Big Plays Should Come for the Dolphins

Last year, the Miami Dolphins’ offense was reliant on big plays, which led to them being one of the highest-scoring teams in the league. This year, it’s much different. The Dolphins haven’t made a ton of big plays, and scoring is down. They rely more on long, sustained drives with the running and short passing games. 

There are many reasons for this. The defenses are playing the Dolphins much differently this year than the previous two seasons.

They are playing two safeties deep and jamming receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Hill and Waddle aren’t the biggest or the most physical receivers and rely on their speed. Jamming them throws off the timing of the passing plays, and they can’t get away from the defender. The Dolphins don’t have a big physical receiver on offense, and that is coming back to bite them in some ways, but that’s a story for another day. 

The other reason was when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa missed a month, the Dolphins didn’t have a quarterback that could run Mike McDaniel’s offense like Tagovailoa did. Again, story for another day. When Tagovailoa was out, the Dolphins relied on a running game and short passing game, which they were effective at times until they turned the ball over or teams caught up to them with an inexperienced quarterback. 

However, since Tagovailoa has come back, that formula has been instrumental in the Dolphin’s recent two-game winning streak, and if it wasn’t for turnovers against the Arizona Cardinals and Buffalo Bills, the Dolphins would have a 4-game winning streak. Some of this is attributed to McDaniel’s play calling, but another is Tagovailoa’s growth as a quarterback.

You didn’t see this from him last year. He would try to force the ball down the field. Since coming back this year, he has taken the short passes and taken what the defense has given him. It hasn’t resulted in big plays like the last couple of years, but you would think the big plays will come eventually.  

Last Sunday, when the Dolphins were trying to put the game away against the Las Vegas Raiders in the 4th quarter, the defense lost sight of tight end Jonnu Smith, and Tagovailoa found him wide-open for a 57-yard touchdown to put the game away. Smith has really stepped up recently. As the pass-catching tight end, the Dolphins have been missing in the offense. The Dolphins had no touchdowns from the tight end position last year. This year, they have three, and all are by Smith.  

Defenses are going to have to focus a little more on Smith and they also have to account for running back Devon Achane out of the backfield, who leads the team in receptions. This should open things up more for Hill and Waddle eventually as they are both due for a breakout at some point and as this team heads into the last month of the season the timing would be perfect for that to happen. 

The Dolphins are finally having long sustained drives. Some say that’s not sustainable to winning, which I don’t agree with because the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl last year with that type of offense and no big plays. The thing is the Dolphins have the play makers on offense to make big plays and they should be coming as they head for the end of the season.