CLEVELAND — The Miami Dolphins won Sunday, and they’re still in the playoff hunt heading into Week 18.
Who would’ve thought they’d get here after a 2-6 start? At 8-8, that means they’ve gone 6-2 since.
You know the scenarios by now. The Dolphins need a win at the New York Jets (4-12) and a Denver Broncos loss to the Kansas City Chiefs next Sunday evening to get in as the AFC’s No. 7 seed. If they get in, they would travel to Buffalo to face the Bills.
Here are Dolphins grades for the 20-3 win over the Cleveland Browns:
Pass game: A-
It was about as good as you could expect with Tyler “Snoop” Huntley in for the injured Tua Tagovailoa and missing wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. Huntley made plays when they were there for him and otherwise managed the game without turning the ball over. He went 9 for 9 throwing to Tyreek Hill, for 105 yards. Overall, Huntley was an efficient 22 of 26 for 225 yards and a touchdown to tight end Jonnu Smith, plus made plays with his legs. There were four sacks, and Myles Garrett had two of them, but that for an offensive line that lost left tackle Terron Armstead mid-game, already had Kendall Lamm replacing Austin Jackson at right tackle and is rotating right guards.
Run game: D
Even with Huntley scrambling for 53 yards on six attempts before his final kneel-down, this run game only went for 2.7 yards per carry against a below-average Browns run defense. De’Von Achane, Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson all saw carries, and Achane was best per-attempt, at a 2.5 average. He, however, was taken down for a loss on a fourth-and-inches pitch to the outside, a questionable play call in the short-yardage situation. The offensive line was not good in the run-blocking department after being so formidable just one week ago against the 49ers.
Defending the pass: B
It was an A-caliber statistical performance, but assisted by the poor quarterback play of the Browns’ Dorian Thompson-Robinson. He was 24 of 47 for 170 yards — a lot of which just came in garbage time on a late drive — and was intercepted by linebacker Tyrel Dodson. Thompson-Robinson was sacked once, a strip-sack by Emmanuel Ogbah for a fumble recovered by Da’Shawn Hand, and had three intentional grounding penalties. Miami was also helped by three drops from Jerry Jeudy, while tight end David Njoku was out.
Defending the run: C+
Cleveland went for 114 rushing yards on 28 attempts, while Nick Chubb wasn’t available for them. On top of that, Jerome Ford exited early, so it was a lot of D’Onta Foreman and Pierre Strong after that. Dolphins could’ve been better here, but it never made for a serious Browns threat with their inability to complement the ground game with the pass.
Special teams: B
Kicker Jason Sanders made his kicks, including a 54-yarder that ricocheted off the crossbar and in. Punter Jake Bailey had some punts that were off or went for touchbacks, but then he had an exceptional one downed at the 2-yard line. Miami got punt returns of 18 yards by Hill and 16 yards by Malik Washington.
Coaching: B
Give Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel credit for managing a week in which he had to prepare two different game plans, whether Tagovailoa was able to start or if he had to roll with Huntley. Winning the game itself is nothing special, as the Browns are awful, but the coaching staff kept players focused on the game when so much else was swirling around the team between the quarterback situation and Saturday games that had implications on the Dolphins’ playoff hopes.
Stock Up: Tyler Huntley
This one’s easy. Huntley showed a stark improvement from last time he had to fill in for Tagovailoa. It offers confidence he can lead the Dolphins to victory at the Jets if Miami needs him in the regular season finale. But Tua better be back for the playoffs for the Dolphins to have a chance in Buffalo, if it gets to that point.
Stock down: De’Von Achane
Not an indictment on Achane. His stock was very high just last week. But just 10 carries for 25 yards and two catches for 13 yards. He wasn’t in the game much after the midway point in the second quarter, getting just two carries after that point. One of those was the run for loss on fourth-and-inches, but it was a result of a bad play call and poor blocking up front.