Dolphins offense still trying to figure out answers to lulls in middle of games
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa evaded the rush in the fourth quarter of last week’s loss to the Buffalo Bills and launched a pass downfield on fourth-and-6. It landed in the hands of tight end Mike Gesicki for a 40-yard gain inside the 10-yard line, the longest completion of Tagovailoa’s career.
It wasn’t just a crucial play for Miami’s late comeback bid but the longest play for the offense since the first quarter, when Tagovailoa connected with wide receiver DeVante Parker for a 23-yard gain on the opening possession.
Last Sunday’s loss followed a similar script for the offense under Tagovailoa this season: fast starts in the first quarter followed by lulls in the second and third, and then a resurgence in the fourth.
Entering the Dolphins’ Week 9 home game against the Houston Texans, the offense is still in search of answers to sustain its strong starts.
A key theme within that script has been a lack of explosive plays through the two middle quarters of games; the Dolphins have outscored opponents 48-29 in the first quarter but haven’t scored a touchdown in the second quarter this season.
“We’re constantly talking about how to develop and create explosive plays,” co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach Eric Studesville said. “We want those explosive plays. We’ll attempt to get those. Sometimes those come with the distance that a ball is thrown or somebody breaking a tackle and making a play, how those plays happen. We can’t always control that, but we want those explosive plays. Those plays make the drive better. They change things that the defense has to do. So we want to get those explosive plays. We’ve got to continue to work harder to get them done and accomplish and execute them.”
The Dolphins rank 29th in explosive play rate, according to Sharp Football Stats. Explosive plays are defined as run plays that gain at least 10 yards and pass plays that gain at least 15 yards. Looking further into the Dolphins’ lack of explosive plays shows that they’re most dynamic on offense in the first and fourth quarters.
In the first quarters of games, the Dolphins have generated 10 explosive plays; seven have been pass plays, which ranks tied for fourth in the NFL. In the second quarter, they also generated 10 explosive plays but in the third quarter, that number dips to five. In the fourth quarter, when coach Brian Flores noted the team has often been trailing, the Dolphins have generated 12 explosive plays.
Tagovailoa’s downfield attempts haven’t changed much in his second season; as a rookie, he averaged 7.7 intended air yards, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, which ranked in the bottom half of the league. This season, the number has decreaed slightly, to 7.3, which again puts him among the bottom half of passers with at least 68 attempts.
“The last four games or so there has been a difference as far as the defenses we are playing. Specifically the [Bills],” co-offensive coordinator and tight ends coach George Godsey said. “We didn’t really have much efficiency in the first game [against the Bills], protection-wise. So I would say that had a lot of bearing on the depth of routes. … You look back at some of the other games, in London we had some downfield routes. I think it’s really week to week and how we match up overall from that point.”
However, Tagovailoa has improved in the intermediate range, passes that travel 10 to 19 yards. The percentages of his passes that fall in that range haven’t changed — 20.3 percent in 2020 to 19.7 percent in 2021 — but he has been more efficient.
As a rookie, Tagovailoa completed 45.8 percent of passes that traveled 10-19 air yards and averaged 7.5 yards per attempt. This season, he’s completing 54.8 percent of passes that travel 10-19 air yards and averaging 9.8 yards per attempt.
“I think it’s giving guys chances, first off,” Tagovailoa said. “But obviously I think you just never want to force anything down the field. You still want to take what they’re giving you and then obviously make some adjustments to make use of those downfield throws. It’s not just plays, but it includes everything. It includes action-fake, if it requires an action-fake, a good pocket, protection, everyone knowing where to line up. It requires a lot of things.”
After facing the league’s top-ranked pass defense in the Bills last week, the Dolphins get a step down in competition against the Texans, who have allowed the third-highest rate of explosive run plays and the fifth-highest rate of explosive pass plays this season.
“That’s one area of the game that is a goal of [Tagovailoa] to improve on,” Flores said. “There’s areas in his game and really all of our games that we are looking to improve on. What I don’t want him to do, or any player to do, is try to force things because the expectation from somebody else is to do this, that or the other thing. I think he needs to play within the system, I think he needs to take what the defense gives him, I think he needs to take those shots down the field when they’re appropriate, which I think he’s done that.
“To me, playing any position, you don’t want to go try to do too much. I don’t want to say let the game come but when you try to force action, oftentimes that’s when mistakes happen. I think he has had some downfield throws. I don’t know if they’re touchdowns but he has had some downfield throws. We’ve got to put him in position to create more downfield throws. We’ve got to do it in practice and once we get that done in practice, we’ll feel better about executing it in the game.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 2:55 PM.
