2016 Preseason Game #1 | MIA @ NYG| Miami Dolphins at New York Giants |
| Aug 12, 2016 | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | SCORE |
| Miami Dolphins (0-0) | 14 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 37 |
| New York Giants (0-0) | 14 | 7 | 0 | 10 | 31 |
| Team Stats Comparison |
| MIA | NYG |
| Total Offense | 459 | 554 |
| Rushing Yards | 205 | 232 |
| Passing Yards | 254 | 322 |
| First Downs | 18 | 14 |
| Punt Return Yards | 40 | 42 |
| Kick Return Yards | 192 | 157 |
| Total Yards | 691 | 753 |
| Turnovers | 1(+1) | 2(-1) |
| 3rd Down Converstion | 9/16(56%) | 2/11(18%) |
| 4th Down Conversion | 0/0(0%) | 1/1(100%) |
| 2-Point Conversion | 0/0(0%) | 0/0(0%) |
| Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals | 4/4(100%) | 3/5(60%) |
| Penalties | 3/25 | 2/10 |
| Posession Time | 36:20 | 23:40 |
| Scoring Summary |
| FIRST QUARTER SCORING | MIA | NYG |
| 13:35 | (NYG) Rashad Jennings 68 yard run | XP | 0 | 7 |
| 12:20 | (MIA) Jay Ajayi 1 yard run | XP | 7 | 7 |
| 0:45 | (NYG) Odell Beckham Jr. 16 yard pass from Eli Manning | XP | 7 | 14 |
| 0:33 | (MIA) Jakeem Grant returned kickoff 97 yards | XP | 14 | 14 |
| SECOND QUARTER SCORING | MIA | NYG |
| 11:18 | (NYG) Myles White 7 yard pass from Ryan Nassib | XP | 14 | 21 |
| 2:25 | (MIA) Matt Hazel 82 yard pass from Matt Moore | XP | 21 | 21 |
| THIRD QUARTER SCORING | MIA | NYG |
| 6:46 | (MIA) Isaiah Pead 1 yard run | XP | 28 | 21 |
| FOURTH QUARTER SCORING | MIA | NYG |
| 13:48 | (NYG) Tavarres King 75 yard pass from Ryan Nassib | XP | 28 | 28 |
| 11:20 | (MIA) Andrew Franks 34 yard field goal | 31 | 28 |
| 6:48 | (NYG) Josh Brown 26 yard field goal | 31 | 31 |
| 1:10 | (MIA) Damien Williams 7 yard run | XP failed | 37 | 31 |
| Miami Dolphins | | PASSING | C/A | YDS | TD | INT | | Ryan Tannehill | 4/6 | 103 | 0 | 0 | | Matt Moore | 4/9 | 119 | 1 | 1 | | Brandon Doughty | 8/12 | 45 | 0 | 0 | | RUSHING | ATT | YDS | AVG | TD | | Damien Williams | 24 | 160 | 6.6 | 1 | | Isaiah Pead | 7 | 21 | 3.0 | 1 | | Jayi Ajayi | 5 | 19 | 3.8 | 1 | | RECEIVING | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | | Matt Hazel | 4 | 95 | 23.7 | 1 | | Jarvis Landry | 1 | 78 | 78.0 | 0 | | Jakeem Grant | 3 | 25 | 8.3 | 0 | | BLOCKING | PANCAKE | SACK | | Dallas Thomas | 0 | 1 | | DEFENSE | TACK | SACK | INT | TD | | Tony Lippett | 6 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | | Neville Hewitt | 6 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | | Mike Hull | 5 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | | Earl Mitchell | 2 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | | Andre Branch | 2 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | | Kiko Alonso | 2 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | | KICKING | FG | XP | PTS | LONG | | Andrew Franks | 1/1 | 4/5 | 7 | 34 | | PUNTING | NO | YDS | AVG | IN20 | | Matt Darr | 5 | 257 | 51.4 | 1 | | KICK RETURN | RET | YDS | AVG | TD | | Jakeem Grant | 4 | 168 | 42.0 | 1 | | PUNT RETURN | RET | YDS | AVG | TD | | Jakeem Grant | 5 | 40 | 8.0 | 0 |
| | New York Giants | | PASSING | C/A | YDS | TD | INT | | Eli Manning | 5/6 | 67 | 1 | 1 | | Ryan Nassib | 14/28 | 273 | 2 | 1 | | RUSHING | ATT | YDS | AVG | TD | | Rashad Jennings | 10 | 128 | 12.8 | 1 | | Shane Vereen | 11 | 105 | 9.5 | 0 | | RECEIVING | REC | YDS | AVG | TD | | Dwayne Harris | 5 | 95 | 19.0 | 0 | | Tavarres King | 1 | 75 | 75.0 | 1 | | Myles White | 3 | 53 | 17.6 | 1 | | Odell Beckham Jr. | 3 | 34 | 11.3 | 1 | | BLOCKING | PANCAKE | SACK | | Ereck Flowers | 1 | 0 | | DEFENSE | TACK | SACK | INT | TD | | Damon Harrison | 9 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | | Eli Apple | 9 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | | Nat Berhe | 8 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | | Trevin Wade | 3 | 0.0 | 1 | 0 | | Jasper Brinkley | 7 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | | Jay Bromley | 5 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | | KICKING | FG | XP | PTS | LONG | | Josh Brown | 1/1 | 4/4 | 7 | 27 | | PUNTING | NO | YDS | AVG | IN20 | | Brad Wing | 5 | 269 | 53.8 | 2 | | KICK RETURN | RET | YDS | AVG | TD | | Dwayne Harris | 5 | 130 | 26.0 | 0 | | PUNT RETURN | RET | YDS | AVG | TD | | Dwayne Harris | 4 | 42 | 10.5 | 0 |
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Game Recap: Woo.... not very often are preseason games that exciting.
Kicking off the 2016 NFL Preseason, neither side could have anticipated what they were going to have to handle. Right out of the gate both sides came out swinging, For the Giants? It took little time to score. Rashad Jennings busted open a 68 yard touchdown on just the 4th play of the game before many fans were in their seats. It was a draw play hand-off to him and
Isa Abdul Quddus missed the tackle BADLY which could have made it merely a 7 yard gain or so. Instead, Jennings threw him down to the ground and kept on running down field before running into Reshad Jones. Despite the fact Reshad Jones is a beast and known for his hard hitting, he shrugged him off and dashed his way down the sidelines. Jelani Jenkins chased him down the field but there was no chance a linebacker would catch a guy like Jennings. Just like that the Giants jumped out to a 7-0 lead merely because of bad safety tackling, an issue that will surely be addressed this week in practice.
Thankfully for Miami's defense, the offense came out and responded quite well. After a 1-yard loss by Jay Ajayi, Adam Gase decided to flesh out his down the field offense. Ryan Tannehill had some pressure in his face but was able to see that Jarvis Landry had gained a step off against Dominique Rodgers Cromartie down the right side of the field.
He heaved up a prayer and Landry answered it with a nice stretch for the ball while staying on his feet. Despite DRC's tremendous speed, Landry was able to get inside the 5 before both DRC and Cooper Taylor just barely managed to push him out of bounds at the 1-yard line preventing the touchdown. You could see Juice was pissed at himself for not finishing the job but a fantastic 78-yard play right out of the gate made many Phins fans quite excited, and the drive was finished off on the next play when Jayi Ajayi punched the ball in to tie up the game.
The next drive by the Giants was quite infuriating from the Dolphins perspective. Rashad Jennings kept running down their throats and there was simply nothing they could do about it. A 26-yard gain, an 11-yard gain, a 8-yard gain, a 7-yard gain, than a pass from Eli to ODB for 14 yards. It literally felt like nothing that Miami could do could stop them and this was with their 1st team defense out there fighting against a relatively poor Giants offensive line. The only reason it was stopped and the Giants did not score was because Kiko Alonso was able to jump in front of a short pass in the redzone and pick it off. A good play by the Dolphins linebacker to make an immediate impact play, but what happened for the previous 7 wasn't going to be washed away. The Dolphins held onto the ball for a bit but couldn't do much with it once the offense stalled at the Giants 40-ish yardline after a few incomplete passes.
The Giants offense took over again and the Dolphins did a better job of slowing them down. On 3rd and 3 at the Miami 43 yard mark, the defense came through and stuffed them to no gain. Fantastic right? We were gonna get the ball back and this was gonna be awesome!... instead, the Giants did what teams often do in preseason. They ran a fake punt. Will Johnson gained 27 yards on the rush to put the Giants in the Dolphins redzone which pretty much sucked because everyone on special teams was confused. It wasn't aided when Eli quickly threw the ball to a wide open Odell Beckham on the next play to put the Giants back in front at 14-7. Finally a good defensive stop... all for naught. That all did manage to change though on the very first play after the extra point. Jakeem Grant was the kick returner and caught the ball at around the Dolphins 3-yard mark or so. He saw he had blockers and eventually cut to the right a bit with Dion Sims and Jake Stoneburner leading the way.
He got two monster blocks and was able to dash just past Eli Apple who was on the coverage team and could have made the stop if he had fully extended himself. Instead, Grant was in open space and once he broke free there was a 0% chance he would get got, that's how you make a MONSTER impact as a rookie.. touchdown Dolphins to make it 14-14 in a thrilling 1st quarter!
Now in the 2nd quarter, the 1st team units for both sides were well off the field. The Giants instantly noticed the change since they failed to do much with the ball. The Dolphins got it and Grant took the punt return up 14 yards after a few nice moves to continue wow'ing the crowd, even if it was against them! But just as the Giants offense struggled, so did Miami's. The one notable thing was Arian Foster got out there for a few rushes just to get some action but was soon taken out for Damien Williams. After a 3-and-out, the Dolphins punted the ball away and fantastic gunner coverage by Ifo Ekpre-Olomu and Tyler Patmon prevented Dwayne Harris from going much of anywhere.... and it didn't matter cause of what happened on the next play. Once again a draw play, Nassib handed the ball off to Shane Vereen. He got it and made a nice cut outside to the left side of the field and Neville Hewitt was denied a tackle thanks to being engaged by Dwayne Harris. Vereen made his way more to the center of the infield and encountered Shamiel Gary who he evaded with a
NASTY spin-off making Gary look like a fool and lose his footing. Vereen then put on the after burners and both Andre Branch and Michael Thomas failed to make the tackle at around the Giants 35-yard line. Eventually due to Vereen surely being gassed by that spin move he was caught by Thomas at the 1 yard line after stumbling. Surely upset he couldn't finish the job, it was made better when Nassib tossed the ball to Myles White for a 7 yard touchdown following a tackle in the backfield, Giants back on top 21-14.
Matt Moore and the rest of the Dolphins 2nd unit did a better job with the ball this time. Moore hit Grant for 15 yards and Griff Whalen for 16 yards on an important 3rd and 7 in Giants territory. After Damien Williams was stuffed and Moore threw an incomplete pass, it was 3rd and 10 at the Giants 29 yard line. Moore audibled and told Jakeem Grant to run a go route to the endzone and Moore would throw it up there for him. It was a decent play until you realize Grant is a midget at 5'6" while Trevin Wade is nearly 6'0" and easily made the interception on the bal
l.... sigh... all for nothing. That was until the Dolphins defense forced a stuff on 3rd and 2 at around midfield and forced the Giants to punt! Taking over at the Dolphins 18 after a few plays, Moore decided to try something audacious. On 3rd and 3, he saw Trevin Wade was playing press coverage on Matt Hazel. Moore figured since he had a few dump off options, Hazel would challenge him and go deep. At around the 40 yard mark with them running together down field, Hazel pulled away. Moore with plenty of time in the pocket saw him and heaved the ball right before a defender could hit him. Safety help in the form of Nat Berhe came late and Wade knew it. Hazel caught the ball and raced down the field as Wade fell at a feeble attempt to tackle him.... touchdown Miami as Hazel celebrated in the endzone! Wade was visibly pissed at himself considering he made a great play for the INT earlier and now got burned badly to tie up the game again at 21-21. Such is the life of a young player trying to make it in the NFL sometimes.
Soon halftime came around. The only thing to really note is Tony Lippett picked off a bad pass from Ryan Nassib as the Giants were around midfield and trying to punch in a field goal before halftime, so good play by Lippett! The 3rd quarter was mostly marked by the fact of how dominant Damien Williams was. He just...
assumed Rashad Jennings-esque levels of greatness? Just consistent great gains of 5+ yards. He and Isaiah Pead carried the Dolphins all the way down field until Williams got stuffed for 1 yard on 1st and goal at the Giants 8 yard line. Gase decided to switch it up and call a pass play. Brandon Doughty who was in the game now threw it to Thomas Duarte who picked up 6 yards but tried to dive for the endzone and came up actually fumbling the football. Thankfully Duarte recovered it and all but you have to know the difference between good aggressiveness and stupid aggressiveness, that was more the later. Thanks to Duarte getting them to the 1-yard line, Isaiah Pead punched the ball in to give the Dolphins their 1st lead of the game at 28-21.
