The Miami Dolphins look like a rebuilding team this season. Miami is 0-5 to start the season and the offense looks completely stuck in the mud. One Dolphins player recently pushed back on one spicy narrative from the team's latest defeat.
Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis pushed back on the narrative that Bengals safety Jordan Battle figured out his “tell” in Week 5.
Reporters asked Willis about Battle's comments after the game on Sunday. Willis did not seem aware of Battle's comments in the media. Nor did he seem to understand which player he was in general. He even had to confirm with reporters that Battle caught both of his interceptions.
Once he got all of that straight, Willis explained that Battle was not capitalizing off any specific “tell.”
“That’s not a tell, he caught tipped balls. Good for him, that’s what defenses are supposed to do at this level,” Willis replied. “They batted a ball down and the second one was a scramble drill mishap. That has nothing to do with tells. I don’t think I patted either one of those. I don’t think those are correlated.”
Battle told Bengals reporters that Willis has a tell where he taps the ball just before throwing it. He reasoned that could give him an edge and result in some turnovers.
“He has a slight little tap before every throw, though, so I feel like we could use that as a key to break on the ball,” Battle said.
Article Continues BelowBattle's interceptions do seem more circumstantial than anything. Still, there's no arguing with the results. He finished with seven total tackles and two interceptions, which helped give the Bengals the edge.
Those interceptions were devastating because Miami hung around for the entire game. If the Dolphins can replicate that performance, and play a cleaner game, then they could get their first win of the season.
Miami is on their bye week in Week 6. That means their next matchup is a Week 7 divisional matchup with New York.