Miami Dolphins ride big plays, defense to 31-16 rout of Giants — and take a knee to end it | Opinion

One of the Miami Dolphins’ honorary captains Sunday happened to be former receiving star Mark Duper. He legally changed his middle name to Super back in the day. It sort of fit. Those Dan Marino-led offenses were record-setting-good, bringing electricity never seen from this franchise, not even in the championship glory days of the ‘70s.

This Dolphins offense is better, the best it has been in this club’s 58 years.

It is better because it is more balanced between pass and run and because it is fast (fast, mostly) — all of it on display again as the Dolphins handled the New York Giants, 31-16, to improve to a 4-1 start for the first time in 20 years.

The victory left Miami alone atop the AFC East, after nemesis Buffalo unexpectedly lost to Jacksonville earlier in the day in London.

It was far from a perfect day by Miami, the margin and comfort of the victory despite that owing to the Giants’ haplessness but also to the playoff quality of these Fins.

Miami had three turnovers, including two interceptions by Tua Tagovailoa, one of them a deflection returned 102 yards for a touchdown.

The Dolphins overcame that, though, because the defense was dominant all day, budgeting the Big Blue offense to three field goals.

And the Fins’ offense was what we have come to expect of an attack that has rolled up the most yardage through five games in NFL history with 2,575 yards and leads the league in points scored with 181.

We also saw a maturing Tagovailoa.

“I know how to move forward from that now,” he said, meaning the interceptions.

“Last year,” said coach Mike McDaniel, “it wold have been hard to get him out of that.”

Miami’s eight plays of 20-plus yards on Sunday included a 76-yard De’Von Achane touchdown run, a 69-yard Tyreek Hill scoring catch-and-run, and another Hill reception of 64 yards and Miami leaped to a 14-0 lead and never trailed.

The long TD play to Hill was an ad-lib by Tua.

“That was the wrong play call; I just called my own play,” the QB admitted with a grin. “He [McDaniel] said a play. I told him I misheard him.”

Said the coach, also smiling: ”I definitely was not upset as I watched Tyreek run up the sideline.”

The Fins had and even 300 yards passing and another 219 on the ground, those 519 total yards coming on only 49 plays — an average of nearly 11 yards on every touch of the ball. Astounding.

Miami had three turnovers to New York’s zero and possessed the ball for 11 fewer minutes — yet big defense and big-play offense overcame all of it.

“Definitely not the formula you wanna live by,” admitted McDaniel.

After covering the Miami Hurricanes’ epic, stupefying loss in the same stadium the night before, I entered Sunday’s game rooting hard for, well, just a routine result — dull, even — a game utterly void of any controversy or last-second drama. I survived the storm, now I was looking for the calm.

I got the expected result, but not the dull. This Dolphins offense does not do dull.

The reaction into Sunday to UM’s 23-20 home loss to big underdog Georgia Tech in its ACC opener continued cartoonishly outsized, comically so. Yes, Mario Cristobal made the grievous coaching gaffe that ended up costing Miami the game — ”We should’ve taken a knee” — but the calls for his immediate firing or resignation redefine knee-jerk overreaction (with more jerk than knee).

Obviously it was dumb to not kill clock by kneeling, but if UM doesn’t then lose a fumble, and if the Canes don’t then forget to cover the guy who scored on the last-second 44-yard scoring pass, Cristobal’s faux pas is an afterthought. Even as is, the team is 4-1. The world has not ended, nor has the season.

The Canes’ loss, more so the manner of it, did fit perfectly though with the sudden ebb in the ebb-and-flow of South Florida sports fortunes.

It followed the Marlins’ blink-and-you-missed it postseason appearance and elimination. And ran concurrently with Inter Miami’s elimination from MLS playoff contention as Lionel Messi’ health continues an issue. Now the Heat and Florida Panthers prepare to begin seasons of sharply reduced expectations after each reached the championship series the year before.

So Miami fans entered Sunday needing the Dolphins to at least uphold the cause of optimism around here vs. the big underdog Giants.

Done.

No last-minute drama. No crazy gaffe of a coaching decision by Mike McDaniel. No letdown against an inferior opponent.

It’s strange, in a way.

The Dolphins and Hurricanes are both 4-1 today, but seldom has the same record felt so very different.

And you want the perfect punctuation to this game, and to this weekend at this stadium?

On the Dolphins’ last play Sunday, they took a knee as the clock expired.