It was a must win game and the Miami Dolphins did not win. The Dolphins watched their playoff hopes virtually vanish into thin air as the clocks hit zero and Chad Ryland’s game winning field goal split the uprights and simultaneously broke Dolfan hearts worldwide. In what was supposed to be a celebratory return of Tua Tagovailoa running the offense and a definite must-win Sunday for the Miami Dolphins, their playoff hopes crumbled beneath the weight of a bitter 28-27 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. With the stakes so high, the Dolphins fought hard and had the lead for most of the game, but their efforts fell painfully short in a game that will haunt them in the weeks to come.
It was a game marked by missed opportunities and costly errors. The Dolphins showed flashes of brilliance, especially early, as they moved down the field with purpose and scored in a way that showed Dolfans how much they missed uno. But as the game wore on, inconsistency crept in. Tua Tagovailoa, typically reliable in tight spots, struggled under relentless pressure, completing only 28 of 38 passes for 234 yards. Each drive seemed to stall just short of success, and the offensive rhythm that defined their early season magic was nowhere to be found. When the offense needed one more score to close out the game, they just could not get it.
The Dolphins’ defense, for all its resilience, buckled at an untimely moment in the final quarter. They kept the Cardinals at bay for much of the game, but they could not force any turnovers and could not generate any pressure. The Dolphins had to resort to frequent corner blitzes to generate pressure from more athletic players, but still could not get to Kyler Murray to create a single sack to shift the momentum. Arizona’s quarterback Kyler Murray managed to find holes in Miami’s secondary just when it mattered most, driving his team down the field for a heartbreaking, game-winning 33-yard field goal in the closing seconds.
The Dolphins now sit on the edge of playoff elimination, a team that once seemed poised for postseason contention now staring at an uncertain future. It’s a loss that stings deeply—not just because it was so close, but because the hopes of a season felt like they slipped away in an instant. As Miami heads into the final stretch, the road ahead has grown dark. The next matchup against Buffalo in Buffalo is the surest loss in the NFL. The Tua Tagovailoa Dolphins have only managed to beat the Josh Allen Bills once, at home, barely. So now the Dolphins are staring down the barrel of a 2-6 season with losses to many very bad teams and the painful reality is setting in: the Dolphins’ season may be slipping away, one lost game at a time.
