Pressure Point: Dolphins need more production from Willis for breakthrough win

There was a brief moment Sunday when the impossible seemed almost within reach for the Miami Dolphins.

Chop Robinson’s long-awaited first sack of the season late in the third quarter set up the Dolphins offense for its most productive drive of the game—one of its best of the season.
Malik Willis had two 17-yard completions to the other Malik, Washington, and Ollie Gordon II ran the final 12 yards of a four-play, 55-yard touchdown drive.

After being stifled up until then by Brian Flores’ blitz-happy defense, the Dolphins trailed the unbeaten Vikings by a mere 12-10.

Willis’ first real chance to lead a comeback win in the fourth quarter turned into an epic fail. Willis and the offense went three-and-out on their only possession of the fourth quarter.

Veteran Kyler Murray, trying to gain footing as the Vikings starter was unable to produce a touchdown all day. But he led Minnesota to its fifth field goal and had some key completions, mostly to tight end T.J. Hockenson, to play keep-away throughout the fourth quarter and seal a 15-10 win against the not-ready-for-prime-time Dolphins.

This would have been some touchdown from Malik Willis to Chris Bell. Sadly, Bell stepped out and it was called back pic.twitter.com/6k3q9pLlay

— Billy M (@BillyM_91) October 4, 2026

Rookie’s toe on sideline negates long touchdown

Imagine if rookie Chris Bell had managed to avoid stepping in the sideline— barely, but that’s all it takes — to negate what should have been a 68-yard touchdown reception from Willis in the first half.
Certainly, Willis’ stats would have looked a lot better than he ended up with: 9 for 17 for 85 yards and a 67.0 passer rating.

In what figures to be a season-long quest to determine whether Willis can be the future at quarterback for the Dolphins, so far the case in his favor is rather flimsy.

His biggest asset is mobility. It’s a good thing because he spends much of his time running for his life. He has yet to show prowess as a passer to suggest he is a long-term solution.

This was a difficult game to assess Willis because the offensive line was overmatched by the Vikings’ pass rush. Defenders who weren’t chasing Willis around the pocket were blanketing his receivers downfield.

One of these weeks, Willis going to have to find a rhythm in the passing game, hit some throws down field and put some points on the board.

I’m not writing Willis off, but not sold on him either.

This rebuilding team is still at the stage of looking for progress and determining who has a future in the Jeff Hafley era. That they got to the fourth quarter Sunday with a genuine chance to win was a credit to improvement by the defense.

Dolphins record first four sacks of season

A unit with no sacks in the first three games, recorded three in the first half. Zach Sieler broke the spell on the first offensive play of the game and added another in the final minute of the half. Josh Uche also put Kyler Murray on the ground.

Robinson’s was the team’s fourth of the day. He did it in impressive fashion driving tackle Brian O’Neill back into Murray. Robinson had three hits on Murray in his best performance of the season.

Meanwhile, rookie defenders continue to make a strong case, led by Jacob Rodriguez with a game-high 18 tackles, nine of them solo. Safety Michael Taaffe had five tackles, including a solid run stop in the open field on a sweep. Cornerback Chris Johnson is showing improvement.

If only the defense had found a way to cover Hockenson, who caught all 13 passes thrown to him for 119 yards.

Overall, a good day for the defense. The Vikings, though, are having their own struggles on offense and were missing their top receiver.

Much of the game seemed tailored to those who delight in watching officials throw yellow flags and identifying miscreants for rules infractions.

The two teams combined for 20 penalties — 11 for 85 yards for the Vikings; nine for 55 yards for the Dolphins.

Left tackle Patrick Paul got flagged for holding three times in the first half.

Three major potentially game altering plays. Less than 3 inches.

Ollie Gordon almost had a major highlight run and could have gotten Miami right back in it. pic.twitter.com/yMzXxeG7GF

— Jason Sarney – Dolphins Wire (@Jason_Sarney) October 4, 2026

Best showing by the Miami offense was tailback Gordon with nine carries for 100 yards, including a 53-yarder. Another potential long-gainer was stopped on a down-by-contact call that was not apparent on replay.

Similarly, a roughing the punter penalty was overturned by a ruling that the rusher deflected the ball which also defied the naked eye.

Between those two calls and Bell’s toe brushing the sideline, the message to the Dolphins was: closer but you’re not yet ready for the win column.

They showed enough to suggest that the breakthrough will come one of these weeks. They will need more from Willis and the offense than we’ve seen so far to make it happen.

Craig Davis has covered South Florida sports and teams, including the Dolphins, for more than four decades. Follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @CraigDavisRuns.