The Day After: Reflections on Tua, Raekwon Davis and complementary football

As we look back the day after the Dolphins' fifth consecutive victory, the 29-21 decision against the Los Angeles Chargers, what stands out is the neverending series of big plays on defense and special teams.

Against the Chargers, it was the punt block that gave the Dolphins a first-and-goal at the 1-yard line and later the Xavien Howard interception and return that set up Miami at the Chargers 32.

Against Arizona, it was Shaq Lawson's fumble return for a touchdown after a strip-sack by Emmanuel Ogbah.

And in the Rams game, of course, there was Andrew Van Ginkel's fumble return for a touchdown (again caused by Ogbah), Jakeem Grant's punt return for a touchdown, and the strip-sack by Lawson that Kyle Van Noy recovered and returned to the 1-yard line.

That's five touchdowns in three games pretty much produced by the defense and special teams.

That's the epitome of complementary football.

Here's another crazy stat from the game against the Chargers: The Dolphins had 11 possessions and more than half of them (six, to be precise) started in Chargers territory.

That's clearly a recipe for success.

-- The work of the defense and the special teams has played a big role in Tua Tagovailoa's 3-0 record as a starter (for the record, I've always had that stat as a gauge for a quarterback because football is the ultimate team sport), though it doesn't diminish in any way what Tua has done. Tua has yet to put up big passing numbers, with the Chargers marking the second time in three starts he's been under 200 yards, but he's been remarkably efficient. The one stat that stands out is the five touchdown passes against zero interceptions, though he admittedly got lucky with the pass Sunday that went through Chargers linebacker Kenneth Murray's hands — right to tight end Adam Shaheen for a completion no less.

-- Big props to the offensive line for making Melvin Ingram disappear yesterday. Like, did he even play? He did play because the gamebook says he got 49 snaps, but he didn't even register any defensive stats. Not even an assisted tackle. Sure, not having Joey Bosa on the other side of him hurt, but this is a two-time Pro Bowl player we're talking about. Since he lined up on the right side of the line, that means a major hat tip to rookie left tackle Austin Jackson.

-- So much anticipation for what Antonio Callaway could bring to the Dolphins offense, but it was Jakeem Grant who stepped up the most at wide receiver in the absence of Preston Williams. Sure enough, Grant began his postgame Zoom media session by saying he's a receiver first before a returner. While his career with the Dolphins so far has suggested otherwise, he's certainly made strides as a receiver and the Dolphins might be wise to keep feeding him the ball. He's too valuable as a return to take away from that duty, though, especially since he's been better with ball security this season.

-- We mentioned Melvin Ingram not appearing on the Chargers stat sheet, so let's turn to the Dolphins defensive stats and what stands out clearly is rookie Raekwon Davis tying for the team lead with seven tackles. That's an unusually high number for an interior defensive lineman. CBS announcers Greg Gumbel and Rich Gannon kept praising Kalen Ballage throughout the telecast, and while he did have some good plays, he still averaged under 4 yards per carry. Davis deserved a good share of the credit for that.

-- Running back Salvon Ahmed is going to be tough to get out of the starting lineup. The kid's got something as a runner.

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