Miami, FL
The Déjà Vu of Watching the Miami Dolphins
Thursday night’s game between the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills began in an ordinary way—pre-game chatter about the Bills’ dominance of the Dolphins in recent years, the coin flip, kickoff, touchback. Only a few years ago, that normalcy—new kickoff rules aside—would have seemed a little strange. Earlier in the week, the Miami-Dade Police Department had released body-cam footage of cops pinning the Dolphins’ star wide receiver Tyreek Hill to the ground and putting him in handcuffs, after he’d been pulled over for speeding and not wearing a seat belt while driving to the Dolphins’ stadium before a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. In the video, Hill had handed over his license to the officer. “Give me my ticket, bro, so I can go. I’m gonna be late. Do what you gotta do,” Hill had said, and then rolled up his window. The officer had knocked on the window and ordered him to keep it down, and, when Hill told him to stop knocking, the cop had ordered him out of the car. Hill started to comply; another cop never gave him a chance. He grabbed Hill by the neck. Within seconds, Hill had been put on the ground, face down, a knee in his back, his wrists placed in handcuffs. “Stop crying,” the officer said. Later, when Hill was seemingly too slow to sit, he was forced to the ground. A teammate saw the scene and pulled over to help; he was also given a ticket. Another player who stopped was also put in handcuffs.
After about twenty-five minutes, Hill was released; a Miami Herald reporter later said that the Dolphins had to intervene so that Hill and his teammate were not arrested. That afternoon Hill caught seven passes for a hundred and thirty yards, including an eighty-yard touchdown, to help the Dolphins beat the Jaguars. He celebrated his score by pretending to be handcuffed; a teammate pretended to unlock them.
After the game, Hill was incredulous. “Right now, I’m still trying to put it all together,” he said. “I still don’t know what happened. I want to use this platform to say, What if I wasn’t Tyreek Hill? Like, worst-case scenario.” Everyone knew what the worst-case scenario was. Everyone knew, because millions of people knew that George Floyd, and Philando Castile, and Tyre Nichols, and too many Black men to name here had been killed by police during routine stops. And everyone knew, too, because in 2016 Colin Kaepernick had sat and then kneeled before every game during the national anthem so that no one could forget.
For the better part of two seasons, the fallout from Kaepernick’s refusal to stand, and the decision of some other players to join him, and the decision of every N.F.L. team not to employ him afterward, had dominated conversations around the league, and, by extension, around the country. Black Lives Matter signs, now faded, are still up in the corners of some windows, and it is no longer controversial—even within the N.F.L.—to point out that Kaepernick had a point. But it has been years since hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to protest the unjust killing of Black men. And nobody kneels anymore.
During the preparations for the Bills’ game, the Dolphins’ starting quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, said that Hill had been talking to some on the team about planning “something, to help change some things.” He went on, “He’s come up with a couple ideas and we’ve gathered to talk about what we wanted to do. Obviously, we’re going to worry about this week, but next week we’ll get back together . . . and we’ll talk about how we can do something to change what is going on.” Something, some things, something—it was all very vague. But what did anyone expect? The Dolphins’ owner, Stephen Ross, had already founded a nonprofit called RISE, in 2015, to “address the scourge of racism,” and bankrolled it with thirty million dollars; he had also hosted a fund-raiser for Donald Trump’s reëlection campaign, in 2019. (In 2020, Trump, as it happens, banned federal contractors from racial-sensitivity training.) The N.F.L. itself had, for a time, stencilled the words “END RACISM” in the end zones of every field.
“I’m just being a Black man, that’s it,” Hill called out at one point during the encounter. “I’m just being Black in America.” One officer told him not to make it about race, pointing out, apparently, that the other officers were people of color. Fine: it was about power. Historically, the power most often afforded to a few Black men has been fame, which is fickle and flimsy, though it counts. What if Tyreek Hill weren’t Tyreek Hill? If he weren’t so spectacularly good at playing football, he might not have been playing in the N.F.L.—not after he pleaded guilty to domestic assault for punching and choking his pregnant girlfriend, and was accused of at least two other instances of assault, which he has denied. The overuse of force against Hill at a traffic stop was not the first time that law enforcement had failed. Most people with power don’t abuse it; it’s more egregious when they do. The most overzealous officer was almost immediately placed on administrative leave; Hill praised the police, talked about “bad apples,” and called for that officer to be fired.
