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Cardinals spoil Tua Tagovailoa’s return, come back to defeat Dolphins 28-27

Oct 27, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Arizona Cardinals place kicker Chad Ryland, center, celebrates his game winning field goal against the Miami Dolphins as time runs out at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

Chad Ryland drilled a 34-yard field goal as time expired to give the Arizona Cardinals a 28-27 victory over the Miami Dolphins and their first two-game win streak since 2021.

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Arizona (4-4) played arguably its best game since its 41-10 Week 2 victory over the Los Angeles Rams, looking really connected on both sides of the ball and on special teams.

Coming into the game, Miami had allowed the fewest passing yards per game in the NFL (154.5), but Kyler Murray threw for a season-high 307 yards on 26-of-36 passing and had two touchdowns for the Cardinals. Trey McBride (nine catches for 124 yards) and Marvin Harrison Jr. (six catches for 111 yards and a touchdown) became the first Cardinals teammates since A.J. Green and Christian Kirk in Sept. 2021 with over 100 receiving yards each. James Conner was limited on the ground to 20 carries for 53 yards, but did have some big time runs and a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Arizona spoiled the return of Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who had been on injured reserve since Week 2 with a concussion. Tagovailoa completed 28-of-38 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown in his return. Tyreek Hill got back on track in Tagovailoa’s return with six catches for 72 yards. Miami outgained the Cardinals 150-82 on the ground, as De’Von Achane had 10 rushes for 97 yards and Raheem Mostert had 19 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

The Dolphins were up by as much as 10 and led the entire game until the final second when Ryland hit the game winner.

Dolphins strike first, control time of possession in 1st quarter

The Cardinals won the toss and elected to differ, giving Tagovailoa the ball right away. After a 36-yard kick return, Tagovailoa made the most of his first drive, quickly marching down the field. Despite two forced fumbles on the possession by Arizona, Miami recovered them both and ended the 10-play, 64-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown run by Mostert to go up 7-0 with 10:15 left in the first quarter.

Miami got two deflections behind the line of scrimmage against Murray on the first Cardinals’ drive and forced a three-and-out in under a minute.

The Dolphins then pieced together a 12-play, 40-yard drive that spanned 8:01 and ended with a 53-yard field goal by Jason Sanders, as Miami went up 10-0 with 1:16 to go in the first quarter.

Murray threw a 25-yard strike to Harrison to begin the next Cardinals offensive possession. Two plays later, Murray found Harrison again and the Cardinals ended the first quarter with the ball at the Miami 30-yard line.

Tagovailoa went 11-for-12 for 75 yards in the quarter, while Murray was 2-for-4 for 33 yards, as Miami controlled the time of possession 12:46 to 2:14.

Cardinals respond with touchdown in 2nd quarter

The Cardinals continued to move the ball to start the second quarter, and on third-and-goal from the six, Murray connected on his fifth-straight pass for a touchdown to Michael Wilson. The Cardinals cut the Miami lead to 10-7 with 11:28 to go in the second quarter with the touchdown.

Arizona forced the first punt of the game for the Dolphins after Tagovailoa way underthrew Hill on a deep route. The Cardinals took over at their own 20 after the punt went into the end zone with 9:08 left in the first half.

Using a heavy dosage of Conner, the Cardinals advanced past midfield, but had to punt it away after Murray was unable to find Wilson on third-and-7 from the Miami 42. Blake Gillikin, who had a great game last week against the Chargers, pinned the ball at the 5-yard line on the punt with 3:42 left.

Miami was able to convert two early third downs and a 30-yard pass on a fade route to Hill on third-and-2 put the Dolphins at the Arizona 36 with 1:35 to go. The Cardinals were able to force Miami into a 25-yard field goal with 15 seconds left after Tagovailoa could not connect with Hill in the end zone on third-and-5.

The Cardinals decided to try to throw it on the first two plays of the final drive of the half, both throwaways by Murray. They finally kneeled it on third down to run the clock out in the first half.

Miami led 13-7 at halftime.

Murray completed 8-of-14 throws for 79 yards and a touchdown in the first half for Arizona, as the Cardinals only had 32 rushing yards as a team (eight carries for 14 yards for Conner).

