The NFL continues to have a problem when it comes to adjudicating on-field punishment as it relates to big hits. The NFL repeatedly points out it plans on being tougher when it comes to players who could be ejected for dirty hits, but the league repeatedly fails to follow through. 

The latest example was the massive hit on Joe Flacco from Kiko Alonso that knocked Flacco from the game Thursday and forced the Ravens to go with Ryan Mallett the rest of the way in a 40-0 win over the Miami Dolphins. 

In what world is this not an automatic ejection for Alonso? Consider the facts: Alonso knocked Flacco's helmet off, took a shot at a quarterback's head after the quarterback gave himself up, drew an obvious flag and immediately sent Flacco into the concussion protocol.

There should be some leeway in certain circumstances, but when that set of circumstances unfolds and the quarterback who is hit is forced out of the game, the defender should almost universally be ejected as well. 

The officials' decision -- and the NFL's decision not to provide an emphasis on the situation to the officials -- makes it almost worth hammering the quarterback in a situation like that. Alonso cost his team 15 yards (and then promptly failed to cover Benjamin Watson on the ensuing touchdown throw from Mallett) but the damage to the Ravens, the loss of Flacco and the almost near-certain concussion to follow, was far more devastating. It's just inequitable. 

And the NFL is doing a disservice here by not reviewing these plays. There's no reason to ascribe intent to various players in situations like this one, but take the time to look at the play and determine whether or not a player should be tossed. In this case it should have been obvious that Alonso needed to be ejected.

Expect a suspension to be handed down. One certainly should be. 

The Dolphins are a mess

You can only feel so bad for a team that has the second-best record in the NFL over a 17-game span, and yes, the Dolphins had the just that coming into Thursday night.

But Miami is a trainwreck right now. Don't fall for the 4-3 record, either. At halftime of the game, Deion Sanders apologized to Jay Cutler for blaming him for the problems in Miami. And he's right -- things run much deeper. It was clear throughout the game just how bad the Dolphins are in multiple facets of the game.

"Miami has their best drive starting point," Jim Nantz said as Miami began with the ball on their own 35 midway through the third quarter. "That's the only nice thing I can say right now."

In the amount of time the game was "competitive" (meaning: when you could justifiably say that Miami had a shot of actually winning the game, and for our purposes we'll say as long as it was 20-0 or less), Nantz wasn't wrong. The Dolphins did nothing all game. 

During the first quarter, Miami mustered 38 total yards. What's incredible about that is they had a 21-yard rush from Jay Ajayi to start the game and a 20-yard pass from Matt Moore to Kenny Stills in that first quarter. Yes, math majors, that equals 41 yards, which is more than 38 yards. 

Which means that the rest of the first quarter, the Dolphins managed to produce exactly negative three yards of offense. It was horrific. Matt Moore had no time in the pocket, Ajayi could find no room to run and the Dolphins generally looked overwhelmed. 

Credit Brandon Williams for boosting the Ravens defense and really allowing the edge rushers and blitzers to get after Moore, and credit the Ravens for playing at a high level all night long. They were dominant.

But Miami stinks. It's impossible that this team is 4-3. Literally their best highlight was a cat running on the field and coming over to their sideline.

The Dolphins were dirty too

It gets worse for the Dolphins. They weren't just terrible at football, they were also terrible at sportsmanship too. There was the Alonso hit, which we covered above. It led to Alonso shouting with John Harbaugh on the sidelines.

But wait, there's more. Dolphins defensive lineman and noted non-dinosaur-believer William Hayes decided to jab another man in the eyes after a play that drew three different Dolphins penalties.

A skirmish broke out after that incident because, well, obviously. And at the end of it, we got to see a referee calling a penalty at the exact time as Ndamukong Suh was deciding whether or not to end Ryan Mallett's life. 

In all seriousness, give me the Alonso hit over the Suh choke if I'm deciding on ways to die. Not joking here. All in all a pretty bad day for the Dolphins on the old "let's at least look good while we're getting bludgeoned" scale of things. 

Oh, right, the Ravens won

That performance largely felt like an outlier for Baltimore, one of those random moments where a team is just more talented physically than the opponent on the other side of the ball. Miami has won its last 12 single-score games, but in that stretch there are two full-blown blowouts at the hands of the Ravens. 

Maybe John Harbaugh just has Adam Gase's number? 

Flacco left early and the Ravens still managed to put up points, although the game was in hand pretty early thanks to the defense. Baltimore piled on 14 points late courtesy of its defense, including a pair of pick-six scores. 

First there was C.J. Mosley snagging a pass from Matt Moore.

Then there was Jimmy Smith doing the same on a jumped route that never had a chance.

Even the bad breaks from the Ravens still went Baltimore's way. When Javorius Allen fumbled into the end zone, Chris Moore was there to scoop it up for a touchdown. 

There's just no way to really read into this and confirm that "the Ravens are back!" or whatever. The biggest takeaway for me? When you add Brandon Williams to the mix, this is a much more dangerous defense. He might be the X-factor to watch here for the Ravens when it comes to Baltimore making a playoff run. The offense is going to be limited, but there are just not that many good teams in the NFL right now; Baltimore can get in on the strength of its defense.

Great nugget from Nantz I wish I had before the game: Harbaugh has never lost three straight home games. That continued Thursday. 

Alex Collins can run

The Ravens are not one of the best offenses in the NFL. But they might have one of the sneaky best running backs in the league on the roster, and it's a little surprising they don't feed Alex Collins more. Collins, a fifth-round pick out of Arkansas by the Seahawks back in 2016, is a hard runner with a lot of explosion and pretty incredible feet.

The reason his feet are so good? Irish dancing.

No, really. Check out the fascinating story on CBS News about Collins and how he used Irish dancing, a passion of his, to train and get better and faster on his feet. (Bonus: some kid was being bullied for liking Irish dancing and Collins stepped in to help in the situation.)

When you watch him run you can see the enthusiasm with which he's aggressively trying to pick up yards. I love that in a back -- he looked like a slimmer Ajayi with better blocking against the Dolphins. And he only needed 18 carries to cross the 100-yard marker for the first time in his career. 

That's despite splitting carries with Javorius Allen for most of the night. The Ravens need to continue to feature him heavily and if for some reason he's unowned in your fantasy league, go snag him now. 

What's next?

At 4-4, the Ravens are an interesting team to watch in the AFC playoff race. Baltimore has a friendly schedule coming up, starting with the Titans on the road (they get 10 days rest and could have Flacco back?), taking their bye, then going against the Aaron Rodgers-less Packers on the road and then getting the Texans and Lions at home. They need to rip off some wins during that stretch and they can insert themselves in the wild card conversation. 

Miami doesn't have things so easy. They play the Raiders at home next week, followed by the Panthers on the road, the Buccaneers at home (the Week 1 makeup, remember that was their bye week) and then have the Patriots in two of the next three weeks after that. Things could go south quickly.