If that incident hung over the first half of the game against the Bills—or at least a little shadow of it, reduced to a sleekly produced interview with Amazon Prime—by the end it was mostly forgotten. In the third quarter, with the Dolphins in the red zone and in need of a touchdown, Tagovailoa saw a seam and ran for the first down and more. As the Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin stepped up to make the tackle, Tagovailoa lowered his helmet and crashed into him. As he fell, he threw up his right arm in an awkward way and hit the ground—a fencing response, which is an automatic reaction to a serious brain injury. Medical staff immediately rushed onto the field, and players began to kneel. It was Tagovailoa’s fourth diagnosed concussion in five years, most recently in 2022. His coach, Mike McDaniel, walked over to him as he was treated on the field, his face the picture of haunted dread. As Tagovailoa walked off the field, McDaniel reached up and kissed him, tenderly, on the side of his head.
After the game, talking about Tagovailoa’s injury, McDaniel was solemn and grim. Asked about what might be next, McDaniel deflected the question. “Right now, [it] is more about getting a proper procedural evaluation tomorrow and taking it one day at a time,” McDaniel said after the game. “The furthest thing from my mind is, What is the timeline? We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate.” Everyone was sober, emotional. More than a few coaches and players wondered aloud, publicly, whether Tagovailoa should retire. The next day, McDaniel pleaded with people not to speculate about Tagovailoa’s future. It would only make his situation worse—there was no way that it would help. All that mattered was Tagovailoa’s health in the here and now.
He was right. And yet there was the strange sense of witnessing so much distress and concern, and taking it on its own terms, as if McDaniel hadn’t sat in that very seat before, with much of the same stress and concern, as if we hadn’t watched Hamlin, the Bills player who had made the normal football play on Tagovailoa, being resuscitated on the field in 2023 after another normal football play; as if we hadn’t been talking about these very issues for so long. For a decade, the life-threatening danger of football had been at the forefront of conversations surrounding the N.F.L. And, in the past few years, the issues of racial inequality and injustice had engulfed the sport. The intensity of those conversations, which had seemed like crises for the league, can seem, lately, also like things of the past. No one talks glibly about police brutality or head injuries anymore, nor urges players to toughen up. But, even for thoughtful people who genuinely care about the players, the issues no longer seem existential for the sport. Freak accidents, bad apples—same old story. ♦
Cam Ward was dominant again, throwing for 346 yards and five touchdowns before getting subbed out early in the second half as No. 10 Miami piled up stats in a 62-0 win over Ball State on Saturday night.
Miami (3-0) outgained Ball State 750-115, setting a school record for yards in a game. It was the biggest shutout win over an FBS opponent in Hurricanes’ history, topping the 61-0 win over Rutgers in 2001.
Ward now has three straight 300-yard games to start his season. He connected with Xavier Restrepo on a pair of touchdown passes, and found Jacolby George, Elijah Arroyo and Chris Johnson Jr. with his other scoring throws for the Hurricanes (3-0).
Ward’s five-touchdown game was the 10th by a Miami quarterback, one shy of the school record of six TDs set by Jarren Williams against Louisville in 2019. And it all came on the weekend where Miami celebrated the 35th anniversary of the school’s 1989 team winning the national title — a team that had a young offensive lineman named Mario Cristobal, now the Hurricanes’ coach.
Ajay Allen had a 56-yard touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter for Miami, and Elija Lofton caught a 40-yard scoring pass from Emory Williams with 11:46 left. Jordan Lyle had a rushing score late for Miami.
Kadin Semonza completed 16 of 26 passes for 111 yards for Ball State (1-1). The Cardinals fell to 0-9 all-time when playing Top 10 teams and were shut out for the first time since a 42-0 loss to Temple on Oct. 8, 2011.
