Dolphins face short turnaround vs. Ravens. Flores on potential OL change, Tua evaluation
Win or lose this season, Dolphins defensive lineman Christian Wilkins has often made mention of a 24-hour rule after games, a set time to mull over the outcome before putting it behind you and moving on to the next opponent.
As sweet as Miami’s victory was on Sunday, a 17-9 win against the Houston Texans that ended a seven-game losing streak, Wilkins said there’s even less time to savor it with the proximity of their next matchup against the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night.
“At least cut [it] in half, if that,” Wilkins said after Sunday’s game.
And so, the Dolphins are diving headfirst into preparation for the Ravens (6-2), a steep step up in competition after ending their losing streak against the 1-8 Texans.
It’s a matchup that hasn’t been kind to Miami in recent meetings: the Ravens have outscored the Dolphins 137-16 in the teams’ past three games. The previous meeting? A 59-10 blowout win for Baltimore at Hard Rock Stadium in Brian Flores’ first game as head coach.
Linebacker Jerome Baker, one of five defensive starters remaining from the 2019 game, said both teams are completely different from the last matchup. Baker said he didn’t even know the names of many of the teammates he lined up with during the game, the first in a season in which Miami jettisoned players and brought in new ones throughout the season.
One constant on Baltimore’s side is John Harbaugh, in his 14th season as head coach, and quarterback Lamar Jackson, the 2019 NFL Most Valuable Player and a Pompano Beach native.
Flores said the Ravens’ reputation as a physical team is “more of the same” this season.
“It’s a well-coached team. They’re physical,” Flores said. “They run the football, they do a good job stopping the run. They play well in the kicking game. Definitely a physical team, and we’re going to have to play a physical ballgame, play a disciplined ball game if we’re going to have any success.”
Tua evaluation
The left finger injury that sidelined quarterback Tua Tagovailoa from the win against the Texans was just the latest in a string of injures that date to his time in Alabama. And it did nothing to silence predraft questions about his durability and ability to stay healthy in the NFL.
If Tagovailoa, who Flores said is day-to-day, can’t play Thursday, it would be the sixth game he has missed because of injury in his first two seasons. He missed three consecutive games because of fractured ribs earlier in the season.
Flores was asked if there’s concern that Tagovailoa might not be on the field enough this season to properly evaluate him, as general manager Chris Grier last week didn’t close the door on a potential pursuit of Deshaun Watson in the offseason.
Flores didn’t answer directly but said: “I think Tua is a tough kid. I think he does everything he can to be out there. He’s had a couple unfortunate injuries this year. But when he’s been in there, he’s played well. Look, he’s a tough kid. He wants to be out there. He’s going to do everything he can to get out there.”
Flores considers another OL change
With the exception of center, which has seen Greg Mancz and Austin Reiter split time in recent weeks due to injury, the Dolphins have settled on one offensive line grouping in the past five games. Notably, Austin Jackson has moved from left tackle to left guard, Jesse Davis has gone from left guard to right tackle and Liam Eichenberg has been fixated at left tackle.
The changes haven’t resulted in wholesale improvements, however, with quarterback Jacoby Brissett pressured on almost half of his 47 drop-backs in the win over Houston.
“Every week, we look at the group, evaluate it,” Flores said, “but we’ve got to do a better job on the offensive line. We’ve got to coach them better, they’ve got to play better. So, we’ll look at areas to improve that unit.”
Asked specifically about Greg Little, who hasn’t played in a regular-season game after the team acquired him from the Carolina Panthers in an August trade, Flores said there have been discussions about giving him some playing time. Little, a second-round pick in the 2019 Draft, appeared in 14 games with six starts in his first two seasons.
“Greg’s done a good job in practice,” Flores said. “He’s been inactive really the entire year and that’s a conversation we had this morning about potentially getting him up, getting him some playing time. So, we’ll see how that goes this week.”
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 3:37 PM.
