, the result was usually a scramble, a dump-off, or an incompletion.
And unless Connor Williams gets surprisingly good news during the tests run on his injured knee, expect to see a lot more of what we saw Monday night going forward.
UPDATE (3:10 p.m.): Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel announced Tuesday that Williams tore his ACL and is out for the season.
Miami Dolphins Offensive Line Injury Update
Given the fact that Miami quickly ruled Williams out of the game after his first-quarter injury — and the somber tone struck by Dolphins right tackle Austin Jackson during his Tuesday media availability — it would be a surprise if Williams is back soon, if at all, this season.
It’s hard to overstate how important Williams is to the Dolphins’ offense. It simply hasn’t functioned when he has been off the field, with the dropoff in production steep from him to backup Liam Eichenberg.
“Conversations with him have been, you know, ‘Get better,’ obviously,” Jackson said. “He’s a hell of a player and definitely would love to have him on the field with us playing. Hurt if he wasn’t able to come back. Either way it goes, you know, you all gotta show up and do our job, but he’s a hell of a player, I agree, and I think he’s very, very important to our offense.”
Williams’ departure ripped off the last remaining piece of Scotch tape that held together an injury-wrecked offensive line.
It left Jackson as the only Week 1 starter on the Dolphins’ line.
Left guard Isaiah Wynn is almost certainly done for the year. Left tackle Terron Armstead and right guard Robert Hunt both were inactive Monday, and it’s not clear if they’ll be available to play against the Jets in Week 15.
MORE: Loss to Titans Was Really Damaging to Dolphins’ Playoff Scenarios
When asked if injuries played a factor in the Dolphins’ pass protection issues Monday, Jackson replied:
“That played a factor. There’s a lot of things that went wrong, you know, and I’ll take accountability for myself and [the] offensive line to say that, you know, there’s some things we could have did better to put ourselves in better situations.
“In terms of who was in there and who’s out — we all practice. We all put in the same hours a day and a little bit more so we’re just gonna be accountable with whoever’s in there that we got to do the job.”
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