It was the tale of 2 game plans, 2 separate strategies from opposing sides of the universe of good and bad. The Kansas City Chiefs limped into Miami on this 3rd Sunday of the NFL season looking for their first win of the year and missing their starting running back, Jamaal Charles. The Miami Dolphins, also missing key players on offense and defense, hoped to bounce back from their loss in Buffalo last week. Both teams, hobbled by injuries, needed to figure a plan to play around their weaknesses while capitalizing on their opponents', one did, and the other one didn't.
The Dolphins enjoyed a moderate amount of success running the ball, but their passing game struggled in the first quarter. Miami’s quarterback Ryan Tannehill, called the signals from under center, while the Chiefs showed little respect for Miami’s ability to strike deep and rushed the quarterback with everything but the kitchen sink. Kansas City stacked the box and took away the shallow routes which had proven so successful for Miami against New England just 2 weeks ago.
The 2nd quarter opened with the Chiefs experiencing their own struggles on offense, but this had to do more with Miami’s aggressive, and up to that point, rested defense than Kansas City’s lack of ability. The Dolphins took the ball down into the Chiefs side of the field, after Kansas City turned the ball over, yet still Miami failed to capitalize on another opportunity when the drive stalled. A field goal attempt from the Kansas City 38 went wide left and the Dolphins were held scoreless again. On their next drive, facing now a tiring defense, the Chiefs moved down the field with passes to Dwayne Bowe and Donnie Avery and from Miami’s 33, Chief running back Knile Davis took over and ran the ball in for a touchdown from Miami’s 21, with 6:38 left in the first half. When Miami’s ensuing drive stalled after a few plays, the Chiefs took advantage of the situation on their next drive and scoring when Travis Kelce caught a pass from Alex Smith for TD catch and run. Miami was finally able to put together a scoring drive that resulted in 3 points just before the end of the 1st half. The score at halftime was Kansas City 14, Miami 3.
The Dolphins played tough on defense at the start of the 3rd quarter, but failure to sustain long drives by the Dolphins’ offense eventually started to drain the defense which the Chiefs ably capitalized on. Miami’s offensive coordinator Bill Lazor seemed to finally realize the benefit's listed in VAVEL's game preview article, and Tannehill started to more and more, call the signals from the shotgun. The adjustments made during halftime may have come a little too late for the Dolphins at this point, since Kansas City had figure out how to cause mayhem in Miami’s backfield and disrupted the Dolphins play on offense from this point on.
It was the tale of 2 strategies; the tale of batted balls, quarterback sacks, dropped and overthrown balls, and poor execution by Miami’s offense. It was a tale of missed tackles by an exhausted defense, and a tale of a failed game plan. The Kansas City Chiefs came to Miami and prevailed. Miami dropped their 2nd game in a row looking bad as they did. Where was that vision of a playoff appearance after the New England victory? Perhaps New England is not that good this year. The final score was Kansas City 34, Miami 15.