"That gotta-have-it moment in Sunday's final seconds where Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert escaped the hard grasp of Jaelan Phillips to the point the Miami Dolphins edge rusher sat at his locker staring ahead through another loss' silence and saw only that play. Twenty minutes passed after the game. Thirty. Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had already talked about players not attending players-only meetings, or being late for them, or something that shows he still has no idea how to lead a team or be the voice of a franchise. Phillips kept staring straight ahead, wrapped in a towel and his frustrated thoughts. He had Herbert for the sack, and maybe the win, with 40 seconds left and the Dolphins up by a point."
"The Dolphins didn't lose, 29-27, in those final, frantic seconds Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium. They lost it on draft day five years ago. They had a chance for the big, strong quarterback who picked up an offense without its best players and took the shorter, less durable quarterback who didn't have a bad day himself Sunday until he started talking afterwards."
Justin Herbert escaped a potential game-sealing sack by Jaelan Phillips in the final seconds, turning a near-win into a 29-27 defeat for the Dolphins. The missed play underscored a longer-term roster consequence from a draft decision five years earlier that left the team without a bigger, more durable quarterback option. Tua Tagovailoa had an opportunity to be the late-game hero but postgame comments about players-only meetings raised questions about his leadership and rapport with teammates. The franchise showed signs of internal dysfunction with inconsistent players-only meeting attendance and blurred lines between coaches and players.
Read at Sun Sentinel
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