As Tagovailoa prepares to start again, Dolphins look to continue big-play breakthrough
It might have taken 10 games into the regular season, but the Dolphins took a step toward being the offense many envisioned as the front office and coaching staff went back to the drawing board in the offseason to craft its framework under quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
In the team’s win against the Baltimore Ravens last Thursday night, Miami’s offense generated pass plays of 64 and 52 yards, the longest plays of the season. Tagovailoa and Jacoby Brissett each completed one deep pass, defined as an attempt that travels at least 20 air yards. It was the first time the Dolphins have completed two deep passes in a game since the team’s Week 1 win over the New England Patriots and a development they hope will continue when they face a struggling New York Jets defense on Sunday.
”Any time you can create explosive plays, that helps you offensively,” coach Brian Flores said Monday. “It changes field position, changes momentum in the game. So yeah, they always help. Any time you can get them — whether it’s run game, pass game, screen game, defensively, the kicking game — those chunk plays, they help you. Not necessarily just for that drive, but from a momentum standpoint, they’re big plays. We were able to create a few the other night and we’re always trying to find ways to create explosive plays. They definitely help. We want to limit them defensively and try to get as many as we can offensively.”
After relying heavily on passes within 10 yards, Miami has also been more active in the intermediate range; the Dolphins have completed 12 intermediate passes, defined as attempts that travel 10 to 19 yards, in their last two games. It’s the most intermediate completions in a two-game span since the Dolphins completed 15 combined against the Jaguars and Falcons.
After backing up Brissett against the Houston Texans and then coming in relief for him against Baltimore after a knee injury, Tagovailoa will start against the Jets, his 15th career NFL start. In a short week of preparation for the Ravens, Tagovailoa said he didn’t take any first-team reps but Flores said the fifth overall pick in the 2020 Draft would take most of the practice reps as he continues to heal from a fractured middle finger on his left hand.
Tagovailoa said after Wednesday’s practice that his injured finger “feels good. Obviously, there’s still healing that’s taking place but other than that, it’s fine.”
He added that he doesn’t expect to have any limitations on Sunday. Flores had previously said he didn’t start Tagovailoa in the past two games because he was unable to make the requisite throws to run the offense.
Though Tagovailoa had to rely on mental reps on a short week ahead of the Ravens game, he was able to complete two of the biggest passes of the game, a 35-yarder to wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to close the third quarter and then the 64-yarder to wide receiver Albert Wilson to set up his 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
“We talked a lot throughout the week about where we wanted to attack the Ravens defense,” Tagovailoa said, “and how we were going to try to attack them. And those were just the plays given to us and that’s what I had to do to read it out. ... I think with a lot of the [presnap] shifting that we did against the Ravens, it kind of put them in a bind, if you will, just because it forces communication with where the front is going to be, where the [line]backers need to be aligned now. That kind of helped open up a lot of the deeper routes.”
The Jets have allowed 175 points in their last four games, the second most allowed in a four-game span by any team since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger, providing another opportunity for the Dolphins to take advantage of a defense trending in the wrong direction.
Just as important as the explosive plays is execution in key moments, though, like late in the win over Baltimore.
“Not every drive has a big play in it. Sometimes it’s picking up three or four third downs,” Flores said. “If you’re playing against a good defense, it’s five here, six here, two here, first down, convert a third down, convert a fourth down. That’s hard to do though. It’s hard to put a 12-to-15-play drive together for any team. When you get an explosive [play] and you cut the 15-play drive down to seven or eight plays, that helps the situation. But when you’re not getting them, you just need better execution on a consistent basis. That’s for every team.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2021 at 3:19 PM.
