The Miami Dolphins face the Los Angeles Chargers in a Sunday Night time Soccer showdown tonight. The Dolphins, 8-4, are in second place within the AFC East and are holding on to the sixth place within the AFC playoff picture. The Chargers, 6-6, are second within the AFC West, however are ninth within the AFC with solely the highest seven incomes a spot within the postseason. Each groups want to the primetime assembly to springboard their playoff probabilities this season.
Miami is coming off a loss final week to the San Francisco 49ers in a sport when the Dolphins’ offense by no means appeared to get right into a rhythm. Staying out in California for the week, training on the UCLA coaching services, Miami is seeking to bounce again after a nasty sport and to maintain the strain on the Buffalo Bills for the AFC East lead. What must occur for the Dolphins to return away with the win?
Time to try 5 storylines to observe tonight.
Tua Tagovailoa’s accuracy
Miami quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is among the many league’s elite in relation to accuracy. He’s sometimes in a position to place the ball anyplace he needs and he is ready to thread passes by the protection. That didn’t occur final week. For no matter motive, Tagovailoa was usually excessive on his passes and he simply gave the impression to be uncomfortable all through the sport.
Miami’s offense is pass-first, pass-often, and nearly pass-only. Tagovailoa can not have the identical points this week that confirmed up final week. Everybody has a nasty sport, and that’s what Week 13 has to have been for Tagovailoa – a nasty sport. Again-to-back weeks the place Tagovailoa’s accuracy is off will make it extraordinarily tough for Miami to proceed their press towards the postseason.
The place is the run sport?
Final week towards the San Francisco 49ers, the Dolphins have been dealing with the league’s prime rush protection. Not working the ball into the energy of a protection is sensible. However in Week 12, they confronted the league’s worst rush protection within the Houston Texans, and they didn’t deal with the bottom sport then both. Miami makes use of the run as a menace, with play-action passes and the run-pass possibility, however they don’t actually run the ball. This week, they need to no less than try to get working backs Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson, Jr., established within the sport, particularly given the Chargers are available in with the Twenty ninth-ranked rush protection within the league, permitting 151.6 yards per sport on the bottom.
Mostert is averaging 4.6 yards per carry for Miami this 12 months, having rushed 125 instances. Wilson, in 4 video games with the Dolphins, has 40 carries for a mean of 5.3 yards per try. The Dolphins can choose up yards on the bottom once they use it, however they’ve chosen now to make use of it fairly often. Getting it began towards the Chargers, figuring out they may most likely want it subsequent week towards the Buffalo Payments in a primetime sport in Buffalo, can be a superb transfer for the staff.
Can the Dolphins cease Khalil Mack?
The Dolphins keep away from having back-to-back video games towards former Dolphins defensive finish John Bosa’s children. Final week, Miami needed to take care of Nick Bosa, the leauge’s chief in sacks this season, moving into the backfield. This week, they need to must face the Joey Bosa, the elder of the 2 sound of John, however Joey is on injured reserve and, whereas he may start training after this week, he is not going to be on the sphere towards the Dolphins.
Not having to face a prime move rusher is a profit for the Dolphins, however they’re nonetheless going to must discover a option to cease Khalil Mack. The Chargers added Mack this offseason with the thought of pairing Bosa and Mack on both facet of the road would overwhelm most offenses. With out Bosa, they haven’t been in a position to see that plan attain fruition, nevertheless it doesn’t change that Mack is a drive Miami has to establish and cease. He has seven sacks on the 12 months and might be seeking to benefit from a Dolphins offensive line that continues to take care of accidents. Will he wreck the Miami offense or will the Dolphins be capable of cease Mack?
Slowing Justin Herbert
The Chargers are 6-6 on the season and are underachieving. But Herbert remains to be fourth within the league in passing yards, having thrown for 3,339 to date this season, a mean of 278.3 per sport. He’s placing up numbers and might explode at any time, however the Chargers don’t all the time have success even when Harbert has an enormous sport.
Earlier this week, once we spoke to Michael Peterson from Bolts from the Blue, he pressured, “I always believed it was obvious from the jump that Lombardi’s offensive philosophy conflicted with how Herbert should be used. I do know he threw for over 5,000 yards a season in the past, however that was skewed by the various video games wherein he wanted to throw his staff out of a deficit late in video games. With out his prime wideouts, the complete offense misplaced all risk of being dynamic.”
The Dolphins, with all the accidents to the secondary this season, are dealing with a quarterback who can get sizzling and carve up the protection. They must make Herbert’s 278.3 yards per sport common heads decrease after the sport.
The Dolphins drafted the best man
This ties into the slowing Herbert line, and is basically extra of a Miami factor than it’s a Los Angeles dialogue matter, however there are many followers who’re nonetheless debating the Dolphins’ alternative of Tagovailoa – who leads the league in Pro Bowl voting – with the fifth choose in 2020, permitting the Chargers to pick out Herbert with the sixth choose. There might be dialogue of that through the sport sooner or later, so we’ll simply depart this right here:
