Miami Dolphins Dominate In A Sloppy Win

Week 1 for the Miami Dolphins sure wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. For now, Miami sits in first place in the AFC East, holding both the division and conference tiebreakers with the Bills. As exciting as that may be, it wasn’t without concern. Mike McDaniel walked away with his first NFL win as a head coach, but plenty to go over this week with his team:

The most significant area of concern is Tua Tagovailoa. Despite having a decent game there were a few moments of questionable decisions. There’s no need to pile on the young quarterback as he limited mistakes, took care of the football, and walked away with a win. However, this week’s motto in practice should be “calm” as Tagovailoa played a little too frantic. He played well, but every time he dropped back it was as if he had a shock collar on and didn’t want to get zapped for making a mistake. Granted that headspace might come from being overanalyzed by the media, but if he can settle in and let the game come to him, he could elevate his game to the next level.

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Tua will be alright as his playmakers stepped up and made plays when it counted. Where the Dolphins need to regroup is the run game. New England has one of the better defenses in the league. However, when it comes to an offseason that was dominated by talks of McDaniel fixing the run game, there were a bit more expectations there. Miami ran the football 23 times for just 66 yards. That’s 2.8 yards per carry. Chase Edmonds showed up in the passing game with 4 catches for 40 yards. However, leading the team in touches with 12, he only ran for 25 yards. The Miami offensive line needs to get more push up front. If the offense is going to be successful, they need the run game. The play-action needs to be there and the misdirection. Speed will burn defenses but they need to catch them off guard.

The defense started slow and against strong teams, it could get ugly. They need to dominate on the first drive. New England came out and looked like they were going to dominate, then Miami settled in. Against strong teams, a slow start will doom them. The defense needs to establish itself early. Playing from behind against playoff teams will add unneeded pressure. Cut out the arm tackles and they’ll be fine.

By no means should anyone be concerned about the Miami Dolphins after week 1. Walking away with a win against a divisional opponent and being in control the majority of the game should be celebrated by fans. It has been some time since it felt like Miami was in control of a game against the Patriots. With that being said, they face two tough AFC opponents in the Ravens and Bills the next two weeks and will need to clean it up.