Tyler Huntley started the 2024 season on the Cleveland Browns.

By late August, however, the Browns had released the quarterback. The Broward County native subsequently returned to the practice squad of the Baltimore Ravens — the team on which he got his NFL start. Then the Miami Dolphins lost franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to a concussion in Week 2, leading the team to sign Huntley to its active roster.

Huntley would start three games in Tagovailoa’s absence, going 1-2, before he wound up on injured reserved with a shoulder injury. But when the news that Tagovailoa’s hip injury could force him to miss Sunday’s game against the Browns, there was no doubt Huntley would step in. What was unknown at the time, however, was just how well Huntley would play.

“I feel good,” Huntley said after the game. “I actually feel more comfortable with these plays. A couple weeks in the office definitely makes a difference.”

Huntley helped lead the Dolphins to 20-3 victory against the Browns, completing nearly 85% of his passes for 225 yards and a touchdown. The Hallandale High graduate only threw four incompletions in addition to his 52 yards on the ground and a rushing touchdown.

“I think what was evident was the positives of time for Snoop and how far he’s come since we last played with him,” coach Mike McDaniel said. “I thought that was a tremendous outing for him. I thought he made some plays and was very good with the ball, and those are always cool things for a player when they’re playing a team that they were on in that same calendar year.”

With the win, the Dolphins reached .500 for the first time since the start of the season and remained alive in the playoff race. They will need the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the Denver Broncos to ultimately secure a spot in the postseason but Sunday’s victory was a good start.

Here are four additional takeaways from Sunday’s victory over the Browns.

Defense steps up

The Dolphins defense had a very clear motto: bend don’t break.

Despite allowing a little more than 275 yards on the day, the defense didn’t let up a touchdown, limiting the Browns to just three points on their two trips to the red zone.

More evidence of their ‘bend don’t break’ mentality: the defense held the Browns to seven conversions on third down (41%) as well as zero fourth down conversions. Defensive tackle Zach Sieler praised the unit’s “communication” after the victory.

“Staying on the same page and no one trying to take a shot and working within the bounds of the defense,” Sieler said.

Added McDaniel: “They rose to the occasion. Having a couple turnovers and not letting them into the end zone. Guys made some plays just across the board.”

Forcing turnovers

The Dolphins came into the game ranked in the bottom five in terms of forced turnovers.

Against the Browns, however, they were able to create two turnovers.

With just more than four and half minutes before halftime, inside linebacker Tyrel Dodson picked off Browns quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson. Then, with roughly five and a half minutes left in the third quarter, edge rusher Emmanuel Ogbah sacked Thompson-Robinson, leading the quarterback to cough up the ball which defensive tackle D’Shawn Hand recovered.

While none of these turnovers led to Dolphins scores, it’s a good sign that the defense could wreak havoc on a Browns offense down to its third quarterback.

Poor rushing numbers:

This has been written time and time again.

The Dolphins offense truly struggles to run the ball. As a team, they finished with 74 yards on 27 carries and a touchdown. That’s roughly 2.74 yards per carry, which would rank dead last in the NFL.

Remove Huntley’s touchdown as well as his 52-yards on the ground and the rushing numbers look awful to say the least: 20 attempts for 22 yards.

Yes, you read that right. 20 attempts for 22 yards. That’s barely 1 yard per attempt.

While offensive tackle Austin Jackson’s injury related absence has somewhat driven their poor rushing numbers, the Dolphins hung 166-yards on the San Francisco 49ers. Hopefully, they can recapture some of that form ahead of next week’s season finale versus the New York Jets.

Dolphins need to clean up penalties:

11.

That’s how many penalties the Dolphins had on the day. Six just so happened to be on the offense while the defense had three. Two penalties occurred on special teams.

The plethora of penalties lost the Dolphins 94 yards.

Obviously, the infractions didn’t ultimately hurt them; Miami just so happened to face a team that drew nearly as many penalties (nine for 84 yards).

Against better teams, however, that won’t fly.

“We got to get better to clean up our fundamentals,” Huntley said. “The flags were the stoppers of our drives. We could’ve put up way more points.”

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