The rest of the 3rd quarter didn't see much action. Each side exchanged possession a few times but no real highlight plays to mention other than a big 3rd and 13 conversion by Doughty with 50 seconds to go in the 3rd on a pass to Damien Williams for 23 yards. It didn't matter much as the Dolphins were so deep in their own zone and they had to punt but it was still nice to see Damien Williams be multi-dimensional. The Giants offense took over again at the 14:14 mark in the 4th quarter. After an incomplete pass, a 2nd and 10 play would make this game fascinating once again. The Giants had 4 receivers spread out and were looking to air it out in this final quarter. Tavarres King was the slot receiver and his was an out route to take it up field. It shouldn't be too much of a problem but Spencer Paysinger was supposed to cover him and as a linebacker did not recognize the play. King caught it and was able to pull away from Paysinger and Shamiel Gary(the safety who was supposed to help Paysinger) as King put on the after-burners to take it 75 yards into the endzone.... tied game, 28-28.
It felt like every time something action packed happened for one side, it would also happen for the other. After a 24-yard kick return by Kenyan Drake, on the very 1st play to respond Damien Williams took it 60 yards and was tackled just before being able to hustle 80+ yards for the TD. It did though the Dolphins in the Giants redzone... before the defense stalled. -2 yard pass to Matt Hazel on a WR screen, a 1-yard gain to Duarte, and eventually a throw away by Doughty thanks to everyone being covered. Andrew Franks would kick the 34 yard field goal to put the Dolphins back in front at 31-28 but it was far from a comfortable lead. The Giants would chew plenty of clock on their next possession, and it felt like it went on forever thanks to the fact the Giants got a big play whenever they need it. 2nd and 10? 20 yard yard pass to Geremy Davis. 3rd and 13? 33 yard pass to Myles White. Finally they were stuffed on 3rd and 14 after a false start and had to settle for a field goal by Josh Brown for 27 yards... 31-31 all tied up with 6:53 remaining in the game! While both sides wanted to win, both wanted to avoid OT as well!
This was when things... got interesting. On the very 1st play, Damien Williams looked like he had just had his career moment. He busted up an 80+ yard TD to put the Dolphins back up emphatically, albeit giving the Giants more time to work with... UNTIL,
an idiotic thing happened. Leonte Carroo was one of the receivers on the play and for whatever reason, despite the fact that Williams was already well past him and looking like he was going to easily score,
Carro FOR SOME REASON shoved a linebacker in the back to get a block in the back flag which turned the play from a touchdown to the ball at the Giants 43 yard line. STUPID. STUPID. STUPID. If that happened in the regular season... ugh, so annoying. Still, the Dolphins offense didn't let that kill their drive. Great runs by Williams for big gains and a CLUTCH 3rd and 5 conversion inside the Giants redzone got it past the 2 minute warning before the Giants started using timeouts. At the Giants 7 yard line, Williams got the ball and chugged past Nat Berhe to get his touchdown back and put Miami in front! Of course... the extra point attempt was blocked and there was still the scenario that the Dolphins could lose this game since the Giants had 2 timeouts with 1:11 left in the game.
It wasn't looking too scary... on 4th and 2, the Giants ran the ball with Shane Vereen and converted it but were forced to kill precious seconds off the clock. They were only at their own 37 yard line with 39 seconds left and 0 timeouts. That was until some bull**** happened. A fake draw-play, Nassib held the ball and had TONS of time with the Giants receivers running down field. When it looked lie Andre Branch and Earl Mitchell would finally get to him, he heaved it. On the play were free safety Michael Thomas and cornerback Tony Lippett who already had a great interception earlier in the game. Of course, somehow, Dwayne Harris brought the ball in over both of them and got it inside the 10 yard line in Dolphins territory. The Giants offense quickly hustled and then spiked the ball with 11 seconds left. 2nd and goal, Nassib tried to throw it to Will Tye but he threw it too far in front and over his head with 6 seconds left. The Giants would likely have 1 play at best if it wasn't like a slant throw or anything. On 3rd and goal, Nassib got the ball in the shotgun with a 5-wide set. He was looking and looking and had so much time since the Dolphins only sent 3 rushing but he could not find a single player open. Finally Andre Branch barred down on him and he threw it in desperation style to Tavarres King but it was batted down by Tyler Patmon!
INCOMPLETE! NO TIME LEFT! The Dolphins somehow managed to hold on and defeat the New York Giants in Game #1 of the 2016 NFL Preseason, 37-31! Talk about one hell of a way to start a season... great opening win for Adam Gase!
Other Dolphins/Giants Photos from 2016 Preseason Game #1: