The Fish are schooling the AFC
Confetti from an NFL weekend
Miami 30, Houston 15
— The Dolphins (8-3) have won five games consecutively and have scored 30 or more points and converted 42 percent of their third downs in the last four. Jeff Wilson ran 17 times for 119 yards; Bradley Chubb, like Wilson a trade deadline pickup, had a sack for the second straight week. Miami remains unbeaten when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, a prime MVP candidate, starts and finishes a game.
— No team can match the Dolphins’ outside snap and crackle, with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Miami leads the NFL in yards per pass attempt and is second (to Kansas City) in explosive completions (20 yards plus) with 45.
— Next is San Francisco and its NFL-best defense, which hasn’t given up a point in its last four second halves, and first-year coach Mike McDaniel (pictured) gets to see the team he once worked for. The 49ers blew out Miami, coached by Don Shula, in the Super Bowl 38 years ago. Eight coaches, including Jimmy Johnson and Nick Saban, have tried to get the Dolphins back there, but none has done so.
Philadelphia 40, Green Bay 33
— The famed Philadelphia offensive line enjoyed a mismatch, bowling over the Packers and creating room for 363 rushing yards and 21 rushing first downs. But Jalen Hurts got much of his 157 ground yards on his own, and Miles Sanders had 21 carries for 143. The infantry rolled for 7.4 yards per pop. Hurts and Sanders became the first teammates to crack 125 yards apiece since Frank Gore and Colin Kaepernick did it for San Francisco eight years ago.
— The members of that line do have names. Left tackle Jordan Mailata is from Sydney, Australia, a former rugby player identified by the NFL’s International Pathway Program. Left guard Landon Dickerson is a second-year man from Alabama. Center Jason Kelce is a former sixth-round pick who is now a 12-year man and a probable Hall of Famer, with a brother named Travis who is somewhat famous around Kansas City. Right guard Isaac Seumalo is a third-round pick from Oregon State whose dad Joe is San Jose State’s defensive line coach. And right tackle Lane Johnson hasn’t given up a sack in two years.
— This night could be remembered for something else. Aaron Rodgers left with an oblique injury, and backup Jordan Love, now a second-year man, came in firing . He went 6 for 9 for 113 yards and threw a TD pass, and looked smooth and self-assured. If a transition is really at hand, it can proceed.
Cincinnati 20, Tennessee 16
— Derrick Henry gained nine yards on Tennessee’s first play. That turned out to be his long run of the day. The NFL’s leading rusher never ran for a first down and wound up with 38 yards in 17 carries, and the Titans (6-5) did not score an offensive touchdown against the team they beat in last year’s Wild Card Game.
— Meanwhile, Cincinnati (7-4) is gathering steam for another run at an AFC Championship. Without JaMarr Chase and Joe Mixon, the Bengals extended their win strak to three, as Tee Higgins caught seven balls for 114 yards. Joe Burrow, quietly patching together another elite year, has 14 touchdowns and three interceptions in his past six games.
— The Bengals beat Kansas City twice last season at Arrowhead Stadium, including an AFC Championship upset. They play host to the Chiefs this week. The NFC North might come down to the season finale against Baltimore, in Cincinnati.
Washington 19, Atlanta 16
— It’s all about quarterbacks in the nation’s capital, going back to Sonny Jurgensen vs. Billy Kilmer in the mid-70s. It looks that way again, with up-from-nowhere Taylor Heinicke winning five of six starts and keeping his job when Carson Wentz returned from injury.
— But The Team To Be Nicknamed Later is making its move in the NFC West because of its strong defense. Washington (7-5) had given up 113 points in its first four games but hasn’t given up more than 21 in a game since, and seven of its last eight opponents have come up short of 200 yards passing. This game was saved when Daron Payne tipped Marcus Mariota’s pass and Kendall Fuller made a diving interception in the end zone, within the final minute.
— Ninety-one days ago Brian Robinson Jr. was introduced to the big city by getting shot twice in Northeast Washington. A 17-year-old and a 15-year-old attempted to carjack him and plugged him in the leg. The rookie from Alabama was back on the field before anyone was arrested, and on Sunday he ran 18 times for 105 yards and caught a touchdown for the Commanders.
New York Jets 31, Chicago 10
— After four quarters of futility against New England, the Jets’ Zach Wilson was deactivated for this game against the Bears. The replacement was Mike White, the former Cowboys’ backup who had won a couple of games for the Jets in 2021. He was suppposed to be the seat-warmer, but now he’s the toast of New York after he strafed the Bears with three TD passes and a near-perfect 149.3 QB rating.
— White, who was a highly-scouted pitcher at his Pembroke Pines, Fla. high school before he became a quarterback, had completions to 10 different receivers and completed 22 of 25. Rookie Garrett Wilson, who criticized all aspects of the offense last week, scored twice and caught five for 95 yards.
— Jets coach Robert Saleh called White a “master of the obvious,” which was a compliment, and left no doubt White will start this week at Minnesota. Meanwhile, the Bears went with Trevor Siemian to replace Justin Fields, and Siemian hurt his oblique during warmups, without contact. Siemian said he was too embarrassed to take himself out and went 14 for 25 with 179 yards as the Bears lost their fifth consecutive.
Jacksonville 28, Baltimore 27
— This might have been the arrival moment for Trevor Lawrence, the first-overall pick in 2021 who suffered under the Urban Blight of his rookie year and is just now getting started. Faced with a 27-20 deficit, 2:02 left and no time outs, Lawrence threw a 10-yard game winner to Marvin Jones with 14 seconds left, then connected with Zay Jones on a 2-pointer called by coach Doug Pederson.
— On the final drive Lawrence overcame a third-and-21 by hitting Christian Kirk for 16 yards and then M Jones for 10. Earlier in the period, down 19-10, Lawrence organized a 75-yard drive that featured a 27-yarder to Z. Jones on fourth-and-eight and a one-yard touchdown to Jamal Agnew. After rough moments in a loss to Denver four weeks ago, Lawrence has thrown six touchdowns with no picks and is 2-1, leading a comeback from 0-17 to beat the Raiders. Jacksonville is 4-7 and has the look of a team that’s about to happen.
— The Ravens are 7-4 and weird. This was their third loss after holding a lead of more than one score in the fourth quarter. It also ended a four-game winning streak, and Baltimore will be favored in each of its next five games before it ends the regular season against the Bengals. But last week’s arduous 13-3 win at Carolina contained no style points, and Lamar Jackson, seeking a new contract, had to delete a tweet that made a vulgar reference to a critic. With all that, Baltimore was in position to steal this one when Jordan Tucker lined up a 67-yard field goal, but it fell just in front of the goalpost.