Miami Dolphins can feel good about a win over the Rams, but it’s probably too late to matter.

Last year, both the Miami Dolphins and the Los Angeles Rams made the playoffs. Their rosters were still very much playoff caliber.

But still, only so many opportunities are afforded in an NFL season and a couple of tough defeats can make a mountain of a deficit. The Miami Dolphins, however, can view their Monday night show as a little angst. After all, they handed the Rams a beating on their home turf with a score of 23-15. They might also see Tagovailoa’s injury and the subsequent losses where his team went down to the wire and lost on a last-minute field goal, and wonder what might have been. If they had a couple more wins, it could be possible that instead of sitting at 3-6. They’d be looking to move closer to clinching another playoff berth.

Miami Dolphins

The Rams are likely going to regret it as well. They kicked off the season slowly, indeed, but they managed to reach a 500 record at 4-4 after three consecutive victories before Monday night’s match. Then came an embarrassing defeat against the Miami Dolphins that killed their momentum completely. The Rams came into the game looking remarkably unprepared, which is not something that happens frequently with a Sean McVay-led squad. Currently sitting at 4-5, the Rams can’t be ruled out completely, but their chances of making a playoff look bleak.

The Miami Dolphins are not officially done for now either. But unless they put in an astonishing effort in the remaining games, they will recall matches like the one on Monday night and wonder how the outcome would have been different had they received some good luck earlier in the season.

The Rams surely did put a lot of effort in different game aspects but in the first half, it just wasn’t much for them at all. Did not take long for the Rams’ defense to concede an early touchdown as the opponents drove down the field immediately. The same could be said about the offensive line as well as it failed in defending Matthew Stafford’s position. Even in the case when the Rams had a chance to play it hard with Tagovailoa’s foolish pass, Kyren Williams let it slip on the following move.

The Rams have a bad 1st half.

The Rams are not one to go slow as they have displayed, but this first half about them was not something one would appreciate.

For the part of the game, things were likewise pretty bad for the Miami Dolphins. The offensive was stalled after their opening 70 yards, less than a three-minute scoring drive. Both quarterbacks concluded the first half with less than 100 yards. There were six times a ball was kicked to the other team and four losses of possession in between the team half time. The Rams were able to score 3 points though and went into the last part of the game only 10-6 down. When everything is taken into account, even after their difficulties, that was a score that did not require many apologies.

The second half began with all the same trends continuing. The Rams were driving but a botched snap was lost when Stafford barely managed to retrieve it for a loss of 13 yards. Still, the Rams got a field goal from 52 yards as the kick. However, was nullified because the center moved before the hike. After which Joshua Karty failed in attempting a 57-yard try.

There has always been a great deal of respect for Sean McVay and his coaching staff. But they were bewilderingly uncoordinated for large stretches of Monday night.

Miami Dolphins extend their lead.

The Miami Dolphins capitalized after a missed field goal attempt by the Rams from 57 yards. After catching a pass from Jonnu Smith, he ran downfield to the one-yard line and returned the ball after it was snapped to Tyreek Hill who caught the ball in the endzone. That placed the score at 17-6 in favor of the Miami Dolphins.

With the score at 20-9 with 6 minutes into the fourth quarter, the Rams were still not completely out of the match. The Rams were driven to the 5-yard line and then the drive stalled and McVay went for the field goal. That made it 20-12 with 6:31 to go. The Rams just were not able to perform when they needed to.

The Miami Dolphins ended any chances of a Rams comeback, casually picking up some first downs and draining the clock. Jason Sanders kicked a field goal with 2:38 remaining, bringing the Miami Dolphins’ lead back to 11 points, all but guaranteeing a victory. For the Miami Dolphins, it wasn’t ugly but it was another away game and it didn’t take much out of them.

For the rest of the season, Miami will have enough caliber to continue competing as a decent team. The offense was not exceptional on Monday night, but it usually performs well when Tagovailoa is healthy, and the defense shut down a Rams offense that had been in good shape. But after six losses, the Miami Dolphins will need to almost win out to qualify for the playoffs again.