Ward’s numbers through three games: 1,035 yards, 11 touchdowns and one interception while completing 73% of his passes for the Hurricanes. Excluding a one-play drive to run out the final few seconds of the first half, Ward played seven series — five ending in his touchdown passes, one with a field goal and one with a punt.
The game’s kickoff was delayed for nearly 2 1/2 hours because of lightning in the area.
The takeaway
Ball State: The difference in speed between the Cardinals and the Hurricanes was evident, particularly when Miami had the ball. The Cardinals gave up 20 plays — 17 passes, three rushes — of more than 15 yards.
Miami: If there’s a concern for the Hurricanes right now, it’s the health of the offensive line. Miami came into the game without left tackle Jalen Rivers and left guard Ryan Rodriguez — both starters — and saw right guard Anez Cooper limp off the field in the first half with what appeared to be a lower-leg issue.
Poll implications
Miami should remain in the Top 10 when the AP Top 25 is released on Sunday.
Ward’s numbers
Ward is the first Miami quarterback to reach 1,000 yards in the first three games of a season since Craig Erickson (1,126 in 1990). Ward is 89 yards away from 15,000 in his career, counting the 13,876 yards he had at Incarnate Word and Washington State.
Up next
Ball State: Visits Central Michigan on Saturday.
Miami: Visits South Florida on Saturday.
It was more disappointment and frustration for the Miami Dolphins when they faced the Buffalo Bills at Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday night.
Of course, the Dolphins’ 12th loss in 13 games in this series took a back seat to the concussion that knocked quarterback Tua Tagovailoa out of the game in the third quarter.
That obviously was the low point on a night full of them, ending with the Dolphins dropping a 31-10 decision.
Earlier, we broke down the five biggest storylines heading into the Week 2 matchup. It’s now time to revisit these storylines to see how they played out.
Before the Game
Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill has been in the news all week because of the incident outside Hard Rock Stadium before the team’s season opener, so that means he will be in the spotlight tonight — even more so than usual. During his press conference, Hill said that football was his escape, and he responded with an 80-yard touchdown against Jacksonville. Another one of those big plays would go a long way for the Dolphins in the game.
During the Game
Buffalo was determined to ensure that Hill wouldn’t beat them deep in this game, so they planned accordingly and kept their safeties deep. Even on one deep shot early on, cornerback Christian Benford got a head start in running back and stayed with Hill step for step. Hill ended up with only three receptions for 24 yards, his lowest totals since he joined the Dolphins outside of the 2022 season when he had two catches for 23 yards against the New York Jets with Skylar Thompson at quarterback. One of those receptions came on a shovel pass, and Hill also had a ten-yard run on an end-around. But the reality is Hill was an absolute non-factor, and the biggest news he made was actually being off the field on the plays that resulted in the first two Buffalo interceptions.
Before the Game
It’s no big secret that the biggest reason for the Bills’ dominance in the series of late is QB Josh Allen, whose numbers against Miami are simply ridiculous. Last year, for example, he passed for 320 and 359 yards in the two matchups with six touchdowns and two interceptions, and also had 67 rushing yards in the game in Miami. But the Dolphins have a new defensive coordinator, which means that maybe the defense has a different answer for Allen, and perhaps this is the one that does the trick. Getting pressure and forcing turnovers always can be a key here, but that’s obviously easier said than done.
During the Game
While Allen will get credit for improving to 12-2 against the Dolphins, the reality is he had little to do with the outcome. This game was about the Buffalo defense and James Cook. Allen passed for a very modest 139 yards and one touchdown. He was efficient, though, and had a couple of big-time throws, a laser to Khalil Shakir over the middle and his 33-yard completion to Ty Johnson off his scramble. But considering how badly Allen hurt the Dolphins’ defense in previous games, this was good work by the Miami defense.
