Through the first two weeks of the 2020 season, there were few quarterbacks more efficient and effective than Gardner Minshew of the Jaguars — especially among second-year quarterbacks. Minshew was one of four 2019 draftees to start both games for his 2020 team, and he had a far better completion percentage (75.4%), yards per attempt (7.9), and passer rating (115.7) than Kyler Murray, Daniel Jones, and Dwayne Haskins. In fact, Minshew’s six touchdown passes in the first two weeks of the season matched the combined totals of those other three quarterbacks.
On Thursday night, Minshew was facing a Dolphins defense that had played a ton of man coverage in its first two weeks, and had suffered greatly for it. Last Sunday in a 31-28 loss to the Bills, Miami allowed Josh Allen to complete 15 of 24 passes for 299 yards and all four of his touchdowns against man coverage (per Sports Info Solutions). Meanwhile, Minshew had completed 18 of 27 passes for 226 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception against man coverage this season, so the Thursday night matchup appeared to be a real problem for the Dolphins.
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Not so. Minshew completed 30 of 42 passes for 275 yards on Thursday night, but for no touchdowns and one interception. It was just the third time in his career that Minshew had been held without a touchdown pass, and the first time since Week 9 of the 2019 season, a 26-3 loss to the Texans.
Minshew was facing a couple of issues in this game.
First of all, he was without D.J. Chark, his best receiver, due to chest and back injuries.
Second of all, the Dolphins took a look at their tight man coverage tendencies in the short week, and their coaches did what smart coaches do — they adapted. As he said after the game, Minshew was not seeing what he expected to see. Miami didn’t over-commit to Jacksonville’s receivers, and without the easy picks and crossers that are staple man-beaters against most defenses who play it, offensive coordinator Jay Gruden didn’t seem to have the same flexibility.
“They played a lot of soft zone coverage and weren’t going to let us take any shots,” Minshew said. “I thought our guys did a good job for the most part catching the ball and making what they could with it. But the Dolphins did a good job defensively tonight.”
There was one play Minshew desperately wanted back, because it could have at least given Jacksonville a little more juice. Down 28-7 with four seconds left in the third quarter, Minshew had second-and-6 at the Miami 28-yard line. The Dolphins were playing Cover-0 (man coverage with no deep safety), and Minshew checked out of the original call to instead throw a deep ball down the right sideline to receiver Chris Conley. The receiver was wide open, but Minshew couldn’t connect.
“It was a good check,” Conley said. “That wasn’t the play that was actually called. I guess Gardner noticed the three-press and was able to audible the play and give a nice little pump fake to the corner and keep the corner low, and run a go. We just missed each other, and that’s one we have be on the same page for. We have to connect.”
“Both of us saying, ‘My bad.'” Minshew recalled when asked what he and Conley said to each other after the incompletion. “We both wish there were things we could have back. So we’re going to move forward, look at the film, address it, and move on to Cincinnati.”
“I wish we would’ve hit the shot [against] Cover-0 right at the end of the third quarter,” head coach Doug Marrone concluded. “I thought it was a good decision by him to throw the ball there, I wish we would’ve hit that one. But really at the end of it, it’s just — you just felt like we weren’t playing in sync of how we want to play — with play action, run and mixing everything in there. We just felt like we were chasing it, and I just felt that way during the game.”
Minshew was thrown off his platform by Miami’s blitz, which didn’t help. After a false start that pushed the ball back to the 33-yard line. he attempted to improvise a deep throw to receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. with four Miami defenders around his target. A predictable result, and that was the ballgame.
But as Minshew said, it’s on to Cincinnati. Which another famous football philosopher once said… repeatedly.