Tagovailoa went 19-for-25 for 162 yards and Hill had five receptions for 68 yards for Miami. The Dolphins rushed 13 times as a team for 59 yards and a touchdown. Miami ran 39 plays for 214 yards in the first half compared to 26 plays for 111 yards for Arizona. The Dolphins were winning the time of possession 18:33 to 11:27.

Cardinals continue to fight

McBride had a nice highlight on the first play of the second half, as he hurdled over a Dolphins defender en route to a 37-yard reception. However, a 10-yard loss by Conner on the next play and a holding penalty on second down pushed Arizona way back. Two straight completions by Murray brought Arizona back to the Miami 38 for fourth-and-15 and Ryland, who had a season-long of 42 yards heading into the game, came in and banged home a career-long 57-yard field goal. The Dolphins still led 13-10 with 11:43 to go in the third after the make.

Achane opened the next Miami drive with a 47-yard run to set the Dolphins up inside the Arizona 25. On a third-and-10 from the Cardinals 22, Tagovailoa scrambled for 13 yards and slid down, invoking a loud cheer from the Dolphins crowd. Two plays later, Tagovailoa found Achane on a screen pass and he took it all the way into the end zone from 12 yards out to put Miami ahead 20-10 with 8:31 remaining in the third quarter.

The Cardinals went three-and-out on their next drive and punted back to the Miami 12 with 6:29 to go in the quarter.

Arizona almost got a defensive touchdown after the ball was snapped way over Tagovailoa’s head, but the quarterback batted it out of the back of the end zone, so the Cardinals got a safety instead to make it a one-possession game.

McBride continued his big day with a 17-yard reception when the Cardinals got the ball back, leading to an impressive drive by the Arizona offense. Harrison capped off the nine-play, 75-yard drive with an incredible 22-yard touchdown catch. Conner could not get into the end zone on the two-point conversion, and the Cardinals trailed 20-18 with 2:08 left in the third.

At the end of the third quarter, the Dolphins were driving and had the ball at the Arizona 33.

Murray was up to 16-for-25 passing for 192 yards and two touchdowns through the third. McBride had six receptions for 84 yards and Harrison recorded three catches for 55 yards and a touchdown.

For Miami, Tagovailoa had 197 yards and a touchdown, completing 23-of-31 passes. The Dolphins had 133 rushing yards (90 for Achane) compared to 44 for Arizona (only 22 yards for Conner).

Murray stays dialed in to lead Cardinals to win

Miami continued to make it look easy on offense, getting inside the 10 quickly. On third-and-goal from the Arizona 6, Mostert walked into the end zone on a misdirection play. The Dolphins extended their lead to 27-18 with 12:22 left with the score.

Harrison made another spectacular catch, this time for 16 yards on third down, as he somehow got his hands under the ball while diving on a floater from Murray. The play was originally ruled incomplete, but then reversed upon a challenge by coach Jonathan Gannon.

The very next play, Murray connected with Harrison for 22 yards.

Two more big passes by Murray to McBride and Wilson set up a two-yard touchdown run by Conner to cut the Miami lead to 27-25 with 8:47 left.

The Cardinals defense forced Miami into a third-and-12, but Tagovailoa found Jonnu Smith right at the line to gain. The ball was originally ruled short, but was then overturned to a first down at the Arizona 48.

The next set of downs, the Cardinals forced another third-and-long and brought pressure to force an errant throw by Tagovailoa that fell incomplete behind the line of scrimmage. Arizona took over at its 10-yard line after the punt down two with 5:01 to go.

Murray hit McBride again for 17 yards on a third-and-1. Then on second-and-15, Murray found Harrison for 18 yards and Conner ran for 17 yards the next play to put the Cardinals at the Miami 33 at the two-minute warning. Both McBride (124 yards) and Harrison (111 yards) were over 100 yards after this Harrison catch.

Conner then ran two straight times, and the Dolphins burned their first two timeouts to set up a third-and-4 for the Cardinals at the Miami 27 with 1:48 remaining. On a designed quarterback run, Murray evaded tacklers in the backfield to pick up a gutsy first down.

Eventually, the Cardinals ran three more times to set up a 34-yard field goal, which Ryland, a midseason addition, drained for his third game-winning kick for Arizona.

Next Up

The Cardinals head back home for Week 9 and will take on the Chicago Bears (4-2) and No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.

Preview: Cardinals face tough road test against healthy Dolphins

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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau

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