With Tua Tagovailoa back in the lineup, one of the main questions was how would the Miami Dolphins manage the run game.
The Dolphins had rushed for more than 150 yards in back-to-back games but at the expense of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, who combined for a total of 12 catches for 134 yards during that span.
Well, the answer can be summed up in one word: balance.
“I think the team felt this was, at times, more of a picture of what we had envisioned the entire time for how we played football,” coach Mike McDaniel said after the 28-27 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. “But it wasn’t clean enough to win and that’s the big takeaway for me.”
The Dolphins rushed for exactly 150 yards — marking the third straight game in which Miami has achieved that feat — but had the benefit of a 234-yard passing performance courtesy of Tagovailoa. De’Von Achane led all runners with 97 yards while Raheem Mostert added another 19 and two scores. Jaylen Wright ran for 18 yards while Tagovailoa himself had 13, 11 of which came on scramble that ended with a quarterback slide that the crowd absolutely loved, letting out a huge scream and chanting “Tua.”
“It was super cool,” Tagovailoa said of the “Tua” chants. “I think anyone would think that’s awesome.”
One play in particular — a 47-yard run from Achane — showed the power of the Dolphins run game. With the Dolphins’ lead cut to three, Miami started the drive with an outside run to Achane who followed Alec Ingold and then Austin Jackson for what was the fourth-longest rush of his career. And just why was this effective: the Dolphins were able to take advantage of the Cardinals’ two-high safety look, something that has become a staple for opponents’ defenses as a way to prevent the big-play ability of Hill and Waddle.
“It felt better, it felt more rhythmic,” Terron Armstead said Sunday of the offense overall. “We were able to get some first downs, some good drives going, good momentum.”
The Dolphins were forced to lean heavily on the rushing attack during Tagovailoa’s four-game absence. With him once again back at starting quarterback, there’s a scenario in which Miami could have overcorrected and just become a passing team. That, of course, didn’t happen and the game plan operated more so how Armstead said it should ahead of the Indianapolis Colts matchup.
“It has to exist,” Armstead said of the run game in mid-October. “It has to be the foundation of our offense because it opens up everything in the passing game and the other plays and gadget plays that Mike wants to install, but you don’t really get the defense’s eyes or they don’t really respect a lot of their fakes unless you’re running the ball effectively. So in order to bring linebackers up, get the safety eyes and Tyreek and Waddle to get behind them, got to run the ball effectively.”
With the way the season has gone, a balanced offensive approach gets the Dolphins back to what made them such a dangerous team in 2023. Not only did they have the most productive offense in football last year, only five teams had a statistically better rushing attack. So as much as Sunday’s loss stings, there’s still hope in that the offense looked much better than it had in weeks. As Achane said, they just need to eliminate the mental errors.
“I just think it’s the mistakes as far as the little details that we don’t think matter but really do” that ultimately hurts the team, Achane said. “I feel like we didn’t have a lot of the penalties that we’ve been having. I feel like we cleaned up in that area. But as far as the little details, we just have to make sure we hone in on those things.”