How Dolphins’ playing time changes have worked out. And 20 Dolphins notes
A 20-pack of Miami Dolphins notes on a Friday:
▪ The Dolphins made several playing-time changes Thursday — not at all unusual for this staff — and they paid dividends in the 22-10 win against Baltimore.
Slot cornerback Justin Coleman, who has played far fewer defensive snaps than Nik Needham heading into Thursday (225 to Needham’s 339), played 44 snaps to Needham’s four and was excellent in coverage, pulling down an interception and allowing only one completion in four throws against him, for no yards, per Pro Football Focus.
Receiver Albert Wilson played more than usual (38 snaps) and caught four passes for 87 yards.
Linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel played a season-high 67 snaps and had five tackles, two quarterback hits, five pressures and half a sack.
With Duke Riley starting, Jerome Baker played some on the edge and had an outstanding tackle to end a Ravens possession.
And in a continuation of a recent trend, young safeties Jevon Holland and Brandon Jones played every snap — the fourth game in a row for Holland — and combined for eight pressures while yielding just 26 yards passing in eight combined targets against them.
▪ Per Elias, Tua Tagovailoa and Jacoby Brissett became only the third quarterback combination this century to each pass for 150-plus yards in the same game in a win.
Over the last 30 years, only two other teams won a game in which it had multiple 150-yard passers; Buffalo over Miami last season, and the Colts over the Titans in 2014.
Against Baltimore, Tagovailoa threw for 158 yards and Brissett 156.
▪ Thursday’s game marked the first time since data tracking began in 2000 that two different Dolphins quarterbacks completed 50-plus yard passes in the same game.
Tagovailoa completed a 64-yarder to Wilson and Brissett completed a 52-yarder to Isaiah Ford.
▪ With four sacks Thursday, the Dolphins moved up to 13th in the NFL in sacks with 21. What’s more, they lead the league with 66 quarterback hits. Their 15 takeaways this season are fifth most in the league.
▪ Though Preston Williams started Thursday’s game, he played just 18 snaps. Among the other receivers, Jaylen Waddle played 61 of Miami’s 69 offensive snaps, Wilson 38, Mack Hollins 13 and Ford 11.
▪ Running back Myles Gaskin played 42 of Miami’s 69 snaps, and Patrick Laird (16 snaps) played more than Salvon Ahmed (9).
Defensive lineman Christian Wilkins lined up in the backfield on two offensive snaps.
Gaskin ran 14 times for 31 yards (2.2 per carry) and hasn’t averaged more than 3 yards per carry in any of his past three games.
▪ Tight end Mike Gesicki was targeted seven times without a completion — the first time he was held without a catch since the opener at New England.
He played 56 snaps, compared with 41 for Durham Smythe and 38 for Adam Shaheen.
▪ Defensively, Holland, Jones, cornerbacks Xavien Howard and Byron Jones and linebacker Baker played all 73 snaps.
The Dolphins started Riley at linebacker — with Baker, Roberts and Van Ginkel — and Riley logged 26 snaps. Van Ginkel played 67 (more than usual, as noted above), Jaelan Phillips 41, Roberts 28, Sam Eguavoen 3 and Brennan Scarlett 2.
▪ Also unusual: Adam Butler led defensive linemen in snaps with 47, followed by Emmanuel Ogbah (46), Christian Wilkins (34), Zach Sieler (26), Raekwon Davis (23) and John Jenkins (3).
▪ PFF rated Ford, Shaheen, Wilson, right tackle Jesse Davis and Waddle as Miami’s top five offensive performers.
▪ PFF rated Jackson and Davis as Miami’s best offensive linemen in pass coverage on Thursday, with a big dropoff then to Robert Hunt, Liam Eichenberg and Austin Reiter.
Eichenberg allowed seven pressures and two sacks. Hunt permitted six pressures and a sack.
▪ The Dolphins’ schedule gets easier, at least on paper.
The next four: at the 2-6 Jets, home to 4-5 Carolina, home to the 3-6 Giants and at the Jets. The Jets and Panthers are playing backup quarterbacks; Carolina signed Cam Newton and he’s an option to start against Miami.
▪ Per Elias, the Dolphins are 20-0 at home since 2015 when leading at the half. They’re the only NFL team that hasn’t lost a game in that scenario over the past six seasons.
▪ Per Next Gen Stats, Tagovailoa’s 35-yard completion to Waddle traveled 45.8 yards in the air, the longest successful throw of Tagovailoa’s career.
▪ Howard ran as fast as 18.49 mph on his 49-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown.
Howard’s 49-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown was the sixth longest for a TD in team history. Jason Taylor holds the team record (85 yards against Denver in 2005). Van Ginkel, Trell Hooper, Liffort Hobley and Cortland Finnegan rank second through fifth on that list.
▪ Cornerback Byron Jones allowed 9 of 10 passes in his coverage area to be caught for 105 yards against Baltimore.
▪ The Dolphins limited Baltimore to 94 yards rushing, their second-lowest output since 2018. The Ravens averaged a solid 4.1 per carry, though. But the big picture is that the Dolphins’ run defense has improved considerably over the past month.
▪ Found this surprising: Tagovailoa has six rushing touchdowns in 16 games — as many as Ryan Tannehill had in 88 games as a Dolphin. That’s tied for fifth most in team history.
▪ The Ravens’ 10 points were the second-fewest they’ve scored with Lamar Jackson as their starting quarterback.
▪ The Dolphins have successfully defended 54 passes, most in the league.
Here’s my Friday report with news from Brian Flores’ Friday news conference and Tua Tagovailoa’s thoughts on where things stand.
This story was originally published November 12, 2021 at 1:29 PM.