Before the Game
The ability to put pressure on the quarterback could be a factor in this game, as it always is, and two key players here are former University of Miami teammates Jaelan Phillips of the Dolphins and Greg Rousseau of the Bills. Given his circumstances, Phillips had a really impressive 2024 debut, while Rousseau earned AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors with his three-sack performance against the Arizona Cardinals.
During the Game
The Buffalo defensive line dominated the Dolphins’ offensive line, but Ed Oliver and Von Miller did the most damage for the Bills. Rousseau did have four tackles and a tackle for loss, though. Phillips was way more quiet as he failed to register a stat. In the play where Allen threw that 33-yard completion after moving in the pocket, Phillips lost his football, which allowed Allen to move outside easily.
Before the Game
The Dolphins defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars with little contribution from the running game, though that phase did contribute in the fourth quarter. While the Dolphins always have the threat of the big play with Hill and Jaylen Waddle, another effective method to move the ball and keep Josh Allen on the sideline would be to run the ball. The Dolphins are dealing with injuries at running back with Raheem Mostert already ruled out and De’Von Achane nursing an ankle injury, but there’s nothing that says Jeff Wilson, Jr. and rookie Jaylen Wright can’t get the job done.
During the Game
The Dolphins’ poor performance aside, the running game was effective, particularly the work of De’Von Achane. After entering the game with an ankle injury that had him listed as questionable, Achane put on a show with 22 carries for 96 yards. The Dolphins as a team finished with 139 rushing yards, including 101 in the first half before the game got out of hand. But the running game wasn’t enough to overcome the turnovers and the inability to finish drives.
Before the Game
One overlooked aspect of the Buffalo sweep of the Dolphins last season is how much the Bills dominated the second half. The combined score of those two games was 31-6 after halftime. The only time the Dolphins were shut out in the second half of the regular season was in that second Buffalo game. And the six points in the first meeting in Buffalo matched the second-lowest second-half total of the season. In the season finale, the Dolphins rushed for 101 yards on 17 carries in the first half but had only three rushing attempts in the second half despite carrying the lead into the fourth quarter. The rushing game may be where Mike McDaniel needs to stick with what’s working a bit longer. Regardless, the Dolphins need to close this game if they hope to get that big win against Buffalo.
During the Game
The scoreboard will show Buffalo outscoring the Dolphins 7-0 in the second half, though this comes with the major caveat of the Tua injury. It might not be realistic to suggest the Dolphins could have come back to win the game had he not gotten injured, but they did have a first-and-goal with 4:24 left in the third quarter. After his injury and the ensuing fourth-down sack of Skylar Thompson, the rest of the game felt like preseason, so we cannot draw conclusions about the second half.
Miami, FL
10 Miami vs. Ball State free live stream, TV channel: Streaming options to watch Miami football without cable
No. 10 Miami hosts Ball State on Saturday, Sept. 14 starting at 3:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. CT) on the ACC Network. If you don’t have cable, here’s how you can watch the game.
Watch Miami vs. Ball State live for free with a free trial to Fubo or with a free trial to DirecTV Stream. Amid the DirecTV-Disney dispute, DirecTV customers are offering $30 credit to Fubo and Sling TV when your one week free trial ends.
What TV channel is the Miami vs. Ball State game on? What time does it start?
Miami vs. Ball State kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. CT) from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida on the ACC Network.
Watch Miami vs. Ball State live for free with a free trial to Fubo or with a free trial to DirecTV Stream.
If you already have cable, you can find what channel FOX is on here: Verizon Fios, Comcast Xfinity,Spectrum/Charter,Optimum/Altice,Cox,DIRECTV,Dish,Hulu, fuboTV, Sling.
What is the cheapest way to watch the Miami vs. Ball State game?
DirecTV Stream and Fubo offer one-week free trials for their services. When the trial ends, DirecTV Stream costs $79.99/month, and Fubo costs $99.99/month. However, during the DirecTV-Disney dispute, which blocks channels like ESPN and ABC, DirecTV is offering its customers $30 off a subscription to Fubo and Sling TV, which offers a four month subscription for $199 for all four months.
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