Offensive Thoughts Heading into Season Finale
As the Miami Dolphins have continued their playoff push in December, they've gotten a significant — and perhaps very surprising — contribution from their running game.
The Dolphins running game keyed the victory against the New England Patriots in Week 15 with an astonishing 250-yard performance and again had an impact, albeit much smaller, in the victory at Las Vegas last Saturday night.
The Dolphins rushed for 130 yards in that game, but more importantly they averaged 4.5 yards per carry even taking away Clayton Fejedelem's 22-yard run on a fake punt.
This is important because the weather conditions in Buffalo on Sunday could make the passing game a little bit tricky, not to mention the fact we probably won't know until game day whether DeVante Parker and/or Jakeem Grant will be able to play.
We also don't know exactly what kind of lineup the Bills are expected to field given that they're already assured of the second or third seed and might prefer resting their front-line players.
Let's face it, if the Bills aren't going to use, say, Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs, they're clearly not going to score as many points and that might mean even more emphasis on the Dolphins using a ball-control offense that minimizes the risk of turnovers with the idea of letting the defense win the game.
With that strategy, any help the running game can produce is a bonus.
-- If you surf around social media long enough, you're going to find a lot of fans criticizing the play-calling of offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, particularly when it comes to Tua Tagovailoa's relatively modest passing numbers. Without even addressing that issue, we'll just point out that in the three years (2000-01) that Gailey has served in this capacity for the Dolphins have a combined record of 32-15. Sure, all those teams were led by the defense, but the bottom line is that it's hard to criticize his work given the team's overall success.
RELATED: Just Another Game for Tua
-- Back to the running game and more specifically the running backs, Myles Gaskin deserves some major kudos for his work this season. Because of a knee injury and then a stint on the COVID-19 list, he's played only two of the past eight games for the Dolphins but, man, has he made them count! In those two games, he had 141 yards from scrimmage against Cincinnati and 169 against the Raiders. Even more amazing, he became against the Raiders the first back in the NFL this season with at least 80 yards rushing and receiving in the same game. Big props to him!
-- The Dolphins certainly could use another outing by Mike Gesicki like the one he had against Buffalo in Week 2, although that obviously came with Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback. Gesicki did have a big outing with Tua at quarterback, his 88-yard performance against Cincinnati.
-- Good to see Isaiah Ford get a full promotion to the active roster this week. This is a guy who has persevered since being a seventh-round pick in 2017 and bounced on and off the practice squad but will continue to find work thanks to his hard work, study habits and team-first attitude.
-- The offensive line will be as important as anything Sunday, not only for the running game but to keep Tagovailoa comfortable in the pocket. What shouldn't be lost from the game at Las Vegas is that he was sacked in each of his final three series and that can't happen in Buffalo.
-- Finally, we'll close with this wish, that Parker find a way to get back into the lineup and make the kind of impact he has the ability to make.
