Tua Tagovailoa’s disappointing 1st start for Miami started with failures in the run game
Tua Tagovailoa didn’t get very much help from the rest of his offense in his disappointing first start for the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.
His wide receivers dropped four passes. His offensive line couldn’t quite stand up to Aaron Donald the Los Angeles Rams’ vaunted defensive front. Most alarmingly, the Dolphins running game went missing again.
Through the first six weeks of the season, Myles Gaskin stabilized Miami’s rushing attack after its disastrous 2019 season. The running back emerged as the Dolphins’ unquestioned top option and entered the weekend with 340 yards on 4.1 yards per carry.
On Sunday, there was no room for the second-year tailback to run and Miami’s run game reverted back to its 2019 form despite the 28-17 win at Hard Rock Stadium
Gaskin, whose 21 touches were 17 more than any other Dolphin, had only three of his 18 carries go for longer than 5 yards — a trio of meager 6-yard carries and one of those ended with a lost fumble. He finished with just 47 yards on 18 carries to go along with three catches for 18 yards.
Miami (4-3) finished the game with just 55 yards on 25 rushes for an average of 2.2 yards per carry. It was a throwback to 2019, when Ryan Fitzpatrick finished as the Dolphins’ leader in rushing yards with 243. The 2.2 yards per carry marked Miami’s worst average of the season and its worst since a Week 11 loss to the Buffalo Bills last year.
Part of Gaskin’s underwhelming production was an inevitability of situation. The Dolphins took a 28-7 lead into halftime, so Miami was content to kill clock for most of the second half and the Rams (5-3) simply stacked the box. Gaskin mostly ran into a crowd, although he did score a 1-yard touchdown in the second quarter to give the Dolphins its 28-7 lead in the second quarter, and ran six times for 19 yards and a first down on Miami’s final drive to kill off more than two minutes.
“Offensively,” coach Brian Flores said, “we made plays when we needed to make them.”
Injury updates
Running back Patrick Laird went down in the second half with an ankle injury for the Dolphins, but Miami otherwise got through Sunday mostly without any major injuries.
The Dolphins dealt with some cramps throughout and linebacker Elandon Roberts exited in the second quarter with an elbow injury, but returned right after halftime and finished with a pair of tackles for loss.
Both star wide receiver DeVante Parker and linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who dealt with injuries last week, started and played the full game, although Parker only caught one 3-yard pass for a touchdown.
The Rams, instead, dealt with the game’s most significant injury as cornerback Jalen Ramsey did not play because of an undisclosed illness.
This story was originally published November 1, 2020 at 7:08 PM.
