One of the things I look for in the preseason is improvement from the first to the second. The Miami Dolphins showed a lot of improvement from the first game to the second game last weekend. Due to their only being 3 preseason games compared to 4 in previous years, the Dolphins seemed to treat this as their dress rehearsal in which they played their starter, especially on offense for a half. The Dolphins this week were much more efficient on offense against the Atlanta Falcons as compared to their preseason opener against the Chicago Bears.

It started with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa as he produced a solid outing going 16-23 for 183 yards passing with 1 touchdown and zero interceptions. Tagovailoa is showing a lot of growth in his second season and has a great command of the offense, something we didn’t see last year. Maybe it’s the change of offensive coordinators? Maybe it’s a full off-season to work on his mechanics and getting in better shape after spending last year basically rehabbing from his broken hip? I don’t know, but I see a different quarterback on the field, which will translate into the regular season. He directed the offense with good rhythm, anticipation, and accuracy on his throws and moved well in the pocket. He is showing much better pocket presence than any of the Dolphins’ quarterbacks since Dan Marino.  There were times he would step up or move around when the pocket was collapsing to find an open receiver, like his 8-yard touchdown pass to Myles Gaskin. He also made quicker decisions going through his progressions on his throws, like on the 30-yard pass down the seam to Mike Gesicki. Was he perfect? Of course not, but he is taking another step in his development to becoming the franchise quarterback this team has been looking for in years.

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The offensive line took a step forward as they opened decent running lanes for Myles Gaskin and Salvon Ahmed. They have better pass protection as well. As a unit, they weren’t perfect as left tackle Austin Jackson struggled at times in pass protection, but it was a marked improvement from a week ago. They were better in short-yardage situations. Robert Hunt is settling into the right guard position, and the rest of the line appears to be settled as well and will hopefully continue to get better each week.

The offense also finished drives, unlike the opener against the Bears. They started the game with two long drives and finished it off by scoring touchdown and not settling for field goals or turning the ball over. The Dolphins had another long drive that stalled in the red zone after Malcolm Perry dropped a 4th down conversion. I liked that coach Brian Flores decided to go for it on 4th and less than 5 in the red zone because it’s the preseason, and we don’t need to see Jason Sanders kicking field goals from less than 35yds. If there is one area I’m not worried about going into the season, it’s our field goal kicking. Sanders is pretty automatic, especially from less than 45yds. Then there was a good situation at the end of the half when the Dolphins got the ball with less than 25 secs and no time outs and Tagovailoa led the team into long field goal range.

There will be some people who say, oh, the Falcons played their backups, and that’s true, but everyone will play the preseason differently, especially with only 3 games. The Falcons opted to rest their key starters who are established. While the Dolphins have many young players who need the work, they aren’t as established with a couple of exceptions. If the Dolphins didn’t do well, people would say the Dolphins couldn’t play well against the Falcons backups. You can’t have it both ways. The Dolphins needed to show improvement from their preseason opener, especially on offense. Last week they moved the ball but didn’t finish drives off. This week they were more efficient and finished drives off. It was an overall better effort and encouraging as we are one week closer to the opener against the New England Patriots.